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Help me, my mother cries out, her voice soft and ragged all at once, like she’s barely holding onto life.
Even though she’s dead.
Please, I tell him, trying to wrestle free from his grasp. She needs me.
My mother screams bloody murder, her hand gripping the side of the hole, fingers digging into dirt, barely holding on.
I know you’re there, you can save me, she gasps. You need to save my soul. They have me and won’t let me go.
“I’m trying!” I yell, wishing I could see her face, wanting to grab her hand and pull her up.
Shhh, Jay hushes me, eyes blazing into me as his grip tightens. They might know.
More giant bats start flying overhead, one landing a few feet from my mother’s grasping hand.
Who might know? I cry out in frustration. It’s a fucking dream and I’m either saving my mom or I’m waking up.
I won’t let you, he says. This isn’t over.
I stare at him incredulously. Won’t let me?
He points at what I can only assume is the pit to hell. That is not real. That isn’t your mother. This is what I had to show you, why I had to show you myself.
Of course it isn’t real, I snap, my chest heavy, as if loaded with bricks. It’s a dream.
Listen, Jay says, placing his large hands on my shoulders, an iron grip to keep me in place. He lowers his head, his eyes inches from mine and searching. And listen carefully. No matter what happens, you mustn’t believe your mother is in any danger. She’s dead and she’s safe.
That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one, I mutter, trying to ignore my mother’s cries, even though they stab deep, like hot knives.
Whatever it is, she’s okay. Don’t attempt to seek her out. Don’t attempt to interfere.
How can I interfere?
Let it be and ignore it.
I think I’d really like to wake up now. I look around, staring at the darkness. “Wake up, wake up, WAKE UP!” I scream.
“Shhhh!” Jay hushes me. “I’m not supposed to be here with you.”
A dozen more giant bats land on the earth around us with soft thumps.
Jay looks over his shoulder at them and then back at me.
He gives me a small shake of his head. “You need to go to sleep now.”
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Three knocks reverberate through the air.
In a flash I’m sucked backward through darkness, Jay, the bats, the forest growing smaller and disappearing.
Suddenly I’m back at home.
Standing downstairs in the kitchen.
In the dark.
I gasp for air, as if I haven’t been breathing this whole time, and lean against the island for support, my legs suddenly going weak. A wave of nausea rolls through me and I barely have time to make it to the sink before I vomit. I stay hunched over, trying to get through it, catching my breath, until I have enough strength to get a glass from the cupboard.
Grimacing, I rinse my vomit down the sink then splash water on my face before filling my glass from the tap and downing it. I am beyond thirsty even after that and have to fill it again.
When I’m done, I push the glass away and look around the kitchen warily. I’m in my camisole and short shorts, barefoot, and yet I feel like I’ve spent the last few hours trudging through a forest.
It was a dream, I tell myself. A bad one.
And now I’m apparently sleepwalking. That’s a new one for me.
I take in a deep breath and absently walk over to the window that looks out onto the street.
The air leaves my lungs.
There’s a man standing in the middle of the road.
His form dark and faceless against the streetlights.
I freeze, wide-eyed, watching him.
I feel him watching me.
Neither of us move.
Then he turns and walks away.
Goes right next door.
To our new neighbors, the Knightlys’.
.
CHAPTER FOUR
The next morning over bacon, eggs, and an obscene amount of coffee, Perry and Dex decide to stay an extra night. Perry says it’s because she wants to check out the Saturday market downtown, though I know it’s because they both don’t feel right about leaving me. They have their friend Dean looking after their dog, Fat Rabbit, anyway, so they’re squared.
Actually I do want to go to the market and peruse the handmade clothing and eat from the food trucks. I want to be in the sunshine and as far away from this house as possible. I even want to be around a crowd of sweaty strangers, just so I’m not alone.
I didn’t go back to sleep last night. I was too scared. After the thing in the closet and the dream about my mother and Jay and waking up in the kitchen sleepwalking, plus seeing one of my neighbors outside on the street in the middle of the night staring at the house (or was that a dream too?), I went back upstairs, climbed in bed with Perry, but spent the rest of the night on my phone. I literally went through every single fashion blog and magazine there is and even bought a few things from shopping sites I’d banned myself from. Anything to keep from closing my eyes, to risk going through it all again.
