The First Night She Refused to Sleep
One evening, things escalated.
“I don’t want to sleep in my bed tonight.”
That was new.
“Why not?” I asked gently.
She hesitated, then whispered:
“It gets worse when it’s dark.”
A knot formed in my stomach.
“What gets worse?”
“The tight feeling.”
Mattresses
I tried to stay calm.
“You’re safe here,” I assured her. “There’s nothing in your bed.”
But even as I said it, I realized something unsettling:
I didn’t actually know that for sure.