The Strangest Dream

Fetch fell forward on all fours, Evelyn looked as he grew, stretching his arms down and his body widened forming what she and her mother saw that night in the attic. He grinned as he placed something on the floor then kicked it over to her. It was the Saint Michael's pendant she lost when she hit him that night.

He laughed, and her heart started beating fast. He lowered his chin facing her and swayed back and forth, "Fear, that's good." "I want to GO NOW!" He smiled, telling her: "I want you to stay." He saw that she was pinching her side under the crease of her gown, where she thought he couldn't see. "Alright, but you will be back, and I will be waiting… I will ALWAYS be waiting for you!"

After that night, she convinced herself that she was going to stay up forever. No one can help me, she thought. Her parents caught Evelyn reading books under blankets with a flashlight, or hiding in the closet behind the clothes. Autumn found that she hid spoon-fulls of coffee in a cup under her bed. Evelyn was doing everything possible to not go to sleep. Autumn noticed she had dark circles under her eyes, and she was acting strange, and Evelyn jumped at every sound and winced at the light outside. "This has to stop!" Autumn told her, "I can't help you unless you tell me what's going on!" Evelyn refused to say anything, just sitting there in the kitchen with her arms folded, she didn't like her mother interrogating her like that. Autumn only knew that Evelyn had had a few bad dreams. Evelyn never told her she was there and saw what she did because she didn't believe they both had experienced the same thing.

Autumn had an appointment that day at the family doctor, and Evelyn was excited to get free lollipops. After Autumn's check-up, the doctor looked down at the dark circles under Evelyn's eyes and took his hand and put it on her face pulling her cheek down to look in her eye. "Are you getting enough sleep Evie?" he asked her. Autumn went on to tell him that no, she hadn't. She also shared her concerns from when she laid there, shaking with her eyes wide. He put her on the table with her parents by her side and started examining her. He looked in her ears and listened to her heart, "How long has this been going on?" Evelyn didn't want to tell him why so she simply said to him that she didn't like to sleep. Autumn said to him that she had had a few bad dreams, and that was all.

The doctor took Autumn aside and gave her a bottle of pills telling her that this should help but to only give her a quarter pill at night because they are a high dosage. "And what if she won't take it?" she asked. "Then just crush it up and put it in her food, she will never know."

The rest of that day was fun, they drove to the lake and put their feet in the water splashing and playing around, and that moment it was something Evelyn wanted to remember forever.

Clyde heard on the radio that there was a storm coming in, so they hurried home to close the shutters, and Evelyn slept the whole ride there. Her daddy carried her up to her room after they arrived and she pretended to be asleep while her mom put her in her nightgown, Clyde laid her in her bed, and she curled up like a kitten. "That's my little angel," he whispered as he left the room. What he didn't know was that she was awake, she woke up on the way up the stairs. The night went on, and she kept seeing things dart around the room from the corner of her eyes. Staying up too long does something to a person making them act paranoid and see things that are not there.

She stood back from her window and watched as her parents secured the house and the garage.