Sienna had to wait until after dinner before she could get another look at the story book. As soon as her dishes were rinsed she went straight to her room, pulled the book out, and threw herself onto her bed. She flicked through well known stories trying to locate the illustration again. As the pages flashed past, she caught sight of the picture she'd sought out, only for it to disappear into the pages she'd disregarded as unimportant.

Something else had caught her eye at the same time. The back of the black and white picture was a splash of colour. When she had initially stumbled upon the image of the creature that had haunted her, she hadn't noticed the anomaly. All the other artwork was water coloured soft images, a total contrast to the heavy handed, bold strokes that made up the nightmare inducing sketch. Now, examining the paper more thoroughly, Sienna realised that this page had been removed and put back inexpertly, the correct image facing the wrong way.

Rapidly turning page after page, she looked for other illustrations, turning them over only to find more sketches, obviously inked by the same hand. Pages and pages of a small child's night terror stared back at her, scribbled on the blank underside of pictures in a book of bedtime stories.

Her breath caught initially as remembered fear caused cold terror to trickle across her skin, but still she stared down at the faceless monster, staring down the spectre that had haunted her for far to long. As she took in the demonic being, Sienna's heart-racing fear slowly faded, giving way to curiosity.

She poured over each picture, carefully examining each one, searching for whatever information they might provide her. Every drawing was different. Different setting, different children, different hiding place within the room. The only recurring theme was the darkness reaching for the terrified child.

The look of terror etched in black and white captivates Sienna for almost an hour as she takes in every wide eyed face, staring blindly into the dark shadow, unseeing but sensing the malicious entity hiding in wait.

Starting again, Sienna flicks back to the thicker parchment that marks the first illustration. Advancing back through the images, she finally noticed two details that had eluded her. The creature was more detailed in some drawings than others. Every other detail was shaded carefully, as though to capture a photograph taken without a camera, but the creature attempting to reach the frightened children seemed only half formed, even slightly transparent in some. Flicking backwards and forwards, Sienna suddenly feels stupid. How could she not notice that the pictures were not in order? Using a scrap of paper from her notebook, she made strips to bookmark the pages and number them in order.

At last she could see what was missing. It started as a small black shape. A slightly darker shadow in the darkness of the corner. Grasping hands melding with the void of tree branches projected through moonlit windows. The worst one for Sienna was one featuring a small pale haired little girl. She peeped out from under her covers as she clutched a little bunny close. While similar to Sienna's own snuggly comfort toy, it was not that which caused the feeling of unease and dread. It was the shadows. The tree branches hiding the corner of the room. Her stomach clenched as she realised what was wrong.

The window was depicted plain and clear. Through the unadorned glass she could see nothing but a brilliant full moon with the barest of cloud cover obscuring the night sky. There was absolutely nothing to cast the menacing shadows that appeared, even in that format, to dance across the walls of the child's bedroom.

Thinking back, Sienna went paler as blood drained from her face. How did she not notice? How had her parents missed it for all those years? Her own bedroom was on the second floor. It always had been. Neither of the houses they had lived in had had anything bigger than a shrub growing in their yard. Their current home didn't even have a proper lawn. Why would they ever have believed it to be tree branches?

As the unsettling thought threatened to expel everything from Sienna's stomach, still full from her recent meal, she shook her head clear and decided to ignore the creature and it's progression of development portrayed in the book, and instead focus on the second detail that had caught her eye. In the pictures that should have been first chronologically there was a small insignia. A rune of some sort, drawn into the pictures, easily legible at first, more obscured or better hidden as the pages advanced and the creature grew. While she didn't recognise the symbol it was, different elements looked familiar.

The thought itched at the edge of her subconscious like the taste of a forgotten word lingering on the tip of her tongue. She tried turning it from side to side, squinting as she held up the thick tome, open to the first picture that clearly showed the enigmatic marking. No matter which way she looked at it the image did nothing to alleviate the frustration that slowly simmered in Sienna and caused her eye to twitch.

Something about it WAS familiar.

Her stomach was in knots as this ate at her other thoughts and left her feeling angry and stupid.

"Aaagh! This is a waste of time!" Sienna threw the book down and got up to pace agitatedly around her room. "Is everything alright up there?" Startled, Sienna jerked and spun to face the door. "Yes?" She called back to her mother. "What was that thump?" Sienna looked guiltily at the library book lying open on the floor by her bed, "Um, nothing. I just dropped a book." A brief silence followed before her mother replied again, "Well be careful. I can't afford to replace it... If you're that tired maybe you should go to sleep?" Usually on a weekend Sienna was permitted to stay up until her mother went to bed, having no school the next day. It was obvious that her mother was hinting that she was tired and wanted to sleep. Thinking of her mother's long day, working two jobs today, plus overtime, while still coming home and making Sienna a hot meal, Sienna flushed guiltily as she looked at the time. "Oh yeah. Sorry. I'll just finish up these notes and I'll go to bed." "O-ka-ay. I'll be up soon to turn off your light." "It's okay Mum. I'll do it as soon as I finish this."

There was a longer pause, "if that's what you want. Just don't be too long." Sienna smiled at the surprised pitch in her mother's voice, completely missing the edge of worry. "I wo-on't!"

Jumping back onto her bed, she scooped up the book and quickly scratched out the questions that swam in her head, as well as a rough tracing of the symbol that still filled her with frustration. It took only minutes for her to complete the task. She quickly stripped off the tracksuit she wore over the soft cotton pyjamas her mother had gifted her for Easter, then went and turned off the light.

Having just ascended the stairs, her mother watched as, for the first time in her life, her daughter walked into a completely dark room without fear and calmly climbed into her bed.

There was no running through the dark. There was no leaping from a distance to clear the underside of the bed. There was no huddling in the centre of the bed with the blankets clutched under her chin.

While confused yet happy that her daughter was so much more at ease, something still struck her as odd. That's when she noticed the squished bunny that had lain by her daughter since birth. It lay discarded on the floor near the clothes her daughter had left lying next to the hamper. Scooping up the toy, she gently placed it next to her daughter as she reminded Sienna to put her things away properly when she got up. Accepting her bunny, Sienna reassured her she would and they said their good-nights before her mother left the room, closing the door softly behind herself. Something still bothered her. It wasn't until she was in her own bed that occurred to her that she had never turned on Sienna's night-light... and nor had Sienna.

The worry was still there, but that had been a constant in her life from the day she'd first suspected she was pregnant with Sienna, worsening with every major set back life had thrown at them. It wasn't going away anytime soon, and she was exhausted. She slipped quickly into a deep, uneasy sleep, unable to concentrate on anything else in the moment.

Sienna was still gazing sleepily around her room. She wore a small satisfied smile as she noted the complete absence of shadows in the formerly dark corners of her room. The dull moonlight provided little illumination, but as she fell asleep she acknowledged to herself that she couldn't see a single tree branch projected on the walls.

She also failed to notice the folded piece of paper that had fallen from the story book when she'd dropped it earlier.