Leather Brown Boots by Angel Althea

Early Sunday Morning
I was blowing gently on my steaming hot coffee. I took a little sip realizing that it was still too hot to drink so I sat it back on my study table next to a pile of undone homework which I really needed to finish in order to graduate college. I was scrolling down on a list of available apartments on craigslist, trying to find the cheapest one and one that’s close to my University. I know I should be doing homework right now since I have one due tomorrow but I couldn't. Too many distractions. My roommate would often bring a guy in our room or sounds of partying in other rooms were too loud and too inviting. I wanted to to go to those parties but I know I have a lot of school s*** to do. The walls on this dorm are too thin, I could clearly hear somebody having sex in the next room, kind of disturbing that’s why it brought me me to craigslist. After what seem like an eternity of searching I came across this room for rent, it was within my tight budget and just a couple blocks away from my school, a perfect walking distance but the only catch was, it was one of those houses where you can rent a room not an apartment. The description say's theirs only woman living their, which was the house owner. But I hated the thought of living with somebody who's a complete stranger to me, especially getting a little bit paranoid after watching that movie “The roommate”, it's about these two roommates and it seemed normal at first but what one of them didn’t know that the other one was mentally ill and loved to kill. I shook the thought out of my head and before making any further decisions I thought of maybe meeting this woman, and so I did.
Days passed and now im carrying boxes up to my new room. It was nice and cozy and it had a very girly vintage theme to it just the way I liked it. Mrs. Parkins was behind me, helping me carry my things into the room. She was very nice about 70 years old. I didn’t really feel the need to ask her how old she was but I know she's around that age. The first day I met her we talked for a long time, and we had tea. Although she was a complete stranger to me but being around her made me feel safe, she's like a grandmother I never had. Both my grandmother from both my mom and dad's side died before I was born so I didn’t have that caring grandmother to bake cookies with or one that would knit me a sweater when winter is coming up. She also seemed like she really cared about me, she acts as if I were a granddaughter of her's who she had never seen in years, her smile greets me with a “home sweet home” feeling.
'So that's the last of your stuff dear, do you want anything to eat honey?' She said sweetly.
'No thanks Mrs. Parkins im full.'
'Well alright just call me if you need anything.' She smiled and head back out of the room till she paused and looked back at me, she didnt say anything, then her head turned to the old ragged looking closet across my bed, she looked at it for a while then back at me, still no word came out of her mouth. Her expression was scared but also kind of nervous, her eyes were wide and wild with a hint of concern. In my head, for a second, I thought this was a bad idea, what if she's a lunatic!? What if she would come into my room at night knowing that I cant lock my door because the lock is broken, and what if she would tie me up and sacrifice me or some s*** like that. Finally she spoke.
'DONT EVER OPEN THAT CLOSET' she said in a demanding tone with the same expression in her face.
Whats the point? Its locked in chains anyway. But of course I didn’t say that to her but the sight of chains and a big lock on the closet doors kind of gave me the creep. But I already knew that she once had a daughter, a little girl who's room im staying in used to be her's until she left. She didn’t explain why. But I wanted to ask why but when she was talking about her daughter their was just sadness in her voice and in her face, a hopeless kind of sadness the one that wishes for what's ever that's gone to come back again. So I came to an understanding, that maybe her daughter ran away or was just gone. Kidnapped maybe, even died so I didn’t bother to ask. I told myself that maybe her daughters things, valuable items that belonged to this girl was stored in their. Things that had deep sentimental value to this old woman. I can tell she really loved her daughter because the room was filled with pictures of her and some were of her with a younger Mrs. Parkins and a man, who Im sure is Mr. Parkins. The room also looked like its been untouched for years, but it looked really clean. Dolls and toys filled the room, it didn’t even look organized. It looked liked some little girl was just playing tea party and left for a quick potty break.
'Okay no problem' I answered her.
'I'll bring in a plastic drawer later for you to put your things in, after im done cleaning it. Get yourself settled and come down stairs as soon as you can so we can have dinner, okay sweetie?
Wow, her mood changes really fast, from crazy strange to her usual self. Maybe she's bipolar but I replied okay and thanked her, then she left the room.
I was finally done unpacking and I sat on the comfy bed. I touched the blanket and realized it was too thick, especially because it was still about 2 weeks after summer. I didn’t really care but I glanced up and stared at the closet. It was a walk in closet. It looked really odd because the door ended about 10 inches from the room's wooden floor,destroyed by termites maybe. I could peek in their but It was too dark to see what's inside even if the lights were on or if it was daytime. The only thing visible from inside was 2 brown objects. I looked at it a bit closer, it was kind of round but flat at the bottom. It was a pair of shoes, wait, leather brown boots, no, fur leather brown boots, since on top of the leather was fur. It had a lovely shade of dark brown, but I cold hardly really see the object since it was really dark in their. My stare broke when Mrs. Parkins came inside the room carrying the plastic drawer. She placed it next to the table next to my bed. She then invited me to go downstairs and so I did. We had a delicious dinner, definitely better than pizza and Chinese food which I usually had back at the dorm. Then I went to shower and called it a night.
The next few days were pretty normal, but I’ve gotten really stressed over school and my boyfriend just dumped me and that even made it worse. Everyday was pretty much the same routine but as each day passed I developed a strange desire for those leather brown boots in the closet.
Weeks passed and things have gone from bad to worse. It seems that my luck is changing and every night was very terrifying. I experienced something that only happened to me many years ago. It was something that really scared me causing me not to sleep. It felt as if someone or something was present in that room. I tried to hide under the covers but this is the scary part, I cant move. I was paralyzed, eyes open, I couldn’t close them. I could see all round the darkness in my room, objects illuminated by the tiny moon light that slit between the closed curtains of my window. I could see moving silhouettes, creepy shadows lurking. I tried to call out for help but not a single word comes out of my mouth not even a squeak. The temperature drops. Along with this came strange loud buzzing noises. I felt a heavy pressure in my chest like somebody choking me. After what seemed like forever I was ready to die but then it ended and I wake up fine the next day, just scared. I experienced this mostly in my childhood after loosing my parents in a fire accident. One day, I looked it up on the internet, see what kind of demon was possessing me. It was just hallucinations and my mind playing tricks, I was so relieved to find out that was normal and that a lot of people also had these, it's called sleep paralysis, you may have heard of it and even experienced it but when it happens it felt realistic to the point where you just want to die. It was caused by stress. And after knowing that, from then on I stopped having it. But now its back.
Day by day my desire gets stronger for the leather brown boots in the closet, I had a strange urge to wear them. It's like it was calling out to me, to come and get it... But I knew their was no way I could have them, they probably belonged to Sapphire, Mrs. Parkins daughter. But every night my sleep paralysis would get worse It would feel as if something would pull the blankets off my body. Sometimes drag me out of bed to the closet and last night, I felt I was levitated around the room and spinning me around, I was so scared and so in my head I started saying a prayer asking God for it to stop but here's what made me quiver in fear, as I said the prayer in my mind something sort of possessed my mind and instead of words, I said something that I could not understand but it was demonic. It didn’t want me to talk to God. Something very different also happened, while being paralyzed, out of the dark this image of a demon like horse shows up, only its face though. I cant really see it clearly because it was dark and it looked as if I can see right through it like a ghost. It's eyes were wide and wild and it had a demented smile. It was their staring at me. It was all too scary and even though I knew it wasn’t real, but every time I have it and that horse appears, it just feels as if its really happening and I get so scared. After it happened last night, I realized my bed lamp was off. I know for a fact that It was on before I went to bed because these past few days I've been leaving them on the whole night because the dark was making me very paranoid. My fear got worse, I turned it on and think. I told myself that maybe Mrs. Parkins came in here and turned It off since she was talking about saving electricity since she couldn’t afford the bills now. That calmed me a bit and so I went back to sleep.
The next night was even worse. I woke up after having sleep paralysis finding out that my bed lamp was off again and my blanket was now on the floor. That demon horse was on my mind and it felt like that thing is gonna jump on me any time soon. The dark was blinding, with my heart beating fast and my body shaking I quickly turned on the bed lamp and to my surprise, their were footprints on the floor... The prints were dusty and they didn’t look like human feet, it was a little bit bigger, actually they didn’t even look as if it was feet and it came from the closet to the side of my bed. I looked at the closet to see it still in chains nothing looks different except for the footprints and the missing leather boots. I was scared, also concerned about the leather boots, I loved those boots... I tried not to think about what could have been inside this room but I made assumptions that It could have been Mrs. Parkins taking the boots, wearing them and coming near my bed to turn the lamp off. After all, it was fall and it was much colder, and those fur leather boots would sure be perfect to wear. I fell asleep thinking. The next morning, I woke up and saw that the boots were back, Relieved.
More days passed and same thing kept happening. My stress got worse, and at least every other day the boots would go missing and those prints keep appearing, I was sure it was just Mrs. Parkins but I didn’t bother to ask her. To this point some people would think some paranormal s*** is happening but I don’t believe in that crap, Im a “scientific-ish” kind of girl I always had a logical explanation for things, even for strange things.
This morning, I woke up, freezing. It was still dark outside. I got up to get ready for school. The leather brown boots caught my eye, still having the desire to reach in their and grab it. I thought it would be perfect to match them with my outfit today and especially because of the ridiculously cold weather. The boots were calling out to me, I couldn’t take it anymore so I went over the closet. I was on my knees ready to stick my hand deep in the closet to grab the boots but then I heard a whisper. It was a soft whisper of a little girl. I didn’t know if it was real or not but I had a feeling it was Sapphire... I couldn’t make out what the whisper was but it made me feel bad for taking things without permission, and it was probably her's too. So I decided to ask Mrs. Parkins first. I rushed downstairs. Somehow I felt excited, strange. For I was certain she would be kind enough to let me borrow them, especially of how kind and caring she's been treating me. I found her in her chair in the living room petting her cat and I got up in front of her.
'Ummm, good morning.' I said nervously.
'Good morning dear, is their a problem?.' she said with concern. Then I blurted it out.
'Would you mind if I could borrow those leather brown boots in the closet? I blurted out, fast. Her expression appalled, those same wide eyes and expression she had that day when she told me not to open the closet. Before she could reply I quickly said;
'I, I promise I wouldn’t open the closet I’ll just grab them from underneath and..'
Before I could finish she jumped of her chair, pushed me out of the way and darted up the stairs to my room. I was now convinced that this lady was absolutely crazy, I was shocked and scared not knowing what to do. As I was about to follow her, I heard loud crashing noises, I rushed to the stairs and my stuff came flying down on the floor from my room. She was throwing them downstairs. Then she appeared on the door eyes wild and crazy and she said in a stern demanding harsh tone;
'GET. OUT. OF. THIS. HOUSE. NOW!'
Then she went back in and she threw my luggage out the door and it came rolling down the stairs, then my clothes came next and the rest of my stuff. I quickly shoved all of my stuff in the luggage. I just wanted to get out of this house and away from this woman. Then I bursted out the door not caring if I left any stuff in the house, I was relieved to even make it out alive and maybe just in time before something really bad happened, as I rushed to my car outside I felt a hand on my shoulder. Chills went up my spine I slowly turned around and saw Mrs. Parkins with her usual smile. But now, to me it looked like a demented wicked smile.
'Why are you in such a rush my dear?' she said slowly and sweetly.
I tried to yell get away from me but instead my fear let out a squeak. Then she continued to speak.
'Sorry for the way I acted, you know I care about you but..' she paused ' But You see, those weren’t a nice pair of fur leather boots'.
I was about to faint, for I was paralyzed in shock, I was much likely to die for when I glanced up to the window in my room... their.. it..was.. It stood inside behind the window, I could see it clearly, A man -like- horse standing up staring at me with a demented demonic smile! The sight was just horrible! It had a very long face much like a horse, its eyes blood red but it looked like a cats eye, glowing in the dark, they were big and wild. Its pointed ears were shaped like a devils horns, its teeth were razor sharp and stained with yellow and blood. I could see it hairy chest , much like a mans and then I realized.
It wasn't Mrs. Parkins coming in my room at night.
It wasn't sleep paralysis that I’ve been having every night.
And It certainly wasn't a pair of fur leather brown boots in the closet........ they were HOOVES.