Team of Stuffed Warriors to Battle Off The Demons As I Slept (32/73)

I strutted of the mini bus once we arrived back at school with a spring in my step. I noticed Jack out of the corner of my eye waiting for me in the parking lot. So I took a deep breath gathered my belongings from under the bus, said good-bye to my friends and headed over to the truck. It felt like I was a prisoner who was just coming back off of furlough and Jack was the warden assigned to bring me back to my cell. I was once again back in hell. But I was a little different this time. I was a little bit stronger.

I was exhausted by the time we reached the house. It had been a long thirty-six hours in the wilderness. My Mother ran me a warm bubble bath so I could wash the dirt from the campsite away. My feet looked as if I had been walking through mud. I laughed when I say the dirt soak away as I put my feet in the bath tub. After all I was barefoot in the ash around the fire pit when Lee kissed me. After I got out of the bath my Mother rubbed my back and shoulders down with cream to ease the redness from the burn the sun left behind.

As my mother tucked me into bed I could hear in the distance that Jack was going out for the night with his brother. I was relieved that I could sleep the night in my bed without worry of him sneaking in. I could just rest in peace for a night in my own bed. Those moments were very few and far between. The nights that I knew without a doubt that I would not be bothered by the darkness of Jack’s presence. To just be a 10-year-old girl who could sleep in peace in her own bedroom. I cherished those nights.

Although I was still superstitious about fighting off the monsters even if they weren’t present in the house that night. Even when Jack was not around it still felt as if his darkness lingered in the shadows. that they were somehow watching me in his absence. Some children my age prayed to god to help them through their fears of monsters as they drifted off to sleep. But not me. I prayed to my teddy bears.

I would strategically place them around my bed to guard me at night. Once I was all tucked in and in my room alone I would say to them…. “for tonight please keep me safe from the monsters not only down the hall but also under my bed. Keep my heart and soul safe until  morning”. I would then reach out to the leg of one of the stuffies up above my head and touch it as if I was turning on some magical force field of teddy bears that would protect for the night. My very own team of stuffed warriors to battle off the demons as I slept.