STORY
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She lay there in the dark trying to peek out the window so that some light would come into her room. She took Sugar, her teddy bear, and clutched him more tightly to her side as she very quietly crept out of her bed and tip toed to the closed locked door. She knew that locking the door didn't stop *It* from creeping into her room as she was sleeping. A lone tear slid down her cheek as she tried to think very big thoughts of how to keep *It* out. She started to sob as she remembered the absolute terror she had felt when she saw her Mommy getting dressed to go out. Sobbing, she had run into her parent's room and hid her Mommy's shoes, then she had gone crying, uncontrollably, into her Mommy's dressing room where she was sitting there putting on her make up. "Mommy, please DON'T go out!!" "Mommy, please can I go with you? I'll be good, MOMMY PLEASE!!" "Stop this NOW young lady. We told you at dinner that Daddy is having a very important singer apppear at the Club tonight, you better stop this nonsense NOW!!" "Go to your room right now. Why must you do this every time that Daddy and I go out, you aren't a baby anymore, you're seven years old, if you don't stop crying I'll tell Daddy not to bring you home all the records from the Juke Box". "Lisa, that's it, I have had enough and I don't understand why you do this every single time we go out, go into your room NOW!!!" Just thinking of that made Lisa cry. She glanced down the long hall. Her Sister was down the hall, in her own room, but she had a Nurse staying with her. Maria had been born sickly. Lisa walked back to her bed as quietly as she could. She looked out the window for her Daddy's car, but it wasn't there. She tucked herself in and clutched onto Sugar. She pretended that Sugar was a real life lion. Exhaustion quickly set in and her eyes closed. She tried to be quiet when she heard her door open. She squished her eyes together as the terror in her nightmares became a reality. *It* was coming into her room again. *It* was going to hurt her. This happened every time that Mommy and Daddy went out. How come Mommy and Daddy didn't know? Didn't she look different? Mommy said she was getting very bratty and Daddy had gotten mad when she had hidden in her best friends garage. She thought of the Catholic School that she went to." Doesn't God love me? Am I am a bad girl? Maybe *It* was the Devil". *It* sat down on her bed. She tried to be brave. She didn't like this at all. It hurt alot. *It* started to stroke her arm and her neck. *It* slipped into bed with her. She felt like throwing up. She started to sob as *It* told her that this was their very own secret and that she couldn't tell anyone cause if she did her Mommy and Daddy would die and she would have to live in an orphanage, all alone. Didn't she understand that she was special? She had to be quiet. Lisa stayed quiet as his hands started to touch her. He took the pillow and the towel that he always brought into her room. He wasn't going to hurt her, he put the pillow over her face to ensure her muffled screams didn't echo throughout the big house, waking the Nurse. But she did cry and she did scream. It seemed like an eternity before he finished what he had come to do, going into the bathroom and coming back with the wet soapy towel to clean her. She bit her lip as the searing pain racked thru her tiny body. She curled all the way up and wished with all her might that this horrible pain would go away. She had nightmares that night. They were starting to become a regular routine to her. Her Daddy got scared when she had those nightmares. Why couldn't anyone see? She had learned to hate and fear *It*. Why did *It* move in their house? Thirty years later Lisa still sleeps with all the lights on. She has had six miscarriages and one stillborn. She sleeps with her gun right next to her. She is still afraid of *It* after all these years. She is still afraid of what the night will bring. She wonders when she will no longer be afraid.
