Just another evening

While asleep one evening, I got an urgent nudge to wake up….Now! My eyes opened slowly and……there was someone standing over me, looking right at me - not 6 inches from my face! I gasped and recoiled, lashing out with fists and nails….into thin air. Damn me! What the fuck was that? I clearly saw a head, eyes peering, mouth pursed. I…..I….what was it? I jumped out of bed and started turning on lights in a frantic rush to illuminate my world. Nothing....no one.... was it a dream? No, I clearly saw intelligence in those eyes, a connection. Fuck!

Out came the sage. I was gonna smudge this house within an inch of its life. For once the smudge stick lit on first try. You know about this don't you? If the stick is hard to light, it means bad juju is afoot. But this thing fired right up. Well, I was gonna use this to my advantage. I placed the smudge stick in a cast iron skillet and placed in the center of the house. Let it burn, burn all the shit away. I sat up for about an hour, huddled on the couch, my stones and animals around me. Watchful, ever watchful…. I went back to bed, but kept a light on. I wanted to see this apparition before it got too close next time.

I woke with a start about 3 hours later. When did I fall asleep? My eyes were clearly open, I had been terrified. How could I have just fallen asleep?! But sleep I did. And in the mean time, that old sage stick had gone psychotic. The whole house was filled to the brim with smoke! I could barely see my hand in front of me. What the fuck? There couldn't have been that much sage to burn! Where did all this smoke come from?

And then I saw it, through the wafting smoke…. it walked in front of a great puff of a cloud, its outline clearly visible. A man…..a man walking around my house….snooping….sneaking. I bet he didn't think I could see him. "Damn it, this is my house, fucker", I shouted. He started, paused, turned. It was the face I saw when I woke up earlier! He was looking directly at me. He tried to speak, but no sound was heard. Oh jesus, jesus, what the heck?! And then he walked over to me, cowering under my covers, coughing from all the sage smoke. And his hand reached out………and went right through me. But at that moment, I was filled with such a great sense of calm. "Silly chit" the thought came to me, "you think the sage would burn if I was evil? Do you think it would burn so brightly?" "Don't you know I amplified the smoke, so you could see me?"

Ahhh, yes, I understood now. This was not a spirit, but an actual person, someone come on a visit. The astral body of a traveling adept. A spirit, a bodiless one, would not be so purposeful. This mystic entity walked about as if really here, spoke, albeit to my mind, as you would standing there. His emotions, thoughts, focus were direct and intelligent. The fact that his shadowy body had so much detail told volumes about his abilities. I was a trembling novice in his presence. He must have been drawn to this house, to me, because of the energy I generate. The fact that he was poking my scattered safeguards told me that he knew what I was about and his nodding showed approval. His aura even improved and shored up some of them - I could feel their increased power glowing. Here was someone who was offering their expertise. Some One in this abysmal universe I could possibly go to for assistance…..yet a total stranger. Fascinating.

He faded away through the glimmer, a soft "see you later" echoing on the smoke. I got up and went to check on the sage. Only half of it had burned! And generated this much smoke? He was right, his abilities had amplified.

The next day, another discovery. I had bought one of those garden gazing globes for my mother as a gift, and had yet to get it to her. I had placed it in the middle of the living room, wanting to enjoy it as long as I could. I was going about my business, cleaning and puttering, when I glanced over at it in passing. I could clearly see movement! But nothing was in the room except me, and I was standing still, not breathing….yet there was movement. This continued throughout the day and into the evening, the cloaked visitor only visible through smoke or mirrors, a constant companion. The next day some friends came over. I was hoping to get confirmation, so I said nothing to them, wanting to get an honest reaction. I settled everyone in the living room, supplying refreshments. I sat down and became perfectly still. I let my friends get comfortable. And then that moment, when everyone relaxes and zones into their surroundings. Then….Oh, the gasps! HA HA! The 'What the fucks?' "There is a man walking around the room!" they cried. Then the heads went to swinging…. Oh yea, we were playing now….

Can you understand now why I have trouble sleeping?

I was deep in sleep, totally oblivious to the waking world and the empty household. Held in the black void that isn't, unaware of any dreams or sounds. Then suddenly….a body drops onto my chest! Oomph. I try to jackknife up, but the weight is too much. My arms are trapped and I am pinned to the bed. I hear scrambling on the floor next to the bed. Oh shit, what is this? I start twisting and turning frantically, trying to get out from underneath this person. They are clawing me, trying to hang on. There's something in their hand…a flashlight? I don't fucking care, its mine now and I grab it and start hitting them all about the head and torso with the one arm I've managed to wiggle free. I hear muffled cries and they let go. A slithering sound on the floor. What the fuck is this thing?, I jump up and lean hard into the wall next to my bed, making myself as small as possible in the corner formed by the head board and wall. The moonlight is filtering into the room in watery rays, and I see something…There! What??! It's a full size man shape, but there are no legs. Just a long tapering form. Wtf? It slithers off on its elbows into the far corner of the room, breathing hard with a rasping wheeze, whimpering. I can barely make out its form….it seems to be a blue-grey color, but that may be the effects of the moonlight. Hairless, flat face, bulbous eyes, slit nose, muscular arms and torso.

We are at an impasse, this creature and I. For I was not getting on the floor, and it was terrified of me…where the heck did this 'thing' come from?? And why did it jump on me? Jesus fuck, I really need this…. After a few minutes, we both stop panting. I am the first to move, inching my way to the end of the bed and the door out. The creature flinches, afraid I will rain down more blows. Oh yea, what was this thing in my hand? It would have to wait. I make a mad dash over the footboard for the door. I get out, howling the whole way. Yikes!

I slam the door on my way out, run all the way down the stairs. Shit shit. What now? That thing is still upstairs, in my room! Oh god, what do I do?? Who can I call? AnnaLee! I make a run for the phone…I don't care if its one in the morning, shit! She answers on the 2nd ring - oh thank god! I'm babbling incoherently, panic and hysteria in my voice. But that girl….she is awesome. She already knows what's going on. Shit! She didn't feel my panic, she felt that thing's! Oh good lord….

I'm trembling violently, trying to make sense of her words. He has slipped into this world accidentally she says, through a portal. He is as terrified as you are. He's not used to our atmosphere, our gravity. His is a gaseous world, where he swims through the air. He was confused and saw another sentient being, came to you for aid. "Well don't claw at me god damnit! Jesus, he fell on me! Woke me from a sound sleep!" "Just try to think from his perspective cha, he's in an unknown place, no bearings, a gravity…..what would you do?" Go loudly insane of course….

She tells me to go back upstairs, to see what I can do to help. Oh hell no, uh uh, not me. So she tells me she's on her way and I sit down on the couch to wait. I can hear things falling and being dragged and moved upstairs, right above my head. Oh, oh, you better get here fast girlie. After about 20 minutes there is a knock on the door and I rush over to open it. There stands this little dynamo of a woman, red hair flying, pjs and cowboy boots - yeehaw! My hero! We walk back into the living room and stand directly under my bedroom and listen…not a sound. We crawl slowly up the stairs like a pair of silent movie cops, me clasping the back of her shirt, she fearless. We walk down the suddenly long hallway, our anticipation and dread make the journey seem endless. The doorknob is turned with expectations of violence…..but we are met with silence. The light switch is flicked and we turn the corner….nada…no one. But the far corner of the bedroom is a shambles. The shelves emptied, clutter all over the floor.

"Was this the corner it ran too?" she asks. "Yes yes" I answer. "Oh, remember the last time I was here and the anomaly we encountered? You remember, the bent reality? Where I could push the wall in and you were able to slip your hand through?" AnnaLee asks. " Oh yea, now I remember. It was right there, at waist level on those shelves. Do you think that's where it came from? Where it went to?" "Yes hun, right there" is her answer.

So we proceeded to clean up the mess left behind by this creature in its mad haste to leave our world. I must have dropped the 'flashlight" in my wild dash for freedom, for it was never found. AnnaLee said it was some type of information gathering device, but we will never know. We erect a little safeguard in that corner, something to disperse any gathering of energy. And all is calm in my world again…..till the next time.