Night Sight

Chapter 5

It was no surprise that night Riley had the most restless sleep she had since she was young. Visions of black shadows swept across her dreams. The crackling and heavy breathing echoing in her mind. Then there was john with his hand held out. Riley swiped it away.
'I don't believe in this airy-fairy bullshit, I don't!' Her scream rang out in the darkness where John had been standing. The smokey black mass took his place and has some resemblance of ... were they eyes? And a mouth curled upwards in a wicked grin? 'It's not real, it's not real...' chanting to herself under her breath she brought her hands up to her eyes, covering them like a child would.

Everything went dead quiet as if the sound had been sucked out of the room she was in. Peering through the crack in her fingers she saw her childhood kitchen. She brushed the dust from her pants as she rose shaking her head in confusion. Why was she here? She hadn't been thinking about home, consciously anyway. An angelic voice came floating from behind her singing. "Mum?"

The singing continued, Riley turning to see her mother standing at the kitchen bench in her white floral apron, the one she always used to think was made from old curtains. Her hair was pinned back into a neat bun at the base of her neck with random strands of caramel hair falling free the more vigorously she chopped. 'There is a fountain filled with blood ' It was an old church hymn Riley was forced to sing every Sunday in the old paint peeled pews back in the summer on 93. She could feel the stuffy heat pushing down on her as she drudged through her memories.

"Mum?" Riley pushed her voice out more forcefully. The chopping grew quicker and more aggressive. Each slam of the knife on the cutting board making the cups in the cupboard clink with the vibration. 'drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains'

Slowly Riley brought down her hand on her mother's shoulder "Mum?" Her voice was shaky now.

Her mother instantly stopped chopping and slowly began turning around. Riley screamed when her mother seized her wrist in a tight, sharp grip. Fingernails digging into the soft inner flesh of her forearm. It looked like her mother but Riley knew it was anything but. Her usual warm brown eyes were black. Blood was oozing from her mouth as her face morphed into a demonic grin. The front of her apron was ripped into ribbons and her innards were trailing down her front almost reaching her feet like someone had unzipped her guts.

Blood dripped over Riley's arm as her mother yanked it across the chopping board. It took all her force to pull back from the knife which was now hovering above her shaking wrist.

"There's a fountain filled with blood..." her mother sang in a maddening sing song. Riley let out a blood curdling scream as the knife plunged down towards her arm. Shirt drenched with sweat, clinging to her body Riley shot upright in bed and turned on her bedside table light. She scrubbed at her face with her hands as if it would somehow erase the nightmare she just had.

In the dim light of the lamp beside her she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing just like her therapist had shown her. In through the nose, hold and out through the mouth. Through her white cotton shirt which read "Sleep, Tired, zzz" she felt her heart rate steadily slowing to a normal rate.

Shirt drenched with sweat, Riley shot upright in bed and turned on her bedside light. She scrubbed at her face with her hands as if it would somehow erase the nightmare she just had. As Riley moved to flick the switch off on her light she heard an eerie, high pitched melody playing. It sounded like tuned metal teeth being plucked by pins in a melancholy melody. Fingers fumbling around in her nightstand drawer she felt out a nail file, the best she could arm herself with right now.