As she
closed her eyes, she felt sleepy, tired and heavy. She curled her toes under
the feather down comforter and waited for warmth to get back into her bones. Then
she fell asleep. And as she slept, she felt long fingers touching her face and
snaking their way from the crown of her head to her chin. Tina almost screamed
as she clutched her sheets and felt her breath catch in her throat.

“Christi,
Christina, I’m scared,” came a little voice and Tina opened her eyes wide and
felt her body relax into the bed as she looked over at Rose who had gotten up
and was clutching one of Tina’s curls in her hands.

“Awwsweetieit’s
okay, come here and sleep in here with me,” Tina pulled back the covers and her
small sister snuggled in next to her.

“What’s
wrong, darling? Did you have a bad dream?” asked Tina.

“No,” said
Rose, “I felt itthethedread.”

“What?”
said Tina sitting up and staring at her sister.

“Wellsometimeswhen
I can’t sleep I feel like something very bad is going to happen and then I feel
this sense of, I dunno, I guess dread was what father said about how Shirley
felt on her adventures in the Mountains of Munon,” said her sister.

“Honey,
that’s just a story,” said Tina.

“But, it’s
coming, it’s coming, it’screepingit’s coming,” her sister whimpered and shut
her eyes tight clutching her stuffed bunny.

Tina
shivered again and felt a cold knot in her stomach, thinking that was just like
the fog moving in. She pulled her sister closer and wrapped her arms around
her, grabbing the goose down comforter and stuffing it around her and her
sister. She gently loosening her sister’s curls and murmured soothingly into
the crown of head. She felt her sister’s body go limp and relax in her arms and
smiled as they both began to fall asleep.

* * *

Tina woke with a cold dread and felt a gust of sharp biting
wind. She opened her eyes and stared around the room. She suddenly realized
that the door to the room was open and there was an orange glow spilling in
from the hallway. Standing in the midst of the red and orange glow was the
silhouette of a figure. A dark figure standing not twenty feet in front of her