Free Nightmare by Robin Parrish Page B

chest of drawers, came to life and began
changing its own channels. Faster and faster the channels went
by as I watched, until the TV finally let out a giant spark and
fizzled out.
    The room fell completely silent, and I sat up a little straighter.
My familiar surroundings had just become hostile territory, and
I didn't feel safe. For ten, twenty, thirty seconds I remained still
and the room stayed quiet. It seemed the activity had ended.
    I finally decided to get out of the bed, swinging my legs out
over the side, when every single object in my room-every piece
of furniture, every book, article of clothing, snack food, every
appliance-leapt into the air like a jumping bean and came back
down. I couldn't hold back a scream as I crawled backward on
my bed until my back was against the wall.
    Sheets pulled out from under me, flying into the middle of
the floor, followed by my pillows.
    I sat there and waited, somehow knowing that wouldn't be
the end.
    I heard an inhuman laugh, and everything in the room
jumped again.
    And again.

    And again.
    Suddenly I knew. The rhythm. Everything was slamming in
time to my heartbeat.
    My heart gave a thunderous bang against my ribs at the realization, and everything in the room jumped again.
    Again and again it happened, keeping up with my heart rate,
which now pulsed faster with fear. Bang. Bang. Bang. Quicker and
quicker and then I could hear people shouting, wondering what
was going on. Someone even rattled the doorknob at one point,
but the door wouldn't open.
    And I hadn't locked it.
    With one final heartbeat, everything jumped higher than
before, and I was tossed from the mattress to the middle of the
floor. I crashed, burning my hands and knees on the carpet.
    I lay on my stomach, almost unwilling to turn over for fear
of what might happen next. But when something touched my
ankle, I spun over lightning fast.
    Something like a very cold, wet hand was crawling up my
bare leg, but I saw nothing.
    Suddenly, objects all around my room tore themselves free
from wherever they'd been at rest and began flying around in
all directions. One after another after another. My backpack,
my desk chair, my keys, my laptop. Around and around they
flew, crashing into one wall and then flying up into the air to
go crash into another.
    I put my hands on my head and curled into a ball, trying to
keep from being injured, but it wasn't long before things started
brushing past me or just flying into me. There was so much happening now, a hurricane of energy and rage, destroying everything
it touched, and slamming items both blunt and sharp into my skin. I heard my own screams and cries muffled within the storm.
And all the while, the freezing hand continued its slow climb up
my leg, past my knee now. I tried to grab it, to claw it away from
me, but you can't take hold of nothing.

    Someone was beating on my door from the hallway outside,
trying to get in and save me, but I couldn't reach the door. I
couldn't move. I just lay in a fetal position in the middle of the
room, screaming for it to end. My heart was racing so fast, I knew
it would soon give out.
    I heard terrible, loud crashes and disembodied cackles of
laughter. I could feel hot, wet, sticky spots pouring across one
hip, a shoulder, and the top of my head. I was bleeding.
    The tempest reached a powerful crescendo, sounding as if
the entire building were coming down. And then without warning, everything simply stopped. The violence ended, the chilled
hand vanished, and everything was still.
    One second passed, and I heard the tiny sound of my cell
phone vibrating against the floor. Aside from the beating on
my door, the only other sound I could hear was of someone
crying.
    It took me a moment to realize that the person crying was
me.
    I was trembling violently as I opened my eyes and looked
around. The entire room had been destroyed, stripped down to
the studs in the walls. All of my furniture, all of my