I Heard It Breathe

I was 16 years old and lived with my parents at the time. My room was in the basement. Ah, the nice, cool, dark basement. I had no windows in my room, so it made Saturday mornings extra special, because you could sleep all day.

One evening, I turned off my lights and crawled into bed. I had been lying there less than a minute, when I felt something jump up onto my bed. I thought it was my cat. I sat up and, because it was so dark, I began using my arms, waving them around, searching all over my bed. But there was no sign of kitty. “Hmmm”, I thought. I felt kitty come up on my bed, and yet I never felt him jump off. Strange. So I just laid back down trying to figure out what just happened.

At that moment, I felt “IT”. I felt, well, I felt SOMETHING. I felt SOMETHING sit right beside me and crawl into my bed. I felt “ITS” arms and rear end get on first. Then I felt “ITS” legs plop down on my bed. And I could feel the pillow and sheets move toward “IT” as “IT” completely laid down RIGHT BESIDE ME! I didn’t know what to do! The light switch, of course, was on “IT’S” side of the bed. There was no way I was going to reach across “IT” to turn the light on! Then “IT” began to breathe. I could hear “ITS” breath. It took long, hard, deep breaths, as it laid next to me. I could feel my mattress move along with it. I was paralyzed with fear. I never did move. I had to fall asleep next to “IT”.

After that night, my cat would sometimes wake me up, circling me, hissing, growling, like he was protecting me from something. The hair on his back and tail was raised at whatever “IT” was. I knew what he was hissing at – but then again, I never figured out what “IT” actually was.

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