Sleep has never been easy because sleeping brings with it the possibility of dreaming, of faces that turn queasily toward her in almost-familiar settings, of eyes leering down upon her, a sense of being watched. In dreams, she packs herself tight into a box and hopes this will be enough to evade some questing creature, holds the lid shut with two fingers and tries to ignore the sound of something breathing nearby. In dreams, fabric grows across her mouth to prevent her from screaming, and when she tries to do so she wakes and wishes she had never slept and turns the lights on to obliterate the
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