The cursed hour

Have you ever heard, as a child, of the hour called the witching hour?

It’s an event to most that occurs everyday, post midnight, when the clock strikes three.

The demons inside you head wander out, your fears all begin to haunt you, and trepidation grips your very soul. The hour one cannot shut their eyes, but lie awake, their senses heightened, ears trying to capture the slightest sound, eyes trying to capture the slightest shift in light. Your limbs freeze over, you cannot move. You keep glancing at the clock, wanting to see time pass sooner, but the clock hand only shifts and rest and 5 minutes past three. It’s the most dreaded hour. And I’ve experienced it always as a child. The first time, I read about it in a book. And like a spell cast on me or a curse, I wake up at three and get spooked out all alone. Yes, and the worst part about experiencing the witching hour, is when you’re all alone. When the silence is too eerie, and there is no one to console you and talk to, when everything seems in its place but is not, when you suddenly feel waves of chill run over you body when it’s a mid summer night, when curtains flutter though there isn’t any source of wind. Ones mind is a powerful tool, and can play rather funny games on which it belongs to. Ones mind has its own mind too.

So there I was again, lying awake, waiting for the confounded hour to pass quickly, alas it wouldn’t do so. Every minute crawled, every fear deepened, every unheard sound became louder, shadows in a lit up room loomed about. Goosebumps ran all the way down my body, waves of cold air (you imagine it as breath) swept over my face. Eyes ached while they remained torn open, fatigued due to the lack of sleep. My mouth ran dry, but my body didn’t respond, when I needed to get up to take a sip of water. I couldn’t even get my self to change my position in which I lay, the ghosts of the night seemed to have taken control over every cell in my body. And the oddest part about it is that when the clock strikes four, your state of mind eases, and you fall back asleep, only to awaken an hour late in the morning.

Childhood fears haunt forever it seems.