Untitled

There was no light in the room except for the tiny sliver the snuck in through the bottom crack of my door. There was no noise aside from my soft, even breathing. The warmth from my comforter was causing my eyes to droop and my muscles to relax. I could feel my body sinking more and more into the bed. My mind was beginning its own dream as my eyes slid closed.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

The room was filled with a piercing scream that instantly through my body into a defensive and terrified state. My eyes had shot open and danced around the room looking for any immediate danger. Having found none, I pulled my covers from around me and slid noiselessly from my bed.

"NO STAY AWAY FROM ME! AHHHH!"

Another blood curdling cry filled the room. I could feel my heart pounding rapidly as I tiptoed to my bedroom door. I paused there, trying to listen and slow my breathing all at the same time. It felt like a wasted attempt. The clamor I heard on the other side was causing the fear in my chest to grow to an uncomfortable measure. I reached for the knob and turned it fully before pulling my door open.

A gust of wind blew into my face, causing goose bumps to rise on my arms. Carefully, I stepped into the hallway, the light leaving me temporarily blind. I walked the couple of feet to the end of the hallway very slowly.

"GET OFF OF ME! NO!"

Pressing my back against the wall, I turned my head towards the commotion. I could see shadows dancing on the wall in my living room, but the figures themselves were out of my view. From the looks of it, there was a man and a woman. The woman, I knew, could only be my mother. She must have still been awake when this intruder came into our home, and, by the words she was screaming and the movement of the shadows, they were currently in a struggle.

Mom's in trouble. She needs my help. My mind flew into a frenzy of possible ways to rescue her. I knew that I would not be strong enough to overcome this person if he turned on me, so I needed to find something that would knock him unconscious or injure him severely.

I moved as quietly as I could to the closet a few feet back down the hallway. I opened it in the same way I did my bedroom door and pulled out my mother's wooden baseball bat. Quickly, I tiptoed back to the end of the hallway - pausing momentarily to take a deep breath - then stepped around the corner into the living room.

The man had my mother pulled tightly against his body, holding her there with only his arms. He had her feet pulled off the ground and was leaning her backwards in a way that looked like he was dipping her in a dance. The oddest thing about this intruder's attack on my mother was that he had his lips securely locked on the right side of her throat. If it had not been for her ear splitting screams and violent assaults, I would have thought that he was merely giving her a passionate kiss. This scene made me pause for a moment, thinking maybe this was some sick fetish my mother had. I shook the thought from my head instantly.

Very stealthy, I began to cross through my living room. I lifted the bat in my hands into a swinging position and started side-stepping towards the back of my mother's attacker. My lips parted slightly as I started to breathe through my mouth, hoping it would add to my silent approach. Stay calm. Just breathe. I kept repeating to myself as I got closer to danger, although nothing I said could bring my heart down to a steady pace. When I reached halfway through the living room, my mom's horror-struck eyes met mine.

"NO AILEY!" she cried, struggling more viciously now. "GET OUT OF HERE NOW! RUN!"

My eyes shot up wide in horror and my whole body froze in its spot. Did she really just give me away?

My grip tightened on the bat as I waited for the man to turn around and come after me. I was not going to go down easily, and if I could get the right swing in, it may give my mom and me a chance to make a run for it. I would wait for him to get close enough and then I would aim for his head. That was my best shot, and all I had to do, was wait for him to come to me.

"PLEASE, AILEY, GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Mom," I pleaded.

"NO AILEY! RUN AWAY NOW! DO IT!"

Confusion hit me then. Every part of me was saying that I needed to stay and help my mother, but she was telling me to run away. She didn't want me to help her even though it seemed there was no way for her to get away from this man. It looked like she was throwing all the force she could into hitting her attacker, but he hadn't even so much as budged. He wasn't going to come after me like I had thought. I would have to come to him, but my mom didn't want me to come to her rescue. How could she expect me to just leave her here?

A wave of courage surged through me then. I was going to help my mother whether she wanted it or not. Quickly, I moved the last few steps to where they were, and swung the bat with as much force as I could put out. My weapon broke, sending tiny shards of wood flying across the room. I turned my head to shield my face, and when I turned back to look, my mouth dropped in horror.

My attack hadn't affected the man at all. His grip on my mother hadn't loosened even a fraction. This was impossible. No one could have gone through that without having some kind of injury. I stumbled back a few feet, shaking my head slightly. My hand had lifted instantaneously to my mouth. There's no way. I continued to stare in disbelief until my mother's weakened voice broke my trance.

"Ailey... go."

She didn't look good. Her body was hanging in his arms like a rag doll, and I was sure she would have crumbled to the ground if he hadn't been holding her. The color in her face was gone as if all the blood had been drained from it, and her baby blue eyes were staring lifelessly at the roof. My breathing accelerated as I thought this image reminded me of a corpse.

The man lifted his head then and dropped my mother's body from his hold. She hit the floor with a thud, but made no noise or movement herself. Tears began to well up in my eyes and my hand reached out unconsciously for her. I took another step backwards as the intruder straightened his stance and faced me. My eyes locked with his cold onyx ones like there was some invisible glue holding them there.

He began to walk casually toward me, never taking his eyes from mine as he walked. I wanted to run but at the same time I didn't want to look away from his face. Something about his features was drawing me in and clouding what I knew would be the right decision. Was this how he caught my mother; luring her in with his beauty then taking her off guard when he attacked?

As he drew nearer, I wrapped my arms so tightly around my stomach it was like I was holding myself together. My nerves were fluttering rapidly and everything about my situation was telling me to make a run for it, but still I stayed rooted to my spot.

He stood in front of me now, towering me by at least five inches. My head lifted slightly so that I could keep my stare, but as I did so, he leaned his head down to press his icy cold lips against the base of my neck. His lips parted and my breath caught in my throat.



I shot upright in my bed; my heart racing and lungs gasping for air. My eyes danced around the dark room and my body trembled with fear.

“Calm down, Ailey. It was just a dream,” I whispered to myself.

Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply, trying to bring my heart down to a steady pace. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead against them.

You didn’t really think they had gone away, did you? I asked myself in a snide manner.You should know better by now.

I let out an exasperated sigh and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. My hands grasped the edge of the mattress and my eyes focused intently on the hardwood flooring.

It had been over a year since my subconscious had created that scenario of my mother’s death. I had, actually, hoped that they were gone for good. It was terribly unnerving to go to sleep every night and see my mom’s pale corpse along with the strangely beautiful man who had committed the crime. The only comfort I could give myself was remembering that I didn’t actually know what happened; that this nightmare was just that, a nightmare.

Yeah, one you’ve had almost everyday since you were ten, I reminded myself.How could you have possibly thought they went away? You are really dumb sometimes, Ailey.

I shook my head slightly and then reached over to turn my bedside lamp on. The clock sitting next to it read three forty-eight. I groaned.

Great, another night that I don’t get to sleep. Wonderful.

Standing up, I reached my arms up in the air, stretching them to their full extent. I walked slowly over to my dresser and stared at my reflection in the mirror.

My long brunette hair was currently disheveled all around my head and eyeliner I hadn’t been able to get off the night before, was smeared under my dark emerald eyes. This made them look extra tired, as if they needed the help.

I grabbed the edge of my over-sized white t-shirt and cleaned the eyeliner off with it. Then I retrieve my hairbrush out of my dresser drawer, and began yanking through the knots.

When I finished, I pushed my hair back behind my shoulders and analyzed my reflection again. My eyes slid down over my face and had reached the base of my neck when an old scar stopped its motion.

It was just two tiny dots of equal size at the bottom right side of my neck. I wasn’t sure how they came to be there, but, with the help of a bratty little boy and an overactive imagination, my mind came up with its own ideas of how it happened.

That had been the second worst year of my life. Aunt Maggie, my guardian, had decided that living in the same area where my mother died was a bad idea, so she packed up all our belongings and moved us to Highwood, Illinois. She had just enrolled me at Oak Terrace elementary school when a spoiled little boy decided to make me the target of his teasing.

“Stay away from her! She’s been bitten by a vampire,” he always screamed at any kid I tried playing with at recess.

I wanted to argue with him, but the evidence was so plainly visible. Within a couple of weeks, the rumor had spread through my entire fifth grade class and everyone referred to me as “the vampire girl”. Not a single student dared to come within inches of me for fear I might bite them, and eventually I gave up trying to befriend any of them.

As if that hadn’t been enough, the little boy’s remark had also sparked my nightmares. The first night it happened I had screamed so loudly that my Aunt Maggie had come busting into my room.

“What, Ailey!? What’s the matter?” she’d screamed her icy blue eyes wide with horror.

I had been so terrified that my body was shaking uncontrollably and I was crying so much. Aunt Maggie had sat on my bed and held me tightly in her arms.

“I couldn’t… mom… he hurt,” I sobbed.

“Sh, Ailey, its okay. You can tell me later,” Aunt Maggie comforted me.

She stayed with me the entire night, and when we woke up in the morning, I explained to her the details of my nightmare. I had had such a hard time getting through the whole story. Multiple times, Aunt Maggie had to stop me so that I could breathe and get control of myself. She must have been worried, but she never once showed it.