This is based off of an actual event as are all my stories. It is Part of a collection of a Novel in short called "NightMares and Horror Moments"
I remember the night that I found out about the rocking chair. I heard it with my own ears and felt it deep within my young gut. I didn’t need to venture down the hallway into the living room to see it; the image in my mind, the fear that covered my young naked body with goose bumps, and the feeling in my bones made it more clear and visual than being right there witnessing it.
I was about seven years old. I had only been living with my mother about two years, and I had a nightly problem. I wet the bed. Some said that it was because I had been through so much at such a young age. Some said it was because I had been through so much change that my body was acting out, others thought it was something I did on purpose, for attention. My parents didn’t tell me what they believed, or why they thought I had this problem. But they did let me know that they didn’t like it.
I say my parents but really I lived with my mother and her husband, Rob. My father lived in Texas. He had abducted me and my older brother and sister when I was only three years old. The courts gave us back to my mother three and a half years later. To my older brother, getting back with Mom was a great reunion, but for me, who was too young to have known my mother, she was the abductor.
It was very tough trying to find where I fit in; my new family included a new brother that was only a few years old, and an alcoholic and wife beating step father.
He hated that I was a ‘bed wetter’. Many mornings as he woke up at 5am for work, he would come into my room and see if I had wet. If I was wet, he would take his belt off a spank my wet butt, make me take a bath, and then send me to bed again. But this night it was different, my life was about to change forever.
I remember staying up late with my brother and mother watching some supernatural horror movie. Rob was out with the boys, at a bar. We were all three covered up, huddled together in my mother’s bed. The movie had really freaked me out. After the movie, my brother told my mother a story about how his friend had seen a demon in their house. The story sent chills up my spine. There are some stories, fact or fiction, which should not be said around seven-year-olds.
At that very moment, from down the hallway, within the blackness of the living room, a squeaking sound cracked the silence of the empty cold November air.
“What was that?” I said as I pulled myself closer to my brother.
“It’s just the rocking chair.” Kenny said.
They continued to tell more stories of ghosts and demons. My mind played out every horrifically demonic scene as they described them.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK
“Did you hear the rocking chair?” I said as my heart pounded in fear.
“Don’t worry, David, it’s only the rocking chair.” Kenny said.
My mother looked towards her bedroom door. She bit her bottom lip and then looked at the two of us. “I had a dream about that rocking chair the other night.”
“Really?” we both said in unison.
“Yeah, but I shouldn’t tell you kiddos about it, you may have bad dreams.”
“No mom, tell us.” Kenny pleaded
She looked at both of us and then smiled. “Ok, do you promise that you’ll both go right to bed after I tell you the story?”
“I promise” My brother said. Then they both looked at me.
“Yeah, I do too. I promise.” I said
“Well,” mom started out. I was already regretting my part in our verbal agreement, especially the part about listening. “I was drying my hair, getting ready for bed, when I heard a squeaking coming from down the hallway.”
“Was it the rocking chair?” I asked, holding onto my brother’s arm.
“Yes, but you can’t interrupt me ok?”
“Yeah, don’t talk, David.”
“Ok, ok.” I said.
My mother pulled the comforter up around her neck. We did the same. “Ok. So, I heard the squeaking noise. I decided to find out which of your guys was awake. As I walked down the hallway towards the living room, the temperature dropped, it was warm in my bedroom, but when I was approaching the living room it got chilly. As I peered into the darkness I could see the silhouette of the big wooden rocking chair in the corner. It was rocking back and forth, back and forth. Every time it rocked back it made that squeaking sound. But, there was something else in the living room too.”
I squeezed tightly onto my brother’s arm. He gave me a look of irritation. I didn’t want to hear anymore, I just wanted to go to bed. My brother and I shared a bed in our bedroom – the closest room to the living room.
“What was it?” Kenny asked my mother, trying to ignore me. I was really hoping that he didn’t ask, but he did. Honestly, I was terrified, but there was also something inside me that wanted to hear the rest of the story.
“There was a shadow.”
“A shadow?” we both said.
“Yes, a large shadow. It was sitting in the rocking chair. It was a demon.”
“I am getting scared now.” I said. “I don’t want to hear anymore, please.”
“Come on David, it’s just a dream. Mom already said that it wasn’t real, right Mom?” Kenny quickly responded.
“Yep; there’s nothing to be afraid of.” She reassured. “But boys, I’ll finish it another time. I don’t want to scare you out of a good night’s sleep.” She gave us both a hug. “Good night boys.”
“Night Mom” we said back.
Kenny took off down the long dark hallway to our bedroom. I hurried as fast as I could after him. As I made the fast turn into our bedroom I refused to look down the hallway into the blackness of the living room.
***
We laid there in the bed with the covers up to our necks. I think that my brother was as frightened as I was, but he didn’t show it. I lay close to him. For about an hour I peered out into the darkness of our bedroom; looking for creatures to come from the corner shadows of the room, but none came out. I was afraid to close my eyes because there was the chance that when I opened them the rocking chair demon would be standing at my side with his horrifying demon face looking into mine.
After about an hour, my eyelids got so heavy that they forced themselves to close. I fell asleep. My night was full of evil nightmares. I was being chased by demons, and skeletons.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQEAK
My eyes came open. My heart pounded within my young chest.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK
Suddenly my shorts got very warm and wet. A small puddle surrounded my mid section and I heard my brother quickly hop up. “David, I’m all wet. You peed on me!” He jumped out of bed and ran down the hall. Soon my mother came with him to the bed room.
“David Alexander Scott, you’re too old for this. You have to stop peeing the bed.” She pulled the sheets off the bed. “Get those wet cloths off now.”
I pulled my cloths off while she laid some towels on the bed, a new sheet, and more towels over top of it. My brother jumped into bed and my mother pulled some new blankets out of the closet. I started to put some new underwear on.
“No, David. Leave them off.” She snapped.
“Why? Am I going to take a bath?”
“Not tonight. I need to get to sleep and so do both of you. You’ll get a bath in the morning. But you’re going to learn that you cannot pee the bed all the time. You’re a big boy. Tonight you’re going to have to be disciplined like a big boy.”
“Please, Mom, don’t spank my wet butt.” I cried.
“I’m not going to. For the rest of the night, you’re going to lay in that bed naked, with no covers.”
“No Mom,” I cried, “It’s too cold.”
“I’ll turn the heater on. Now get in bed!”
I reluctantly climbed into the bed beside my brother- hands cupping my genitals. I really wasn’t afraid of the cold, but I was terrified of the creatures in the dark. With a blanket, all I had to do is put it over my head and nothing evil could see me. Without the blanket I was open to anything.
“Please Mom, I won’t pee the bed ever again. Don’t do this to me. I’m scared, please, Momma.” I cried.
“You should have thought about this before you decided to wet the bed.” Then she pointed her finger at Kenny. “I better not come in here tonight and find out that you have let him have some of your covers. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I understand.” He whispered.
“Ok. No more drama tonight. Go to sleep.” She turned out the light and walked down the hallway. I listened to her footsteps disappear down the hall.
“Kenny, give me some covers. Please, I’m cold.”
“You heard her. I can’t, I’ll get in trouble too.”
“But Kenny, I’m scared.”
“Don’t be scared. Just close your eyes and go to sleep. Before you know it the sun will be up and you can get a bath and put some clothes on.” He turned on his side and pretended not to hear me pleading with him anymore.
The heater kicked in and I could feel the warmth blowing from the floor vent. I looked around the room and then closed my eyes. Soon I started to drift off.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK
I kept my eyes closed and whispered to Kenny, but he never answered, he was asleep- comfortable and warm under a mountain of blankets.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK
I squeezed my eyes as tightly as I could. I could feel my jaw clinch as my teeth grinded together. This is not real, it is all fake, a dream. I tried to convince myself.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK
Then, as if I had suddenly fallen into a deep sleep, my mind imagined me moving down the hall, into the deepest of the darkness of the living room. I saw the rocking chair. It was moving back and forth, back and forth. There was something sitting in the old hand-me-down rocker; and it was rocking.
SQUEAK, SQUEAK…
It stopped.
I listened as hard as I could, but I couldn’t hear anything; I just felt but the thick darkness all around me. In my mind I saw the thing in the chair again. It sat in the darkness and didn’t move. Then its head turned slowly in the direction of the hallway. I couldn’t make out its face, because it was so dark, but, I felt it looking at me from the living room.
I almost screamed out in shear terror, but I held myself. I listened to the darkness. Creak, slide, creak, slide, creak, something was making its way down the hallway, from the living room. I could hear the sound of a heavy step and a slide, like whatever it was, was dragging one of its legs behind it.
The sound of the monstrous foot pressing down into my bedroom carpet made my heart pound harder and harder. I reached over to grab the covers and pull them over my naked body, but I was too late. The sound stopped, the thing was standing at our bedroom door.
I tried to scream, but I was too terrified; fear had tightly gripped its evil hand firmly around my vocal cords. I was paralyzed by fear. The thing had entered the bedroom. An icy-cold air filled the room and a blanket of fear covered my tender pink body with goose bumps from head to toe.
The end of the bed near our feet was bumped. The beast started to make its way around to my side of the bed. I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs, but I remained unable to move. I could hear it move up along the side of my bed, nudging the bedside every few steps. Closer and closer it came, and then it stopped; standing at my side.
I kept my eyes clenched as tight as I could.
I felt a cold heavy breath hit my face. The demon was face to face with me. The deep breaths hit me like an icy gust of wind when you walk out your front door on an early winter morning. The deep breathing sounds, made my heart pump so fast that I thought I was going to die of a heart attack. Even a heart attack right now would be better than being killed at the hands of this creature.
The breathing moved from my face and traveled down my body. I could feel it just inches away from my sink. Then it came back to my face. The impulse to open my eyes was hard to control, but I was scared to death of what this demon looked like.
The fear that had blanketed my entire body suddenly got more intense. I felt like something bad was about to happen. My heart pounded, my mind flooded with images of monsters and demons; every hair on my body stood straight up. I felt my hands and chest shaking in complete horror. A tear drop, squeezed from my right eye, run down my cheek.
The room filled with a tangible evil. Death was no doubt reaching its boney hand out to take me. I knew that the demon was about to pounce down upon me and rip my body into a million fleshy pieces. I suddenly could no longer breathe. This was it…
“It’s freezing!” My brother said next to me and I felt him push a blanket towards me. In a momentary burst of desperation I grabbed it as quickly as I could and threw it over my head.
The grip of death let go of me, there was a sound of wind blowing out of the room and down the hall. The fear dispelled and vanished into the darkness. In an instant it was all gone. The thing had vanished. I was safe.
The next day I took a shower, put on some cloths, and made up my mind not to tell anyone what had happened to me. Over the next few months things were pretty normal around the house. Every once in a while, late at night I would hear the squeaking coming from the living room, but I was safe under my covers. I also knew that whatever the thing that rocked the chair was, it was waiting in the darkness with hungry and eager expectation. It was waiting to pounce and devour. It was waiting for one of us to kick our blankets off, during the night.
Maybe this was the purpose of blankets; not to merely keep us warm, in our gas or electrically heated homes. Maybe they were created by ancient wise men to shield us from evil. Just as the Egyptians used cats to ward off the dead, the Greeks use garlic to repel wicked spirits and demons, or even a blue talisman to turn away the evil eye; maybe the first blankets ever made were created as a shield from demons, ghosts, and every other creature that prowls around in the night, preying upon young children. I don’t know.
What I do know it that after that night, I made sure that I never fell asleep without my blanket again.
That was also the last night I remember wetting the bed.
The Rocking Chair is copyright(c)2006-2007, Samuel Connelly
The fortunate inherit riches, prestige, positive notoriety. Those not so lucky bear legacies filled with poverty, infamy or, worse yet, the unhinged insanity and murderous urges of their ancestors.
