Perception

2. The Kid

 "Abigail, do not go out of the house until I go check it out myself." Mama said.

"But mama, he's dead. How did he get here? That's not possible." Abby said, holding onto her mama's arm, and leaned over to the window to see it.

"MAMA, I SAW-..."

"Please go sit inside. I don't want you to be seeing this." She said, walked Abby to the kitchen, grabbed a heavy kitchen knife, and walked towards the front door.

She stops there, leans over the window to see it. The sight was freaky enough to make her go pale. She opens the door with a trembling hand, slowly, and with the knife in the other.

Abby peered through a small opening to the hall to see what's happening. She couldn't stop herself from not going there. She slowly tiptoed her way there, only to see her dad, in the clothes he was buried in, lying inside his coffin, right outside their front door. She screamed. Her screams were so agonising. It felt like she went deaf. She couldn't hear anything despite screaming so loud. Her mama pulled her away from there, and rushed her back to the kitchen.

Both of them saw the hands and legs of the corpse were lying in a very odd position outside the coffin. Then they saw it move and get up slowly, making the sound of cracking bones, and started walking towards them. The face looked as pale as snow, but deadly and evil.

What Abby saw, she cannot un-see it now. She's never going to forget that sight.

Then Abby heard her own screams echoing, and fading away, and it was all dark.

Abby wakes up with a jerk, sweating like she was left in a desert for days, throat dry, lips dry and crippled. She's never had such a bad episode in a long time. She tried to look for her phone, that was somewhere inside her blanket. She felt it beside her left leg. She use both her legs, and draged it up till her hand, and check her phone. 4:00 am. October 3rd, 2017.

"I...saw him...again...why...but"

She never made any sense. Her words and sentences kept breaking. This was so traumatizing, it left her shaking all over. Her body was asleep, but her mind was wide awake, taking the full force of the nightmare.

"You should really consider moving in with someone."

"No. That's very risky." Abby said, trying to calm herself down.

Her palms were so sweaty. She couldn't use it to wipe her face. She turned on all the lights in her room, and  struggled to get out of bed. Her legs are trembling, not really responsive. She had to hold onto her bed, and whatever she found on the way to the bathroom so she could walk. She opened the door, kept it open behind her, and washed her face, neck and palms.

She didn't bother to wipe my face. She walked out with water dripping from her chin and eyelashes, and slowly goes to sit on the bed.

"Was I saying something?" Abby asked.

"No, you were just panicking."

"This has nothing to do with dad. I don't want him to be affecting me at the moment. I need to find out more about that guy now." she said, convincing herself, as she pulled her blanket onto her feet.

"You were the cashier yesterday morning. Remember? If you remember his order, you can find his name, and maybe his phone number too, if he's a regular customer and goes for promotions and offers."

"Brilliant idea! But, I need to go there before everyone gets there. I can't let anyone see me."

"Go early. Before the café even opens. Like at nine or something."