In The Shadows of Doubt

I felt restless as I dozed, and at some point, dreamed that I was in a dark room, with only moonlight illuminating it, a long rectangle of light shining on the floor beside my bed. I was aware of children sleeping around me, in a room lined with beds along both walls, and instantly recognized the room as the orphanage where I lived from age four to fifteen. In my subconscious, I also realized, at that moment, that I wasn’t afraid of the dark.

But a door opened just then, and a shadow fell on the floor down the center of the room, a long man’s shadow. He made his way into the room, not noticing me as I lay there watching. He approached the bed of the oldest girl in the room, three beds away from mine, and the closest to the door. Her name was Celeste and she was twelve years old to my four. I watched mesmerized as he covered her mouth with his hand and held her wiggling frame tightly as he dragged her from the room. A look of stark terror filled her eyes as she fought him. In the light of the hallway, I recognized the man as the orphanage owner, Ulysses Tucker, the same man who had come to take me from Aunt Elizabeth’s home, the only other home I had ever known.

The beautiful blue-eyed girl struggled, trying in vain to fight him off, but soon he shut the door behind them, leaving me breathless and suddenly afraid.

At that moment, I fought to waken, trembling and sweating with the revelation of my dream.

But it wasn’t a dream at all. I knew that now. It was a memory I had lost for years, only to surface now, finally explaining my fear of the dark.

As I thought back, I remembered vaguely, that after that night, I had never seen Celeste again. He had told everyone she had run away.

Opening my eyes wide in terror, I realized now, what had probably happened.