The Strangest Dream (part 12)

Evelyn didn't want to worry her mother with such an abstract dream like the one she just had, so she just said: "I love you." "Did you have a good dream?" Autumn asked while patting her leg. Evelyn looked at her, then smiled and said: "Well.. it was just a dream."

Clyde was home for the weekend, so he took his girls outback to learn how to shoot the gun outback, Autumn held the gun with one hand aiming at a target Clyde placed in the field "No" he told her "Hold it with two hands because it has a huge Kick!"

He went up behind her with his face next to hers and showed her how to aim. Autumn broke her stare down the barrel and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Now this is important Autumn, you have to learn this," he said, then turning to Evelyn. He told her to watch how it's done, and boy was it ever loud, the first one startled little Evelyn, so she covered her ears. "Good shot, mama," she yelled out.

After they were finished outside, Clyde walked upstairs and put the gun in the nightstand next to their bed. Looking over to Evelyn, he told her, "Don't you ever touch this Evie. This is not a toy. This is only for bad guys."

The rest of that day, Evelyn laughed and played with her parents; it was a good day as usual. "Off to bed, Evie," her father told her, but Evelyn didn't want the night to end.

"One more game?" Evelyn tried her best not to go to bed. "Off you go," he told her.

A glass of water, check under my bed, there's something in my closet.

These are all things Evelyn came up with to prolong her night, and it was making her parents weary. "Evie, that's it, now go to sleep! "They both told her.

As she laid there in bed, tossing and turning until she finally drifted off.

Evelyn woke up in the middle of the night because she had to go to the bathroom. Still, when Evelyn returned she saw headlights beaming into her room, it was her daddy's truck parked in the garage, standing there looking out the window when she felt something tugging her back, almost warning her to stay inside. She heard faint screams coming from the darkness outside.

Feeling uneasy, she ran to her parent's room only to find that they were not in their bed.

"Mom," she cried out with no answer.

She didn't like how her body was feeling. It felt tingly and physically drained. She ran downstairs and saw candles lit and a funny looking board game on the table she had never seen before. This seems off, she thought, so she ran back up to her room to look for her name, and It was there. Fearing she would see that tall man again, she ran out of her room and into the attic where all of their things were. I just have to be quiet, she thought.

It was still dark outside, so she didn't know if the day was over or it was about to begin.

Holding Holly in her arms, she just sat there and quietly cried, thinking, "will I ever stop dreaming about this?" She was so bored but also careful not to knock anything over. She put Holly down on one of the boxes and sat on the floor, opening her mother's picture book, hoping that seeing the happy memories would bring up her spirits. Evelyn looked at pictures of her grandparents and one with her and Charlie together on the farm "Silly dog," she said to herself. After turning the page, one of her parent's wedding pictures fell out into her lap.

She picked it up and started smiling, how happy they looked, she thought, and how lucky I am to have them.