The House.

Something was alive in the shed.  A ghostly presence.  A menace.  A wispy mirage. 
I can't quite put my finger on what it exactly was .. but I knew it was out to kill us.

They were all preparing to take on the villain -- gathering equipment, formulating plans -- and I was cowering.  I was still clad in pajamas and slippers.  I was clinging to security.  I was counting on them to keep me safe.

And then, suddenly, they were gone.  The house was empty.  It was dark and I could hear the melee outside.  There was yelling.  There was cacophony.  There was fire.  I felt the explosions. The heat invaded the house.

Then, I was standing at the front door, halfway in and halfway out.  The neighbors lined the porch, police cars lined the driveway.  They were accosting me.  They were grilling me on the intentions of my protectors.  Why were they doing this?  Why so much destruction?

I tried to start.  To, in turn, protect them.  But they interrupted me.

"Is it because of the ghosts?" they sneered.  They laughed into their hands.  They exchanged jeering glances.  I almost began to pander to them, to say what I knew they wanted to hear.  But stopped myself. 

"It's real," I pleaded to them to believe.  "It hurts us.  It has killed some of us.  And it won't stop."

They laughed at me.  They laughed at us all.  They laughed at our death and our struggle.  

I closed the door and I peered out the window.  The shed was on fire.  I couldn't see any of my friends.  I worried.  I cried.

Time, as in dreams, skips and they are home.  Not all of them, but most.  My love is here at least, and I am relieved.  But with that relief comes news of defeat.  It cannot be beaten.  As long as we are in this house, we are doomed for death.  

My love takes me aside and explains his new plan.  I protest.  I plead to let me stay with him. . but he insists.  And the next thing I know, I am shoved inside a departing police car and am whisked off of the property.

This is the scene in a horror movie of false relief.  This is the scene where the protagonist thinks they have escaped the foe but the moviegoer knows a twist is waiting.  

I stare out the back window and see the flames and wreckage of what is left of the shed.  I see the silhouettes of my heroes.

.. It is days later now.  I am waiting in an airport for a flight.  I am still fleeing the catastrophe.  I keep seeing it whenever I close my eyes.

I check the flight television to affirm my departure time.  And it's there.  The face of my aggressor.  Small.  White.  Dark black eyes.  Dark black hair.  It sneers at me.  It speaks to me in a hollow voice.

"You can't escape," it taunts.  "You are with me forever," it scoffs.

I squeeze my eyes shut.  I try to block it out completely.  
Its outline etches on the inside of my eyelids.  

And I am defeated.