Night Fears (A Short Horror Story)

By Graham M Hodge

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A frighteningly good story. The kind children should probably avoid, because it confirms all of their fears and nightmares.

Tonight not even the bed covers can protect you.

Noah Collins is an ordinary seven-year-old boy with a history of sleepless nights, but tonight he will discover what keeps him awake at night is not imaginary. The cause of Noah’s night fears is hell itself.

As young children we have all had sleepless nights where we have hidden beneath our bedsheets for protection from the monsters of our imagination, for Noah, the night is a scary place.

Afraid to go to his parents for protection because he has been accused of “Crying Wolf” too many times, he has to stay in his bedroom alone and face the monsters that lurk in the dark recesses.

Tonight Noah has to face the biggest fear of his life so far.

No child should have to face this evil alone.

A Short Horror Story by Graham M Hodge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judgement Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386343035

Book preview

Quotes

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A child's fear is a world whose dark corners are quite unknown

to grownup people; it has its sky and its abysses, a sky without

stars, abysses into which no light can ever penetrate.

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Julian Green - Novelist.

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We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy

of life is when men are afraid of the light.

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Plato - Philosopher

Chapter One

Light from the small night-lamp which stood on the table next to the single bed cast shapes across the white ceiling of the attic room, static shapes of light breaking into the otherwise dark recesses. The blue lampshade made the room dark enough for the corners to be shrouded in shadows and dark enough so Noah would not be kept awake, but bright enough for the child to feel safe and comfortable in his bedroom should he wake—as he had a habit of doing at night.

Tossing restlessly in his bed, Noah pushed down the Manchester United duvet to his waist; he'd been warm before drifting off to sleep. The room often felt warmer than the rest of the house because of the extra insulation, plus the heat rising from the rest of the house collected in the top bedroom. To cool the room a little, Noah had opened the skylight window a small way to let some of the cold air from outside into his room; the room remained warm but he did not want to open it too far as it made him feel unsafe, and he knew it would have stopped him from falling asleep. It was cold outside, and had been snowing until the boy's bedtime. There was little wind around, so the gap made by the open window made almost no draft in the room. Noah now rolled over onto his left side, his ginger hair sticking out at all angles where he'd been laying on it.

The young lad had never been a deep sleeper—his normal nocturnal routine would start after getting changed into his pyjamas; then he would crouch and look under his bed to make sure there were no monsters lurking in the shadows that may reach out and get him while he slept; next he would open the wardrobe door, this he always did with a hint of trepidation, the dark confines of the wooden cabinet had always scared him. Once satisfied that nothing sinister was lurking in the shadows, he would climb into his single-bed where he would lay for about an hour and a half with his eyes open and his ears pricked to listen for a sound that may alert him to any approaching danger, tiredness would ultimately win the battle of wills, and he would drift off into a restless sleep which may last for two to three hours, and then something, a sound or movement in his room or outside—either real or imaginary—would wake him up with a start, and he would bolt upright in his bed. It was much the same routine every night—seldom a night would go by that he slept right through.

Tonight was no different from the others, Noah slept for about two hours before being woken by a noise. It woke him