The Thing In The Night

I woke up. My hip hurt from lying on my side too long, and I rolled over onto my back and pulled the fleece blanket further up to my nose.

And that’s when I saw the swirl of glitter.

That’s what it looked like... a swirl of glitter, way down at the foot of the bed. A little, distant whirlwind of silver flecks in motion. It sat there, atop the cedar chest at the foot of the bed, and swirled.

What the heck?

I thought about getting my glasses so I could see it better. My vision is awful; I’ve been nearsighted most of my life, although I do have very good night vision. I still wasn’t sure if I just wanted to ignore it and go to bed or try and figure it out, since I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not, so I just lay there and stared down my nose at it.

The little swirl of glitter sat there and swirled. As my vision sharpened a bit, I realized that it looked less like a whirlwind, and more like a thing... a thing with little glittery motes orbiting it. And it seemed to have pointy bits on top... like horns, or something. I could see the glittery motes zooming up, and then sharply down once they were over the apex.

Ah. So tiny invisible glitter devil was watching me. Yes, I was certainly dreaming. I prepared to roll over.

The glittery shape responded by climbing up onto the bed... and approaching my head.

I froze. It froze as well... and then resumed its crawl up the fuzzy blanket towards me. And this time, I could feel its weight on my leg. Was I dreaming? Did dreams have weight? Would I know?

As it slowly approached, it grew brighter, and while the thing itself was still invisible, more glittery motes flickered around its invisible shape. I realized that it had two immobile points of light up front... below the horns... like eyes.

I froze even more froze than I’d froze before. But this time, it didn’t stop, continuing to crawl up the bed alongside my body. Off to my left, Berni continued to sleep, oblivious to the eldritch flickering abomination stalking up the bed between us. Was it... hissing?

It was up to my pelvis when I realized no... it wasn’t hissing... it was CRACKLING, making a sound like celery makes when you tear a stalk off the bunch. But it wouldn’t STOP making that noise, crackling and popping continuously as it stalked up the bed towards my head, those two points of bluish light focused hellishly upon me! And as it approached, I could see it more clearly, and yet not at ALL -- a shape like a devil, crawling on all fours, two pointed horns, two shining eyes, utterly invisible but for the reflection of the silver motes whizzing around its body at rapid speeds, flickering and twinkling...

I HAD to be dreaming. What was HAPPENING?

With each motion, it not only grew closer, but brighter... as it picked up more crackling white flecks, dancing about its invisible shape, like St. Elmo’s fire, flickering and sputtering in rings around it...

And the flickering invisible thing climbed up on my chest. It weighed more than you’d think it should, for a thing its size, and it sat there, staring at me, crackling and hissing and shedding near enough light to SEE by with the silvery motes that whizzed about its invisible shape!

And it leaned forward. The horned head came close enough that I could almost feel its breath... and it touched my nose.

POK.

“Mrrrowt!” The lights FLASHED like a flashbulb, and all the flickering lights went out, and the shape leaped off my chest and ran away.

It was Doom, the black cat. He’s invisible in the dark... same as any black cat would be... but he’d built up a static charge, wandering around on the carpet, and when he climbed up on the bed and began walking across the fleeces, he’d built the charge up to the point where sparks were literally flickering around on his fur!

He’d seen me looking at him, and decided to come see if I’d pet him, and had hiked up the length of the bed, building more of a charge and becoming clearer to my eyes as he’d got closer... and then he booped my nose, grounding himself and giving both of us a bit of a jolt! Startled, he’d run away.

I lay there for a while, completely bumfuzzled, while my heart rate slowed back to normal. Well, I hadn’t been dreaming....