Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

I shot up in bed because I was cold. An eerie feeling lurked in the room. The curtains hanging from the window in my room blew in the wind. The window was open, inviting all the cold air to file inside. I didn’t remember leaving it open, but I shrugged it off, trudged out of bed and closed it. I hopped back into bed and closed my eyes.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming from the stairs. My room was on the second floor of our two story house, and my room was right by the stairs.

“It’s probably my mom or my dad.” I thought silently to myself. “But they usually get back from work earlier than 1 o’ clock… Maybe one of them was working a late shift?”

“Mom? Dad?” I called out, opening my eyes. Then, the stomping stopped, outside of my room. There was silence for a while. I sat under my covers, frozen with my head peeking out. I looked at the crack between the door and the floor. There was a shadow revealing that someone or something was outside my room. The doorknob began to shake and twist, and a black figure stood in the doorway, then I woke up.

Chapter Text

It came the next night, too. But the worst time was the third time he visited me.

He came a couple nights after the second time. I thought it was over, but it hadn’t even started yet.

I sat there in my bed staring at the dark creature that had visited me two times before. Its presence was terrifying and a sense of evil filled the room.

It reached out towards me… and it touched me! He bent over and jabbed his finger at my head. On my cheek where it touched me, a wave of shivers spread throughout my body. That spot on my cheek was the epicenter.

Then, it grabbed my shoulder and jolted me out of bed. The coldness was worse. Its pitch black figure expanded, and completely surrounded me. I started to panic, running into and punching the “walls” of the trap. Eventually, I realized it wouldn’t give in and I gave up. I slid against the “wall” and into a sitting position. I grabbed my knees and started to cry. I was frustrated.

Would I ever see my family again? Or was I trapped here forever? What am I going to do?

“What are you?!?” I screamed at it.

“I, Angeline, am your greatest fear, worst nightmare.” It said.

That was the first time I heard its voice. It had a low, raspy voice that sounded very creepy. If a grown man approached you with that voice, you would run off to find your parents. If you were a judgy person.

“I can take many forms,” it continued. “I can be an arachnid,” it said as it transformed into a five foot long, hairy spider. I shuddered. “ I can be a snake,” and with that, he transformed into a long, hissing cobra. “Or even a clown.” Next he morphed into a clown with red hair and a cylindrical red nose. He carried a bunch of balloons. It held a red one out to me. “The people I’ve met have all been afraid of this clown,” He spoke. “You’re the first who’s not.”

I reached out for the balloon, but as soon as I touched it, I returned to the darkness. I sat there for a while, maybe a couple of hours, when suddenly I heard a door open. The blackness around me poofed into nothing. It was gone.

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Chapter 3
“Wake up!” My mother yelled into my room through the door that was now open. “Oh, you’re already awake!” She continued. “Are you okay? You look sick.” She said as she approached me. She put her warm hand on my forehead and felt my temperature.
I had bags under my eyes from the lack of sleep, and my eyes were bloodshot from the stress. The thing was right. He could take any form of fear. And my fear, was the dark.