Dweller on the Threshold by Skyla Dawn Cameron

Author:Skyla Dawn Cameron [Cameron, Skyla Dawn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyla Dawn Cameron
Published: 2022-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Not a Date

I awoke with a sudden start in my own bed.

Chest heaving with panting breaths, body shaking. The pillow beneath my head was soaked and it took a moment to realize it wasn’t the water but sweat.

It was a dream. Just a dream.

“Just”? Really? That was JUST a dream?

It was something, I just wasn’t sure yet what weight I wanted to assign it (though, truthfully, I was likely not the one in charge here.)

When I tried to close my eyes again, the visions playing against my lids alternated between that thing smiling at me from the kitchen table and the girl disappearing into the floor.

So it didn’t look like I’d be napping anymore.

The room was just as dim and grey as when I fell asleep, and I hadn’t moved at all. Still curled on my side with my knees drawn up, my muscles had stiffened and my neck was sore...but at least I’d slept. Or so I’d tried to reassure myself as my heartrate finally climbed down from the frantic terror of the dream.

Neal. Where’s Neal?

My gaze went to the nightstand and the nightmare clawed its way back into the forefront of my mind as I realized my phone wasn’t in the charger at my bedside. I had no idea what time it was. But it was daylight—at least that much I could tell. And it wasn’t snowing (I glanced over my shoulder at the window once to be sure—nope, no snow).

Initially I thought it was the dream that had woken me, but then a sudden creak sounded on the stairs. The kind of sound a heavy human foot would make, not my cats, and I froze in bed staring at the open doorway where I couldn’t quite glimpse the top of the stairs, just the wall across from my room beside it. I thought of the thing I’d felt so certain was in the darkness just past the porch, just out of sight, creeping toward the house (it’s just a dream) (but is it really?) and I tensed from head to toe.

Neal poked his head in a moment later, sheepishly grinning when he saw me awake, and he waved my phone at me.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “Wasn’t sure if you were up yet, but Gavin texted a couple of times so I thought I’d check. He said something about the house research and FaceTime.”

Neal didn’t leave me in the house alone while I slept. He didn’t leave. The terror of the dream still coated my skin no matter how I tried to shake it off, and the relief was absolutely palpable.

He didn’t leave.

I blinked a few times to shake the last vestiges of sleep away, then I got onto my elbow and hauled myself up. A brief ache flared, the result of passing out curled up, but it was a small price to pay for getting actual sleep—no matter how terrifying my dreams, at least I felt like I’d rested some.

“How long was I out?” I tried to angle

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