Day 281

She found that when the wallpaper began to shift, blinking didn't help.
She'd been staring at it for a fair while now, not sure if it was meant to do that.
In all her eight years she'd never seen moving wallpaper.

The moving bits were all in one clump that was gently circling the room.
Pacing, she thought, like the tigers in the zoo.
It seemed to like waiting behind her bed and leaping out when she turned off the lights.

She played with it when she was meant to be asleep.
It would reach out and make grabby hands, it was so much fun!
Never could reach her though, she'd flash her torch at it and watch it race away from the light.

Some days it just stood near her bed.
She reckoned it was sulking, it tended to do that after she played torch-tag with it.
Maybe it just wanted a hug, had she ever hugged it?

Her small arms reached out and the wallpaper lifted off as much as it could.
The second her fingers touched it she shrieked as pain shot through her arm.
Through her tear-filled eyes she saw her skin beginning to peel and flake and... pattern?

The pain faded fast leaving her feeling shaken and weak.
Slowly she looked up and saw her wallpaper friend was leaning over her.
It looked like it had a face, she didn't remember it having a face.

Oh, it also had hair - long brown hair just like hers!
And it had brown eyes like her and it had... cat pyjamas just... like...hers?
Why was it looking more and more like her?

It pulled her arm towards the wall and her hand began to sink into the surface.
Everything went dark.
As she blinked awake she saw herself sitting on her bed talking to her parents.

She tried to get their attention, this wasn't right and that wasn't her!
She tried reaching out but something was pulling her arm back.
Laughter filled her ears as she saw the not-her and her parents grinning at her.

Their skin shifted to the same pattern that ran all through her house.
The not-her had her torch and it burned so much.
She fled her room moving through the wallpaper just like it had.

A voice caught her attention halfway down the stairs and she saw another wallpaper thing.
Her mother?
They'd caught her mother on the stairs, her father wasn't in the house, mum had no idea where he was.

As they held each other (as best as two wallpaper like beings could) they heard footsteps above them.

The light burns so much.