The Shaking Hands

   She woke up from another terrible nightmare; her hands were messy-shaking, and it felt like every single thing in that shady room was watching her. Alice’s son, Luke, was sleeping in the bed next to hers. “Thanks God he’s safe”, she thought, then fetched a sigh.
   Frankly speaking, these dreary dreams were sort of frequent guests of her own; they could came all of a sudden, any day and at any time whenever she was sleeping. One day Alice firmly decided not to attach any importance to this anymore.  She wasn’t scared that much and all she still continued to experience after the cases like that was a kind of physical reaction of her body. The shaking hands.
   That day was a five-days-before the death anniversary of Alice’s husband, Luke’s foster father. Alice had a lot to do: to organise the meeting arrangement on that “special” date, to make some calls and the stuff like that (Nick was a respected man in their small town and many people knew him as a good person).
   It was an early morning and poor woman wasn’t ready for one more nightmare that time. She convinced herself of that it would be better not to sleep but analyse her dreams she was extremely scared of before. Alice believed that it would make it easier to bear them in a long-term perspective because no drugs had ever helped her in that case, she knew it.
   The first thing she noted for herself was Nick. She saw him in that particularly dream. Their house was just the same as in the real life, just as when Nick was alive. The day had started with an ordinary morning routine. We all know those kinds of sleepy mornings when we don’t want to get out of bed. However, Alice’s dream seemed unrealistic in this way as every member of their family was in a good mood that day. Even Alice herself, though she actually hated early mornings.
   The second thing. Alice burned her finger while cooking lemon pancakes, Nick’s favourite. Moreover, she accidentally dropped half of them on the floor.
   And the third one which made her worry more than ever was the intermittent knocking at the back door of their house. Nick and Alice knew that it was impossible for any person to get to that door. The house was built on the edge of the town, the path from that door led to the thick forest. Many people went missing for the past several years; none of the citizens would ever risk their lives and go into the woods. The door was locked many years ago because of one poor accident and they no longer used it as an entrance. One day Alice persuaded Nick to build a high fence with an alarm system which became a border between their backyard and the forest to feel safe.
   Two knocks and then the other two. Nothing else.
   Alice and Nick looked out of the window next to the door but it wasn’t possible to distinguish anything, it was darker than usual that morning. No one responded to their questions. Then Alice noticed a shadow. First came numb astonishment, then fear. The knocking repeated the same way, and Nick lost his temper. He went out of the main door, impatient and angry, and headed to the backyard.
   Alice stayed in the house with the son and watched his steps. Suddenly Nick was out of sight. Then Alice heard a horrible scream…

   She stopped thinking of her dream at that moment. Alice admitted that it only brought her more pain. She didn’t want to see her husband dying anymore. And all she wanted to do was to check that goddamn door. Everything was good, the door didn’t open at all and she felt a little bit of relief.
   Alice went lazily to the kitchen but what she saw there made her breathe hard. Some of the pancakes were lying on the floor. Alice clearly remembered she didn’t make them at all after Nick’s death. “Am I going crazy?”, she thought. Alice took a glance on her left hand and saw a small burn on the thumb.
   Troubled thoughts were whirling through her mind. Suddenly, one thought just stuck there, in her head, and she was unexpectedly struck by it. Alice finally realised that her reality was the full reflection of her dream, just with the extra small actions. That feeling of her being tricked didn’t want to go away. Everything was exactly the same. Yes, the same except one little thing.
Her husband wasn’t there.
   At that very moment the knocks sounded at the door. “Two-pause-two” ones. Alice slowly put her head down and looked at her hands again in complete silence and horror. They were shaking.

   …

- Mummy, shall I open?