I can’t fool myself into thinking I’m imagining it. My brain no longer has the capacity to make excuses for the things I’m seeing when I’m trapped in a cellar with something that doesn’t walk, but glides across the stone. Something tall enough that their outline reaches the rafters. I am trapped in a nightmare, and I don’t know how to get out.
If I even can.
I will. I have to. There is no other choice. I need to find my boys.
My fingers bunch into fists at my side. A feeble attempt to portray strength when I know I am not strong enough to fight whatever is stalking me. Still, I’m going to try. I’m going to put everything I have into getting away, even if it means—
“Rina!”
My heart leaps at the sound of my name right before a square of light punches through the darkness. But it’s the figure silhouetted on the threshold that has my muscles stiffening.
“Mom?”
She reaches inside and flicks the switch. I hear the click from my place below. Followed by several more rapid clicks.
“Rina? Are you down there?”
My relief at seeing her is immediately overshadowed by the fact that there is a monster loose somewhere down here with me and she has no idea.
“Mom, you need to get away from here,” I shout.
“What? I’m not going anywhere. Get up here. Why are you down there in the dark?”
My ears strain to hear the chains. The slow slither of something heavy moving across the concrete. But there is only silence.
“Rina? Let’s go.”
I run.
I run the way you do when you’re in the basement and need to get up the stairs before the monster gets you. I bolt my butt up two steps at a time to the landing and practically throw myself into the kitchen.
Mom slams the door shut and turns to me.
She’s still in her coat and boots. Her thick, black hair is knotted over one shoulder in a heavy braid contained by a green elastic. Her blue eyes stare into my face, wide with confusion.
“What happened?” she demands, rushing over to put her warm hands on my arms. “Are you okay?”
Relieved to be out of there, so happy to see her, I throw myself into her arms and nearly sob when she closes them tight around me.
“I’ve had the weirdest night.” I sniffle into her shoulder. “You won’t believe...”
She shushes me gently, fingers stroking through my hair. “It’s alright now. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay.” She pulls back and cups my cheeks. “Let’s go home.”
I don’t need to hear a single thing more.
I’m ready, except...
“What are you doing here?”
Her eyes roll. “Why do you think? After we got disconnected, I started to worry that something happened so I came to get you.”
That is something Mom would do, but still.
“You left Dad?”
Her dark brows pull together between her eyes. “Rina, I am not letting you face this weather alone. Now, let’s get out of here. It’s almost Christmas and we have a million things we need to prepare for.”
I don’t like that she left Dad alone when we both made a pact to always be close by, but I know she wouldn’t be able to sit comfortably at home while I was out in this weather without a way to get a hold of me.
