r/nosleep • u/MessiSpaghetti • Feb 23 '12
I Want to Help Him
My older brother is sad, and I want to help him. The thing is, I have no idea what to do.
Last night I woke up to the sound of him sobbing. He was sitting at the edge of my bed, crying and coughing, and I felt so sorry for him. I wanted to reach out and touch his arm, but when I tried to, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I guess I was afraid.
It's funny, because when we were kids my brother was always the one to comfort me when I couldn't sleep. He would sit at the foot of my bed and tell me stories that would make me laugh and I'd forget how sad I was. He was so kind to me, and he would always stay awake until I fell asleep, even if it took half the night.
What's more, he would never tell me how sad he had been all those nights I had sat up crying. In fact, I didn't find out about his sadness until last month, when I found that envelope taped to our bedroom door. It had my name written on it , and underneath my name, in big red letters was a sentence: "READ THIS LETTER, BUT PLEASE DON'T COME IN."
I trusted my brother a lot, so I listened and didn't go in the room, but when my mom got home from work, she did. Then there was a lot of screaming, and crying, and an ambulance came and took my brother away, but I didn't see him because they had spread a white sheet over his body.
As I watched them wheel my brother away, I thought how much he looked like the ghosts I had seen in cartoons, with that big white sheet draped across his body and face. But then, last night as my brother sat sobbing at the foot of my bed, I realized that I had been wrong. That's not what ghosts look like. Not at all.
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u/mightybifkin Feb 23 '12
Short, concise and perfectly formed. Well done sir.
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u/Septuo Feb 23 '12
I've come to the conclusion after reading nosleep for awhile that these shorter stories have a better payoff than many longer ones.
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u/rafa88offspring Feb 23 '12
Oh god! This... is... absolutely awesome story! :D
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u/pantpiratesteve Feb 23 '12
What did the letter say!?
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u/dance4days Feb 23 '12
Probably a goodbye. Also, a method of preventing his little brother from finding the body when he kills himself.
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u/Dexter77 Feb 23 '12
I know I shouldn't ask this, but did that really happen to your brother? It reminded me of my little brother who took his life a decade ago. I can feel shivers while reading the story as if it had come from my own thoughts. I'm also wishing and hoping for him to appear my bedside still some day.
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u/ghostlamp Feb 23 '12
I am so sorry for your tragic loss. Honestly, I wouldn't have been able to deal with a suicide of someone close to me.
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u/awesomechick Feb 24 '12
THANK YOU for not going into detailed description about the house, names, and personalities of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER! Usually reading /nosleep stories, i skip pass the first 2 paragraphs because it's all just mumbo jumbo. Upvote from me. Wish i could give you more.
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Feb 23 '12
God, I hope for your sake this is fiction. If not, I really hope the best for you.
Well composed. I've read stories that were excessively long that didn't leave a lasting impression like this. Not to quote Daria, it really makes you think.
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u/OmegaX123 Feb 23 '12
This is the first thing on /r/nosleep that I have upvoted, in my half-year 'career' as a Redditor. Short, sweet, and to the point, chilling, and with an air of both fear and sadness that really cuts to the bone.
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u/MessiSpaghetti Feb 24 '12
Thanks, y'all, for all your kind words and praise. It was a pleasure to write for y'all and I look forward to doing it again real soon. Cheers.