The Strangest Dream (part 21)

the picture closer "Yep, this is the one, it's in mom's album." putting the picture down on the table. Marie picked it up and took it into the living room to show Autumn.

"Evie just said the craziest thing, she told me you already have this picture, and I just brought it here with me." "Yes, mama, don't you remember? You put it in the album with you and daddy's wedding pictures."She yelled from the kitchen. Autumn stood up "That's impossible Evie, this is the first time I have seen this," she said while taking the album off the bookcase. "You see, Evie? It's not in here, what are you talking about silly- girl, say thank you to grandma for bringing it."

Evelyn jumped off the chair and ran up to her mother to see for herself, "Thank you, grandma, but I was so sure."

Later that night, they were all in bed. It had just started to rain, and the wind was blowing outside. "I sure am glad you're here to protect me, Charlie" She pulled him close to her on the bed and smiled as she fell asleep. The house was quiet, only the sound of the wind whooshing through the trees outside.

There were two clicks in the hall and a short slow creaking of a door. Charlie opened his eyes, putting his head up to look then growled, nustling himself closely against Evelyn.

The door to Autumn and Clyde's room opened slightly. Autumn felt a chill go up to her spine, and she opened her eyes, still laying on Clyde's chest, looking up at him while he slept. The moonlight was coming into the room, and there was a strange calm.

Listening to him breathe she closed her eyes and his breathing got louder and louder, she opened her eyes and noticed that she could see his breath coming from his nose and then a sound by the door startled her to raise her head and look across the room. Something was sitting on the floor by the door. "Charlie?" it didn't move. "Evie?" still no movement. She sat up to get a better look at whatever it was crouching over there. "This is Not funny, Evelyn Marie!" Clyde rolled over with turning his back to her, mimicking her words, saying, "Not funny."

She looked back at what was in the room, and it moved. It started slowly crawling on all fours across the wood floor towards the bed, and by now, Autumn is sitting straight up, clutching the covers tightly under her chin nudging Clyde with her elbow in the back. The blanket moved by their feet as if something was underneath the sheets touching closer to her. Something then pressed down on the foot of the bed as if it was about to lift itself.

Kicking the blankets off her feet, she crawled back towards the headboard.

She felt the covers start to pull and saw a part of its head rise, so she screamed, forcing Clyde to jump awake. "WHAT WHAT WHAT!" he yelled, turning over looking at her. "GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" she cried out, but nothing was there. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "What's wrong" then held her stroking her hair. Marie came running up the stairs to see what the commotion was all about turning on the light. "What the hell is going on?" Seeing Autumn shaken so bad, and being comforted by her son, she turned and ran down the hall to Evelyn's room. Sitting there huddled together with only her big eyes showing through the blankets, she saw Evelyn sitting up in the bed with Charlie still bracing himself against her. "Go back to bed Evie. Your mom just had a bad dream."

Evelyn knew all too well about bad dreams, so she laid back down, holding Charlie tight.

Clyde tried to pull the covers back, hoping he would be able to convince Autumn to lay back down, promising to protect her while she slept, but she kicked them down, saying frantically, "No no no! Then turned to get out of bed but brought her feet up quickly after putting them on the floor, "Can you check under the bed, Clyde?"