Lights Out, Everybody

[I typed this up, in response to Chuck Wendig’s request for creepypasta stories, and I though I’d share with ya’ll. This happened to me, and it is 100% true.]

I was probably 14 when I first read The Amityville Horror, and since I was a good deal more gullible in those days it didn’t even occur to me to think the events described in the book might not be true. I was entranced by the story and stayed up late into the night to finish.

By the time I was done everyone else in the house had long since been asleep I was really freaked out by the story, but it was late and I knew I needed to try to get some sleep. I stood up out of bed and pulled the chain to turn off the overhead light, and then got into bed and turned off my bedside lamp.

For a while I just lay there in bed, still totally freaked out thinking about ghosts and demons and whatnot. I won’t say I felt a presence in the room, but my sense of fear was almost tangible and the feeling started to grow in my gut, that I need light, I need light, I need light, I NEED LIGHT RIGHT NOW!

I went to switch on my bedside lamp, only when I did, I saw a flash of light and heard the worst possible sound imaginable, the “ping” of a filament giving out and I was plunged back into darkness. By then I was really scared, stomach churning, heart pounding, and I literally jumped out of bed, grasping for the chain that would turn on the light. The fan chain and light chain got twisted up together, and I’m yanking on them both, over and over, and my heart is about to explode in my chest, because I need light. Finally some tiny sliver of rational thought in my brain realized that the light wasn’t going to come on this way, so I ran out into the kitchen and turned that light on without incident.

I sat there for a while, forcing myself to take deep breaths, bringing myself back down to earth. Finally I worked up enough courage to go back into my room and see what was wrong with the lights. I took a flashlight with me, but as I walked into the room, I reflexively flipped the switch by the door and the lights came on just fine. I was reassured, but just for a second, because I realized that I hadn’t turned the light switch off; I know I pulled the chain to kill the lights. And everyone else in the house had been asleep for at least an hour, so there was no way anyone could have flipped that switch.

Needless to say, I slept with the lights on for the rest of the night.