I woke up to see the bedroom door opening. It was hazy, entering back from the dream world. The room lit up dimly from the hall nightlight reflecting off the paint, then got darker again as the door was pushed back, almost closed but with a small slit.
He pulled back the comforter and slid under the covers next to me, like every other night.
Except it wasn’t. The movement was different. He was quieter than usual, not smoothing the sheets as he got in bed. And his breathing was off.
It wasn’t my husband.
Colin was out of town on a business trip, and there was no way he could have flown back across the country that quickly.
My heart raced, but I didn’t want to alert whoever it was that I knew he wasn’t who he was making himself out to be. I managed to lie there calmly, silently.
The breathing next to me evened, and I made my way out of bed as unnoticeably as possible.
Exiting through the door, I walked down the hall toward the stairs and tried not to put my full weight on the steps as I went down, so as to not let any of them creak or crack.
A bluish light peeked through the open blinds to the outside. Maybe it was a full moon. But we never left the blinds open at night. Had the man in my bed opened them before coming upstairs? How had he gotten in the house? Everything was locked and the alarm was on. Nothing made sense. The fear was screaming at me in everything I saw, yet it was also paralyzing. I couldn’t think clearly.
The windows were a little off. They were close, but they were larger than they should be. There was a porch out front, with a swing and chairs. But we didn’t have a porch. There were two windows on the south side of the house, but that was just a wall that had no windows. The dining room was larger than ours and the table was oblong, not rectangular.
Was this even our house? Did I somehow end up in someone else’s? And how would I get away from here so I would be safe?
A hand touched my shoulder from behind, and I jumped. So this is how I die.
My eyes open to a dark room. Our room. Our house. With the right dimensions and the right lighting. And I am alone. My heart is beating through my chest and I kick off the sheets to break away from the sweat.
It is real now. Isn’t it?