There were still bars around my bed. I was that young. This isn’t really a dream, but a waking nightmare. In the summertime night, my bedroom window was open. I kept hearing the sound of footsteps outside, muffled. Kah-thump, kah-thump, kah-thump. Someone was walking around outside my window, some stranger. All my family was asleep. Who was this person, and what did they want?
I lay there in terror, until sleep finally overtook me. The next night, it was the same. And the night after that. And after that. Not ending for weeks.
Years later, I realized that the footsteps were the sound of my heartbeat as my ear lay squashed against my pillow.
