Darkness.
No, my eyes were closed. I opened them. Still, darkness.
I turned my head. I was lying down, my head on something soft.
I moved my arms, felt my body, felt my surroundings. I was in a bed.
I breathed in, smelled. A feeling of nostalgia hit me. I remember this smell.
I sat up, listened. Crickets chirping. An owl hooting. It was nighttime.
I hopped off my bed, felt my way to the open window, and opened the shades. A cool breeze flew past my face. The room lit up in the moonlight.
Then, silence.
No.
The breeze stopped.
No.
I turned cold.
No.
The sound of crickets died.
No.
My heart rate quickened.
No no no no.
“NOO!” I screamed to myself. Nothing came out of my mouth. I knew exactly what was about to happen now.
A cry. It was a girl, a toddler. It was from the house I was in, the same floor, just two rooms down in the hall. My body twitched, and then I was running.
I didn’t want to run. I didn’t want to see what was about to happen. I wanted to stay in my room, to go back to sleep and forget about the scream, about everything.
But it was useless. I couldn’t control my body. All I could do was watch as the events unfolded. I was still running: across the room, through the door, down the hall, through another door, across another room, and into the room of my little sister.
The lights were already turned on, and my mother was standing by my sister’s crib. She was cradling my sister in her arms. My sister’s name was Alice. She was still crying.
I looked around frantically. My father was sleeping in the room I just ran through, snoring loudly.
“What’s wrong, dear?” I heard my mother say to me. I looked back at her. She was tired. I could see the dark bags under her eyes.
I felt that something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my mind on what it was exactly.
“Go back to sleep, Damien. We’re going to the city tomorrow, remember?”
I stubbornly stood there. For some reason, I didn’t want to leave Alice.
“I can’t sleep, mommy. Can I stay here for tonight?”
She sighed, but she reluctantly moved a chair next to the crib. I sat on it, trying to relax, but I kept on fidgeting. My mother noticed my nervousness, took another chair, and sat next to me. She put my head on her lap and began to hum my favorite tune.
I tried again to ignore that feeling that something terrible was about to happen. In a few minutes, Alice stopped crying, and I eventually fell asleep.
Darkness again. This is where it would end. Each time I had this dream, and each time I tried to remember, it had always ended here. I knew, however, that this was not the real ending. There was supposed to be more. But I had never wanted to know the ending. I had always been afraid of what the truth could be, of what more pain it would give me.
But I had changed. I had made a vow, a vow that I would break through that barrier preventing me from the truth. “Wake up, Damien,” I told the kid in my dream, “don’t just leave me here on this. Wake up!”
BANG!
I opened my eyes and sat up. I was still in Alice’s room, so I hadn’t been asleep for long enough for my mother to bring me back to my own room. I looked around, wondering where that sound had come from.
Then glass shattered.
My mother stood up, my sister still in her arms. It seemed that Alice hadn’t heard the sounds. My mother was looking into her own room. That was when I noticed that my father’s snoring had stopped too. My mother put Alice in her crib and started walking to the doorway. I, with my curious nature, rose from my chair, wanting to follow her. But my mother turned around and stopped me.
“Stay where you are. I’ll go investigate,” she whispered to me.
I sat back down when she left, looking into my parents’ room as I waited for her. The sense of panic and danger returned. I wanted my mother to come back, but I was too frightened to say anything.
The lights of the master bedroom turned on, and I could hear my parents talking to each other. I guess it wasn’t a break-in.
“It’s okay, Damien,” my mother called out to me from her room, “a bird had flown into the window and broke it.”
I knew that a bird breaking a window in the middle of the night was not normal, but my mother’s reassuring voice calmed me. I stood up and walked over to the doorway. But I was stopped again. This time it was my sister. Alice had started crying again.
I turned back around and called for my mom, but there was no response. My parents talking had stopped, and it was silent except for Alice’s crying. My heart rate quickened again. This time it wasn’t just a feeling. I knew that something was happening.
I started to run to my sister’s crib, but I tripped, and my face hit the ground hard. When I lifted my head up, I felt warm blood make its way out of my nose and to my lips. The metallic taste filled my mouth. I lay there, looking helplessly at Angel crying in her bed.
Then I noticed it. A faint aura surrounded Alice. I knew what was about to happen, but I didn’t want to see it happen. I wanted to wake up from this dream, so I can act like this had never happened. I closed my eyes and buried my head in my arms.
Darkness.
Comments (0)
See all