I live with my two daughters, and as a single father, they don’t have much of a women in their life other than my mom. Their mother died when my youngest (6) was born due to complications during birth.
My mother has always been there for me, especially after my wife passed away, and she provides for my daughters as well as me when I just can’t. Recently, though, she has been feeling ill, and we’re nervous she doesn’t have much time left to live.
My daughters adore my mom. They always ask to go visit her, even though she lives 40 minutes away, and are constantly calling to talk to her on the phone.
Last night, I got a call from my mom at about 2 AM. Like I said, my mother seemed to be getting more sick everyday. So, I was frightened to see her name pop up on my screen, her ringtone rattling my phone across the table to me. I answered as soon as I could. That’s when things got a little weird.
“Mom? Hello?” “Dan… I think there’s someone in my house…” Her voice was cutting in and out but she sounded shaken to the core. Her high-pitched, nervous voice put me on edge. “What do you mean? Why do you think that?” “I saw a man… standing at the end of my hallway when I glanced across my kitchen,” She was now whispering into the phone. “He disappeared as soon as I looked back.” “Mom, listen to me, I want you to go back to sleep and forget about this. That must’ve been a hallucination. You know you get them sometimes, and it can be scary, but you need to rest to get rid of them.” I was trying to be stern about the matter, because I knew there was no man in her house. Part of her illness was to hallucinate. I didn’t want to come all the way there, and make her more scared over something that was never there to begin with.
The next morning, I woke up with two voicemails from her, and both of my daughters asleep in my bed. “What are you guys doing in my room?” My oldest daughter (12) responded immediately. “Grandma called me last night, real late at night, and told me that someone was trying to kill her and us.” “Lucy, tell me exactly when she called you.” “Hold on. I’ll check my phone.” She grabbed her phone off of my nightstand and swiped through it, getting to her call log. “3:24 AM. I was asleep but she woke me up.” “What exactly did she say?” “I don’t remember exactly… she said there was a man that was in her house, and it said that it would try to kill her if she told anyone to get rid of it or something.” “Lucy, you know your grandma has hallucinations. You need to ignore it next time, okay?” “Okay… but what if-“ “Lucy. Ignore it.”