I blink the sun out of my eyes as I wake up on the lawn. I’m laying on a blanket and music is playing from my phone. Whoops, didn’t mean to fall asleep. I think to myself as I stand and stretch. I’m probably going to have a nice burn on my face and arms from that. While stretching, I look around and realize how beautiful today is. Kind of quiet, but the sun is out and there’s a slight breeze. I fold the blanket up, grab my phone, and head back to the house. As I’m filling a glass with water I realize that I don’t hear anybody moving around in the house. I call out for someone, thinking, Well someone has to be here, mom or dad would’ve told me if they were leaving. I check my phone for any notifications, but oddly enough my phone appears dead. I can’t quite figure it out. It’s like my brain can’t focus on the contents of my phone, just the shape of it in my hand.

After wandering around the house and walking outside and looking around the property, I realize that nobody is home but me. Another weird thing, I can’t seem to see past the property and even the things that I do see seem kind of blurry. Just like my phone...I think as I head to my room. I decide to grab a book and go read on the porch. I blindly grab a book and head out as another thought hits me. None of my pets are here either. Where did everyone go?! Trying not to freak out, I open the book and start reading. Just like my phone and the boundaries of the property, the words are blurry. Another odd thing, I can see some words but they’re all scrambled up and don’t make any sense. It also feels like my eyes are moving faster then my brain. No. I think, The words themselves are moving faster then I can comprehend. I quickly close the book and go back in the house.

I’m really starting to freak out and I don’t know what to do. I can’t leave the property, I can’t call anyone, and nobody’s here. As I start to freak out more, my vision starts to go a little dark so I try to calm down. For some reason I can’t stop moving so I keep walking around where I can to try and sort my thoughts out. I do this for what seems like hours until the sun is almost sunk behind the horizon. As it gets darker, the hairs on my arms start to rise and I start to get more paranoid. I keep getting the feeling that someone, or something, is watching me.

I end up in my room sitting on my bed. I’m rocking back and forth in the corner, my eyes wide open, looking for anything that moves. I have a terrible feeling that something really bad is about to happen. Suddenly, the air seems to die, the lights go out, and every hair on my body raises in alarm. I’ve never felt more terrified in my life of something that I can’t see. Please make it end! I start crying and shaking, but I’m unable to move because of the terror. As I’m staring across my room, the opposite corner seems to get much darker then the rest of the room. I start hyperventilating, What is that?! I want to scream, but I can’t make my voice work. The shadow keeps growing until it takes up about half of the room. It then condenses into a pitch black form that’s inhuman. It’s as thin as a twig, it’s legs, arms, and torso seeming impossibly long. It doesn't appear to be wearing any clothes, and there’s not any semblance of a facial feature. As my eyes widen in absolute terror that I’m about to die in the most gruesome way possible, all alone, it lunges at me, making no sound whatsoever. I squeeze my eyes shut.

All of a sudden, I’m cowering under a blanket in my bed, the light from outside my window tossing a little bit of light in my room. I feel relief for a second before everything that happened rushes back into my head. I freeze up, my eyes start welling with tears, my throat feels like it’s closing up, and I start to tremble. I know without looking that the horrifying thing is standing behind me, waiting for me to make one wrong move so it can strike. I can’t do anything. My eyes won’t close, I can’t control my breathing or my shaking, and every muscle in my body is locked.

It feels as if it goes on for hours. At some point the tears started pouring over, and now inbetween the erratic breathing that my body is doing I sob. Somehow, I get enough control over myself that I can start screaming. It sounds deafening in my ears. There’s hasn’t been any sound for hours and my screams seem to visibly crack the silence. My eyes squeeze shut as I start screaming. I don’t want to see the thing as it reaches forward and ends my life. I hear a noise and scream as loud as I can, hoping someone, anyone, can hear and rescue me. As something warm comes to rest on my arm I jump away from it and my heart starts beating even faster.

A soft, feminine voice comes from whatever touched my arm. It’s saying soothing things, but I can’t figure out what. I’m still too terrified that I’m about to die. The thing that touched my arm starts to move and I realize it’s a hand. I open my eyes and slowly my shaking and crying stops. As I’m hiccuping and trying to regain my bodily functions, I turn my head to look in the face of what is calming me down. My mother looks down at me. “Shhhh, it’s okay sweetie. It was just a bad dream. Everything’s okay. Shhh, calm down. You’re okay.” As my muscles finally relax and my breathing goes back to normal, she leans down, kisses my forehead, and whispers, “I’ll always be here to protect you, okay? You can go back to sleep now. Nothing can hurt you.” I drift off to the soft sound of her voice singing a lullaby that I haven’t heard since I was much younger.