My heart is about to beat right out of my chest. I can hardly catch my breath as I run as fast as I can down the narrow brick corridor. I almost trip over my dress, I'm running so fast. I look behind me and see the barn owl flying faster towards me; I don't know why I'm so afraid of it, I just know I am. Then I fall, down a dark hole but I land, perfectly fine, on my feet in a room of stairs. There's no more owl. Just bubbles. I get dizzy, I feel my chest tighten, I can't breathe, then….

I wake up.

But I don't wake up. Not this time. I'm still in the dream, in the nightmare.

I see a man. He's tall, taller than me I could tell even from the distance. He has white blonde hair, striking eyes, and he's dressed in blue. That's when I noticed my dressed changed. It's much more extravagant now, like some white ball gown. There's a clock, with thirteen numbers instead of twelve, chiming behind then man. A bubble floats in front of my face and pops. Then I'm not in the room of stars anymore. I'm in some sort of dining room, decorated for some kind of party. There's no one here, but I see the clock. It's still chiming. I' not afraid anymore. There's a mirror by the clock and I don't why I walk over to it, but I do.

I don't see my own reflection. I see Sarah. But she's not herself. She's younger, much younger. Then I see him, standing behind me in the reflection. I turn, but he's not there.

Now I wake up.

I'm covered in sweat, but I'm not hot. I sit up and notice all the blankets on the floor; I must have thrown them off me in my sleep. I've never done that before. My window is opened, just a crack, and there's a cool breeze drifting into the room. I don't know why but it scares me for some reason and I jump up as quickly as I can to shut and lock the window back.

There's a knock at my door and they don't wait for me to open it before they come in; it's Toby. "Are you alright? I heard you moving around it like you were running a marathon or something."

"My window was opened." I explained as I picked my blankets up off the floor.

"You had the nightmare again?"

"Yeah." I found myself thinking back to just a few hours earlier, how after I shared my nightmares with my siblings Sarah left the room without a single word. "I'll be fine."

"No, you won't." Toby insisted firmly. "I don't know why they didn't stop for you like they did for me and Sarah but…All I know is, if I had just one more of those nightmares, they would have ruined me. I don't know how you can stand them, how they don't seem to affect you, but I promise you one day they will. You can't keep pretending like its fine Avery, like they don't bother you because the one you bottle it up they worse it's going to be."

I sat down on the edge of my bed, Toby sat next to me. I didn't look at him, just kept my eyes on my own feet. "It was different this time. Longer." I started to explain, "It didn't end like it usually does. I saw Sarah too, only…I was Sarah." I looked up at him and there was something about his expression that worried me. It was like he knew what was happening in the nightmare without me really needing to tell him. "Toby?"

"What else did you see?"

"A clock."

"And?"

"A man."

"Did he say anything?"

"No. Why?"

Toby didn't say anything a first, he just took my hands and sighed softly. "Promise me when you go back to the city, you'll see a doctor?" I had a feeling that he knew that wouldn't help.

I didn't wake up again until almost ten. A rare oddity for me indeed. By the time I dressed myself and went downstairs, Mother was already making lunch. "Well good morning sleepy head." She greeted my warmly. "Your brother left you a note, he felt terrible that he had to leave without goodbye but you slept in so late and he had to get on the road. I don't know why he doesn't just fly, he'd save so much travel time." She gestured to the paper on the table as she went about her cooking.

I was almost afraid to read it, I wasn't sure why I was afraid, I just knew I was. Still, I picked it up and read it: "Avery, I'm sorry." That's all it said. Not what he was sorry for, just that he was. I couldn't help but feel confused.

"Good to see you're finally up." Sarah said to me as she came into the kitchen. She was wearing an old pair of jeans, her hair up in a sloppy bun, all sure signs she had been out in the garden helping father get all his flowers ready for fall.

"Good to see you're still here." I crumbled Toby's note up into a ball and tossed it in the trash, Sarah didn't really seem to notice.

"I have a late flight out." Sarah informed me.

"Sarah agreed to help us with some of the fall cleaning." Mother said, sounding chipper to have the extra help. Most people just did spring cleaning, mother found every new season to be an occasion to clean.

"After lunch I figured I' tackle the closet in my old room. Dad said there's so much clutter in there he's afraid to open the door." Sarah said as she grabbed a bottle of the water from the fridge. Sarah's old room was now dad's office since he primarily worked from home these days. Growing up I had always wanted Sarah's old room, but when dad laid claim to it I knew all hope was lost.

"Sounds like you're going to need some back up." I suggested as I sat with her at the small breakfast nook table in the kitchen.

"That would make my life a little easier."

After we ate Sarah and I bravely ventured into dad's office to start cleaning out the closet. We started sorting things into several piles; stays in dad's office, attic, and trash. A lot of the stuff was actually Sarah's, things she never took with her or stored in the attic before she left. Most of it she sorted into the trash pile without a second thought.

"So when do you think is the next time you'll come back into town?" I tried to make small talk as she finished sorting the last few things from the closet.

"Christmas, most likely." She answered as she handed me a heavy box. "I'll probably stay till New Years."

"I plan on heading back before New Years. I've never actually been in the city for New Years, I'd like to finally experience it." After I said that Sarah looked at me with this face, almost as if she felt sorry for me.

"Things don't always work out the way we want." She said this with a sort of grim tone in her voice, almost like she knew my plans wouldn't work out in the end.

I wasn't sure what to say to her. "Why don't you start taking some of these things up to the attic." She broke the silence, "Start with this box." She pulled a good sized box from the closet, it was labeled, "Sarah". I took it without question and she gave me this look like there was something important in there. I assumed there had to be, since most her old stuff was in the trash pile. I found myself curious about the contents of this box as I took it out into the hall and pulled down the attic stairs.

The attic was dusty, but I assumed most attics were. There was a small stack of boxes in the corner, all labeled "Sarah" where I assumed this box would fit right in. I navigated the rather overstocked attic to the corner where the rest of Sarah's old belongings were. I sat it down and for some reason unknown to me I had the most curious urge to open this box. It wasn't taped shut or anything like that, so I just bent opened the cardboard flaps to explore the contents of this seemingly special box.

It was the dress. The one from my nightmare. Not the ball gown from last night, but the one I'm always wearing when I'm running away from the owl. I took it out carefully, looking over every familiar detail before I noticed there was more under it. First, a strange crown with ribbons hanging from it. Next, a tube of red lipstick and a little stuffed bear. Then a glass figurine of a woman wearing a white ball gown like from my nightmare last night. When I picked it up it started to twirl and play music; an unfamiliar tune. I set aside, the music was still playing, and looked in the box for the last item. It was a book.