The young boy wanders the supermarket,

Searching,

He scans the aisles,

Searching.

His dark green eyes are filled with tears,

Threatening to come out.

His heart beats like a drum,

Almost as fast as his little legs run through the store.

He walks and runs past many people,

All of them old and tall,

None of which he knows.

Him being short

Makes it difficult to see past them to the other aisles.

As he races past aisle after aisle,

He scans the sea of people,

Searching. 

Searching for her face,

Wrinkled with age, bright brown eyes, and gorgeous black hair that flows behind her. 

“Mom?” he yells for the millionth time,

Voice quaking.

Again,

He gets no answer except for the sound of his cart on the floor,

Rolling.

He jerks awake,

Searching,

Clinging to the warm blankets

Willing them to protect him from the sleep demons.

He’s sweated to the bone, shaking.

Footsteps hurry down the hall,

A moment later, someone hits the light switch,

Bathing the room in light.

Someone comes around to his bed,

Their footsteps creaking.

Seconds later, he feels her arm wrapping around him,

Light fingers smoothing his fluffy blonde hair.

The person sits down on his bed and he looks over at her,

Her eyes are bright brown, even at night,

her hair is a cloud of blackness against his cream-colored bedsheets.

“Shh...” she whispers, slowly rubbing his back, “it’s okay, you were just having a bad dream.”

His breath calms,

Repeating her words in his head over and over,

It was just a dream,

Just a dream.

Dream.