I wake up to the sound of shattering glass. I know what I’m about to see next. The footsteps become louder as she comes closer. I try to turn away from her, but I can’t move.

She steps into the room. Her long black dress is adorned with lace on the sleeves. She doesn’t have eyes only the sockets. Her face is pale. She slowly creeps to the foot of the bed. The floor creaks with each step she takes. In one quick motion, she rips the blanket off me and tosses it onto the floor.

She grabs my ankles. She yanks me out of bed. I hit my head on the wood floor. She drags me across the floor. I grab onto the doorframe.

“No! No! Let me go!” I scream. She tugs on my ankle causing me to lose my grip on the door frame. She drags me to the basement.

“No! Please, please let me go!” I beg. She pulls me down the stairs. My head hits the steps over and over again. She lets go of me and picks up a hammer. I pull myself up. I lean on the wall for support. I feel completely defenseless.

The room is spinning. She raises the hammer above her head. A knock at the door startles her. I look up at the stairs. I turn back to the woman. She’s gone. The police run down the stairs. I fall over and pass out.

I awake in the hospital. One of the police officers walk in. He is tall with brown hair and eyes. He takes a seat by the bed.

“Hi, I’m detective James Miller. Your neighbors heard you screaming for help. What happened?” he asks.

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“Someone broke into my house. They attacked me. They dragged me out of bed…into the basement,” I say beginning to tear up. I can’t tell him about her. The lady who’s been haunting me for three years. She’s never gotten this physical before.

“Can you describe the person who attacked you?” the police officer asks.

“I didn’t get a good look at them,” I reply.

“Do you know what happened in that house years ago?”

“No,”

He sighs and leans back in his chair.

“In the nineties the owners of your house, Renee and Louis Miller, started seeing things. It went on for quite a few years. One of the things they saw every night was an older woman. She would always be wearing a black dress with lace sleeves. They said…they said that she didn’t even have eyes,” he says.

“The woman Renee and Louis saw has been terrorizing me for three years. Before, she would just hover over me and stare at me then she’d go away. Tonight…tonight was different. She pulled me out of bed. There was nothing I could do to stop her. She tried to kill me!” I say.

“You and I are the only ones who got away from her alive. I’m Renee and Louis’s son. One night at the house I heard screaming coming from the basement. I opened the door. What I saw horrified me. She started hitting my father with the hammer. Their blood was everywhere. I hid underneath the stairs. I was so afraid that she was going to find me.

She knelt down and stared at me. Eighteen years later and I still have nightmares about her. The police didn’t believe me when I told them what happened,”

“We need to stop her—” he interrupts me.

“Look, you need to rest. I’ll talk to you in the morning,” He walks out of the room. He’s right I should sleep.

I close my eyes and fall asleep. A loud beep wakes me up. Just outside the door is the woman from last night. The lights flicker. When they turn on again, she’s gone. I look to my left. She’s standing in the corner. I repeatedly tap the call button for the nurse. She inches towards the bed. I can’t move. She grabs me by the hospital gown.

“You can’t stop me, Sasha. You will never get rid of me! I will be here until you die,” she says.