Peri

Chapter 7: Definitely Dreaming

Everything was dark when I woke up. My knees were pressed against my face and my arms were folded tightly against my chest, hands covering my ears. I, understandably, began to panic. Then my dream started coming back to me, and I realized exactly where I was: in that cramped corner-cabinet. I had never fallen asleep in a dream and woken back up while still in that same dream before, but it was the first explanation I could come up with for why I was still there, as I had never been one to sleepwalk. Without even thinking, I wriggled one of my arms free and pushed open the door, a bit wobbly when I stood up thanks to a bout of head rush. Disoriented in the darkness, I felt my way along the wall for a light switch. 

Almost immediately, I stepped in something slick and warm, and nearly lost my balance from the shock as it soaked into the bottom of my sock. There was a brief but intense flash of terror in the moment when I thought I was falling that left me trembling, so I paused to collect myself before continuing my search. Again, my foot landed in an unknown liquid, but I kept my balanced that time. It was once my fingers met the little plastic nub of the light switch that I suddenly remembered the shadow lurking in the darkness. I thought back to sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bone I had so desperately tried to drown out and shuddered at the thought that what I had been stepping in were fresh puddles of blood. I understood that if I turned on the light, the monster would immediately know where I was, so I let my hand drop to my side. I was just about to slip my way back over to the cabinet in hopes of finishing the dream for real when I heard a guttural scream, and then a loud bang, coming from upstairs. That was strange, because it sounded like Kirin, but he had never been in one of my nightmares before, and I certainly hadn't noticed him in attendance during whatever bizarre ritual I had stumbled into earlier in the dream. My hand instantly shot back up to flip on the light, and what I saw made me nearly faint.

There was blood splattered everywhere. My mother's body lay in an unceremonious heap on the hardwood; it looked like her head had been violently bashed against the edge of the island. She was on her front, so all I could see was the blood steadily pooling from beneath a nest of matted hair, but my stomach churned at the thought of what her smashed-in face must have looked like. Then, it suddenly clicked that the liquid I had been stepping in really was blood, and my own mother's at that. As badly as my brain wanted to stop me, I couldn't help but look down at the red smears on my soles of my feet and the crimson partial-footprints I'd left on the floor. I wished I had passed out. I wished I had passed out and woken up in my bed to find that Cynthia had changed her mind and taken my mom's offer, and that my mom's book tour had to be postponed for some reason, any reason. Then, everyone would be home together, and I'd get to introduce them all to Peri like I had meant to. After that we'd all be able to live as a big, happy family. Instead, I kept dreaming.

I was ripped back to reality when Peri shrieked from the same part of the house Kirin's scream had come from. She cried out again, her pain crowding out the horror and desperation in my mind. I grabbed the first heavy object I saw, which happened to be a candlestick holder that had been left out from our dinner with Cynthia. In all honesty, it really wasn't that heavy and probably wouldn't have been very useful as a weapon, but I didn't manage to process that as I was so intensely focused on helping Peri and Kirin. I bounded up the stairs, hearing a surprised yelp from who I presumed to be Kirin, followed by silence, except for my pounding footsteps.

I had expected to find the shadow looming over Peri and my brother. But when I made it to the top of the stairs, I found Peri, covered in blood and breathing heavily, kneeling over my brother's dying body, a kitchen knife in her hand. In a blind rage I charged, ramming into her back, causing her to slam face-first into my brother. She cried out in surprise as she went down, blood spraying from Kirin's mouth as she hit his chest and forced the air out of his lungs. Now I was on top of her, swinging wildly with my crappy candlestick holder, beating at her back, shoulders and head.