O fish, are you constant to the old covenant?

Now, since all of the bedrooms were full, I was given a blanket and pillow to sleep on the couch with. Of course like any kid, I watched TV for a few hours, well into the night. At around 4 am it dawned on me that we had plans for the next day so I should try and get some rest. After tossing and turning for about an hour or so, I gave up an just laid on my back staring at the stars visible from the near by window. As the natural light flooded the room from the sun rising I flipped through some photo albums. I did this for a while, not having slept at all the entire night. At this point I was pretty bored and lonely, hoping someone would wake up soon and talk to me.

Around 8 am, I heard a door slowly open and someone came out into the hallway. At my sisters house, the living room is sunken in and a small staircase of maybe 3 steps leads to the raised kitchen and dining room. The hallway is also in this raised area and connects to the bathroom and bedrooms. In the living room there is a doorless archyway that leads down to the basement and laundry room. This means that I could look up and see what was going on in the dining area from the couch.

This person hummed a little and then was caught off guard by a table in the dining room, full of framed pictures of family my sister had on display. I don't know how to describe the way they looked at the photos besides saying they were bewildered by them. Maybe even enchanted, letting out an occasional "Oh!" and "Ahh!".

I could tell it was a woman but I wasn't sure if it was my mother or sister. This was strange because like I said, they looked alike but were also very distinguishable. I also felt this weird feeling because everyone in my family has seen these photos many times and I'd even say may own a few copies of their own of those exact same photos, so why act so amazed by them?

I said "Hey! Ma? What're you doing?" in a nervous yet warm voice. No response. Okay then, it was my sister. "Hey, Good Morning _____! What are you making your dear sibling for breakfast?" No response. Huh. I knew I was definitely loud enough, they had heard me for sure.

That uneasy feeling in my stomach grew stronger now, and I had no idea why. The likeness of my sister and mother was there, so it wasn't like a stranger or something. Then I noticed something very off, they were wearing a knee length, blue and orange striped nightgown. Their height wasn't short but it wasn't tall either, it was average. They had a muscular build but could not be called skinny either. The hair was the same colour as both my sister and mothers and so was the skin colour. My heart sank and I thought who the hell is this? Maybe someone stayed overnight? But how could they have, I had laid right beside the front door all night..

When they turned around and went to inspect another photograph on a wall near that staircase, their face made my heart sink. It was a hybrid of my mother and sisters most discernible features, with glasses that were round on the bottom but squared on the top. Their eyes were not my mothers or my sisters. They were very wide and unnerving and darted all around the walls very quickly. Very excitedly. It was as if my mother and sister had been Frankenstein-ed together into one person.

My knee jerk reaction after seeing their face was to scooch my legs in and pretend I was sleeping. I could feel the veins in my neck beating very hard and my breathing became very loud and laboured. Whoever the hell it was, came down the stairs and looked around the living room with that same excitement. I don't know how to explain how scared I was as it came closer to me. I thought maybe if I stayed quiet it would pass by me. I was also scratching and pinching myself now, in case I was asleep without realizing it. The pain was very real, I was awake.

The thing, I watched with my eyes squinted took up an interest in a photo album I had left on the table, very close to me. Then, probably the worst thing that could have happened, happened. My sisters portable home phone rang. My sister had answered a call last night and had put the phone on the couch's frame between the wall and its cushions. The things face became very alarmed and it turned in my direction and saw me and became very, very angry. I opened my eyes and looked at her in her face and just stared back, with my entire body trembling. Its eyes were pure black, total darkness like two huge pupils staring right at me and furious. It opened its mouth unnaturally wide and screamed NOOOOOO at me, then turned and darted down the stairs to the basement where I heard a door slam shut and it kept yelling NO NO NO NO NO!. I stared at the archway for a long time, still shaking and digging my nails into my arm, begging to wake up because I was so afraid it would come back, wishing I was just dreaming.

An hour must have passed like that, I did not move. It had stopped yelling and this was for some reason even scarier than when it had been yelling because at least then I was sure it was downstairs and not slowly climbing back up the stairs to fillet me alive.

I heard a door open again from the hallways upstairs and stared at it, full of adrenaline at this point. It was my mom, exactly herself and in the right nightgown. she was humming as she put on coffee and started making toast. another door opened, my sister this time. Fully as she had looked before heading off to bed. She and my mom talked for a bit and I just stared at them. My sister eventually saw me staring at her over the banister and yelled "Haha, what the hell! Why are you just staring at me, why didn't you say something?" I replied back in a very shaky voice "I did... twice." They looked at each other as if to say Huh? and I told my mom I hadn't slept yet and she said that was a big mistake, etc. I are breakfast with them and then realized eventually I was awake and had really not slept at any point that night. I decided against my judgment to tell them what had just happened, in case it came upstairs to hurt them.

They pretty much laughed at me and told me I had just fallen asleep and imagined it/ Told me I was nuts. My sister told me to go sleep with my nephew and asked me to try and fix the screen in her room as it had somehow fallen out of the window onto the floor in the night.. :'|

On my way to her room, I walked by that table in the dining room and noticed all of the frames were moved and in different places than last night. I pointed this out very excitedly like SEE!? SEE? and my sister just shrugged it off and said her son liked looking at them. I kept pressing the issue so my sister (much to my hysterical protest) went to the basement in every room just to make me shut up about it. She didn't see anything unusual.