Lorelei

The darkness wasn't so terrifying when you knew what lurked in it.

I learned that sometime between the third time I woke and the fourth. The monsters weren't in the shadows anymore—they were in my memories, in the phantom weight of claws on my skin, in the echo of screams that I couldn't quite convince myself were only in my head.

When I opened my eyes this time, I knew immediately that I was alone.

The quality of the silence was different. Empty. No weight of someone watching, no ...