Dear Diary,

I was lying in my bed staring at the ceiling, because I knew if I made even the slightest movement she would hear me. My body was frozen, and the only thing you could hear was my heart pounding. Every time the house creaked or moaned, I would flinch thinking it would be her coming for me. Of course, I blame my dad for making me watch that scary movie, after telling him countless times I did not want to. “It’s not real…There’s nothing to be scared of,” my mom would say to try to calm me down.

The light of the hallway projected into my room, so that you can see only the outline of shapes. The coat hanging up on the hook on my closet door started to look alive. I always thought it is with complete darkness when you are afraid of something. When you cannot see anything, you do not know what is coming after you. You shouldn’t want to see the scary thing or you would be afraid of it forever. However, when it is pitch black, you can get scared, but you can think, “Maybe it is Spongebob or something joyful coming after me.”

I was old enough to know that some of the creeks are just the heaters or boiler room; however, I thought of all the other possibilities such as snakes. Boy, do I not like snakes, but I will tell you about that later. I think back towards all the scary movies and how they would always say, “It’s just an old house.” However, this house was not old; in fact, it was only built two years ago. I moved into this house when I was entering middle school, so how could I know who lived in this house before me? I pondered; did someone die in this house? And like always, I thought, No that’s crazy!

Another creek in the house made me realize she was somewhere close, possibly in my closet. I do not want to look, so I remained gazing at the ceiling. My body tried to hold my head down, but I looked up, noticing the crack in between the two closet doors. I swear, if I saw an eye or something in between those two closet doors, I would accept my death. I fought through this feeling of fear as long as I could, but she was near me.

You’re probably wondering what I was scared of. Maybe I am just tempting your imagination, or maybe I am just too afraid to tell you. She was not big. In fact, I could probably take her. What I knew is that she was wearing a long white wedding dress that ran to the floor, and her hair was covering the sides of her face so that you could barely see her eyes. The slight red marks of blood dripping down her looked like rain falling down a gutter. Again, she could not be any older than eight, but every devil looks different. This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

When I was younger, I would have protocols for when I was scared, so I followed them now. I lifted the covers up and tucked them under my feet, then I assumed the position where I slept on my stomach with the blanket wrapped around my head. The only thing I would leave out in the open is my face because I have trouble breathing under the covers. Knowing I could always take the easy way out, and scream for my mother, but I had to handle this on my own. I was getting to that age of Bar Mitzvahs. I’m not going to be a scared wimp my whole life.

My body was as still as a painting in the Museé du Louvre. For those of you that don’t know, the Museé du Louvre is the first museum that comes up when searching in Google, “Art museum in France.” Since I was handling this national epidemic on my own, I knew I should reach to turn on the light because nothing is scary when it is bright. Except spiders and snakes because those things are more terrifying than burning your last hot pocket. I reached for the black switch on the lamp of my nightstand, but I forgot you had to turn it twice. This was not really a problem because I twisted it the second time like it was nothing.

Finally, the light devoured my room like a dinosaur eating a teacup pig. I gently and slowly picked up my head and looked back to find my room was the same as before. What do I do now? I thought because I could not try to go to bed. I pulled out the draw in my nightstand, and took out this notebook from when I was younger. As you may guess, I am currently writing in this journal.

Future self, if your reading this, I want you to know there is nothing to be scared of, and keep doing you. I’m sure you are doing awesome things, probably a billionaire by now. Fine I’ll give you some slack. You are probably a millionaire.

Younger Self,
Sili

Oh and P.S., snakes do not have jaws or a gag reflex, so they can swallow you in one sitting. That is why they are scary. Especially Anacondas.