You people are incredible, did you know that? …Just wanted to let you know how much it means to me to have received such an amazing response, both in the lovely reviews you've sent and having added me to your faves. Thank you so very, very much!
You could have been mine. You should have been mine.
So many times I held to sanity with dreams of games of tag in the back garden, birthday cakes and skinned knees and hugs and drying of tears to make it all better and treehouses and tucking you in at night and a thousand other things.
I heard you. I've always heard you. Even in the darkness, I've heard you.
And you heard me. The face I had imagined through so many dark days and nights at last became reality; peering over the edge of my prison with lovely, strange, shining eyes and sucking your thumb. I remember that you blinked, and reached out a tiny hand to see if I was real.
They had left you lonely and hungry again. A single tear traced its way down your lovely cheek and as terribly weak as I was, I helped you climb in and wrapped my arms around you and kept the bad dreams away.
We would be lonely together.
And so we became each other's secret. Somehow, we managed to grow stronger.
On a day so cold I could see your slight breath rising in the gloom around us, you brought me a blanket; abandoned in a forgotten closet somewhere. It was perfect, for it held us both within its red embrace. The tears I dried for you with its folds remain, for I would not part with them.
So many tears. So much confusion, so much pain. So much blood. So many unanswered questions. Tears of shame in the darkness as you sought me out, wondering why your body betrayed you with its shuddering and fever. I vowed to watch over you more closely, and whispered comfort in the darkness.
Such a beautiful child. Too beautiful. I wonder what they thought when they found the bodies. I think they learned the meaning of fear. You were not afraid of me; and this was all that mattered. I never want you to be afraid of me.
But such deeds come with a price; the darkness claimed me once more. When I knew myself again, you were gone.
But the man in the box is awake now. And I am coming for you…though not for the reason they think. If they wonder why I cling so tightly to your red blanket, it is none of my concern; nor of theirs.
Wait for me, child that was…wait for me.