“Maddy, can you hear me?”My aunt Ellie’s voice fills the darkness surrounding me.
I want to call out to her, but I’m too scared to open my mouth. I’m sitting in a closet in the dark, hiding from the police who showed up here because one of my friends’ parents overdosed and died in the living room.
I found the woman’s body, sprawled out on the floor, with a needle in their arm. My mother and father had left the house, but a few people were sleeping on the sofa.
I knew the woman on the floor with a needle in her arm was dead, though, the instant I walked into the house after getting home from school. It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen a dead body, but that’s not too strange for where I live. Still, I imagine that most eleven-year-old Royal children probably haven’t seen a dead person.
I hug my knees to my chest and scoot back further into the closet. Part of me wants to stay here, where I don’t have to go out into the light again, where I’m forced to see bad things?—
The door cracks open and light spills into the darkness.
My aunt Ellie is standing in the doorway.
“I’m so sorry, Maddy,” she tells me as she offers me her hand. “I never should’ve left you here.”
I place my hand in hers, and she helps me to my feet. “It’s not your fault,” I whisper. “I have to live here, no matter how much I don’t want to.”
She’s quiet for a bit with a frown on her face. “I’m…” She smooshes her lips together. “Do you want to come stay with me for a few days?”
Relief cascades over me as I nod.
It’s always better when I stay with her. In fact, I often wish my aunt were my mother?—
The images around me shift. Suddenly, I’m running through my aunt Ellie’s house, terrified as she runs with me and ushers me into her bedroom closet.
“Whatever you do, don’t come out of here,” she whispers, then the door clicks shut.
I’m sitting in the darkness again, and for a while, the air is quiet. But then I hear loud voices that turn to shouting. It grows louder and louder, then I hear a few gunshots before everything grows quiet again.
I remain still, my heart pounding in my chest as the closet door opens up. I’m so scared I almost scream, but then my aunt Ellie steps into the doorway.
I start to relax, but then I notice the blood all over her clothes.
“Everything’s okay,” she assures me. “I just need you to stay here for a bit longer. It’s for your own safety, Maddy.”
I nod, and she closes the door again.
I sit there for what feels like forever, wondering why my aunt was covered in blood.
I jolt awake. The lights are also out, which only adds to my panic. Little gasps slip from my lips as I sit up and scan the darkness encompassing me.
“What is it?” Finn asks, and his voice brings me a drop of ease in the wave of panic flooding my body.
“It’s just too dark,” I tell him. “I can’t get my bearings.”
“Hold on.”
I hear rustling and then soft light filters through the room as he turns on a lamp that’s on the nightstand.
He rolls onto his back and then sits up, worriedly looking me over. “You had a nightmare.”
I want to deny it, pretend to be tough, but I’m too drained at the moment. “How can you tell?”
“It’s all over your face.” He grazes the back of his hand across my cheek. “What was it about? Being in this room?”
“Oddly, no.” I inhale and exhale before lying down. “It was about my real mother. I think it was more of a memory, though, than an actual nightmare.” I rest my arm on my head as I gaze up at the ceiling. “Lately, I’ve been remembering memories that I've apparently forgotten. I wasn’t sure why, but after the one I just remembered, I’m guessing I forgot it because it was extremely traumatic.”
He lies down beside me, props up on his elbow, and rests his cheek against his hand. “Can I ask what it was about? But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
