When Daddy Comes Home by Toni Maguire

Author:Toni Maguire [Toni Maguire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780007280032
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

First came the headaches.

In the early hours of the morning, the pain woke her. Her head felt as though it was clasped by a giant hand. She visualized the fingers pressing through her scalp, gripping her neck and then squeezing until the pain settled behind her eyes, distorting her vision.

During the day, when the headaches had passed, she felt lethargic, her limbs became heavy and her brain slowed until it felt sluggish. Her concentration faded and the print in books, which once had given her comfort, became blurred until even the short stories in magazines became too much for her, and she put them wearily aside.

Back at home in the bedsitter and trying to sleep, she found that there was no rest to be had. Her anxiety, her loneliness and her guilt poisoned her dreams, turning her nights into torment. She was deprived of rest; instead she was swept to dark places where demons chased her.

Sometimes she would have the sensation of falling and through her nightmare she felt her body twitch with the effort of trying to stop it. When she woke she would feel her heart pounding with lingering panic. Sudden sounds startled her and an overwhelming loneliness filled her mind.

Then the dream came; it came every night and it was so much worse than all the others that she would force herself awake. Then she would wait for daylight, determined to keep sleep at bay, terrified that if she closed her eyes it would return. The nightmare took her into a forest where tall trees grew so densely their foliage hid the sky and obliterated the light of the moon. Desperately, she searched for the way out as wet branches whipped her face and slimy tendrils curled snakelike round her legs and feet, hindering her frantic progress. The sense of being trapped was terrifying and it seemed that there were creatures hidden in the dense undergrowth. She felt animosity radiating from them as unseen eyes spied on her and somehow she knew her father was there amongst them. She could sense his shadowy presence watching and mocking her feeble attempts of escape.

Unable to see in the cold blackness of the forest, she only knew that she was terrified and lost. Then suddenly a gaping chasm would appear under her feet and she would feel herself begin to fall, sucked down by a force stronger than her willpower. She tried to touch the sides of the cavern and stop herself falling but her hands only grasped dank emptiness. Out of control, she fell blindly through the depths towards something unspeakable.

She knew she was asleep and would desperately fight to regain consciousness but not before a silent scream tore from her throat as she tumbled headfirst into darkness. Helpless mewing sounds escaped her mouth as panic broke through and released her. She would wake, sweating and breathless, still anxious and fearful as the nightmare faded. She knew that she had avoided hitting the bottom of the awful pit by seconds.

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