Prologue
Alex's Point Of View
My own screaming woke me up as it always did! I sat bolt upright in the camp bed I was using temporarily until my new foster family could get me something better. I was drenched in sweat and trembling from head to toe. This was the seventh night in a row that my night terrors had shaken the house hold. I wouldn't get a new bed, I wouldn't be staying.
A strangled cry from my foster carer's own child rang out through the house. A light went on in the hallway and I heard heavy steps walking towards the baby's room. On the first night, they came in to see if they could offer me any comfort. But after about a week or so, people would wrongly assume that it was an ongoing issue with a disruptive teenager. A teenager that they could no longer keep in their care.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with me mentally, by the way. Well, not really. I've been in foster care since I was around four years old. I have no memories other than when I got to my first temporary home. Apparently, my father left my mother when she was pregnant and she then died shortly after childbirth. Obviously, I don't remember any of that, but that was my story and it was all I had.
I bounced around the system a couple of times until, at age 7, my luck finally changed and I found a long-term place. Things were good, sometimes I played up but it was never anything too over the top. My foster Mom was called Mary and she really looked after me well. When I was twelve, we started talking about the possibility of her adopting me. Finally, I was going to have a parent!!
Then, on the night of my 13th birthday, I had a truly horrific nightmare. It was about Werewolves and Witches and one really pissed off Vampire. The scenes of it were so vivid, that when I awoke I was convinced it had actually happened. And in every single one of my nightmares I am standing right there, watching as the events unfold, and they are real!
In reality, however, I'm a human being who knows there is no such thing as monsters and wolves and ghosts or whatever, but they are so scary I'm almost convinced that we are not the only species who walk this planet. But I'd never say that out loud, of course. People would really worry about my mental health!
Anyway, the nightmares didn't stop and I didn't sleep, which meant neither did my Foster Mom or anyone else on the street for that matter. We tried everything, but eventually she was so exhausted she had to let me go. It was tough but I understood, I just wished I could fix it.
Imagine my surprise though when, no sooner had I moved into house number 5, the nightmares completely vanished. I didn't have any! So I went back to my foster Mom with this great bit of news and stayed over that night convinced everything was going to work out. Instead, I screamed the place down in terror!
After a while, it became a pattern. I would stay somewhere for a few nights, sometimes even a week, and then the nightmares would resurface. Once I got moved on, they disappeared again. Honestly, it was as if they were following me around! Every time I escaped them, they would find me.
I'm 16 now and they've just become part of my life. I wouldn't say I'm used to them because they still frighten the life out of me.
They feature a pair of adorable children that need to be protected from whatever it is that is going on. I never see their mother but I hear her screams when they are taken away from her. The thought makes me shiver involuntarily.
The light in the hallway was switched back off with a click, the baby had now settled back down. I wasn't going to go back to sleep, I didn't want to wake her again.
Regardless, I knew I'd be out on my ear tomorrow. That was my life now.