“Jesse! It’s not funny anymore. Come out!" I shouted to the dark end of the hallway. “I’m telling Daddy if you don’t come out!"

I heard giggles coming from the room that Daddy always said to never go in, because that’s where Mommy’s stuff was. It was always locked, and I could never see through the keyhole, like if something was blocked against the door. I hated Jesse for trying to scare me. All I wanted was to play hide and seek, not hide in the dark. She knew how much I hated the dark and it was because of her scary stories of boogeymen and goblins. “Jesse! Ugh, come on I don’t like this.’ I had to go down there, the big hallway. The only door down that hallway was Mom’s door and there was no need to go down there. Jesse always said the door was locked to protect Mommy’s things from the monsters; I didn’t believe her. I slowly crept down the hallway, as my heart raced and pounded harder with each step. My eyes immediately spanning around at every sound that amplified in the darkness, ‘Je…Jesse?’ I tried calling out in hopes she would cut it out already. I reached the end of the hallway and looked at the grandfather clock that read one fifteen in the morning. If I had just gone back to sleep after hearing the knocking I wouldn’t be here playing her stupid game, alone and terrified.

I looked back to where I once stood, and my body froze, my eyes and mind were trying to understand what it was seeing or at least what I thought I was seeing. Is this real… ‘Mommy?’ She just stood there facing the wall. I have to hold her, I have so many questions. I can’t move, why can’t I move? ‘Mom!’ I yelled out, but she wouldn’t turn around, can’t she hear me? ‘What the… Jesse no, don’t! What are you doing! Get away from her!’ Why can’t I move, why does Emily have an ax, why is she walking to Mommy, why can’t Mommy hear me! Jesse stops and turns her head toward me, her eyes are pitch black and she twitches up a smile at me. ‘Wake up Ellie.’ ‘What?’ The clock behind me dings so loud it throws me off and I fall to the floor. As much as I can’t get up, I manage to see Jesse walking towards me. “Don’t worry Mommy, I’ll protect you from the monsters.’ Jesse is making her way to me, as I look around I don’t see anyone but myself. ‘Jesse stop, what are you doing? It’s me, Ellie! Please don’t hurt me!’ ‘Wake up Ellie. Wake up Ellie!’

Gasping for air as if I had been suffocating, I awaken to Jesse shaking me feverishly. “Ellie, please for Christ’s sake wake up!’ ‘I’m up, oh my god Jesse.’ We hug tight and through the sobs she asks me ‘Ellie what happened?’ ‘I… I don’t know. It was all happening so fast and you had an ax, Mom was there and…’ ‘Mom? Mom’s gone, Ellie.’ Suddenly my sobs and frightened demeanor turn to frustration and anger. Why won’t she just listen to me and comfort me like before Mom died? Now she’s so cold. ‘I know Jesse, I don’t control my dreams, or nightmares. Whatever you want to call them. Look, it just was all so sudden and…’ Jesse interrupted, ‘You need to talk to Dad or just get over it, and he’s not the bad guy you think he is. Once I started to speak to him, my nightmares stopped, for the most part anyway.’ ‘I don’t want to talk to him, and I don’t need to talk to him. Unless some alien invasion happened and they brainwashed you, I don’t know if you think Dad is this great guy who made one mistake. He made one big mistake and it cost us Mom. So no Jesse, I will not talk to Dad.’ I got up, slipped on my slippers and walked into the kitchen to make some warm milk. Jesse followed me. Of course she won’t just drop this and leave me alone. I look up at the digital clock on the fridge, one fifteen in the morning. I thought nothing of it and kept on making my milk on the stove, until I looked over as something caught the corner of my eye. Something shining on the window sill in the moonlight. I pick it up as I feel Jesse watching me. Mom, it read. I opened it thinking it was a coincidence, maybe Dad was looking at it earlier today. It was the picture of all of us the day I was born, why is it here?

‘Jesse. Have you been in Mom’s stuff?’ ‘What? No, why?’ Jesse asked concerned. ‘Look’ as I held up mom’s locket. She stood there as confused as I was when I first saw it. It couldn’t have been her, and she knows not to joke around with Mom. ‘So then who left this here Jesse? Stop playing around!’ ‘Ellie it wasn’t me, why are you yelling at me?’

‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ Dad scolded as he walked in the kitchen rubbing his eyes from his recent slumber.

‘Pfft. Nothing Dad.’ I said in the sassiest yet respectable tone.

‘No, it’s not nothing Ellie. Dad, look what Ellie found.’ As Jesse snatched the locket from me to show dad.

He took it and let out a deep sigh, ‘Ellie… where did you find this?’ ‘On the window sill, right over there.’ As I pointed to the ledge. ‘What? Why was it there?’ He said to himself while scratching his head, still trying to wake up.

‘It was probably there because you felt guilty and was trying to feel better about yourself.’ The words came out my mouth faster than my mind could register.

‘Excuse me?’ ‘Dad, just forget it, she’s gone and there’s nothing you can do about it now. Goodnight.’ I stormed away into my room to try and fall asleep, but as soon as my head hit the pillow, all that came next were tears. The hot, streaming tears that stemmed from anger? Disappointment? I don’t know, but they couldn’t be stopped, so I had no choice but to cry myself to sleep. If only I knew waking up would be the second most devastating day in my life.

To Be Continued...