Echoes of Fear

🅒🅗🅐🅟🅣🅔🅡 🅞🅝🅔 : 𝓐 𝓗𝓪𝓾𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓓𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶

Atarah jolted awake, her heart pounding against her chest. Beads of sweat clung to her forehead as she tried to shake off the remnants of a haunting dream. In the dim light filtering through the curtains, she struggled to make sense of the fleeting images that lingered in her mind.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" a small voice pierced the silence of the room. Adina, her three-year-old daughter, sat up in bed, her eyes wide with concern.

"It's nothing, darling. Just a bad dream," Atarah reassured her, her voice still trembling with the remnants of fear. She gathered Adina into her arms, holding her close as if to shield her from the terrors of the night.

But the dream lingered, a shadowy specter haunting the edges of her consciousness. In it, a man with cold, vacant eyes had brandished a knife, his intentions clear as he lunged towards Adina. Atarah had screamed, her voice echoing in the darkness as she fought desperately to protect her daughter.

Now, in the harsh light of dawn, the details of the dream slipped through her fingers like sand. She couldn't remember the man's face, couldn't recall how they had escaped his grasp. All she could hold onto was the bone-deep terror that still gripped her heart.

Pushing the nightmare aside, Atarah forced herself to focus on the tasks ahead. She rose from bed, the weight of exhaustion heavy on her shoulders, and began the familiar routine of getting ready for work.


The restaurant where she worked as a cleaner was a constant presence in her life, a refuge of sorts where she could lose herself in the mindless repetition of scrubbing floors and washing dishes. It wasn't glamorous work, but it put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

As Atarah dressed, she stole a glance at Adina, who was already chattering away to her favourite stuffed toy. The sight brought a fleeting smile to her lips, a small oasis of warmth in the midst of her lingering unease.

With a sigh, Atarah gathered Adina into her arms and headed out the door, the weight of the dream still heavy on her mind but determined not to let it hold her back.