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The figure did not answer. Limned in moonlight, it stalked toward her, nothing more than a black shadow with no distinguishing features outside of one: red eyes.
“No,” she cried, sliding down the door and clutching her knees to her chest. “No, please.”
The dark figure loomed over her, and she shook all over.
“Please,” she cried out one last time before the world slipped away from her.
* * *
Paige’s body shuddered, and she thrashed her head back and forth. A moan escaped her lips, and her forehead crinkled.
“No!” She gasped, flailing her arms blindly in front of her with her eyes still squeezed shut.
“Paige!”
“No! Leave me alone! Get away!”
“Paige!”
Paige popped her eyes open and sucked in a shaky breath as she glanced around the room.
Dewey fluttered in front of her, concern masking his teal features. “Paige?”
“Dewey?” she questioned, rubbing a palm against her forehead. “What happened?”
“You passed out. You just went down. Are you okay?”
“I–I think so.”
Dewey landed on the floor next to her and stared down at her, his concern not waning. “You didn’t hit your head. I caught you before you could.”
“Thanks,” Paige said, balancing on her elbows as she tried to push up to sit.
“Whoa, wait a second,” Dewey said, waving her back. “Don’t go too fast. We don’t want you going down again.”
“I feel okay now. I just…”
“What?”
Paige stared at her feet as she knit her brows. “I… I don’t know. I feel like something happened to me, and I can’t remember what. Like when you wake up from a vivid dream, but you can’t recall it.”
“Hmm,” Dewey said, rubbing his finger on his lips, his tail swishing behind him. “Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. You have been up all night.”
“I passed out from lack of sleep?” Paige asked, shooting him an unconvinced look as she pulled herself up to sit.
Dewey shrugged, his teal palms pointing to the ceiling. “Maybe? Look, why don’t you try to get some sleep, and I’ll get a jump start on our research.”
Paige reached over to collect the books that had spilled across the floor and dragged them closer to her, stacking them together. “I’m fine.”
“Paige–“ Dewey began.
“I said I’m fine.” She climbed to her feet and brushed off her pants. Her forehead crinkled again as a detail flitted across her mind. “I wonder…”
Dewey launched into the air and studied her face. “What?”
Paige shook her head, lifting the books into her arms. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Or it could be everything. What?”
