The Nightmare Essay, Research Paper

It all began one day when I was over my friend Susan’s house. Her parents had

just left for vacation to Texas, leaving her home by herself. I was allowed to stay that

weekend while her parents were away. Susan and I were sitting down eating when she

got a call from the house where a new family just moved into. The Smith’s had asked her

to babysit for them. They said it was all right if I came too. They wanted us to come

over about six that evening.

When we got over there Mrs. Smith introduced her two year old daughter named

Julie to us. Mr. and Mrs. Smith didn’t leave right away because they wanted Julie to get

to know us better. Mrs. Smith told Susan and I that Julie could stay up until 8:00 P.M..

She also told us she had been having problems with her telephone. There must have been

something wrong with the connection because when it rang there would be no one on the

other end. Someone was coming tomorrow to take a look at it.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith informed us that they would be a little late coming home

because it was their anniversary and they had a long night planned. We told them to have

a nice time and they both grabbed their coats and left.

Julie started crying just as they closed the door. We gave her a bottle and put her

down to watch some TV. Then the phone rang and Susan and I looked at each other,

seeing who was going to answer it.

I answered the phone but no one was there. I said hello again, but still no answer.

All I could hear was someone breathing heavily. It was loud, gasping, and very

frightening. I said hello again and heard a faint, masculine voice. As I began to tremble,

the voice whispered, “I’m coming.”

All of a sudden the lights went out. Susan, Julie and I let out a loud shriek. I ran

over to Susan and Julie and hid my head. Susan started laughing and told me it was

probably because of the storm outside. We both looked out the window when a bolt of

lighting struck across the sky. Julie began to cry and we comforted her and told her it

would be all right.

Susan was going to go down into the basement to find the fuse box so she could

turn the lights back on. It was time for Julie to go to bed so I grabbed a flashlight and we

went up stairs. I tucked her in and read her a short story.

All of a sudden I heard a loud screech. I jumped up and ran down into the

basement where Susan was. I hurried down the basement steps where I saw Susan’s still

body laying on the floor and her head on top of the fuse box. I froze with astonishment,

when I saw written on the wall with blood “YOUR NEXT.” As fast as I could, without

thinking, I ran up the steps frantically. I got up the steps trembling and locked the

basement door behind me. I ran up into Julie’s room to get her so we could leave the

house. I looked in her room and she was gone from her bed. I heard foot steps coming

from the basement. I called Julie’s name a few times, but with no answer, I thought he

had already got to her. I picked up the phone to call the police but the line was dead.

I didn’t know what to do so I went to the kitchen to get a knife. There weren’t any

kitchen utensils since they had recently moved in and weren’t finished unpacking yet. I

saw a small pocket knife on the counter, grabbed it and headed toward the front door. I

thought the best thing to do was to get out of the house as quickly as possible. As I crept

past the steps I noticed a low crying coming from Julie’s room. It sounded like Julie so I

dashed up to her room and heard it again. It was coming from her closet. As I opened

the door I saw Julie huddled in the corner of the closet crying. I picked her up and

carefully ran to the front door.

Feeling a little relieved that Julie wasn’t hurt, I tried opening the front door but

something was holding me back. Someone from the other end was holding the door. I

looked out the window horrified at what I saw. It was a tall man with dark hair, and an

unshaven, frightful face. He looked as though he was thirty. I knew he was after me so I

raced to the back door knowing he would follow.

The back door was unlocked so I took Julie and ran into the woods. When I

thought I got far enough away from the house I put Julie down and told her everything

would be fine. Just when I thought he was gone I heard the rustling of leaves and heavy

breathing. I took Julie’s hand and was as frightened as ever. We ran as fast as we could

trying not to look behind us. Julie kept tripping over rocks so I picked her up. When my

arms got too tired to carry her any longer I stopped. I looked back hoping he wasn’t there.

When I saw the man coming closer to me I put Julie down and pulled out my

pocket knife. He didn’t seem alarmed. He then pulled out a large butcher knife from

behind his back. Then all I could think about was seeing Susan laying dead in the

basement. I stepped backward holding Julie’s hand. Julie let out a huge shriek which

startled me, leading me to trip over a rock behind me. I got up quickly as the man started

chasing me again. When I went to turn around to start running again there was a huge

cliff in front of me. I lost my balance and fell right off the edge. I felt myself falling in

the air looking down at what I might hit. Just then I woke up in my bed with sweat

dripping from my head and realized it was all just a nightmare.