The Strangest Dream (part 11)

Clyde told Autumn that maybe it was time they got protection, and he assured her that he would change the locks when he got home from work the very next day. Autumn was not happy about having a gun in the house, but she thought that maybe Clyde was right.

When Evelyn got into bed, she told her mother that the man in the hall looked an awful lot like the man in her dreams."Why didn't you tell us this before?"Autumn asked. Evelyn told her that if she had told them, daddy wouldn't have believed either one of them then."That's true," her mother said and kissed her goodnight.

Evelyn opened her eyes, and she was standing there in the backyard, looking up at the tree. It seemed taller to her for some reason, and the warmth of the sun felt good on her face. Evelyn walked over to the swing and noticed that moss had grown on the edges of the seat; it wasn't as low as it was before, so it was difficult for her to get on. As she was swinging she heard children play almost like an echo all around her, she hopped off the swing and ran to the back door to tell her mother but when Evelyn stepped inside it didn't look like her house anymore. There was carpet covering the entire floor, and that was something she had never seen before.

The wall to the kitchen was gone, making everything look open, and the staircase looked different. Where were all of our pictures on the wall? She thought.

Realizing that she must have been in a dream, she ran to where she had written her name, but it was gone. She went from room to room looking for her name in the red crayon but couldn't find them anywhere. "MAMA," she cried out, but there was no answer. Why is this happening to me, she thought.

Just then, she remembered that she wrote her name where only she would see it by the bed. She ran to the nightstand, and there it was, tucked away on the side, Evie.

All I have to do is wait this out, she thought.

She also remembered that Holly was upstairs in the attic, so she went up to get her.

Walking up the steps, it felt cold under her bare feet, and the floorboards creaked, the room was dark and smelled musty. Holly was covered in dust, and she saw some of their things up there.

Evelyn figured that she might as well make herself comfortable while she waited for nightfall because that is when she would wake up.

She was looking at old pictures in her mom's picture book laughing at her daddy, who made funny faces for the camera when she leaned back, knocking over her mother's silverware case stacked on a flimsy box behind her. What a clatter it made.

She heard the door to the bottom of the staircase open, so she jumped up and hid behind her mother's old chest, tipping over a teacup in her haste. The footsteps were heavy and loud like the ones she heard in her room, each one louder than the next. The cup still rolling around on the floor she thought was a dead give away that she was there. Holding her doll Holly, she clenched her eyes tight, fearing she would be discovered. The footsteps stopped just feet from where she was hiding, then they went back down the stairs and faded away. Evelyn pinched herself, hoping to escape her dream.

"Mama" "Yes, my darling."