When you're not alone

Working hard all your life just to get the satisfaction to take a one or two week long vacation of your dreams sounds unfair. We all know that those weeks of quiet, off the grid, rest and relaxation somehow rejuvenate us. Then we go back to the grind, time and time again....unless you were on my vacation. My wife and I decided to find this beautiful, tranquil beachside light house on an island in the pacific ocean. We were looking for a little adventure, but mostly relaxation. What we found was anything but!

The only way to get there was by boat. We had a charter take us to this beautifully secluded and extremely private island paradise. The people on the charter seemed off, but we didn't think anything of it. We figured they were just having a bad day or something... At 11a.m. we finally cruised up to a gorgeous looking island. We could smell the island food from the boat and were so ready to turn our phones off for the week. We had been up since 4:30 that morning to catch the flight so we agreed to catch a quick nap before we went out exploring. One of the guides on the ship brought us to a cozy room within a lighthouse with a view of the ocean. Behind it was a thick and dense tropical forest, filled with wonder. The room wasn't a Hilton, but we were on a tropical island so it was authentic. We put our luggage down, settled in and immediately fell fast asleep. We must have been tired because we woke up almost 6 hours later! Feeling refreshed, we decided to take a hike in the dense tropical forrest. To make it more interesting, we tried to hunt for coconuts or any fruit we could eat for dinner. As we entered the forest we knew time was limited because the sun had already started to set.

We hiked for at least an hour and happened upon this desolate looking cave. I said aloud, "Huh... this wasn't on any of the brochures...". Keeping in mind it was getting dark, but overcome with intrigue, we just had to go in. As we ducked and squeezed through the narrow entrance, it opened up into a larger area that looked as if something or someone had been in there recently. We figured with any cave, it's likely that some creature would have stopped in for the night for shelter. As we looked back towards the entrance, we could no longer see the light coming in from outside. Both of us immediately felt uneasy. We hadn't been in here that long. There is no way it got dark that quickly. We also had the overwhelming sense that something was watching us. Suddenly, we heard a thunderous boom followed by a torrential downpour. I'd seen way too many horror movies so I knew thunder, rain and a creepy cave was a recipe for disaster. We made our way out the entrance and sprinted through the rain for another hour to get back to our room. The experience wasn't all doom and gloom though, because we did find some tropical fruit and brought it back in our packs! Pairing that with the wine we brought, we had a tropical dinner going! It was perfect. The rain had stopped now, but the lightning was still electrifying to watch as it lit up the clouds. It was so mesmerizing. Slowly we both nodded off to the light show in the sky.

I was a light sleeper so occasionally throughout the night I'd wake up to toss and turn. After what seemed like a few minutes, I heard rustling right outside. It was loud and I heard it over the ebb and flow of the waves. My eyes opened instantly. My wife didn't move she was still dead asleep. I slowly slid out of bed to look and see what it was, but there was nothing there. Being wide awake now, I went to get a drink. I sat for a little bit to see if I could hear the noise again, but the regular crashes from the waves was all I heard now. I walked back to our bedroom, opened the door and there it was. This dark figure just standing there glaring at my wife as she slept. It noticed me and scurried out the window. I ran over to the window, slammed it shut and locked the door. I jumped on the bed, woke my wife and said, "We need to get out of here! There was something in our bungalow!" At first she was scared... but then insisted that I was joking! She got up and flurried over to the window. She opened it up and said, "See? Nothing but a beautiful island and waves below. There is nothing here! Plus nothing could survive fall like that even if there was something in here! You tried to scare me again!". As I looked out the window, there was nothing. I don't know if I was dreaming, but it sure felt real.

The next morning we were on our way down to the beach and I realized our room door was unlocked. That was odd because I know in my panic last night I locked it. This was really freaking me out, so I pleaded with my wife that I wanted to cut the vacation short. "Things are a little bit too weird here. I think we should go back home as soon as we can!". She was so upset she started to cry. Maybe I was over-reacting. Maybe it was just a dream and I psyched myself out. I felt so bad. I caved and said we could stay, but if things get creepy like they did last night, I wasn't going to be able to handle it. After a relaxing day at the beach, we decided to get some food and have a fire on the rocks outside the lighthouse for the night. Finally, I thought to myself, a successful day with nothing happening! This was the vacation I wanted. As I ended that train of thought, we were interrupted by a loud snapping and snarling sound behind us coming from the forest. This time my wife heard it... We both ran fast up the stairs and back into the lighthouse and up another 2 flights to our room! We locked the door behind us. "What the hell was that?" my wife said. "I don't know but this is what happened last night and you didn't believe me!! Can we please leave tomorrow?! I just have a really really bad feeling". Reluctantly, she agreed. Not being able to sleep, we were constantly looking out the window waiting to see if anything would show itself. I hope it was just an animal. We were so close to the forest that it's hard not to be freaked out by any noise you hear in there. Just when we were about to give up and go to bed, we looked out and saw someone or something moving around on the ground below. We started to pack so quick we couldn't wait until morning. It was about 10pm. I called the 24/hr charter company hoping someone would answer and got a not in service message. "WHAT?! THEY BROUGHT US HERE TWO DAYS AGO. HOW IS THE LINE NOT IN SERVICE?!" I screamed!

We were almost done packing when out of nowhere we heard a loud crack of thunder and then rain came and then the lightning. All of a sudden I had deja vu. I could hear in between the rain and thunder, a banging on the outside door of the lighthouse. My wife and I backed ourselves into the kitchen. We threw a chair under our room door in hopes that even if the outside door failed, they couldn't get in! I grabbed the biggest knife I could find and we sprinted to the top of the lighthouse hoping to see something... anything. We both looked at each other terrified. The pounding was now at the door at the top. I didn't want to go out like this. With what courage I could muster, I flung open the door, ready to stab the hell out of whatever was attacking us. What I found when I opened that door was nothing I could stab to death. Just a disembodied shadow glaring in at us. I backed away to my wife. We both grabbed each other and accepted this was it. The black shadow started to move toward us. We both closed our eyes and screamed bloody murder! All of a sudden my eyes opened and it was pitch black. I couldn't see anything. My heart was racing my mind felt like it was in another dimension. It felt like I'd just been swallowed by death. I kept screaming my wife's name with no answer. The tears started to stream down my face. How I could have let this happen when all I wanted was rest and relaxation with my wife in paradise! Now she's gone.

All of a sudden a door opens and I hear my wife say, "Are you ok?". Shocked and in disbelief that she was sitting here in front of me, I hugged her so tight and said, "I thought I'd lost you". I thought it took her. Whatever it was. She said, "What? You were packing and you fell asleep and didn't finish!". We were back in our house in NY. We hadn't even left for the vacation yet! Did I really doze off and have the worst nightmare ever? It all felt so very real. My wife walked out into our living room as I continued packing our things. After a few minutes, I heard her say from the other room, "Hey looks like a storm is rolling in". That sense of Deja Vu kicked in and my stomach dropped to the floor. When I turned around, all I could see was an ominous dark black shadow glaring back at me from the other room.