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<p><a href="https://steemit.com/story/@quietdeluxe/short-story-entity-based-on-true-events-chapter-1-asleep-or-awake">Chapter 1</a></p>
<p><strong>1980</strong></p>
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<p>Lyla’s eyes fluttered in the darkness. A night light illuminated the area between her bed and the wall. A shiny, red bicycle was parked there perched on training wheels. There was nowhere to ride in the tiny packed trailer park. A rough gravel lane snaking between the two rows of decade-old trailers. This was where her family landed once her father retired from the Air Force. It was Lyla, a much older brother, Sam, and her parents. It was a time of transition. She would begin kindergarten this year.</p>
<p>Her eyes focused on her prize. The small light behind reflected the candy red paint onto the wall. There was something more there, hunched in the blurry darkness. A figure. A face. A terrible grin and a pair of twisted wings. There were a tiny pair of knees nestled against a little chest on feet that were too big. Atop, was that horrid grin and wide eyes that never blinked, but Lyla sure did. She blinked several times before she began screaming.<br>
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<p>Her young mind registered the threat, whether it was a dream or not. She had deemed this the moment to call for reinforcements. The night was on fire as she stared into the light, the flame-red reflection, and the hellish, un-phasing smile. It did not move. It did not make an effort to speak. It simply sat motionless in silent laughter at the small terrorized girl as her distress became more amplified by the moment.</p>
<p>Lyla tried to catch her breath. What was taking her parents so long to respond to her obvious peril? She was losing hope. She was going numb. It was like her life was expelled with the sound of every sob and wail. She was overcome by desperation to the point she was almost ready to climb down from her bed and make a break for the door, but she hesitated. Such an act would require her to run right by this demonic jester, and that thought frightened her even more. There was safety in the blankets said some innate instinct her mind was too young to understand.</p>
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<p>Just as she was about to kick her hysteria to the next notch, her parents rounded the door jamb and flicked on the light. At last. Her mother rushed to her side as Lyla glanced toward her bike. There was nothing there. She tried to explain to her parents what she had seen. They tried to assure her it was just a dream and everything was okay now. Lyla still heaved small, shallow breaths that were a remnant of her sobbing. She pointed, “It was there.”</p>
<p>However, she failed to amply explain what “it” had been which further convinced her mom and dad that she’d just had a bad dream. They reassured her and waited until she was asleep again before they left. That was the first time...30 years ago.</p>
<p>Lyla had always remembered the encounter, but now, she remembered the feelings with new detail. It was the same. Only this time, she had not seen it. She had felt it, and heard it. She dreaded when all three senses might occur at the same time.</p>
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