Bedtime Part 4 - The Descent into Fear

The Descent into Fear

As time passed, I learned to feign illness to sleep in my parents’ bed, but often I was left alone for hours with that thing. I grew desensitized; it seemed unable to harm me when my mother was present. My greatest fears came true during winter when longer nights offered it more opportunities to torment me. My grandmother’s declining health weighed heavily on my family, and when my mother decided to stay with her, guilt washed over me. My first thoughts were of my nightly visitor, the one thing that I believed kept me safe.

That day, I rushed home from school, determined to eliminate its space. I wrenched the mattress and bed sheets from the bottom bunk, replacing it with furniture to deny the thing a place to rest. I told my father I was “making an office,” but deep down, I knew I was fighting for my safety against whatever lay in the shadows.

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