Veri sat up with a gasp. Her breaths were shaky, she was wet with nervous sweat, and she clutched the blanket tight in her hands. She found herself in the dark again, but this time it was the familiar darkness of her room, and she eventually was able to stop her trembling.

I guess I fell asleep after all, she thought, looking around the dim room. The storm outside had passed, though the wind was still blowing fitfully, and faint moonlight came in through the window, lighting everything up slightly with an eerie silvery glow. Veri considered going to look for her mother, but to do that she’d have to get out of her bed, and while she wasn’t generally scared of the dark, after that dream…

So she decided to stay put. She wasn’t going to risk anything. But how am I going to forget about it if I have to stay in here alone all night? I know what I was going to do tonight, but I don’t think I’m brave enough now. She remembered about the kitten. Oh, yeah! Maybe I can name him tonight!

She looked around for him, but he wasn’t on the quilt where he had been when she had fallen asleep, and she didn’t see him anywhere else on the bed. He wasn’t on the windowsill either, or on the floor, at least not anywhere she could see. He can’t walk, so he couldn’t have gone anywhere by himself, she thought. What happened to him? She peered out the window and after her eyes adjusted to the moonlight she tried to see any sign of the kitten. It was hard because of the changing, shifting lights and the wind moving everything around, but she was finally able to recognize a tiny slinking black shape amongst the intangible shadows. Apparently the kitten could walk, and quite well at that.

She watched him go across the yard quickly and stealthily, though it seemed he was having a bit of a hard time finding his way. Maybe he’s blind, too, she mused. Or maybe it’s just a new place and he’s trying to find his way around. I’ve never seen him here before. She watched him nimbly leap to the top of a fence in a little surprise. I thought he was a baby, but maybe he’s not so little after all.

Suddenly her eye caught a flash of movement across the room: a shadow slinking under another shadow that melted into a third shadow. Veri stiffened.

“Not tonight,” she whispered desperately, terrified. “Please, not tonight.”

A tiny scraping sound came from the other side of the room, and she winced, hiding her face in the blankets in her lap.

“Please,” she whimpered, her voice muffled. Any other night you know I would be fine, but the dream just scared me too much tonight. I’m sorry, but please…

Another small shuffling sound came from across the room and then the shadow reappeared again, seeming to float over the ground and up the side of her bed until it almost touched her. She could sense something beside her, but it didn’t seem like normal. She didn’t want to look, but she also did. But she didn’t know why. Something was pulling her to look.

She peeked out from beneath her arm, and her scared chestnut eyes quickly flew open even wider as they met the brilliant blue ones before her. Nobody she knew had eyes like that – and yet – they didn’t quite look like the shadows’ eyes either.

“Who…” she began.

The eyes disappeared again as suddenly as they had come, and Veri gasped and cowered into herself, hiding her face again. But after a while she looked back out into the room. It felt very different from usual, somehow safer, though she never particularly felt unsafe either. It was more like there was something in the room beside her. That was normal, though; it was the feeling that whatever this new thing was was more solid. Like her. But still different.

She sighed and flopped back down onto her bed, pulling the quilt up to her chin. It doesn’t matter, she thought. Whatever that was is probably just passing through, like most of the others. But I do feel safe… I hope it’s staying.