An Unseen Visitor

I'll be the first one to admit I have a very active imagination, and sometimes I inadvertently let it run away with me. It's gotten very good at playing tricks on my eyes and ears. Especially when I'm in bed at night or in my room alone during the day. I still don't know if the events that inspired this piece are real or imagined. If they are real, they open up quite a few interesting possibilities. If they're my imagination, well, it's definitely alive and thriving. Either that...or I'm going crazy.

An Unseen VisitorSomething skitters past your peripheral vision.

What was that?

You look, but there's nothing there.

Could it have been your imagination...or something more? Something...only the open mind can see? Possibilities of what it might be occupy your mind as you give the room one last sweep, searching even the slight shadows created by the phosphorescent lights overhead. Nothing. You're alone. You dismiss the notion of seeing something and soon forget about it. Until the next time.
* * * * * * * * * *Evening falls quietly and gracefully into shadows. Pleasant thoughts or memories fill your head as you sit in front of the computer. A vacant smile plays about your lips while you're lost in a reverie. Suddenly, you sense you're not alone. The little hairs on the back of your neck rise, your heartbeat picks up. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Curiosity though, has you looking to the right.

There's nothing but empty space. No one lurks in your doorway. Yet, your feeling remains.

You stare at the spot where you first thought you sensed a presence. Though your eyes tell you otherwise, you're not quite sure you're alone anymore. But how could that be? Nothing is there! Or is something...someone...there after all, unseen? The air is thick with speculation and some undefinable element. Your thoughts, scattered from their previous enjoyment, now race and your body tenses.

Don't be stupid, you tell yourself. It's just your overactive imagination at work. You want to believe something or someone is there. Just so you can experience an other worldly event.

But try as you might, you can't totally dismiss the feeling of being watched. As you wait with bated breath for some unknown thing to happen, you become aware of no malevolence in the air. Only...a curiosity and mischievousness. A visiting spirit perhaps? But who? Once again your mind races, looking for answers. A past owner of the house? A dead relative you were close to? Or a passing spirit? Or is it really just your imagination after all? The guesses could go on.

As you ponder who your unseen guest might be, you sense them coming towards you in a rush. Gasping in surprise, you recoil expecting to feel something at contact. When nothing happens you open your hastily shut eyes and look about. Except for you the room is empty. Your earlier feeling is gone. Releasing a pent up breath you slowly relax. Whoever it was disappeared when they came upon you. For several moments you just sit, thinking and taking it in. You're reminded of another earlier incident months before, when you thought you saw something but was unsure.

Questions bloom in your fertile imagination. Was that really real then too? Surely I couldn't have imagined two similiar incidents? Am I going nuts, or can I sometimes feel what's on a higher plane? The possibility that you can excites you and brings a smile to your face, yet at the same time fills you with an eerieness.

There are many inexplicable things in our universe. The Loch Ness Monster. Leprechauns and fairies. Ghosts. We hardly see them for cynical minds and lost innocence. But if you're lucky, or of an open mind you just might sense or get a glimpse of another world...

You hear something on the wind. Was that...laughter?

** Originally written on 09-15-2002