I cuddle myself against him and he put an arm over my shoulders, “Thanks for letting me stay the night. I knew that I wasn’t going to have a good night's sleep at my place.”

“You don’t have to ask. We’ve known each other since we were kids so I could never say no to you and you are sensitive during your birthday,” He replied, his fingers were brushing across my hair and it was soothing me.

“Wyatt… You believe me right?”

“About that boogeyman, you saw that night?” He asked then paused for a second after I nod and this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about it; I always hope he would give me a different answer. “I think your mind made you believe in these ‘monsters’ and you found her in the middle of the night-”

I sat up and shook my head feeling disappointed at his response, “No. No, please, listen to me. She wasn’t herself that night and whatever that thing was tried to come after me. I can still see it fresh in my mind. If I had to give it a name, I would say it was Death.”

“Come on, Em. You need to stop with these talks.” He grabbed me by the shoulder and we looked at each other before he sighed heavily. “Death, ghosts… You say that you see these things, but with what you went through I think you're letting yourself believe in them and you need to watch yourself when you talk about it. If my mom wasn’t involved, they probably would have locked you away and called you crazy.”

“So you think I’m crazy despite all that?” I asked him, getting out of bed and looked around the room for my shoes.

“No,” He said watching me, and reached out to grab my hand. “Don’t just run away. I’m just trying to help you. They said that she was sick, she had heart failure.”

I pulled my arm away and put on my right shoe, “I’m not running away and I know she wasn’t sick. I’ll see you later on at the party.”

“I ordered breakfast,” He said, trying to ease the atmosphere around us. “I got you birthday waffles and ice coffee.”

Putting on my left shoes now, I glanced out the window and tried to control my anger. It’s odd trying to explain to people, but after the death of my mother, I have been seeing the dead lingering in our plane and I’ve come to realize that the dark figure I saw that night had to be real. Whatever that thing was taking the life of my mother and it is still wandering around somewhere. I thought that out of all people at least Wyatt would believe me, but it seemed like it wasn’t worth trying to convince him if he never saw the things that I have and the scars they leave.

I turned to him and nodded, “Fine. I’ll join you, but I have to leave right after and do some errands before the party.”

“What are you going to do? I thought you had the whole day free.”

I pulled my hair up in a bun and sighed heavily, “You know I always go visit Mom.” I whispered.

“Hm, right, I forgot about that.” He said and we started making our way to the kitchen. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No… I want to go alone.” I answered, shaking my head and taking a seat while he took the meal out of the delivery bag.

“Was it the argument?” He asks me as he hands me the waffles and I can smell the strawberries topping.

“It’s not that… I just want to clear my head. I’m sorry that I was yelling at you,” I said reaching for the syrup to pour over the top.

“Hey, we usually have this fight every few years now,” He mumbled as he placed my drink in front of me before sitting down with his own meal. “And I don’t think we should continue with it. It’s not helping the both of us.”

I sighed heavily before taking a bite of the waffle before glancing at him, “You always believed what the doctors said and claimed that it was sleep paralysis.”

Wyatt looked back at me and shrugged his shoulders, “I do believe it, which is normal, but you don’t believe that is what you’re seeing.”

I reached for my drink and took a small sip, “I don’t, but you're right about one thing… I don’t want to fight over it with you.”

He sat there quietly and it seemed like he was uncertain about responding back which I couldn’t blame him for. For years, we’ve had this odd relationship with each other, even before my mother’s death, and we still haven’t given it a talk. Wyatt has always been my friend since I could remember, preschool is the earliest photos that we have of each other, and we also live so close. The bond we had is unspoken for and we grew closer once his mom took me in when no one came for mom’s funeral. I’ve never met my dad so there wasn’t a number to call and mom wasn’t close with her family for years now. Wyatt’s mom felt uncomfortable when the thought of me being sent away and the concern for my health.

I think Wyatt wanted to protect me that the relationship we had changed in a way that we’ve come to limiting ourselves from what we felt when we were young and to how we grew up to be. I don’t think I can lie when I see that I have feelings for him, but I’m not too sure if he feels the same way or if he’s just being so close with me for comfort. I looked down at my meal wanting to enjoy my morning and hoping that tonight things will be better. I want us to have a healthier relationship because I don’t think I can handle losing someone so close again and I’m also too terrified with what my eyes can see. Just being around him has kept me sane and less terrified that I’m sure he wouldn’t understand.

“I’m going to buy flowers on the way to the cemetery,” I told him once I was done eating and started cleaning up the table.

“Getting daisies?” He asked.

“Of course,” I said looking around before remembering I left my bag in the living room. “You ready?”

“Yeah,” He answered as he stood up and followed me out of the house.

It was already sunny outside as I got in his car and it was a short trip to the flower shop then the cemetery. It was a small town that we lived in so everything was close by, you can practically walk anywhere around this town, and it was also surrounded by forest. Aside from the people in this town being so kind, I hate the woods and the secrets they hide. I always try my best to not look over because there are always dark shadows wandering around and the energy it gives off. Mom always warned me about the places I go or even the people I meet because they aren’t always real if I don’t look at them closely. Luckily I always seem to know what is alive and what is not.