My boyfriend, Jerry and I just moved in to his mothers’ house. We are broke and don’t have jobs. Jerry has been job hunting ever since he lost his job as a waiter. I was fired from my job at the local hardware store for missing too many days. His mother hates me, she always tells him he could do better and that I’m a deadbeat. We just finished unpacking our things in the spare bedroom and we sit down at the kitchen table with his mother.
“All settled in?” asks his mother, in a real cold and sarcastic voice.
“Yeah, all unpacked.” sighs Jerry.
“You need to get a job, you’re not freeloading in the house like your girlfriend.” She glares at me. I feel my jaw clench with anger as I fold my hands in my lap in order to keep them from swinging at her. To keep my fists from wiping that sarcastic, smug grin off her wrinkly face. We sit there, staring daggers at each other for what seems like an hour. She’s never liked me. Jerry has always been her baby boy and now that im in the picture she has this evil jealousy toward me.
“Leave her alone mom, she doesn’t deserve this from you.” Her face turns red with anger. “Come on hun, let’s go to bed.” He grabs my arm and pulls me away to our room. We’re both exhausted; we collapse on the bed after a long day of moving and unpacking. I immediately drift off to sleep. I awake a couple hours later to the creaking sound of our door opening. A little bit of light sheds into our room and a shadow appears from the other side of the door. I lay there, still groggy trying to make out the shape of the shadow. A couple of minutes pass and the dark figure still stands there.
“Hello?” I say, it must Jerry’s mother. The door suddenly slams shut, all of the light suddenly leaving the room at once. Im shaking now. My Mind is racing with thoughts of what could have been behind that door. Something paranormal? Jerrys mom? I shudder at the thought of her peeking in on us as we sleep. I immediately become uncomfortable in this bed. The soft sheets turn to sandpaper as I try to find a comfortable way to rest. I reach over and grab Jerrys’ arm and wrap it around me. After an hour of trembling under his arm, I finally fall asleep. The next morning Jerry and I lay in bed, I want to tell him about what happened but I can’t tell if I was dreaming or not. I decide to let it go.



Jerry found a job. He works the night shift at a local factory. The thought of sleeping in this house without him upsets me greatly. The past couple of weeks here have been strange. Every other night I hear my door open and close. Jerry says it must be one of his mothers’ cats scratching at the door and opening it.
“But there is always a shadow, like somebody is watching me sleep. Could it be your mother?” I ask.
“You’re just seeing things.”
“Im not though, I swear I see something. I’ve been trying to go my separate ways with her and I haven’t done anything to her.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about.” I can’t stop worrying; I’m becoming very paranoid of being watched while I sleep.



We sit down to dinner one night; jerry has to leave for work in an hour. There is complete silence at this dinner table. The awkward silence is broken by the mothers crackling voice.
“When are you going to start pulling your own weight around here? You haven’t done anything around this house and im sick of it.” Her deathly brown eyes stare at me.
“Why don’t you back the f*** off?” I yell. I’ve had it with her. “When are you going to get over that your son has a new girl in his life and that he isn’t your little boy anymore?” “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” My fists slam down on the table and a rage comes over me. Before she can retort, I storm off to my room and slam the door. I sit on the bed and take a deep breath. “She’s crazy”, I think to myself. After about fifteen minutes I hear a knock at my door. Jerry stands there with a frown on his face.
“She wants us out of the house by the end of the week. You can’t talk to her like that.”
“Im sorry, but I can’t take her anymore, not after all those nights she peeks in at us and watches us while we sleep.”
“You still think that’s her? You have no proof. You sound ridiculous.” I realize how stupid I sound. Maybe he is right. Maybe im just trying to find a reason to hate her. “I have to go to work, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I give him a kiss goodnight and he leaves. I shut the door, pull back the covers off the bed and try to get some sleep. I doze off after a couple of minutes but awake to an odd scratching sound at the door.



I cringe as the scratching gets louder. “It must be the cat”, I think to myself. I brush it off and lay my head back down on the pillow. I awake again when something pounces on my legs. I instantly feel pain from being bitten on my foot. I kick the cat off, and get up to look for it so I can get it out of my room. I turn on the lights, but can’t find the cat. I look under the bed, still no cat. I open the door and peek down the dark hallway. Nothing. I decide the stupid thing must have run off so I get back in bed. As soon as I pull up the covers the cat attacks me. Biting and clawing at my face, I scream for the mother. I fight back at it, pounding my fists at its body and squeezing its neck. I manage to get a good grip on it and throw it off the bed. . Immediately the thing returns, gnawing at my face and clawing at me with furious anger. I feel a sharp claw pierce my cheek, then another scrape across my neck. I manage to wrap my hands around its throat but it bites my thumb. With blood streaming from my face and throat, I c*** back my fist and deliver a shot right on its nose. The weight of the cat lifts off of me and it scurries out of the room. Terrified, I grab the covers and hide under them for the rest of the night. I can’t believe Jerrys mother didn’t hear me and come to help. There I lay in the darkness of my room, shaking and in shock of what I just went through.



Jerry comes home around eight in the morning. He comes into our room and finds me laying there wide awake.
“What happened to you?”
“Your moms cat attacked me last night, it wouldn’t stop. I yelled for your mother but she didn’t help. Please say something to her” I begged. Jerry storms out into the kitchen, where his mother is making breakfast. She has her back turned to us.
“Your stupid cat attacked her last night ma! Why didn’t you help when she called for you?” She doesn’t respond. Jerry continues to yell at her but she has no answer. Fed up, Jerry advances toward his mother, grabs her by the shoulders and turns her around. He pauses in mid-sentence and takes a step back. What we both see makes our hearts stop. I let out a scream and Jerry covers his mouth with his hands in disbelief. Her face was swollen with bruises, scratches on her face, and a broken nose.