Page 40 of Good and Gone

Scouring the internet feels better than doing nothing, especially in the stillness of the night. It helps me try to escape from my body, which has stiffened and become painful. I cannot sleep. It beats lying there tossing and turning, and still, I feel more frustrated than ever after my latest search. How can I help Hailey if I don't even know what happened to her? It's like she's living in a nightmare that never ends. It feels like I’m living with a stranger.

Last night, I mentioned the alien abductions casually. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was only trying to make conversation.

“I doubt aliens drive around in dark colored SUVs with dents in the door,” Hailey said.

I told her she was right and then turned off the lamp and went to sleep. I woke up to her straddling me. I tried to sit up, and that’s when she went after my face with her fists, her fingernails, with everything she had. She laid into me with a vengeance I’ve never seen. Finally, I managed to buck her off and then pin her down and once she was on her back and unable to move, she calmed some. I let her go, and I flipped on the light. She looked at me as if she'd seen someone standing behind me, yet no one was there. She looked at me as if I were crazy, as though I wasn't the one bleeding all over the covers from my nose and lip where she clawed at me.

She sat there for a moment, looking off into the distance as if maybe she had forgotten where she was, what she was doing, who I was. Where before she seemed full of fury, now she seemed dazed and confused, and that look on her face will always haunt me.

She looked like she was possessed.

Tonight I’m not taking any chances. I had to call in sick today on account of all the scratch marks, and I’m out of vacation as it is. I lie in bed next to her, with my guard up, while I wait for her to fall asleep. Then I get up and check on the kids. Earlier, I dug an old baby monitor out of the garage and set it up in the hall. This way, I’ll be able to see if Hailey opens our bedroom door. I know she’d never harm our children, at least not intentionally. But I never thought she’d attack me, and I know it’s better to be safe than sorry.

After I test my setup, I come downstairs, put on a pot of coffee and work late into the night, searching for answers and trying to figure out where to go from here.

My mind is racing and I feel on edge, though it could be the coffee. As hours tick by, the fear and anxiety only grow stronger. I can't shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen, and I don't know how to stop it.

Huddled on the couch, my laptop teetering in my lap, my eyes are fixed on the front door. I wait anxiously, my heart pounding in my chest. The minutes seem like hours, and I'm overwhelmed with a sense of dread. I can feel it building, creeping over me like a shadow.

And then, out of nowhere, I hear a noise. It's faint at first, but quickly grows louder, filling the air around me. I check the baby monitor. Our bedroom door is closed. I freeze, paralyzed with fear, as the sound grows closer, drawing closer and closer until it's all I can hear.

I feel a strange sensation coming from the other room. A presence. I hear the screen door slamming shut and the frantic rustling of leaves blowing in the wind.

Suddenly, I see movement out of the corner of my eye. A shadow in the window. It feels like a stiff, frozen breeze radiating through my body.

My limbs are heavy, numb, and my mind is racing frantically, as if someone has just shot me full of adrenaline. I can't move. I can't even scream. I'm staring at the front door, listening to the code being punched in the keypad and it's opening slowly, ever so slowly...

And something—someone—is coming through it.

And then suddenly, there's Hailey, standing right in front of me. I'm about to cry with relief, but before I have time to react, something happens that I never could have imagined. She looks me straight in the eyes and smiles.

I stand there, my heart pounding, and a familiar feeling of dread washes over me. It's the same feeling I felt right after Hailey went missing. It’s the same feeling I had last night as she clawed at my face. My stomach sinks as I realize what's happened. I rush to the back door and lock it, then go back to the living room. She's no longer standing there in the middle of the room. I find her in the kitchen, clutching a knife and staring at me with wide eyes. She doesn't say a word, but her eyes are full of fear. What happened, I wonder. What did she see? In her mind, where has she gone? I kneel and look at her, trying to get her to talk to me. "Did you go outside?" I ask her gently.

She shakes her head and grips the knife.

"Did you see something out there? Someone?"

She stares at me again, unable or unwilling to answer.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

Her eyes fill with tears. "I want to go home," she whispers.

I look at her again, trying to wrap my head around what's happened, and I decide it’s best to play along. “Okay, then,” I tell her. “Let’s go.”

Slowly, I stand up and signal to Hailey to follow me. I lead her back to our bedroom and help her into bed. She looks up at me, her eyes full of frantic terror.

"You're safe now," I tell her. "No one's going to hurt you."

I turn off the lamp. “I’m going to sleep on the couch,” I say. “I’ll keep watch, so you can rest.” She doesn't say a word. When she refuses to give it up, I let her keep the knife, even though I shouldn't.

28

Hailey

Isaw him again outside our bedroom window. Something in me reverted back to being in that house, back to that room. It was like I was living it all over again. And then all of a sudden, I wasn't. Suddenly, Tyler was tucking me into bed. He looked at me like I was a monster, the same way I must have looked at those men, like I might snap at any time. He was afraid. And why shouldn't he be? I scratched his face to hell. Even my own parents couldn't believe it. My mother took one look at him and scheduled me an emergency session with Dr. Bennett.

"When you woke up, what did you see?" she asks. The light pours in from the windows, blurring my vision. I have to squint to avoid it.

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