I went under an old lady's bed, and what I saw still gives me nightmares

My whole life I had been a nanny. I had my first job at seventeen and I continued to work for this one family until I was thirty.<br><br>I was twenty-three when I had to move into the attic.<br><br>The family knew that I wasn’t comfortable sleeping in the children’s rooms and nothing was expected of me after 9:30 at night when I tucked them in anyway, so it wasn’t strange that they made me a little space in the attic.<br><br>I remember lying in bed, on a Tuesday, at 8:30 when the children were playing in the living room and I heard a terrible noise, like shuffling footsteps coming from the basement.<br><br>I had never been in the basement before, but I had seen the door leading down a dark flight of stairs. It had been closed and locked every time I saw it.<br><br>I knew that I had to go down there and find out what was going on because the strange shuffling footsteps and groaning noises weren’t stopping. <br><br>I crept over to the basement door, hesitating for a moment with my hand on the doorknob, and finally took a deep breath and unlocked the door. I opened it slowly and stared into the darkness, seeing nothing.<br><br>There were no stairs. There was no basement.<br><br>Instead, there was a bottomless pit of nothingness. I stared into the darkness, confused, and finally, I looked down, and saw that I was staring into an old lady’s face. <br><br>She was upside down and standing on the ceiling of the basement, and as I stared at her she asked:<br><br>“Why did you come down here?”<br><br>I didn’t know what to say, but she beckoned me forward and I climbed through the window and dropped down onto the floor, falling onto my hands and knees.<br><br>I stared at the old lady, in her nightgown and asked:<br><br>“Where am I?”<br><br>“You’re inside my bed.”<br><br>I had never heard of that before. I was obviously confused by her answer, and as I thought about it, I stared at her bed and saw that it was huge, at least three times my size. It looked ancient, and as my eyes adjusted to the dim light and I saw how big it was and thought about the fact that I was inside her bed, I suddenly became very scared.<br><br>“You need to leave,” she growled at me. <br><br>I crawled over to the side of the bed, looking for a way out and as I reached the dust ruffle, I felt the old lady grab my ankle and pull me back. <br><br>I kicked and kicked but her grip was too strong. Finally, she dragged me under the bed with her.<br><br>I stared up at her in horror as she fell onto the ground next to me. I begged my to let me go, to no avail. She pulled me across the floor, under the bed, until I saw a square piece of wood with a latch on it. <br><br>She opened the latch and pulled me through it. We fell through the hatch together, and as we hit the ground I realized that we were in a dark forest. <br><br>I looked around, but it was dark so I couldn’t see anything. The lady started to pull me, and I realized that she was pulling me by my hair. <br><br>I begged her to stop again, but she didn’t listen. Finally, she stopped pulling me and dropped me to the ground. I fell onto my hands and knees and looked up at her. <br><br>She looked different, I realized. I looked closer, and I realized that it was because she was upside down. I looked up at her and as I did, I felt a hand wrap around my ankle and pull me upward. <br><br>I kicked and kicked, but the grip didn’t loosen. I was dragged upward, and as I was pulled higher, I realized that I was right side up. <br><br>I kicked my legs until I finally felt the ground beneath my feet, and as my head broke through the ceiling and I saw the steps leading up to the basement door, I realized that I was standing on the ceiling, and everything around me was upside down.<br><br>I looked down again, and I saw a figure, it was a woman, crawling across the ceiling. I realized that it was me, and as I looked closer, I saw that she was screaming and crying and begging to be let go.<br><br>I realized that the old lady had been me the whole time. I had been begging myself to let me go, but I had never listened. <br><br>I crawled over to myself, and as I reached out and grabbed my ankle, I felt a hand wrap around mine and pull me back down. <br><br>As I fell through the hatch, I saw a figure crawling across the floor, screaming and begging to be let go. <br><br>I realized that it was me, and as I looked closer I saw that it was also the old lady, and she was just as scared as I was.<br><br>I was her, and she was me, and nothing made sense. I stared at her, unsure of what to do, as she stared back at me with tears running down her face and begged me to stop pulling her.<br><br>I stopped pulling her, and as I did, I realized that I had stopped pulling myself. I stared at myself as I stared back at me, and we both stared at each other, unsure of what to do, until finally, we both just stopped. <br><br>Nothing else happened.<br><br>As I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, I realized that I was a nanny for a family that didn’t exist, in a house that had never been built, in a world that didn’t make sense. <br><br>Nothing else happened.<br><br>As I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, I realized that it had all been a dream, and that I was just a nanny for a normal family. <br><br>Nothing else happened.<br><br>As I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, I realized that I had imagined the whole thing.<br><br>Nothing else happened.<br><br>And as I opened my eyes and sat up in bed, I saw that I was lying in my own bed, in the attic of a house I had always lived in, and that it had all been a dream.<br><br>Nothing else happened.<br><br>Not until I heard the children playing and went downstairs and started making breakfast, and as I cracked the eggs into the bowl, I saw that they were filled with blood.<br><br>Nothing else happened. <br><br>I just cracked the eggs into the bowl, and as I did, I realized that it was nighttime, and that the kids were playing in the living room, and that I had never cracked the eggs, and nothing made sense. <br><br>I stared at the eggs and cracked more until the bowl was full of blood and realized that the children were gone.<br><br>I looked around the house and realized that the TV wasn’t working and that the children were lying on the floor, staring at the TV, watching static.<br><br>I stared at them, confused, and as I looked closer, I saw that they were my children, and that I was their mother.<br><br>I realized that I hadn’t been a nanny my whole life, but that I had been a mother, and that my children were lying on the floor, and as I stared at them in confusion, I saw that they were dead. <br><br>I stared at them, unsure of what to do, until finally, I crawled under the bed.<br><br>Nothing else happened. <br><br>I just crawled under the bed and stayed there, and as I stared out from under it, I felt the same fear that I had felt when I first fell through the ceiling, and I realized that there’s no such thing as an ending.