Five years ago, I buried my best friend and took in her baby, vowing to raise her as my own. We were happy until three nights ago, when my daughter started speaking a language she’d never learned. What she said sent me into the attic with a flashlight and ended with police in my kitchen.
I want to start by telling you that I’m not someone who believes in the supernatural.
I’m practical. I pay bills on time. I keep a first-aid kit in the car. When my daughter, Lily, has a nightmare, I check under the bed to prove there are no monsters, and we move on.
I’m not someone who believes in the supernatural.
So when the baby monitor crackled at 2:00 a.m. three nights ago and I heard Lily talking in her sleep, my first thought was that she was just dreaming.
I lay there for a moment, listening through the static. It wasn’t babbling. It wasn’t the half-formed sounds of a child talking in their sleep. It had a fluency that sent a cold ripple down my spine.
And I am absolutely certain we have never exposed her to another language.
I went to Lily’s room and touched her shoulder gently.
She opened her eyes, calm and clear, as if she hadn’t been asleep at all.
It had a fluency that sent a cold ripple down my spine.
“Did you have a bad dream, baby?” I asked.
“No, Mom,” she replied and turned over.
I told myself it was nothing. I almost believed it.
The next morning, Lily was her usual bubbly self, devouring syrup-drenched waffles and asking if we could go to the park.
I probed gently, asking again if she’d had any dreams.
“Did you have a bad dream, baby?”
She just shook her head, innocent and unbothered.
“No, Mommy. I don’t remember.”
I let it go, chalking it up to an overactive imagination on my part.
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