One More Night by Gabriel Pope

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 ONE MORE NIGHTby Gabriel_Pope

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ONE MORE NIGHT
by Gabriel_Pope

"Mommy, can Sally sleep with us tonight?"

Sally? My eyebrows creased as I tried to recollect who that was. We had no pets and there were just two of us in the house. I spat into the sink and wiped my mouth.

"Who's Sally?" I paused with the toothbrush halfway to my mouth while I waited for her response. Who's Sally? I heard movements from the bedroom and I could tell that my daughter had gotten out of bed. Her faint footsteps continued within the room and I turned my attention back to brushing my teeth. I rinsed my mouth and then gurgled but paused when my daughter giggled from the bedroom. Strange, there was no one else there with her.

"You sound like a turkey, mommy," she said in between giggles. I grinned, how could I have missed our joke. Of course, I sounded like a turkey when I gurgled.

"Want me to do that again?" She replied with an affirmative mmhmm. I took in some water into my mouth and just as I raised my head to face the ceiling, something moved from the corner of my eye and on impulse I turned in the direction of the bedroom. My heart jammed against my chest and the water in my mouth spewed out, splashing everywhere when I saw a doll almost the height of my daughter standing in the door way.

"What's that?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. That was a stupid question; of course it was just a doll.

"Sally," Jordin answered, clutching the doll by its hands. "Are you scared of her?"
"No...no," I stuttered. "It's just...," I trailed off. Shocked? Scared? Kids probably wouldn't know the difference. "Come on now, time for bed."

I picked my 4 year old girl from the floor, her doll, Sally, dangled freely by her side. We got tucked in bed although I wasn't planning to go to sleep just yet; I just had to put my little bundle of trouble to rest first. After a few minutes of humming lullabies, there was no movement from her apart from her tender breathing. I slipped out of bed and turned off the lights.

"Mommy," Jordin called out in a slurred, sleepy voice just as my hands gripped on the door's handle.

"Yes baby."

"You should be scared of her. She's evil."

I flicked the lights on, Jordin was still snuggled with the doll the way I'd left them and I could've sworn that the voice had only been in my head. I shrugged off the thought and turned the lights off, shutting the door to her room with a gentle bump.

I made my way down the stairs to the living room. Cartons upon cartons lay all around waiting to be unpacked. I sighed at the sight which drained what was left of my strength. We'd moved in two days ago and it was our second night, still, I hadn't been able to arrange all our stuff. It was real work, especially when Garry wasn't in town. His job had him shuttling between states for a few weeks but he was returning tomorrow. Tomorrow isn't so far, I thought to myself. My procrastinating self didn't argue. I could just wait, it was just a thing of a few hours and he'd be home to help out with unpacking.

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