realized I was also quite tired . I put on my nightclothes , put out the lamp , and fell to sleep at once .
When I woke it was very suddenly and was , I felt certain , several hours later . I glimpsed my watch on the nightstand and it read 12:15 . I was still staring at it as the hairs on my neck stood up and I began to shiver . My breath came in rasps and my arms broke out in sweat . I saw the watch quite plainly , but the lamp was out and the fire had burned to embers . The room should have been very dark .
I rolled over convulsively onto my right side and found myself looking into the wide eyes of a beautiful woman who lay next to me . I knew at once she was not a living woman . Though her dark eyes were fixed on mine and her lovely face was expressionless , her form wavered and shimmered , and I could pick out pieces of furniture that her body should have obscured . Moreover , the light in the room emanated from her in a sickly yellow-green glow , the color of absinthe when the bottle is lit from within . She made no sound and only looked at me .
I was unable to move and now understood the term terror-stricken firsthand . A moment later I became aware of two smaller forms that I could observe through her . I watched their own green glow focus and eventually made out two young children , a boy and a girl , standing beside the bed and looking beseechingly at the woman . Suddenly she turned in the bed , still noiselessly , and looked back at them . I was now watching her face through the back of her translucent head , but I could tell her expression had transformed to one of stark horror .
18