Lying on her back, Tara tossed and turned with her eyes snapped shut. Her hair fell in black strands across her pillow, creating an eerie contrast against the almost luminescent white cushion. She pressed her pale hands against her ears, in an attempt to mask the pleading in her head.

“Please, Tara! They’re coming after us! You promised you’d be here. Where are you?” asked the voice of a helpless child, miles away.

But Tara did not jump out of her sheets. She just gripped her ears, now sore and red, more tightly than before.

“Tara! We need you. We can see their shadows! They’re marching towards us!”

In a desperate effort to ignore the voice in her head, Tara threw her blanket over her head.

“Help us, please, Tara! They’ll see us any second! They’ll kill us!” the voice screamed between sobs. “Don’t let us down.”

Tara sighed and bit her bottom lip. She knew she had to keep her promise, no matter what happened to her.

“I’m coming,” she whispered. But she had wasted minutes, and time was not on her side.