Hi, thanks for taking my call. I've gone back and forth on whether to share this, but I think people should hear it. This happened in the fall of 2003. My husband Daniel and I had been married about three years at that point. We were living in this little ranch house outside of Grayson. Nothing fancy, just a two-bedroom place with a finished basement. Quiet neighborhood. The kind of street where nothing ever happens. I'd just started a new job that week, actually. Administrative work at the community college. I remember being exhausted from learning all the new systems and meeting new people. Daniel worked at the lumberyard, so he was always tired too. We were both just wiped out by the end of every day. The night it happened was a Thursday. October 16th. I know the exact date because we'd just gotten back from his mother's birthday dinner the night before, and I'd written it in my calendar. Some things you don't forget.
So we went to bed around ten, maybe ten-thirty. Earlier than usual, but like I said, we were both exhausted. The bedroom was at the back of the house, faced the woods. We didn't have any pets. Just the two of us in that little house. Daniel's allergic to cats, and we'd never gotten around to getting a dog. I remember lying there in the dark. Complete darkness. We had these heavy blackout curtains because the neighbor across the way had a security light that would shine right into our window. curtains are a lifesaver - Paul' With those curtains closed, you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. No nightlight, nothing. Just black. Daniel fell asleep fast. He always did. I was lying there on my side, facing away from him, trying to quiet my mind. Thinking about work stuff. Whether I'd remember the filing system. Stupid things. Normal things.
I don't know how long I'd been lying there. Somewhere between awake and asleep, you know that place. And then I felt the mattress dip. Right between us. Like someone was putting their knee down on the bed. My first thought was Daniel rolling over. But he was still on his side of the bed. I could feel him there, feel his warmth. And this was in the middle. In the space between us. I watched the blanket lift up. Saw the fabric pull tight like something was sliding underneath it. The impression moved from the foot of the bed toward the center, slow and deliberate. I could see the weight of it pressing down into the mattress, making a little valley as it crawled closer. I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. I just lay there watching this shape form under the covers, something with weight and mass but nothing I could see above the blanket. It settled right there in the gap between Daniel and me. I could feel the mattress slope toward it.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]