I called to Dean to come inside. He had a tennis meet the next day and needed to get to bed. Plus, I had the willies. Something about the sound of the ambulance siren raised the hairs on my arms and made me instinctively want to hide. Looking once more at the moon in its glorious fullness, I stepped beside Dean and walked up the stairs of my porch into the house. My girls, Sylvia and Carmen, sat at the round table in our kitchen finishing their homework. Sylvia looked up, a question in her brown eyes. Carmen shivered as the door closed, adjusted her ear phones and turned up the volume of her ipod.
Nothing seemed wrong. In fact, the evening was mainly business as usual. Except for the siren. As it wailed past a dissonant memory stirred deep in my subconscious. I shook off the feeling and thought instead of the moon and its brilliance and the idea that something great is waiting for me. A thoughtful cliche, but comforting after the the uneasiness of the siren.
"Mama, when's daddy getting home?" asked Sylvia.
"After bowling, honey, probably around 10:00." Rico bowled every Monday night and had for the past eleven years. Sylvia knew, but it was habit for her to ask. Normal.
Dean, sensing that the three girls in the room were out of sorts, cracked, "Maybe the Wild Hunt is about and looking for fair maidens as game!"
"If that's the case, then I'm safe!" I said, "and besides, we don't live in Ireland, we're just part Irish. Now all of you, time to get ready for bed."
As they all went about their bedtime routines, I toured the house locking the doors and turning on night lights. The last thing I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, before I shut off the dining room light and clicked on the owl night light, was a strange shaped shadow reflected in the hall mirror. I closed my eyes, shook my head and reopened them. The shadow had left.
"Perhaps the moonlight reflecting off the crystals of the small chandelier hanging over my dining table caused the effect." I thought.
I jumped, startled, as Lilith, my eldest cat and oldest friend, brushed up against my legs. She gazed at me with her blue eyes then turned and sauntered toward my bedroom. Not looking back, I followed.
Each child has his or her own room and we all keep our doors closed for fire safety. Without Rico, I sometimes feel so lonely behind that closed door. I guess its better that burning to death, though. I muted the overhead light and proceeded to my bathroom. I admired my brand new shimmering gold shower curtain as I started to brush my teeth and ready myself for bed. As I squeezed the toothpaste onto my cherry red toothbrush, I was overcome with dizziness and abruptly sat down on the floor to keep from falling.
The dizzy spell did not abate and I began to hallucinate. All I could see were mirrors, everywhere, reflecting two shadows moving together-dancing. Then I saw Kiara. She looked confused. Without thinking, I grabbed her arms, and that's when I noticed the shadow lurking behind her. It was only a form; however, I sensed it was male and that it was angry.
As she slipped out of my grasp I yelled, "Put up a wall between you and him. Don't let him touch you!" I didn't know if he was evil, but something about him just felt wrong. Lilith hissed and and nipped my fingers, the sting of her small sharp teeth returning my vision to normal. She rammed her head against my arms then quickly turned, ran and leaped onto my bed. Looking back at me with her cool gaze, inquiring in that way cats do, she asked if I was going to come to bed too. I did.
As I laid my head down onto my pillow, sighing as I rubbed my legs against the sheets made soft by many washings with lavendar scented fabric softener, a voice whispered to me, "I'll see you soon, Rihanna."
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