Read 1 The Bank of the River for Free Online

it approached, it slowly descended, disappearing into the floor as
though it was walking down an invisible flight of stairs. Steven and Roy took a
step back when it was still six feet away, but now no more than the top of the
head still appeared. Another second and it was gone.
    The two
stood in the hallway, unsure of what to say or do next.
    “Every
fucking hair on my neck is standing up,” Roy said.
    “It was
looking at you,” Steven said.
    “Yeah,” Roy
replied. “That’s the creepiest goddamn thing I’ve seen in a long time.”
    -
    Steven told
Roy about the faces he’d seen earlier in his bedroom. They discussed having a
cup of coffee, but it was still before 1 a.m. and opted instead to try and
return to sleep, to see if more would occur. Steven mentioned that they still
hadn’t heard the knocking that occurred every night, and that it usually
happened around 3 a.m. Both Steven and Roy retired to their rooms and tried to
get back to sleep.
    Steven
looked at the bottle of sedatives that the doctor had prescribed for him,
sitting on his nightstand. Not tonight, he thought. I’ll start them
tomorrow, but tonight I need to make sure Dad hears the knocking, and I’m not
sure how heavy he sleeps.
    After a half
hour of replaying the occurrences of the evening in his mind, Steven’s eyes
finally closed and he drifted off.
    -
    Old
faithful, Steven
thought, as he swung his feet to the floor and stood, preparing to walk into
his father’s room, even before the final rap of the first series of four had
ended. The clock read 3:09.
    He turned
the corner into the hallway and approached the guest room. They had about
fifteen seconds before the second series of knockings would come, and he wanted
his dad to be fully awake to hear them.
    But as he opened
the door to the guest bedroom he realized something was wrong. Something was in
the room with Roy, he could feel it. He scanned the room quickly, still wanting
to wake his father, but feeling he should identify what was wrong first. He
took a step into the room and saw it – the shadow, and the eyes. They were
staring down at Roy as he slept. The eyes were floating in mid-air, inside the
shadow, which was in the middle of the room. It seemed to be pulsing, at times vivid
and pronounced but then fading and becoming indistinct. It didn’t seem to care
that he had entered the room, it just kept staring at Roy.
    Steven
called to his father to wake up while watching the eyes to see if they would
react. They didn’t. His dad didn’t respond; Steven called again. He shifted his
gaze to his father, and Steven saw for the first time that something was wrong
with him. His body was as stiff as a board, shaking very slightly, and – he
blinked his eyes to be sure – hovering about an inch off the bed.
    It seemed to
Steven that his father was under some kind of attack, that the shadow figure
was doing something to him. He heard the first knock of the second series. It was
much louder than he’d ever heard it before, it seemed to be coming from
everywhere. Now he wasn’t worried about his father hearing the knocking, he was
worried that the shadow was harming him, maybe even killing him. No longer
concerned about the eyes or his own safety, he rushed to his father’s side,
grabbing his shoulders.
    “Wake up,
Dad!” he said as he shook Roy. “Wake up, for god’s sake!” It seemed that every
muscle in Roy’s body was contracted. Shaking his shoulders caused Roy’s whole
body to move. He looked at Roy’s closed eyes, waiting for them to open, but Roy
was unresponsive. He heard the second knock, as loud as the first and lasting
longer than normal, as though the sound itself was in slow motion. He felt
under his father, confirming there was space there, enough for him to slide his
hand entirely under his father’s body. He glanced back over his shoulder to see
if the shadow was still there, and yes, the eyes still hovered in the same
position, now staring at both Roy and