Natalie had bizarre dreams, the kind she normally would have attributed to a night of alcohol and illicit substances. But these were different from the usual drugged haze- in all of them, she was running from a shadowy giant, and whenever it caught her she could see it had Beatrice's face. Still, when she finally woke up, she was able to allow herself the luxury of wondering if her ordeal the previous day had just been a dream- after all, how could something so absurd happen?
She felt something hard on her ankle, and something soft around her waist, but before she could wonder about these things she saw her stepmother sitting on the bed, causing her to sit bolt upright and shake off sleep. "W...what the hell are you doing here? What did you do?" She babbled, pressing herself back against the headboard in a futile attempt to gain some distance.