Wraith Hype #2

The screen flickers and shows a man in a straight jacket in fetal position rocking back and forth in a rubber room saying

Psychopath: At night, a lot of things seem scarier than they would normally. Like silly little nightmares, or interesting looking shadows on your wall. Or rain. Normally, I like the rain. I’ve lived in Phoenix my whole life, so rain was uncommon enough to be fun and beautiful instead of annoying. But when it’s four in the morning and the rain is creaking and tapping against your window, suddenly it doesn’t seem so beautiful anymore.

I told myself not to look. In my sleep deprived hysteria, I somehow felt that looking would make whatever I imagined was behind my window real – or worse, let it in. As I dug my fingernails into my arm to wake myself up in case I was dreaming, I told myself I was being stupid, there couldn’t be anything there. The tapping against my window were just the raindrops. The low howls and growls were just the wind. The unearthly creaking were just the sounds my old window made as it tried to fight the rain back. And the trudging sound every so often disrupting the rocks outside was… was my dog, of course. But didn’t the tapping sound too rhythmic and hard for just raindrops? Didn’t the howls and growls sound more like… well, just that, howls and growls? Why hadn’t I heard the creaking noise before, in even harder rain? And didn’t my dog know to come in out of the rain? And not to be repetitive or anything, but since when could the rain keep a beat as it tapped persistently against my window? I tried to ignore it, I tried to stop hearing it, Tap tap tap, tap tap tap, tap tap tap… I told myself I wasn’t scared, and that didn’t seem to be growing louder, TAP tap tap, TAP tap tap, TAP tap tap… I wanted more than anything to sleep, no matter how hard I tried, It just kept echoing in my brain, TAP TAP tap, TAP TAP tap, TAP TAP tap… I didn’t look, I just stared in front of me, as the fear warped my eyes and made things seem to move and whisper, and lights slowly go out, TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP. I grabbed my blanket and threw it over me, hiding my face in my little tent, and for a second there was no sound but my rapid breaths. It was the rain. I whispered it to myself fervently. It was the rain making the tapping against my window, it was the rain making it creak and groan, and it was the rain hitting the rocks as it dripped over the side of my house. And it was the rain sliding my window open.

He then looks up and screeches at the camera…the lights flicker off…then on and the man is not there…the lights flicker off again…then back on and the man jumps up in front of the camera and screams…the screen goes to black…

Narrator: He will be here soon…for all of CCW…