It was all quiet in Mangino’s bedroom. The only light was the small light coming from the master bathroom. Her breathing was slow and easy. She was lost in a dream with Chanello questioning Donny. Donny was crying over the death of Melanie, and in her dream, Mangino felt compassion for him. He just kept saying, “I didn’t kill her, I didn’t kill her.” Suddenly, she opened her eyes widely in her dark bedroom. She noticed how she was drenched in sweat and she sat up in bed. As she turned the fan on, she enjoyed the fresh air blowing on her sweaty body, immediately cooling her down.
She got up and walked over to her bathroom door and shut it behind her. When she re-emerged, she noticed there was the hall light on under her mostly closed master bedroom door. Kate walked over and glanced into the hallway. As she quietly walked toward Wesley’s door, she noticed a flickering coming from under his bedroom door. Kate slowly opened his door and Wesley was sitting at his desk with two candles burning. If he noticed her, he didn’t say anything. There was a mirror in front of him. His eyes were open, but he didn’t acknowledge Kate. She could see his wide, open eyes with the candles flickering in them.
“Wesley,” she gently called. He didn’t respond. “Wesley,” she said a little louder. Nothing. “Wesley!” again.
He turned around quickly in his chair and Kate jumped back and screamed in fear! When he didn’t respond to her scream, she cautiously took a step forward. “Wesley,” she gently asked? He still didn’t respond. She took another step forward, “Wesley, are you alright,” she asked, tearing up? He simply stared at her in his trance-like state….then she noticed. He had turned the chair 180 degrees and was staring at her. The candles were burning behind him, but she could still see the reflection of the candles in his eyes! They were flickering and waving back and forth. Then, the candles turned into bees. The flickering flames now were burning stingers.
“Wesley, you’re scaring me, Wesley. Please answer me, honey.” Then the flame became searing red, engulfing his entire eye socket. “Wesley,” she screamed! The stingers with flames came out of his eyes and pointed at her like a couple of missiles. “Wesley, no!!” The last thing she saw was a type of explosion, and the stingers were shooting at her, and then she fell against the wall. Her head thumped against the wall, and she lost consciousness, just for a split second. Her hope that it was a bad dream was dashed as she came to.
Then, an idea popped into her mind. She started running toward Wesley’s bed. The firelight flashed brightly again. She willed her way through it, picked up Wesley’s bedspread and threw it over the candles, suffocating them, so the lack of oxygen caused them to burn out. One bright light flashed from under the bed spread, and then it was dark and calm.
The next thing she knew, Wesley awoke from his trance, “Mom, mom, what’s up?”
“Honey, what is going on? Why didn’t you answer me?”
“I was trying, but I couldn’t speak.”
“What were you doing?”
“I was just trying to meditate.”
“I want you to promise me you won’t meditate again.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Why don’t you sleep on my bedroom floor tonight. Get your pillow.”
“Alright.”
Mangino checked to make sure the candles were out and there was no lingering fire. As they walked out of Wesley’s room, she shut the door wondering what the hell was going on in there.