Midnights Lotus.

21 - triggered,

"I'm coming! Relax!" Lotus shouted as she walked to the front door, half of her head filled with curlers. She unlocked the door, and saw that Bambi was standing on the other side. "Oh hey..." she trailed off, completely surprised that Bambi was there.

"Hey," she spoke, walking into the house. "Mid sent me over here to pick you up, he's gonna be a li'l late." she informed her, Lotus furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, tilting her head.

"Pick me up for what?"

"My mama having a family dinner tonight, and she wanted you to come." She told her, standing in front of the couch.

"Oh—uh, okay." Lotus stammered a little, "If you want to send me the address so you don't have to wait for me to finish, then that's fine."

"You need help?" Bambi offered stepping forward, eyeing her head. Lotus gave her a small smile and nodded her head, heading back to the bathroom.

Lotus sat in the barstool that she pulled from the island in the kitchen, as Bambi began to take out some of the curlers. "Tedric stay here last night?" she asked her, Lotus nodded her head, watching her through the mirror. "Did you tell him about it?"

"I did," Lotus told her, "He was understanding, we talked majority of the night—him just wanting to know why I have this fear of being alone." she shrugged, taking the curler that Bambi passed to her.

"Do you have separation anxiety?"

"No it's not that, it's just—" Lotus paused, deeply sighing. "I'm just really frightened when I'm by myself. I have no issue, being alone like in my room but I just have to have someone in the house with me—especially at night."

"Yeah I understand that, but my question is why do you need someone in the house with you?" Bambi pushed, she seen as Lotus shifted a little in the stool, seeming to become uncomfortable by the conversation. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. It's just you're such a tough person, I didn't think this would be a big deal for you."

"When I was like maybe eleven or twelve, my parents went to the store, I was outside playing with my friends at the time in the neighborhood. They asked if I wanted to go wit' them but being a kid, I was having a lot of fun so I didn't go. They told me if I needed anything, to just go next door to my neighbor's house. So they left wit' my siblings who were much younger at the time, I played outside for a while and eventually I went inside to go get water. The sun had set, and it was almost dark outside which means I had to cut the lights on in the house to see." Lotus started to vent, looking down at her hands.

"The house was super quiet, way too quiet. I went into the kitchen to get something to drink, and I heard a noise coming from my parents room. At the time, we had a dog, she was old so she didn't do much, she spent most of her time sleeping in their room so I didn't pay any mind to the noise because I thought it was her."

"Once I was done, I had to pee so I walked down the hall to where the bathroom was. Keep in mind the only light I had cut on was the kitchen, and that was in the front of the house. Standing at the end of the hallway was a figure of a person. They were really tall, and I remember standing there in shock because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It felt like I was standing there forever, just paralyzed with fear by this figure just standing there. Not doing anything at all, until finally they began sprinting towards me. I started screaming, and ran towards the front door."

Bambi stared at Lotus in horror, listening as she recounted the traumatic experience back to her.

"I swear I felt them brush their fingers against my back as I finally made it out the door as if they tried to grab me. I ran to my neighbors house, and was crying. They went to go look in the house but by the time they reached my house, the person was gone. My parents finally came back, and I was hysterical. Nothing had been taken from my parents room, or anywhere in the house. Despite our backdoor being unlocked, my mom didn't believe me. She thought that I was just seeing things, and til this day, that's why I have resentment towards her. My dad believed me, but she didn't."