Sleep Tight

The wind blew gently against the greasy-looking window, as though hundreds of tiny fingers wished deeply to make their presence known to whomever lurked on the other side. The glass rattled, only softly, yet the wooden frame which held it in place creaked and groaned with concerning unease. Behind the window, there was a small yet quant room. Dozens of speckled ducks and overly fluffy sheep had been carefully painted onto the light blue walls. A short wooden dresser stood directly next to a strong wooden door. The door was only slightly illuminated, by what must have been a candle flickering gently at the other side, its light just managing to crawl between the bottom of the door and the floor beneath it. Two of its dressers drawers were half slid open. A tiny pair of socks lay, slumped comfortably, almost sleepily over the outer lip of the top drawer. Placed on top of the dresser were a collection of cute, yet obscure looking dolls, loosely stitched together with what may have been various pieces of old blankets and fragments of used clothing. Still, the dolls did have an elegant, almost warm look to them. Yet, there was something about their faces; something was contained within their blank, lifeless expressions. Something they couldn't, nor wouldn't ever reveal. The shadow of a large, worn rocking horse danced joyfully against the opposing wall, lit dimly from behind only by a half melted candle, which had been placed upon a small wooden chair. A surprisingly small bed rested beneath the rattling window. The wooden frame had been decorated with a plethora of bright, marvellous spectacles. Bands of teddy bears pranced merrily from across the headboard; each holding hands with large, almost spherical looking cows that in toe, frolicked along the long wooden boards extending the entire length of the bed.

A pale skinned young girl lay cosily nestled between a large, sky-blue blanket. Her long blonde hair swayed gently in a hypnotic, pendulum like motion over the side of the large bed. Such a large bed seemed somewhat unnecessary given that the child looked only to be around seven years of age. The soft, barely noticeable rustling of trees could be heard outside the far window. Suddenly, the rustling became noticeably more aggressive, as though the wind itself wished to wake the child from her peaceful slumber. As the intensity of the winds grew, the girl expectedly, yet unintentionally awoke from her sleep. The girl, being understandably dreary eyed and dazed, clumsily stumbled out from within the warm retreat of her blanket. She slowly began to shuffle towards the window; focusing as hard as her dreary mind could on what she was sure where voices outside of the rattling window. These sounded like deep, throaty voices. Male voices. She was highly unfamiliar with men. Not simply the voice, more the gender as a whole. Her mother was the only person she had ever known. The girl wasn't however, fazed by these unfamiliar echoes, most likely due to her current state. Her weary eyes could still barely hold themselves open and her concentration was a sleepy fraction of its youthful normality. As she reached the low-sitting window ledge, she sluggishly raised her head upwards, only slightly, but enough for her to glance out into the garden beyond her room. Everything outside looked to be completely normal.

The murmurs could no longer be heard, and the haste-filled movement among the trees also seemed to have ceased. Perhaps it was nothing; she had most likely awoken from a nightmare in a state of sleep depraved confusion. After rubbing her eyes intensely, in the vagarious way only children seem to be capable of doing without causing some kind of damage, do for a few moments, she chose to turn back and proceeded to retreat back to into the comfort her cosy bed. While climbing back up into her bed, something peculiar came to her attention. The candle that her mother would usually leave lit in the hall, just outside of her room, where was it? The small crevice between the door and the hall beyond it had always been a comforting sight for her, though it was only lit dimly, to her it was akin to some kind of angelic being, watching over her entire room on a nightly basis. Her mother had never once forgotten to light the candle...Suddenly, a thunderous crash roared throughout the entire residence. Glass smashing, wood shattering, building up to an immensely loud crescendo, when...Nothing, only a deafening silence. In a paralysing state of shock, the girl laid there, her eyes barely peeking out from under the covers.