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I glance around, not exactly recognizing this place but knowing it’s familiar somehow. Have I been here before?

I don’t remember ever going to a cemetery, not once in my entire life. So then, how did I find this one?

Some of the objects appear magnified. I reach out to touch an oversized headstone, just to feel the rough cement against my skin, but my hand never moves from my side.

Why won’t it—

Oh.

I’m fine. I have control.

I try again, only feeling my fingers twitch the slightest bit.

Control. I can control what happens here.

Here. Here. Where is here? If it wasn’t so creepy, it’d be sort of beautiful. There’s a river down the small hill that sounds like it’s moving at the rate of syrup, not a single ripple in the water, only steam hovering above the surface. The entire cemetery is deserted, which is nice…in a way.

I can’t shake the feeling that someone’s missing though.

He should be here. I came to see him.

He…who?

A draft whips around me, eliciting a shiver.

Is it him? Please let it be him.

A shadow emerges from one of the graves, the dirt packed loosely like its inhabitant was only recently laid to rest. Long fingers with even longer nails use the dirt to break free, sending sprays of it flying.

The sight chills me to the bone, squeezing me in a cocoon of icy discomfort.

I will simply look away.

Look away. Look. Away.

I can’t look away. Crawling toward me, the red glow of the creature’s eyes holds me hostage.

I’ll just close my eyes.

One, then the other, I try, but they won’t close, as though my lids have been glued open.

I want to look away so bad my eyes water, but I physically fucking can’t. I’m frozen to this exact spot, completely motionless. Completely powerless.

The creature grows the closer it gets, one foot, two feet, three feet high.

It’s coming right at me and I can’t get my hands to move.

“Stop! Stop! Stop!”

Why can’t I hear myself? I’m screaming. I should hear something.

My hands must be covering my mouth. I don’t feel them on my face, yet they are there just the same, keeping the sound in. Keeping me in.

Only inches from my body, the creature stands to its full height, long hair billowing out around the head.

She found me. I thought maybe I’d be safe here. But I’m not. I never am.

My mother, or the demon form of her, smiles grotesquely at me a moment before the scene in front of me changes so that I’m suddenly on my back. I didn’t fall—that would’ve helped. I’m on the ground, staring up at the transparent black figure now covering my chest with an unbearable weight that robs my lungs of air.