When she was young she had a method for getting off to sleep.
She would watch animals running around on her bedroom ceiling. It was green, with grass and bushes and trees. She used to watch them each night before drifting off into gentle slumber. There were rabbits chasing around and frogs sitting on lily pads. Once, she had seen a mole come out of a hole.
She could summon these up and many more. Sometimes a bird would fly across the room from one side to the other. She had managed to conjure up all of the creatures known to her, and this had made them real, although imagined. The method worked really well for so long. However, sometimes a different thing would appear, not one that she recognised. She didn’t like it. It was black and crept low along the ground. It wasn’t one of her animals. Its face was quite ugly with great shining, purple eyes.
Then there was the night when she had snuggled down comfortably after watching her friends at play. She remembers it vividly. She was lying on her side with her head cushioned nicely in her pillow, when she was startled by a puff of warm, acrid breath hitting her face. Opening her eyes she had come face-to-face with two large violet, glowing eyes.
That was the night she stopped doing it.