AndThenSex Thread

I never seem to have much luck with commenting and the like, but, none the less...

Up until I was about 8 or so, I lived in a REALLY old house that, since the beginning of time, had been bounced around from relative to relative until eventually my mother had been handed over the keys. It was basically a shit heap. Two stories, a collapsed balcony on the second level, mould and mildew all over most of the ceilings, one tiny bathroom and the toilet was outside, over-run was frogs and spiders and whatever other kind of hell-spawn the Australian outback would throw at us.

I was terrified as a child - scared of basically everything. I'm much better now, and have much bigger balls than most of my friends (if I do say so myself). None the less, I would probably have to put the blame on this old house of mine.

I remember as a child that I would always have the same dream.

I'd start in the kitchen, no idea how I got there of course. It was during the day, probably later in the afternoon. Nobody was around, so naturally I'd go looking for my mother and father. I'd go to all the normal places - mum wasn't in the laundry shed or the lounge room, dad wasn't on the patio outside or up the back at the chicken coop, and my sister wasn't around either.

I was starting to get worried, thinking that everyone was gone and they’d left me alone. Until I heard a noise above me coming from the second floor, where the bedrooms are. Relieved, I darted towards the stairs and jumped on the first step.

Then I felt it. There was something in the back of my head, making me stop, leg still raised up as I prepared to move onto the second step. Something telling me that I shouldn't go up there. Of course this thought was running rampant in my mind "Don't go up there, don't go up there, stay down here, don't go up there, there's something up there".

Finally my leg dropped before I could reconsider. I pushed myself up those stairs, and even though I didn't want to anymore, I couldn't stop myself, only slow down. Each step up was taken at a agonizingly slow pace, and I wanted so bad just to go back down stairs and find someone - run to my grandparents house and stay with them until my mum was home.

But eventually, I rounded the corner, leaving only the last few steps leading up to the floor ahead of me. There was nothing there - I couldn't see anything in the stairwell. I started getting hopeful at this point - maybe it's ok. Nobody’s here. I was just imagining things and it’s going to be fine.

I'm still taking the slow steps up when it appears.

Something's there.

I can't actually remember what it was, and I never could after I woke up. But it was horrifying beyond belief, and I would always try to close my eyes, because that was my thing as a child - if you can't see it, then it can't see you. But I could still see it. I couldn't blink, I couldn't shut my eyes - it was like my eyelids weren't working. I would even try holding my hands in front of my face, but still I couldn't block it out - I could see through my hands. And I couldn't do anything I was frozen, unable to do anything except STARE at this thing all but a metre away from me.

Whatever I saw, whatever I did, for those 8 years I was at that house, I had to force myself up the stairs. Day or night, it was horrifying. My mother sighed and tried to reason with me, my father growled at me and called me a coward and my sister just laughed and said I was retarded. But every time I had to go up those stairs, as soon as I hit the top stairwell, I had to stop and make sure that I could cover my eyes with my hands or that I could shut my eyes.

Of course it would terrify me most when I'd go to blink and wave my hand in front of my face and it wouldn't work and I'd realize I was dreaming.

EDIT: Oh wow, comments and upvotes, my word what a wonderful day. Thought it might be interesting to add that once I moved out of this house, I never had any more of those dreams, though I was terrified of my house in general. I couldn't be alone in it until I was about 15, and every morning before school I'd basically run out of the house from my room and wouldn't feel safe until I was out the door and on the front lawn.