Mama

Running Out of Time

“Mom?”

I groggily open my eyes, still half asleep, and see the dark silhouette of Sean in my dark room.

“What do you want? And turn the light on, I can barely see you.” He complies with my wish and reveals his distraught form.

Angry nail marks on his face and arms, forming small bubbles of blood. His eyes red and swollen from obvious tears. And Mattie’s nowhere to be found.

The sleepiness drains out of me as alarm takes over.

“Oh my gosh! Bro-“

“Don’t!” Sean lunges at me and covers my mouth with his hand, preventing me from calling Broden over into my room.

“He doesn’t need to know anything. Not yet.”

“Sean… where’s Mattie.”

“That’s why I’m here. Mom, they got Uncle B.”

“What?”

“Broden. The man got Broden. I should’ve known. How stupid! He should have the same ability too!”

“What are you talking about? Calm down…”

“How can I calm down when Uncle B. was killed too?!”

I have no answer.

“When you fall asleep in one place, you return to where to fell asleep in the other time.” He continues, “So naturally, I ended back up at uncle B. and auntie Jade’s house. When I woke up, I saw Uncle B. on the couch with his arms raised, defending himself from the man, but he was already dead. He died fighting him off.”

I smile at that, Broden died doing what he always swore to do.

Protecting those he loved.

“Auntie Jade came in through the door with groceries, knowing we’d be back soon when she saw Uncle B. on the couch with the man standing above him with that crazy smile. She went insane. She flipped out.

“You killed him! You killed him! She just wouldn’t stop screaming those three words.” Sean clenches his fists and clutches his pounding head. His eyes closed tightly. “Then he turned around, saw me, and jumped at me. I barely had the time to put Mattie down when I had to punch myself out of the fight. Then auntie Jade… she snapped. First her 2 best friends were killed, then her husband. She screeched you killed him! Again and again as she scratched and kicked the man. She got me a few times too.”

He shrugs his shoulders, hunching over to indicate the bloody arms.

“But she was untouchable. She’d bite him, hurl him against the wall, but he wouldn’t even raise a hand against her.”

“You killed him! You killed him!” Sean’s imitation of the older Jade sends shivers up my spine and make the shadows outside my window even more ominous.

“So his weakness is Jade?”

“Are you even listening? My uncle-your brother- was murdered.”

“I-I, gosh, I’m sorry, Sean. But I just don’t really know what we’re up against unless I, you know, see it with my own eyes.”

“That’s why I need your help. I need to go back and get Mattie, but I don’t want to go back there alone. Please go with me?”

When he asks me of his request, I can see him as a kid, what he’ll be like in my future. A small child with a blanket and pjs on at the night, not wanting to go to the bathroom on his own in the dark.