Then he tucks the blankets all around me and places pillows next to me on each side. Does he think I’m going to roll off the bed or something? I reach out, grabbing on to one of the pillows and pulling it closer to me. I wrap my arms around it, loving that his smell lingers on it.
I assumed he left the room since it grew quiet, but then his mouth brushes across my forehead. He pauses, his breath tickling my skin before he kisses my cheek next. His fingers start stroking through my hair again, gently petting me. I have no choice but to drift back to sleep again. The lure of comfort is too strong to resist.
I wake suddenly. My eyes flutter open to a completely dark room. I sit up, my body feeling heavy. There’s not even a sliver of light, and I’m unable to see anything. “No,” I whisper. Fear threatens to overwhelm me. I almost panic as my mind searches to remember where I am. My light. Where is my light? I always leave it on. I reach for my nightstand but find nothing. “Where are the lights?” I start to get a bit frantic.
“No, no, no no,” I say over and over again. What did I do? Why am I here? My mind spins as I try to remember. I must have broken some rule. But I don’t think I did. I’m always so careful not to break any of them because I hate punishment.
Griff. My mind pulls him to the surface. I run my fingers through my hair. I have Griff.
“Griff?” I call out into the darkness, but there’s no answer.
“Anna?” I call out to my roommate next. “Please turn on the lights!” I beg. She must have forgotten and turned my light off. I put my hands over my face. Anna wouldn’t forget. Which tells me what I need to know: I’m stuck. Again. I’m not in my dorm room. I’m in the quiet room. “Please, turn on the light.” I pull my knees to my chest and start to rock. “I’m in here!” I shout. “Don’t forget me!” I scream. Not again.
“Meow.” Soft fur brushes against my arm.
I gasp as everything comes flooding back to me and I’m thrown into reality. My eyes start to adjust to the darkness, and I notice a sliver of light peeking in under the thick curtains that cover the window. The room suddenly floods with light as I grab Mama and pull her into my chest.
“Vivian.” Mrs. Putnam stands in the doorway to my room. “What happened? Are you okay?” She rushes over to the side of the bed. “Look at me.” She cups my face in her soft warm hands. “Did you have a bad dream?” Her thumbs swipe at my cheeks, wiping the tears away. I hadn’t even realized I was crying.
“It was dark,” I manage to get out. My heartbeat is finally starting to slow down.
“Are you afraid of the dark?”
I nod.
“Have you always been afraid of the dark?”
“No,” I whisper.
“You want to tell me what happened to make you scared of it?” She drops her hands from my face.
“It’s fine.” I shrug, not wanting to get into the details of my past. “I forgot to unpack my light. I usually keep it on my nightstand. When I woke up, I was a little disoriented.” It must be in one of the boxes still. When I’d gone to bed last night, I’d left the bathroom light on and the door open. I glance over and see the door is still open but the light is off. “Did Griff sleep here?” Or had that been a dream also? I’m just grateful that I’m at Griff’s house and not back in that dreaded room at boarding school.
“He was here for a while.” She smirks. He must have turned the light off. “We’ll get your light out of the box, but I’d still like to know why you’re scared of the dark. I heard you shout. You said ‘Don’t forget me.’”
My eyes fill with tears again.
“Oh sweet girl.” She pulls me in for a hug, squishing Mama between us, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
“I got in trouble a few times at school. Anna, my roommate and I liked to talk a lot. A few times we were talking in class so I got sent to the quiet room.”
“The quiet room?” She releases me from the hug.
“It was a stupid little room they put us in when we would get into trouble. Usually it was only for a few hours, but one time they forgot about me.”
“How long did they forget about you?”
“A while. It was a Friday when I got in trouble, and Anna, my roommate, had gone home that weekend so no one was there to remind them to get me out.”
“Vivian, when did they come and get you?”
I close my eyes, hating to think about it. The room was so small and had nothing in it. I remember begging for someone to let me out. But my pleas fell on deaf ears. I remember going to the bathroom on myself. I’d been so ashamed.
“I don’t know. Pure darkness came twice, I think. Then I woke up in the hospital, and it was Monday, I think. I stayed at the hospital for a few days before I went back to school.”
“Did your parents know about this?”
I shake my head. They’d been out of the country on some trip at the time.