THE BLACK GHOST

In the dark of the night, while the house stood still and quiet, something floated under the door and into my room. It knew to come in the darkness as to not frighten me. It knew to be silent to not wake and drag me from the land of dreams. It was big and black in colour, it was ugly and dark.  When it entered my room it waited in the corner, huddled, filling with my warmth, as I slept.

As the new day dawned, I knew something wasn’t right, I felt there was something new, something I had not seen before.


Aimlessly, it was floating in my field of vision, trying to catch my attention. Darting back and forth.  Every time I moved my eye it moved, too quick for me to catch it. I blinked, was I seeing right, what was this I saw? What was this that had broken loose and was now in my life? I looked into the light of day, trying to clear my eyes, but as I looked back it was still there. Did this ugly thing escape from somewhere and was looking for a place to hide? Why did it choose me? Was it alone, or where there more things floating around that I had not yet noticed?

I concentrated, staring straight ahead. I could see it in the corner of my eye, its shadow cast on my eye, and as the light of day grew, it grew, darker and larger. Was this an optical illusion? Shifting my gaze to look directly at it, it quickly moved with the motion of my eye. Why was it floating? Like a black ghost covering my vision, but hiding when I try to focus on it.

I close my eyes. I can still seeit floating before me. Why is it hanging around? Will it ever go away? Why won’t it stay still so I can warm to it, embrace it. Maybe I can ignore it and it will go away. Why won’t it leave me alone? I can’t concentrate. Why had it come to me? Maybe where it had come from was diseased and dying and it released itself, but why did it have to plague me?