Sammie's Choice

The top half of my body was propped up on two pillows as I quickly scanned the pages of my book. My bedroom was dimly lit by a bedside lamp that gave off the illusion of candles more than an electricly powered device. My cream coloured curtains were drawn over the large window that was straight across from my bed. The sound of the raindrops on the window ledge were calm and put me at peace. One of things I always loved, was being warm and snug inside while the weather was harsh. I took my reading glasses off and rubbed my eyes before putting the book under my pillow. I glanced at my alarm clock next the lamp, it read: 01:13.

I was suprised, after my shower I had told myself I would only read for about fifteen minutes and that was around 11pm. My eyes felt heavy and even though it was a friday night I knew it would be best for me to get some sleep. I reached towards the bedside lamp and was about the click it off when I saw a shadow pass my bedroom window. Normally this wouldn't phase me. I was an only child who lived with happily married parents. My family was by no means wealthy however we did live in a four bedroom house.

It seemed slightly stupid to me, considering we only needed two rooms (obviously my parents would share) but it was nice being able to chose between three rooms. Anyway the thing is, and yes this is relevent to what I was saying before...Was that the room I had stayed in since we moved into the house seven years ago was at the front of the house by the road, so when a car drove by shadows often danced across the walls of my room therefor an unexplainable shadow never frightened me. However a couple of months ago we discovered damp on the cieling making the room smell quite badly, so obviously I had to switch rooms. The room at the side of the house was far too small for all my things so the last room at the end of the hall was my only option.

What I am getting at is the fact that the window in this room faced the backgarden. Yes that's right. And our backgarden lead into field after field after field. You see? No cars to create 'unexplainable' shadows or sudden beams of light. Back to the shadow which just passed my window... It was slow as if someone was just casually walking along the balcony outside. I often thought "Maybe it's a cat or a large bird" but as the nights went on and the more I focused on it I realised it was infact a human shadow. I'm not sure if it happens every night, because I only see it when i'm up past midnight which is rarely ever. I could actually be dreaming. I pulled the covers up to my chin and wrapped them round me. It was very cold. It was always extremely cold in this room. I remember at nine years old opening the door to our new house. Totaly empty and still with the walls painted the colour the previous owners had chosen but I was very excited because it was the biggest house we'd lived in so far. I remember running upstairs and into each of the the rooms to descide which one I wanted most. I remember looking down the hall way to the last room.

There was something about the door, it was exactly the same as the other bedroom doors, same colour, same style, same wood, same handle, but for some reason it looked far more intimidating than the rest. My short nine year old self started to walk slowly towards the door, I was scared but at the same time it invited me in. I placed my hand on the handle which was icy cold and I opened the door. It was pitch black in the room (it was around ten at night seeing as we'd spent all day packing and moving) and I couldn't see anything. I fumbled for the light but could not seem to find it. I heard quiet, fast and deep breathing on the far side of the room by the window. The type of short breaths a nervous child would make. I remember screaming and not being able to move and my dad quickly running up the stairs and turning on the light to find me sitting there with my face in my hands. Seven years went by and I never returned to that room, until two months ago when it was a choice between my own room or the sofa.

Sitting in bed thinking about the past now sent shivers down my spine. I still had not turned off the bedside light because I didn't dare too. A lot had changed, now at sixteen years old I didn't find the door to my bedroom intimidating, it was once again just a door. And the atmosphere of the room itself was just like...well a bedroom, apart from it being cold. I often felt like I was being watched but not in the supernatural sense, I had always been a very shy and sensetive boy who was also extremely paranoid about pretty much everything, so the feeling was not new. I now wished I was had darker, thicker curtains so that shadows could not get through, maybe it was something I would invest in over the weekend.

I heard soft footsteps walk along the balcony towards my window. The sound of the footsteps convinced me that whoever was outside my bedroom window was bare footed or just in socks. The shadow once again came into view however this time it stopped. My first thought was it was male because the figure was quite tall and broad, but then I remembered shadows were often larger than the person creating them. The no longer shadow, but actual outline of a person raised their hand and placed it against my window. All of a sudden there was the sound of screaching filling the once silent atmosphere, kind of like the sound of finger nails on a chalk board as the figure dragged their hand down my window...

**********************

My body jolted and my eyes snapped open to the sound of my alarm. I reached over and switched it off. I peered around my room, light poured through the thin cream curtains. I realised my bedside lamp was still on and I flicked it off. I also noticed I was still propped up on two pillows, my reading glasses were on and the book was in my lap. So it was all just a dream? The funny thing was I couldn't remember falling asleep. I picked up my book which was called: The Last Haunting. "That's what you get for reading scary stories before bed Sammie" I sighed and got up out of bed. The chill of the room hit me causing me to take a sharp in take of breath. I could of sworn maybe one of the windows were broken constantly letting a draft through, however as I went over to examine them that didn't seem the case. I opened the curtains and looked out over my large back garden and the fields behind it. Yesterdays rain had stopped however there were still heavy grey clouds indicating the storm would start yet again. I went and stood infront of my wardrobe, wondering what to wear today. Not that it mattered I didn't even go out on weekends. I did not want to stay at home. I often wished I had friends who would come and hang out at my house or invite me to go shopping or swimming or to play a sport, but I didn't. It wasn't that I was mean or a total geek that was so uncool people would die rather than be seen with me, it was because people found me extremely weird. As I said before I was extremely sensetive and very timid. I didn't get the fact that extremely racist, sexual and sexist jokes were meant to be funny and not to be taken as offence. I also didn't understand that teens today would often insult and humiliate eachother in the most vile of ways for a laugh.

At high school a lot of the pretty, popular girls would talk to me and sit with me in class because they found me cute and easy to talk to. They would often discuss personal things in my presence and would often say "Who is Sammie going to tell really?" and they were right, it was not as if I had friends of my own to run along and tell other people's secrets to. Not that I would of anyway. So during lessons I sort of had friends, but this all changed as soon as we left the classroom and the better looking, more sporty boys came along and took the girls away. I wasn't bullied, I was teased slightly but no more than anyone else at school was from time to time. There were no cruel rumours going around about me, people just let me do my own thing. I was kind of greatful for the fact that no one questioned my behaviour and just let me be me. However I was starting to get extremely lonely and longed for the friends everyone else my age seemed to have. I looked into the full length mirror attached to one of the doors on my wardrobe. I have short, messy, dark red hair, some people are convinced it's dyed because they feel to be a red head is to be ginger, however I can assure you it is one hundred percent natural. I have large sky blue eyes surrounded by what seems like hundreds of long, dark red eyelashes. My skin is as white as snow and I have a few freckles powdering my nose and cheeks. My lips are light pink and soft but have yet to be kissed. My slender body that stood around 5'7 and half has yet to be held in someone elses arms. At a boy of sixteen I look about three years younger and speak in a very quiet and soft voice. I had one of those faces that unless I was smiling I looked extremely upset and frightend. I had very feminine and pretty face, my lack of muscle didn't help as my body wasn't manly at all. I discovered I must look like a girl because I often got the "excuse me young lady" when people were trying to edge past me. I wasn't sure if they were making a sly comment about my appearence or whether they actaully thought I was a girl with short hair.

Another thing about me was I was often reffered to by the other kids at school as a 'Mummy's boy'. They weren't being mean, it would to the common outsider appear that way. I was an overly loved child who was often picked up, spun round and cuddled like a baby was. Like a child if I hurt myself I was wisked into the bathroom and bandaged up whilst being told how brave I was. I sometimes felt my parents did not understand that I was sixteen now and not their little boy anymore however I was glad they took note of how fragile I really was. I am in fact, what some would call, a right wimp. It hadn't always been this way, infact when I started secondry school my parents allowed me to be totaly independent. However they soon discovered it was extremely hard for me to fit in and therefor constantly fussed over me. At christmas and on birthdays family members would ask me if I had a girlfriend, you know the annoying way reletives do. However by the time I got to the age of fourteen it was pretty obvious I wasn't, and never would be, dating material. I looked back at myself and sighed, wondering if i'd be alone forever. I changed my underwear and pulled a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms on and a white t-shirt, you know, something lazy that I could mooch around the house in. "How cold is it?" I muttered, debating on whether or not I should put a hoodie on. I walked over and opened the window/balcony door and walked outside. It was pretty cold outside and the october breeze nipped at my cheeks. I walked over and leant on the fence around the balcony and once again looked over the landscape. I turned to go back indoors when I noticed something. A nail was sticking out the side of the fence, this wasn't new it had been there since we moved into the house. However there, hooked on to the nail by the red ribbon around it's neck was a teddy-bear.

I looked around. I don't know why I did that seeing as it was in a position where no one could just of placed it as a practical joke or something. I leant over the balcony, gripping it with my left hand so I wouldn't fall to the ground and break my neck, I reached down with my right hand and grabbed the bear, pulling it carefully so I didn't tear the ribbon around it's neck. I stood back and looked at it. The teddy-bear was only about a foot tall. I think it was once fluffy and white, but now it was a dirty grey colour and it's fur was all matted. One of it's button eyes had come off and was just hanging by a thread down the side of it's cheek. It's left leg had torn and the stuffing was poking out of the broken stitching. This bear was old, it was the type of teddy-bear someone my age would of gotten when they were a newborn baby and just never got rid of. It was also extremely cold in my hand, colder than the weather outside but the same tempreture as my room. I tipped the bear upside down to check the lable for a name or something. Written in the most faded blue pen ever was a simple 'R'. I tried to think about who I knew who's name started with an R but I couldn't think of anyone, anyone who would place a bear outside my room anyway. "No one could of just put it here...how could anyone even get up here?" I thought. The balcony outside my room was pretty high up. There was no way anyone could of gotten up here, and if anyone was to jump down they would surely break their legs. I thought about the huge oak tree in my garden that someone could of lept off and on to my balcony. However the distance between the tree and where I was standing was a huge gap that no human would surely be able to make. "Sammie, would you like some breakfast sweetie?" I heard my mother call from outside my bedroom door. I quickly walked back into my room and placed the bear on my bedside table. "Umm...Yeah i'll be right down!" I called back. Taking a brief look back at the teddy-bear, I left my room...

**********************

It was 10pm when I slowly padded back into my room, my warm towel wrapped round my body. I shivered as I entered my strangly cold room and hurried around my bedroom throwing on some warm clothes. I ran back into the hallway, the house was almost silent apart from the sound of my television still switch on in my bedroom. This was normal, my parents often went to bed very early. I grabbed my mum's sewing kit and filled a large bowl with warm soapy water, I picked up an old sponge and headed back for my room. Shutting the door behind me I sat on the bed and picked up the dirty teddy-bear. I must of spent a good twenty minutes scrubbing that poor, manky bear. It was much cleaner than when I found it but there was no way I would be able to get it back to it's original state. I quickly ran into the bathroom and poured away the dirty water before returning to my room and opening the sewing kit I went to work stitching up the torn leg of the small toy. I snipped the button eye off then fastened it back on tightly so that it would not come off so easily next time. I descided to put a safety stitch over the other eye just to make sure. Once it was finished I sat back and admired my work.

Then what I had just done suddenly hit me. Why did I just fix up some random teddy bear I mysteriously found this morning? It was dirty, old and smelly, I should of just thrown it away but for some reason I repaired it and took a good hour doing so. I had no reason to do it, considering I didn't actually want to keep the bear for myself because my instinct now that I had fixed it was to put it back outside where I found it, like i'd done it for whoever left it there in the first place. "This is fucking with my head!" I thought. I quickly ran over to the window, opened it and threw the bear outside so that it was sitting infront of the balcony door. I yanked the curtains shut and climbed into bed. I was hoping to read a few more chapters of my book but I didn't really want to. I climbed into bed and checked my alarm clock, it read: 11:15pm. I smiled, pleased I hadn't ended up going to bed too late this time. I switched off my alarm as I wanted to sleep in on sunday morning. Gently snuggling down under my thick warm duvet I fell into a deep sleep.

I dreamt of eyes...The most beautiful, huge grey eyes I had ever seen. I couldn't see anything else but those eyes, they haunted me, got inside my head, but I wasn't afraid of them. The bed covers wrapped around me slid away leaving my body exposed. Invisable hands lifted up my top and stroke my body. I felt warm breath against my neck but I could not see the person causing it, all I could see was their glowing eyes. All of a sudden I felt a hand grab my ankle and pull me out of bed. The pulling was slow at first but then became an aggressive yanking. They pulled me towards the window and I knew whatever was out there was going to hurt me. I screamed louder than I ever had before, my lungs felt as if they were going to expload. I flinched and my eyes snapped open. My room was dark and still had a deathly chill. I noticed I was on the floor, my left leg out straight...the leg whatever it was had dragged me by. "Sammie?!" my dad shouted and burst through the door.

"Darling we heard you screaming, what is it?" My mother cried as she ran in franticly, trying to put her dressing gown on.
"I can't stay in this room anymore!" I screamed and ran out into the hallway. I leant against the wall and slid down it, sobbing helplessly.
"I don't know what to do..." I gasped as hot tears spilled down my face. My dad came out of my bedroom and scooped me up.
"You just had a bad dream. It's 4am we have to go back to bed, you can sleep in our room tonight" he whispered in a comforting voice, then carried me off to their room.

************************

I woke up snuggled between both my parents in a warm room, which was a nice change. I hadn't forgotten what had happened the night before but I deffinately felt better. "It was just a dream..." I thought to myself as I climbed out of bed making sure not to wake my parents. I checked the clock on their bedroom wall: 8:26. I groaned, I was hoping to sleep till noon because I felt so ill and sleepy. I walked back into my room and leapt back into bed. The sun was shining through the curtains lighting up the room therefor my bedroom wasn't spooky anymore. I lay there, staring up at the white cieling, blinking slowly. I felt extremely relaxed and at peace. I heard the sound of thunder and shorty after the rain came, tapping against the window. I sighed out of disapointment, another dark and miserable day. I rolled around and wrapped the covers tightly round my body. I kept tossing and turning for what felt like a good half an hour. I realised there was no chance of me getting back to sleep so I got up out of bed. I walked over to the window and pulled open the curtains. I peered out the window, scanning my backgarden like I did every morning. My trampoline was getting drenched and it had been over a month since i'd been on it because the weather was never nice enough. Something moved up in the oak tree causing the leafs to quivver. It made me jump out of my skin, but then a bird burst through the brances and soared into the air.

I looked down on to balcony floor. The teddy-bear was no longer there. I unlocked the door and went outside to see if it had maybe blown somewhere but it was no where to be seen. My hair was getting soaked and stuck to my forehead. I ran back inside and slammed the door shut. I felt strangly out of breath. I was afraid, whatever had left the bear had returned to collect it. I wondered if they would of appriciated that i'd fixed it or if they'd be angry that i'd messed with it. I got the idea that the bear was important to whoever had left it because they came back a second night to retrieve it. "Why now? Why me? Why is this happening to me?!" I yelled and sat down on my bed, closing my eyes I pulled my knees up to my chin.
"Thank you for fixing my bear Sammie" I heard a loud whisper say, it was a mans voice, and sounded like they had just spoken right into my ear.
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" I demanded, but when I opened my eyes there was no one in sight. But once I had asked the question there came a very warm laugh, once again it was a guys laugh. For someone who was tormenting me he sounded extremely friendly.

"Well, answer me!" I stuttered, my body was shaking with fear as I waited for more to come. But I saw and heard nothing else. Whoever it was had suddenly left me, alone and confused...

Hey guys, just a short introduction to my new story. Please let me know what you think. :)