“Embry… Embry.”

I can hear someone calling my name like they are afraid to wake me and I sighed as I sat up looking around my room trying to find the source. I saw the red shoes that my mom gave me for my tenth birthday by my bed and I remembered that I had put them away in the closet. When I didn’t see anyone, I got out of bed wondering if mom forgot that she tucked me in and walked over to my door to unlock it then glanced down the hall. The lights in the hallway were off and I can barely see the end of the hall leading to the living room. If mom is calling me, why doesn’t check my room since she was the one that put me to bed and how can she look around the house with the lights off?

“Mommy?” I called in a small voice, hesitating on leaving my room.

“Embry.”

I stuck my head out looking around, “Mommy? Where are you?”

Stepping out of my room, I walked over to her room to check to see that she wasn’t in bed and I was beginning to feel nervous. The house was so quiet that if something were to fall on it would echo around the house and it’ll be the only sound that could be heard. I checked the bathroom that was at the end of the hall and it was empty as well. I touched the wall to find the light switch, there is one on each end of the hall to turn on the lights, but when I flipped the switch the nights wouldn’t go on. Why won’t it work?

I tried again and again, but it wouldn’t turn on. I could feel my heart beating faster as fear was beginning to creep up on me and I didn’t want to be alone anymore. Should I call out to her again? But she hasn’t been answering me and she would have jumped out if she was playing a joke on me. I tried to look down the hall, but it was so dark that I had to feel the wall as I started walking and I can feel myself holding my breath. If there is something, I need to be quiet and if I’m alone at home then I need to figure out where mom went to in the middle of the night. I turned right to enter the living room and reach a hand out trying to find that lamp that’s sitting on the side table next to our couch.

When there was finally light shining in the room, I jumped back bumping myself against the wall and I screamed seeing the frightful sight of my mother flying in the middle of the room. Why is she flying? No, what is that dark figure beside her as he looked up at her? Frozen on the spot, I gasped as it turned away from my mom and I couldn’t see underneath the black cloak, but it was staring at me. Its attention diverted to me and I watched it come closer. I tried to move back, but my legs went numb and I fell to the floor raising my trembling hands as this hooded figure loomed closer.

“No! No! Stop!” I screamed, shutting my eyes closed and my chest tightened that the panic was making it hard to breathe. “Don’t hurt me!”

“Embry!”

“Get away from me!” I felt hands grabbing me and I tried pulling away from them like the touch was burning me. “Leave us alone!”

“Wake up, Embry. It’s just a nightmare.” The voice said as they held me and I could feel the pressure as they held me down.

I opened my eyes and jolted right up as I patted heavily still trying to get out of their hold, “I don’t want to go.”

“Embry, you were dreaming.”

I looked around my room and turned back to see that it was my friend, Wyatt. “But I saw…” I paused as I recall my dream and realized that it wasn’t just a nightmare. “I saw mom…”

Wyatt looked down at me before sitting down beside me and he waited for a second for me to calm down. “I thought those night-terrors were gone.”

Glancing at him and he brushed my cheeks as I had cried when he woke me. “It’s my birthday,” I mumbled. “The same day as mom’s death anniversary.”