Book #1

Prologue

Rose is a little girl whose parents could never help but feel that there was something different about her. They didn’t quite know what it was but they knew there was something that set her apart from most people. It wasn’t very apparent at first but over the years it became more obvious something very peculiar was happening. Just like any other baby girl she would wake up crying in the middle of the night, waking her parents with her loud screams. The thing was, her cries and screams seemed too violent at times. No one could understand why but they figured maybe it was normal for a baby. As she got a little older these violent nights continued and seemed to only get worse.

“No, please stop, no!” Rose screams, tossing and turning in her bed at the stroke of midnight. She motions to block her face and then falls, slamming into the hard cold floor.

“Oh my god, sweetie are you okay!?” Her mother turns on the light in her room and runs to her daughter on the floor lifting her head to see a bloody nose. She looks at her daughter's bloodied face and carefully picks the child up to bring her to the bathroom. She sits Rose on the side of the sink and wets a paper towel to clean her face.

“Ouch! Mommy that really hurts.” Rose says softly with tears streaming down her face.

“Oh sweetie I know, I’m trying to be careful…..what happened? Did you have a bad dream again?” Rose nods, again tears now bursting from her eyes. She hugs her mom tightly.

“I was so scared mommy…”

“Well tell me what happened”

“The bad man from before was in it, but this time we were somewhere different…...and he looked a little different. He had something on his face and it looked really ugly. He tried to hit me and he said that I deserved it. That I was bad. Am I bad mommy?”

“Of course not sweetie, don’t think that way. This was only a dream and for every bad one you have, there will be many good ones. That bad man can’t hurt you okay? Now, why don’t we go back to your room and I’ll tuck you in and tell you a story. Would that make you feel better?” Rose seems to be pleased with the idea but has plans of her own by the look of her devious little smile.

“Well, mommy can I maybe sleep with you and daddy…or have a midnight snack?”

Her mom smiles back and Rose lets out a small giggle.

“Huh….well normally I would say you’re getting a little old for sleeping with mommy and daddy since you’re already nine, but I know you just used that to distract me from the midnight snack,” She says as she begins to tickle her. “How about this, you go lay down in your room and I’ll bring you a nice warm brownie with some milk, of course you have to brush your teeth afterward. How does that sound?” The little girl nods her head and skips off to her room as her mother watches her amused, slowly getting more worried.

“Honey what happened, is she okay?” Rose’s father asks, still half asleep after being torn from his bed at the sound of his daughter screaming.

“She had another nightmare, Rose said the man from last time was in it again and that he tried to hit her, saying she deserved it because she was bad. I just don’t understand where she got this dream from. Should we be worried that this is going to be a regular thing, this violent mystery man trying to hurt our daughter…?”

“Annie, baby, she’s going to be fine. Don’t worry so much. It’s normal for little kids to have nightmares about monsters in the night, and Rose’s seem to be this man she made up. It’s a phase, and it will pass I promise you…” he kisses her on the temple and wraps his arms around her.

“Oh Richard, I really hope you’re right. She just seemed so scared and this time she fell and got a bloody nose...of course that didn’t stop her from getting a brownie with milk out of me once I made sure she was all better.” They both laugh and go to the kitchen.

“Hun, why don’t you let me take care of her this time you go back to bed, a man is supposed to be his daughter’s King and save the day right? After all, she is my little princess.” Annie simply smiles at him and gives him a kiss. “Go, I’ll be there in a minute.”

A moment later he pokes through the door of his daughter's room with the brownie and milk in hand to see if she is still awake. The first thing he sees is the small bright face of the young girl almost swallowed by her bed with her eyes greedily searching for the brownie. “Hey there gorgeous, mommy told me you needed a treat and maybe a story…to make you feel better?”

He sits by her on the bed as she sits up, and before saying anything she takes a bite of the brownie followed by a sip of milk.

“So what story are you going to tell me? Can it be a funny one?”

“Hmmm, a funny story let me think…...okay I have one. One day I was on a date with your mommy and we were having lunch at the park. It was really nice out and we were laughing and enjoying the day getting to know each other. Then I see white drops fall on her shoulder out of nowhere. I realized that a bird had pooped on her. I looked away to pretend that I didn't notice so she wouldn’t be embarrassed. She saw the poop and tried to clean it off hoping I didn’t see it. Then when I turned around as she was talking to me the bird came back and pooped on her again!” Rose bursts out laughing at the thought of so much bird poop. “It seemed like that bird really didn’t like your mommy for some reason, so I told her, ‘This must be your lucky day’, to make her feel better. So I got some napkins to help her clean off the poop”

“Eww! Did a bird really poop on mommy?” Rose is laughing so hard she almost can’t breathe.

“Yes, it pooped on her a lot that day, and after we just laughed”, Richard himself now is laughing hardily at the memory. “Now are we ready to go to sleep for the night?”

Rose puts the glass and plate on the mantel beside her bed and lays down for her dad to tuck her in. He kisses her on the forehead and turns off the light being sure to turn on the small night light in the corner of her room.

“Good night princess, I love you, sweet dreams.”

“Good night daddy I love you too.” He smiles at her warmly and then leaves the room being sure to quietly return to his room, getting under the covers to hold his wife who was already fast asleep.

The next morning Rose wakes up to the smell of her favorite breakfast, pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. She jumps out of bed and runs to the kitchen where her mom was sitting at the dining room table and her father was setting out plates of food for the three of them.

“Well good morning princess, that’s the fastest I’ve ever seen her get up for breakfast.”

“Richard you know pancakes are her favorite so it’s not that much of a surprise. I wouldn’t be surprised either if she didn’t brush her teeth before running out of bed to get her breakfast.” Rose knew her mom was onto her so she ran to the bathroom and quickly brushed her teeth so she could devour her food. After their morning routine was over they go to the park to enjoy the warm summer day as a family. Then it happened. Something she never thought would really happen despite how real he may have seemed in her dreams. The man she had seen over and over again in her nightmares that she had feared for as long as she could remember was standing right there in front of her.