I’m reading in bed when I hear footsteps on the stairs. I freeze, book in hand, listening hard. I hope it’s just the house settling, floorboards getting used to the night time air. But no, I hear them again. Footsteps. Only I’m the only one home. I wriggle further under the covers, as though a duvet will somehow protect me.
Your bed will always protect you, won’t it?
The footsteps stop on the landing. They pause for a moment and head for the bathroom. Whoever it is isn’t making any effort to be quiet. I can hear the tap running, and what sounds like someone scrubbing their teeth.
What? What intruder brushes their teeth?
I throw back the covers and get out of bed. I reach the door just as the tap shuts off in the bathroom. I look onto the landing in time to see the intruder open the door.
I watch myself leave the bathroom dressed in the clothes I was wearing before I got changed for bed. The other me crosses the landing and walks straight through me as if I’m not standing here. I feel nothing but a breeze but the other me shivers. I remember shivering before I went to bed, making a mental note to turn up the heating.
The other me, the me that was, gets changed and slips into bed. I watch her start reading, engrossed in her book until she hears what I hear – footsteps on the stairs.
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I’ll be adding this to my irrational fears list…
Oh cool! Talk about deja vu. How many of her will there be?
I’m wondering the same as Larry – how many of her will there be? And will she next time see two of her, three, etc, etc? Creepy!
I love it! Stuck in a never ending loop. Horrifying when you think about it.
Oh my. A recursive story – fantastic icy! Maybe she turned up the heat too much . . .
Well, that has to be a weird feeling. You captured it very well, I must say.
Oh dear, TIME LOOP! *shudders*
Let’s hope she finally manages to get to sleep and the chain is broken. Thinking you’ve heard a noise inside the house at night is scary enough, finding an intruder on the landing would be terrifying, but finding yourself on the landing… ?
Man, I’d enjoy that oddity! Of course, I live in a funny house that makes strange noises all the time, but a visitor of this sort doesn’t seem spooky to me. Could just need a place to stay. I wonder if they like tea.
Ooh a sort of time warp! Loved it Icy!
Nice work, but now I have an old song stuck in my head:
Here we go loop de loop
Here we go loop de li
Here we go loop de loop
On a Saturday night
Brilliant. Love the time loop. I’d freak out if I heard someone brushing their teeth in my home, probably more than footsteps.
This actually reminded me of one of JB Ballard’s time loop stories. I wonder if the shiver had anything to do with the passing-through effect!