Chapter 5: Drowning In Guilt
The place was unusually chilly, and my body shook profusely. I fingered my hands in the corner of a dark room, rubbing them constantly to warm myself. For some reason, the room felt familiar. The door was right next to me, and I could see the moonlight from the space below the door. But then that light was blocked by something, causing me to become anxious.
Cautiously I rose from a crouched position, as my heart pounded within me. Then the doorknob turned, and I rushed to prevent it from opening, but whatever was on the other side kept pushing on the door with a powerful force.
So I rested my body against the door and exerted as much strength as I could on it. My only regret was not locking the door, although I couldn't recall ever entering the room. I began to lose my grip, and slowly the force on the other side gained ground on me until I gave up and let go.
The door flung open and launched me onto the floor. In the midst of the doorframe, a shadowy figure blocked out the moonlight and stood erect, staring at me from the doorframe. The lining of its body made it out to be a person.
As the person walked towards me, I turned and tried to crawl away, but I kept slipping and falling. Then I looked back, and they were right above me. A black monstrous figure with a face I couldn't make out.
As its hand reached out to me, I closed my eyes, hoping for something or someone to save me. Then I heard a voice calling me, "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy." From the dense darkness, I could feel a wet liquid soaking my dress as I looked around, constantly trying to find where the voice was coming from until I opened my eyes and saw sunlight.
I shifted my head around and saw my mother standing at the side of my bed. Slowly I rose into a sitting position and rubbed my eyes as she spoke, "I thought you would never wake up."
Hearing her voice made me feel a sudden calm, realising my previous environment was just a dream. "I knew I should have checked on you last night," she said, "but I was so tired. You always sweat like this when you're sleeping." The rest of what she said made me skip a beat.
I looked up at her, "You check on me at night?" I asked, adjusting the strap of my dress back onto my shoulder.
"Sometimes." When she said that, I did recall a few times where I woke up in something different, but I never thought much about it; she continued talking, "Anyway, get dressed; Tim is outside to meet you."
"Huh, Tim?" I thought to myself. What's he doing here so early? Nonetheless, I got dressed and rushed to the front door.
My father was in his rocking chair deep in a newspaper, while John sat eating breakfast at the dining table. When he noticed me, he put his hand by his neck and moved them from side to side, telling me to keep my mouth shut.
I didn't understand what was going on until I saw Tim and Jennifer standing at the door. I opened my eyes wide, then looked at Tim, who avoided looking at me. I immediately wondered if we'd been found out, but then Jennifer spoke, "Good morning Lucy, how are you doing?"
"I'm doing fine." I answered, barely looking at her.
Then Tim glanced at me, "So, ah, Lucy, you know that scarf I lent you last nig–"
"Ouch!" John shouted, and we all looked around at him, "Dam it." he exclaimed, "I bit my tongue." Then he frowned at Tim.
My father turned his newspaper and added to the moment, "Don't eat too fast, son."
Tim somehow understood what was going on and suddenly started talking again, "Right, Lucy, so you know that scarf I lent you last Monday; could I have it back?"
I was left confused, "A scarf?" I asked myself, "He lent me a scarf on Monday?" Then I remembered and opened my mouth wide, "Ohhh, that scarf." Tim was obviously talking about the scarf he lent me last night, but I can't recall bringing it home, so I kept up the lie, "I can't remember where I put it."
"Are you sure you don't know where you put it?" Jennifer asked, smiling softly.
This made me feel guilty, but my survival was at stake, "No, I will look for it though." I replied.
My mother then asked, "Was it yours, Jennifer?"
"Well yes, but I gave it to Tim,'' Jennifer replied with a happy smile; she was always smiling.
"Oh Lucy, you need to take care of the things people give you." My mother added, "I'll make sure she finds it." she assured Jennifer.
"Oh, it's fine, Margaret," Jennifer replied, gesturing her hand, "I'm sure it's in her room somewhere."
My mother glanced down at me and said, "Alright then, go'n and eat, Lucy. I'll join you all soon."
As I reclined at the dinner table, I overheard Jennifer complaining about something so I began to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"Could you believe it? Last night some coloured folks broke into my house and stole the 3 bins I bought the other day." An upset Jennifer started steaming.
My mother opened her mouth in disbelief, "Did you see them?"
"Well no, but you know those people; they're always up to no good."
My mother sighed, "You can't just go around blaming things on people. Did you tell the police?"
"No, it's not like we can lock 'em all up; who else would clean our floors?" Jennifer answered arrogantly.
I couldn't be bothered to eavesdrop anymore; the guilt was beating me. I whispered to John, who had been staring into his bowl the whole time, "You think the bins are still on the s-"
He flared up at me and reached over the table, "Shhhh!" but he was too loud. My father looked up at us and raised his eyebrow, then returned to the newspaper.
"What's this about?" my mother asked. I turned around and saw her standing behind my chair. With all the commotion, I failed to hear when Tim and Jennifer had left. After telling her nothing was wrong, I finished my breakfast, and we hurried outside and made a break for the sidewalk by the sleepwalker's house.
As a custom, we stood on the sidewalk across from the house to avoid being too close to even the fence which made me realise we broke that rule last night. However, we were left dumbfounded when we saw none of the bins.
My first assumption was that Jennifer had found them, but John reduced that idea to nothing. When he noted that Jennifer needed to pass this street to get to our house, which meant they weren't there when she came earlier.
We stood there wondering where the bins could have gone then John said, "What if we check the Sleep-"
"No," I immediately answered.
John looked around at me, "No ones aroun-"
"No, No, No I barely managed to not get killed last night and I wanna keep it that way."
When I finished talking I noticed a curtain in the house shift as if someone was looking through it a moment ago. Seeing I wasn't entertaining another stakeout John decided to leave the bins alone and play with me on the pasture.
Tim didn't join us that day, but we weren't surprised. He had told us the evening before that he would be going out with his aunt today and said that he would come see us in the evening since he was leaving early the next morning for Jacksonville.
So that evening in the twilight hours, we met just outside the apartment on the grassy front yard and discussed our pressing issues, "Did you find the scarf Lucy." Tim asked, looking at me with hopeful eyes.
"No, I think I dropped it in the sleepwalker's house." He sighed and looked down at the ground, then scratched his head, "Was it that important to you, Tim?" I asked.
He glanced at me, "No, but it's not exactly mine; it actually belongs to Jennifer, and it was a gift from her mother before she passed."
"And you just had to give me that scarf?" I answered sarcstically.
"I just found it in her room. She has like 10 of them," he looked over at a passerby, "I should have just picked up the red one instead."
John, who had been quiet the whole time, butted in, "What about the bins, Tim? Where do you think they went?"
"I reckon the Sleepwalker took 'em." He answered.
But our conversation was cut short when Jennifer's voice sounded behind us, "Alright, Tim, it's time to go; you gotta wake up early tomorrow to get on the train."
We looked around and saw her coming down the steps, "Looks like this is goodbye." Tim replied with a hint of sadness.
"Yea." I added. Summer always felt so short.
"You'll come back next summer, right." My brother asked.
"Yea, I should, so make sure you find out more about the sleepwalker." Tim answered.
"We will." My brother replied as Tim joined his aunt on the sidewalk. For some reason, I felt great he would be coming back; despite all the trouble he had gotten us into, he managed to grow on me. And school was going to be boring anyway, so I was looking forward to another long vacation.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
LanumKing
LanumKing Alr thats end of the introduction arc hopefully you enjoied this few arc and as i said in the synopsis i take weekend breaks to get and idea of where the story will be going.
So meet me back here next week!
Also i want to start doing Q and A so join my discord sever for that.
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