The clock in the hall chimed the hour and once again Susan found she could not sleep. The passage of time had lost all meaning to her as she shuddered in her bed. She dared not raise the covers or stretch her legs though they lay cramped and numb below the blankets. The moon peeked through the window as the curtain filled and fluttered with a gentle summer breeze.
A slight noise and she stiffened with apprehension as her eyes darted left and right trying to find the source. A paper lazily made its way sea-sawing through the air to the carpeted floor below. The clock chimed the quarter hour and still Susan found it impossible to lay her head down on the soft sweet smelling pillow. Another breeze lifted the curtain and a shadow danced on the opposite wall as a brief moonbeam was revealed. Her gasp of fright left her trembling and on alert as she waited for it to have heard her and know she was near. She trembled so violently that the headboard rattled against the wall and tapped out her fright in a childish morse-code.
She wrapped her arms around herself and prayed for morning light. The clock in the hall chimed the half hour and still sleep would not visit her. A scratch. Was that a scratching noise she heard? No, the paper now on the carpet moved with the gentle breeze through the window. Susan's eyes fixed upon it's slow dance across the carpet. It came nearer and nearer her bed. It moved as if walking with a purpose across the carpet. Catching a corner in a tangle of the deep pile of the carpet as it did slow somersaults towards her. She shivered and shook as it made its way closer. She strained to keep it in sight. It shimmered and shook in the moon light as if with a life of its own.
Slowly it progressed across the carpeted floor until only a tip of it was visible to her, the rest lay below her and out of sight. She strained upward and forward, trying not to move the bed as she tried to see more of it. The wind whispered through the curtain again and the paper's tip seemed to give a final wave as it disappeared below her bed as if pulled by an unseen hand.
The clock chimed midnight. The wind sounded like labored breathing as it whistled through her room. It no longer came from beside her and seemed to wheeze from below. She could take no more, her eyes heavy and leaded with lack of sleep she bit back her fear and stumbled from the bed. She landed awkwardly on her knees and quickly looked left as a breeze again lifted the curtains and moonlight spilled through her room and under her bed, nothing. A sigh escaped her lips and she slumped to the floor. Asleep before her head touched the soft deep carpet below.