Prologue
The house is quiet. It’s a late night in December. Upstairs, the door of the hallway cracks open. It makes a small creak on its hinges. A sound that would normally be unheard, but in the silence of the night, it awakens the senses like a scream. A girl no older than seven slips out through the crack. Her face was only partially illuminated by the light coming out of the crack of another door. Her dark hair is contrasted against her light skin, her eyes appearing even brighter with the thin ray of light over them. Sounds of small sobs fill her ears as she starts to move silently down the hallway toward the light. Once she reaches the door leaking light, she peers through the crack. She sees her mother sitting on the floor, hands over her face and her body shaking. The small girl tilts her head as she slowly inches toward the handle of the door. She has never seen her mother in this state. As she pushes the door open slowly, it creaks just as the other had.“Mommy?” The girl whispers.The weeping body piled on the floor stops shaking abruptly. The woman slowly raises her head to see her young daughter standing in the doorway with a concerned and confused expression. The girl’s mother moves her hands from her face.“Come here, honey.” Her mother whispers. “What’s wrong?”The girl runs towards her mother and is immediately wrapped in her arms.“I had more nightmares.”“Do you want to tell me what they were about this time, Jane?” Her mother’s words are soft and caring.Jane shakes her head against her mother’s neck. Her mother’s bony fingers rub soothingly against Jane’s shoulder. “I’m cold.”Eloise reaches onto the bed beside them and grabs a black knit sweater. She helps Jane put it on and smiles sadly at her daughter. The sweater is of course too big and looks like more of a dress on her. The sleeves dangle down a few inches past her hands. Her mother rolls them up on Jane’s small arms.“Mommy, why were you crying?” Jane asks.“Don’t worry about it, Jane. You’ll understand when you’re older. You’ll be strong enough to fight the little monster.” Eloise smiles at her, but it’s not enough to mask the sadness covering her face. Green eyes, just like Jane’s look down at the worried child. They show a loving and guilty look. Eloise’s face is aged with stress and her red hair graying more than it should.
“What little monster, Mommy?”
“Hopefully you’ll never know, but don’t worry. He’s in your head.” “But-“Jane starts but is cut off by a yawn.“Come on now, let’s get you back to bed.” Eloise takes her hand and leads her down the hall back to her room. She tucks her into bed and kisses her forehead. Jane is seemingly already asleep. Her mother starts crying again and whispers one last thing to her daughter.“Just know I’ll always love you, my dear child.”When Jane wakes by the morning light, she is overwhelmed with sadness. She wanders down the hallway, drowning in her mother’s sweater. She goes to where she found her mother last. That is when she notices several missing objects. Jane rushes downstairs and finds no sign of her mom. The car Eloise drives isn’t parked in the driveway like usual. That’s when the feeling in her was amplified. The verification of what she had feared was heartbreaking. Her mother was gone.
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