[ Bedtime Stories ]

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Go to sleep

Jessica bopped her head periodically, white cables that came from her ears connected to a small box. Twisting her thumb expertly on the touchpad, she changed songs. She rolled over and sighed as the introduction became to play. She looked around her dark bedroom. Red lights blinked beside her. Almost nine she thought, A few more, and then I'll sleep. The chorus began to pound into her ears, and she waved her hands in the darkness, vaguely imitating the drumbeat. The tracked skipped, and restarted. Her hands stopped moving. What the... she wondered. The introduction began to play again. She smiled, not minding.

She checked her clock. The red lights told her it was nine. Just a few more minutes. The iPod turned off. The lights blinked once, before fading to darkness. She removed her earpieces and put them onto her bedside. Weird, must be out of batteries. She looked at the clock again. Huh? The lights were blinking, as if they had been turned off at the powerpoint. 12:00. Then turned off. Oh... what? The red lights came on again, and once again, blinked 12:00 But I just set it... Jessica left her bedside clock alone. The red lights flickered once again, before turning off completely. She sighed, she would have to get a new clock. She reached over to pick up her mobile phone. She stared at the small glowing screen. She had wasted ten minutes setting the stupid clock. She started to set the alarm for her mobile, when it started to flicker. When it stopped, the time had been reset. 12:00 What? I had full charge! She looked to the battery bar. The bar was full. Her new phone could not possibly faulty. She looked to her clock. The red lights were flicking again. She looked to her phone, the screen flickered too. Oohkay... She put her phone down and turned on her lamp. Her room was washed out for a few moments before her eyes adjusted. What's with my stuff? Her eyes flicked to her iPod as the LCD started to flicker. The clocked flickered too. Her mobile turned off. Huh? The lamp turned off. She darkness envoloped her vision once more. She looked around, her clock and iPod had stopped flickering, but they were no longer on either. Jessica's eye caught movement in the darkroom. Hmm, probably a bug.

More movement caught her attention. Something was glowing from the wall. A dark object appeared out of her wall. It had eyes and a mouth, and stared at her. What should have been its lips moved, as if speaking unheard words. Jessica screamed and threw her bedsheets over her. Voices sparked out of the following silence. A familiar voice spoke, "Jessica honey, are you okay? You screamed." Jessica pushed off her bedsheets and looked at her mother. Her bedside lamp had turned on again. "Mum, I saw something." Jessica's mother sat next to her on the bed, she stroked Jessica's hair as she spoke. "Don't worry, you'll get used to this new house soon. You were just having a nightmare." Jessica leaned over and rested her head against her mother's shoulder. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Jessica's mother patted her and stood up. She walked over to the door. "Get some sleep, dearest. It's late, you know if your dad was still alive, he'd never let you stay up past nine."

Jessica looked at her mother as she walked back to her room. Jessica sat and stared unfocused at her bed for a moment as she thought. Her dad?

The lamp flickered, her room went dark.

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Ooh fun fun. I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight.