Angry Spirit - Chapter One

Nathan sat bolt upright in his bed. Beads of sweat formed into ice cold rivulets over his cheeks. Once again the noise had torn him from the solitude of his deep, gratifying sleep.

"Oh, not again, love. You’re going to have to see the doctor about these nightmares. They’re making you ill," his wife, Janice said, wiping her hand sympathetically across his brow.

No reply was offered. This was the third consecutive night he had awoken in such a panic ravaged way. A loud noise, violently loud, though it’s origin was a mystery. For a few minutes, Nathan lay frantically trying to analyze the nature of the disturbance. If it had manifested from within the confusion of a nightmare, then surely he would maintain at least some memory of it. If it originated from outside his subconscious, then such a profound audible event would have woken Janice also.

"I’m going down to make a coffee. I can’t get back to sleep in this state," he confessed, swinging his feet to the thick carpeted floor, and tentatively stumbling towards the bedroom door.

"Are you sure, you’re alright?" Janice asked, her voice lowered to a concerned whisper.

"Yeah, I’m fine. I just need a drink, you settle back down. I’ll come back up in a few minutes, don’t worry."

Not wishing to disturb his wife further, Nathan closed the door gently behind him and proceeded along the landing towards the stairs in absolute darkness. Only the dim reflection of the moon on the semi-circular, glazed front door panel in the hall offered him any guidance. Fixing his gaze on the amber luminance he began a slow and steady descent, making extra effort to avoid the wooden boards, he knew would scream out with loud, annoying creaks as he applied his weight.

With his nerves still not fully recovered, he felt compelled to pause and reassess his environment every few steps. Be it through tiredness, nervousness, or if he were honest, the most likely cause was sheer fear, the conviction that someone was following his steps with every bit of meticulous care as he himself. However, with every heart pounding glance over his shoulder, only intense darkness surrounded him.

When Nathan felt the smooth coolness of the wooden hall floor beneath his foot her knew he had at least emerged unscathed from the first part of his precarious journey, and relaxed his vice-like grip on the banister rail, breathing an audible sigh of relief.

The kitchen door lay to his left and some six feet distance from his present station at the foot of the stairs. With the dim moon light from the front door obligingly reflecting on the polished floor, a clear passage was easy to follow.

After it’s usual sequence of buzzes, clicks and flashes of light the fluorescent tube eventually illuminated, flooding the kitchen with comforting, white light. The instant relief that washed over Nathan, went a long way to convincing him that he had imagined the previous incident. ‘Just another bad dream,’ he told himself, even affording himself a smile as he did so.

Placing his freshly made mug of coffee on the breakfast bar, Nathan retrieved his secret stash of cigarettes from the ‘bits and bobs draw’.

After taking in a long gratifying drag, and exhaling the cool smoke, his nerves finally settled to a state of utter relaxation, for a second or so. Until the sound of Janice screaming and the mad panic as she ran down the stairs.

"What the hell is it? What’s wrong?" he gasped, choking on the last traces of smoke that burnt his throat.

"Jesus …. Nathan! Didn’t you hear it?" She yelled at him, her eyes still, wide with fear.

"Hear what?"

"The growling!"

"What the hell are you talking about? What growling?"

"You must have heard it. It was outside the bedroom door. I heard it scratching on the door … It was horrible."

"Calm down. You’ve had a nightmare, that’s all."

"No! damn it, Nathan. It was real."

Whatever Janice had heard, imaginary or not the result was enough to reduce her to a quivering wreck. How could he not show sympathy and understanding, when he had felt the same not ten minutes earlier.

Nathan’s previous experience flooded back, fresh in his mind as he stood there staring at his hysterical wife, her face drenched with a cruel combination of cold fear and floods of tears.

Instinctively he held her close to him, locking her in a reassuring hug. "Its ok love. Whatever it is, it can’t hurt you." He whispered.

"How can you be so sure, if you didn’t even hear it?"

"I’ll make you a nice hot drink, then I’ll go upstairs and see if I can find whatever it was that scared the crap out of both of us. There’s got to be some perfectly logically explanation for all this."

"Don’t patronize me Nathan, damn it. There is something up there, I’m telling you."

Janice’s hysteria was beginning to manifest into anger, if he didn’t act quickly he feared the consequences. Instinctively, rather than following the path of wise consideration Nathan eased his hold of her, to enable him to make eye to eye contact. If he could muster enough conviction to convince her that he truly believed it was all a trick of their imagination, maybe the panic would subside.

"Its probably something that’s fallen over, and with us both being half asleep we’ve built all this up into something that’s scared the crap out of us both. I’ll go up and have a look round."

No sooner had the words left his lips than he began to regret his vain attempt at bravery. The reason he was in the kitchen instead of tucked up cozily in bed was because he was to afraid to close his eyes and return to sleep. Now, through no other reason than insane vanity he had to go back upstairs and face his demons, and in this instance, his greatest fear was that they just might turn out to be real demons.

At least this time when he reached the kitchen door the hall and stairs were fully lit. A fact that cheered him greatly. The light was everything. Bathed in light everything looked normal. Everywhere he looked he saw nothing but the home he had relished living in for over two years. Each item of decoration held its own sequence of memories for him. There was nothing sinister, nothing scary.

"You enjoy your dink, love," he said, even managing to crease his face with a genuine smile. Whatever they had thought they had witnessed minutes before had been dispersed into the deep corners of his memories, not a trace of apprehension or fear remained. "I’ll be back in a minute, then we can get back to bed and get a good nights sleep."

Janice heard his words, but paid them little heed, she was still racked in nervous tension, her memories were fresh and deeper cut. Only the thinnest of barriers prevented her from plunging back into a state of irretrievable panic.

"Be careful," she warned, through trembling lips.

"It’s fine sweetheart … we’ve both had a bad dream that’s all."

With confident steps he made his way to the foot of the stairs. Looking up for a moment before beginning the ascent. Thirteen steps lay between him and the unlit landing. Six he made with sure and confident steps, only on the seventh did he become aware of the growing shadows when the light from the hall gradually dimmed as his distance from it increased.

"Nathan, are you alright?" Janice called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, fine." His words were less convincing by the ninth step. He paused, straining to see past the shadows cast by the few items of small furniture which lined the far wall of the landing.

With a sharp intake of breath, followed by a instinctive nervous swallow, he stood, almost stone-like on the tenth step.

"Its ok love," he called. "I think I can see what spooked us."

"What is it? What can you see? By now Janice had moved to the bottom of the stairs and was watching his slow progression, still her nervous concern was obvious.

"You left the vacuum cleaner in the doorway of the spare bedroom. It looks like the extension pipe as fallen over and slid down the door."

"That’s not what I heard!" came her assertive reply.

"It must have been, there’s nothing else out of place," With a single stride Nathan strode to the landing. His ungamely gate caused a searing pain to ravage his calf muscle as it cramped in an agonizing spasm.

"When he bent, hand outstretched to grab the affected area, he froze in horror. The bedroom door, no more than two feet in front of him stood ajar. Its outer surface was scared with deep scratch marks.

For a brief moment he stayed fixed by the horror before him. His brain raced through countless scenarios of what might have caused such devastation to the solid wood door. It was certainly no accident, caused by careless movement of furniture. Nor could have such deep, random gouges be the result of any human hand. Whatever inflicted this damage, he decided could only be some species of wild animal, and one of considerable size and power, certainly no less in proportions to a large Alsatian dog. Even then of unimaginable ferocity.

Knowing that Janice was standing behind him by now, he tried desperately to contain the sudden urge to run. His heart raced, his head pounded, while his eyes stared unblinkingly at the door.

Amid all the confusion within him, he knew he had to get Janice back down stairs. At this point he dare not even think of the identity of the creature responsible for the damage, only allowing himself to be convinced that whatever it was had hidden itself in the bedroom.

"Janice!" Nathan whispered, "Go back downstairs …

"Why? What is it?

"Just go back downstairs Janice. Go in the kitchen and close the door behind you."

"What’s wrong Nathan?" she replied obstinately. "For God’s sake Janice, just do it."

"What about you? What are you going to do?"

Sensing his wife’s obstinacy, Nathan began moving slowly, towards the bedroom door. His arm outstretched towards the handle.

"You’re scaring me Nathan! What is it?"

He was committed to closing the door and trapping whatever it was inside, so, decided to ignore Janice’s worried questions. After taking a deep breath, he lunged at the door and yanked it shut with one determined effort.

As wood met wood, the loud band echoed through the house. In a reflex action he spun to face his almost hysterical wife.

"Now get the hell downstairs and quick!" he yelled, his body poised and ready for a hasty retreat.

This time, Janice remained silent, the sudden urgency instantly registered and she leapt from landing to the hall, touching no more than four of the thirteen steps in her frantic exit to the kitchen. Nathan followed inches behind, in exactly the same desperate manner.

When the door slammed shut behind them, Nathan and Janice stood facing each other, neither venturing to speak. Panic had left them both speechless and breathless.

It was several moments later when Janice eventually broke the silence; "What the hell is happening, Nathan? What did you see up there"?

"I haven’t a damn clue what is up there, but judging by the state of the bedroom door, it’s big and has some God awful claws!"

"What the hell are you talking about," Janice gasped.

"There must be some kind of wild animal up there."

"You mean a fox or something?"

"No, I mean a lion or a tiger." Nathan replied, his voice strained, as he pushed a heavy cabinet against the door.

"Stop taking the piss, Nathan. This is bad enough without your stupid jokes."

"I’m being serious … damn it!" What else could rip a solid door to bits like that?" he snapped.

"Oh my God, Nathan. What do we do?" Janice retorted, finally realizing the seriousness on her husbands face.

"I’ll phone the police and tell them we have an intruder in the house."