The Night I Disappeared by Julie Reece Deaver

Author:Julie Reece Deaver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

21

I’M ALMOST SURE IT’S JUST AN ANIMAL making the bushes rustle, but I’m still scared. There’s a full moon tonight, enough light for me to see that I’m the only one here; the only one left on the baseball field. A sudden flash of movement through all the foliage, then, and Spiderman steps out of the woods. Spiderman, from the comics.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Jamie,” he says. He has a kind voice, but the words are scary. “Look at you! You look just like a scared little rabbit!”

As he gets closer he transforms himself from Spiderman to an ordinary mortal. He’s wearing a hooded red sweatshirt and sunglasses. Sunglasses, even though it’s nighttime.

He holds his hand out. “You come with me, darlin’.”

I can’t move. I’m paralyzed.

“Did you hear what I said?”

He reaches for me, but I take a step backward. I look around for Ellis. For someone. For anyone.

“Webb!” I scream. “Webb!”

• • •

“Jamie? Jamie, wake up. Are you all right?”

I open my eyes, startled, and sit up in bed. The room’s pitch black, and my mom is silhouetted against the light coming from the hall.

“You were having a nightmare,” my mother says. “Are you okay? I could hear you all the way across the hall.”

“You heard me? What was I saying?”

“I thought you were calling me,” she says. She walks over to the bed. “What were you dreaming about? You sounded so frantic.”

“Nothing. I don’t know. It didn’t make any sense.”

“You used to have terrible nightmares, do you remember? You used to dream someone was chasing you.”

“Yeah. That was a long time ago.”

“I used to sit with you until you could go back to sleep.”

“I remember.”

“Do you want me to stay with you a little while?”

I want that. I want that a lot. But I can’t risk it; can’t risk falling asleep and having another nightmare and waking up screaming. I don’t want my mother to see how crazy I’m becoming.

“I’ll be okay, Mom. You’d better get back to bed or you’ll be a very tired defense attorney in the morning.”

I can’t see her face too well, but I know she’s smiling. “Are you going to be able to sleep?”

“I think so. Sorry I woke you up.”

“Call me if you need me.”

As soon as she’s gone, I tiptoe out to the kitchen and make a strong cup of coffee. I’m beyond exhaustion, but sipping industrial-strength coffee and staying awake is a lot better than going to sleep and letting my subconscious hijack my brain. Right now I don’t plan on sleeping ever again. I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep it up, though. People who are sleep deprived, I remember reading somewhere, become a little psychotic.

I’m already a little psychotic, I think, and too numb to care about it.

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