For the third night in the week, I was awoken precisely at 2:56 am. This time, however, I knew by what. Still lying very still in my bed, I turned my head to see out the picture window that led to the yard one story below. I saw nothing but sky and the branches of our big oak tree. But the more I looked, the more I saw of the large snow white owl that perched itself outside my window. It stood out in sharp contrast to the midnight blue sky and the tree's ink black silhouette, but the thing that kept me awake every night was its eyes. They were black as sin and sunk in so far into the head of the owl. They never left my gaze. The first few nights it kept me awake I tried scaring it off, but it didn't shift at all. Not even blink. It just stared at me with those black eyes.
I must've slept a little that night, because I remember a nightmare that I had. I was still awake, but the owl was gone. It was never there. I sat up quickly, trying to figure out where it had gone, but now I wasn't sure if it was ever there at all. The door creaked open and I turned around expecting to see my son standing in the doorway, but there was no one. There was just darkness, but not the kind you get with nightfall; total and complete darkness, the kind that takes you when you enter it, and never gives you back. I couldn't breathe all of a sudden and I was afraid to move, as if moving would kill me. The darkness wrapped itself around me and tried to take me, but I fought. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I didn't want to go. I fought it tooth and nail to keep where I was, but I was dragged over to the window where a beam of light appeared. It took the darkness and me together through the glass without breaking it or cracking it. I was levitating above the ground. Two stories, three stories, four stories, I stopped counting after five stories, not wanting to look down and see how small my home had gotten and how high up I now was.
The last thing I remember of my nightmare was reaching a huge shape in the sky. Once we got to it, I took us inside of it. Then I remember drowsing, as if sleeping…but I wasn't sleeping out of will, I was sleeping out of force. As my head lolled to the side I felt a prick of ice go into my back, but it wasn't unpleasant. It felt relaxing and I went under, deeper into sleep.
"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!!!" I woke up to the loud tone of my alarm clock. Turning myself over, I shut the stupid thing off and, sighing, pushed my body up onto my elbows. Rolling my shoulders back, I felt soreness in my lower back and neck. I chose to ignore it and get on with the rest of my morning. After I took a shower, I went down the hall to wake up Sebastian.
"Sebastian? Come on sweetie, it's time to wake up," I knocked on the door and waited. After a minute or two of waiting, I knocked again. When no one came, I pushed open the door and walked cautiously inside. Clothes, books, and art supplies littered the floor, making his room a death trap to walk into. After one glance at his bed, I could tell that it hadn't been slept in tonight; it was still neatly made from this morning.
Moms tend to get panicked when their child goes missing, and I was in full-blown panic mode. I ran from his room and down the hall. After checking all the rooms upstairs and in the main level, I reluctantly walked towards the door of the basement. Ever since I was a little girl I had always been afraid of basements. When my mom wasn't home, my dad would put me in our basement, get drunk, and beat me. I still have scars on my legs from when he would drag me across the room. I opened the door to the basement and slowly walked down the steps, holding the hand rail the entire time. I got to the bottom and pulled the string for the bare light bulb to fill the room with light, but of course nothing happened.
"Shit." I really didn't feel like stumbling around in the dark, but it would take too much time to go upstairs and get a flashlight. So, I was stuck searching in the dimly lit basement. "Sebastian? If you're down here, please come out. You know mommy doesn't like basements and we're gonna be late for school if you keep playing games." I tried searching and calling for a while and after searching all of the main rooms, I remembered the secret rooms behind the closet. I could hardly stand being in the main rooms of the basement, going into rooms that are small and dark might just give me a heart attack. However, when your child is missing you're able to do just about anything to get them back. So I sucked in my breath and pushed the false wall out of the closet.
I climbed into the hidden room and crouched low to avoid the very low ceiling. I checked the front three rooms and came to the fourth one. I crawled through the opening and gasped at what I saw. The entire room was filled with mirrors, on the walls, on the ceiling, and when I looked down, I saw my reflection. Sitting in the middle of the room was Sebastian sitting into himself. I crawled to him and put my hand gently on his shoulder, but he still jumped.
"Sebastian, how did you get down here?" He spoke in his soft voice.
"I went downstairs and found the fake wall in the closet. I've already been here a lot of times, you just never knew." I was shocked to hear the hostility in his voice.
"Well, why did you come down here?" His face pinched up in a torn decision and I decided that it was none of my business.
"Never mind honey, let's just get you upstai…" he cut me off in mid sentence.
"No, this is the only place I can tell you, everywhere else they hear us." Was it chilled in that small room before? I was definitely feeling chilled.
"W-who hears us?"
"They. They hear us. I came down here because this is the only place where I can be safe when They come." Forget chilled, I was fucking freezing from his words. But, I didn't want to tell him I was scared too, so I just shut my mouth….big mistake.
"Okay, well They're gone, how about you come upstairs with me now okay?" he nodded in agreement so I took his hand and led us both out of our maze of a basement.
We both needed showers, me another one. So after we both showered, I got some breakfast into us and we were off to start the day. The last day of normality for the both of us.