"Mommy?" the little girl asked. "Mommy, where are you?" she walked down the dark hall to see where her mother was. "Mommy?" The girl kept on walking down the dark hall. "Mommy?" That's when the little girl saw a door cracked opened.

The little girl crept inside it. "Mommy?" The little girl looked at the bed to see her mother lying down on the bed. "Mommy, wake up." The little girl shook her mother, but she didn't wake up. The little girl rested her ear on her mother's chest when she realized her heart wasn't beating.

The little girl turned around to see a man in a black cloak in the room. He grabbed out for the little girl. She screamed and called out, "DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MARRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The man in the black cloth disappeared before the little girl's father and sister arrived in the room.

"Carolyn, what happened?" her father asked. The little girl breathed as hard as she could and pointed at the bed. Her sister walked over there and lied her palm on her mother's chest. All of a sudden, the girl of eight years, who acted much older than her age, bursted out into tears when she moved her palm slid off of her mother's chest.

"She's dead!" she exclaimed to her father. "She's dead!" Her father stood up with Carolyn holding his hand, walked over to his daughter, and hugged both of his daughters as tight as he could. "She died of a heart attack," he said softly to his children while they were crying their hearts out.

The little girl looked away to see the figure in the black cloak again. He was holding a knife with blood all over it. She was the only one who heard him whisper, "You and your sister will be next." Then, he dissolved into the air. The dark figure was gone. The little girl looked away in fear and kept on crying with her father and sister.

Mary gasped when she woke up from the horrible nightmare. Tears started running down her eyes. Soon, her pillow became wet with tears. "Mommy," Mary whispered to herself. "You didn't die of a heart attack."

Mary stood up from her bed. She knew what to do. She had to tell her sister that she knew the truth. She knew that she had to tell her sister that she knew that her mother didn't die of a heart attack, but was killed. Questions kept on floating on in her mind.

Who was that man in the black cloak? Why did he kill Mommy? Why does he want to kill Carolyn and me? Does Daddy know that Mommy didn't die of a heart attack? How am I going to tell Carolyn that I know?

Mary took in a deep breath and lied back down on her bed. She knew what she had to do. She got up from her bed, got out of the room, and walked into Carolyn's room. When Mary walked in there, she noticed that her sister was also asleep.
Mary looked at her sister's clock to see that it was two o'clock in the morning. She didn't care. She just wanted to tell her sister that she knew what really happened the night her mother died. It wasn't because of a heart attack. It was because her mother was murdered. But, who wanted to kill her?

Mary reached out and shook her sister. "Carolyn," she whispered. "Carolyn. Carolyn. Wake up. Wake up." Finally, her sister woke up from her slumber.

"Mary?" she asked. "Girl, it's two o'clock in the morning."

"I don't care, Carolyn. I want to tell you something important."

"Something so important to wake me up at two o'clock in the morning?"

"Carolyn, I know what really happened to Mom. I know why she died."

"Mary, she died of a heart attack. You know that."

"No, I mean that I saw what you saw that night."

"What?"

"I had a dream that you went into that room while you were looking for Mom. There was a dark figure in there that killed Mom. But the problem was that there was no blood on the bed. The dark figure must've cleaned it up to make us think that he didn't murder her.

"But, you saw him. And when Daddy and I came into the room, you saw him again. Only with a knife with blood on it. He told you that you and I were next."

"Mary, you lunatic, it was just a dream. Go back to sleep."

"Carolyn, admit it! Admit that my dream was true!"

"Mary, I.-, yes, it was true."

"Then how come you didn't tell Daddy and me that she was really murdered?"

"I was too scared. I was scarred that if I told you two, the dark figure would come back and kill me."

"Carolyn, understand something. I'm your sister. If anyone tries to kill you, they have to kill me first. We've made a promise when we were only the age of six and five that we would tell each other everything. If anything happens to you, Carolyn, I'll never forgive myself for it.

"Carolyn, I love you."
"I love you to, Mary." The two girls smiled at each other and hugged. "Do you think Daddy knows?" Mary asked.

"I don't," Carolyn said. "But he's the one who said that she died of a heart attack. Maybe he does know."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then, we'll tell him."

"Yeah, that's a great idea. Come on. Let's go to the kitchen. I'm kind of hungry."

"Me to. Let's go." The two girls carefully crept down the steps into the kitchen. They got out a carton of chocolate ice cream, two spoons, and two bowls. The girls dumped the spoons into the carton of ice cream, scooped them up, and kept on dumping the spoonfuls of ice cream into their bowls.

The two sisters sat down and started eating the ice cream. "Maybe I should try that as a midnight snack some time." The girls turned around to see their father in his undershirt and some overnight pants smiling at his two daughters.

"Hi Daddy," Mary said.

"Want some?" Carolyn asked. Their father chuckled a little bit and walked over to eat some of the ice cream with his daughters. "Now, why are you two eating this at two o'clock in the morning."

The two girls looked at each other and nodded. "Daddy, we really know what happened the night Mom died," Mary said.

"What do you mean?" her father asked, putting a spoonful of the ice cream in his mouth.

"I mean, we know that Mom didn't really die of a heart attack. We know that she was murdered." Her father automatically dropped his spoon into his bowl by shock, sighed, and looked down to the ground.

"I knew this day would come," he said. "It was like a play. I kept on rehearsing it over and over and over. But when the real thing starts, I forgot my lines. Girls, this is going to be a long talk."

The two girls looked at each other, then at their father for him to start the conversation.