You must be careful at night, when you sleep with someone who doesn’t always fully fall asleep. For most of my life, I never had to worry about it. And I was glad. That was, until the night my sister and I moved into the same room.

  Let me explain a little. My family has 6 people in the house, and five bedrooms–one of which we used as a homeschool room. So it was a little weird to have guests visit and sleep on your bedroom floor. We knew that we would need a room switch up soon.

  At the time, I had my own room. I liked it. It was nice to have my own space. One day mom asked me if I wanted to share a room with my sister, Cora. At first I thought, NO WAY. Cora is very different from me. She doesn’t like to have things neat and tidy. 

For example, I have all my precious trinkets laid out in a row on my desk. Cora on the other hand has them stuffed in every space she can think of. Also Cora knows how to push my buttons REALLY well. Like not putting up my stuff after she uses it.

  But when mom told me what room we would move into if we shared a room, that got my attention. She said we could move into her and dad’s old room. It has a built-in desk, shelf, and dresser. 

Now I knew that I couldn’t have all of those things to myself, but maybe I could convince Cora to let me at least have the desk. It was so big and I absolutely loved it. I already knew where I would put everything I wanted on it. So I said yes.

 There was one thing I had skipped over when I was debating if I wanted to share a room with Cora. And that is that she sleepwalks.

  We have lots of stories of when Cora sleepwalks, but I think that the funniest one is when she took our brother, Ransom with her. They were sleeping in the same room when 6 year-old Cora decided to take a midnight walk. 

  She got up and went over to Ransom’s bed. She woke Ransom up and told him, “Come with me.”

  Now of course Ransom followed her because he was 3 years old and Cora is his big sister.

  So Cora led Ransom upstairs and to the door that leads to outside. By now we all knew that Cora sleepwalks and we all knew that almost every time she sleepwalks she tries to go outside. 

So we had installed a door alarm so we could tell if she was trying to get outside in the middle of the night. She opened the door and beepbeepbeepbeepbeep went the alarm. 

Dad came running and when he saw the two of them he asked Cora, “What are you two doing?”

  When all Cora said was, “Unggg” dad immediately knew that she was sleepwalking. But he asked Ransom anyway. “What are you doing Ransom?”

  Ransom’s response was simple. “I am following Cora.”

  Dad led them both back to their beds and explained to Ransom that Cora was sleepwalking.

  Now I thought it was funny until I had my own Cora sleepwalking experience. And you may think it is funny, but I think it is terrifying.

  The day of moving into Cora and my new room had arrived. 

  Cora didn’t have a bed yet so she would be sleeping on the floor for a little bit till we found her a bed. I already had my bed from my old room so I would be sleeping on that.

  When it was time for bed, I brushed my teeth and snuggled into the covers. I looked over the edge of my bed. Cora was on the floor staring up at me. It felt weird looking down seeing her. Almost a little creepy. 

  I was about to fall asleep when Cora said, “What is your worst nightmare?”

  “Not right now Cora, I’m tired” I mumbled

  But it still got me thinking about my worst nightmare I had ever had.

  I was in my bed in my old room. I sat up. I had just had a nightmare. I walked into dad’s room and shook him. He woke up and started to say something. I looked over my shoulder and saw it. A huge mess of black hair and a big set of growling jaws. A wolf. It pounced on me and I sat up in my bed, panting. I went into dad’s room and shook his shoulder. It happened again. A mess of fur pouncing on me. I woke up and repeated the process. Again it happened. Finally I sat up again wondering if I was really awake. But by then I was too scared to go into dad’s room to wake him up anyway.

  Back in my new room with Cora, I shivered remembering that dream. Not wanting to go to bed, I lay there, fearing something terrible would happen if I did. But I still eventually fell asleep.

  I dreamt of nothing between that and when I woke up next in the middle of the night. I was woken up suddenly because the air was swiftly knocked out of me. I opened my eyes, sat up, and screamed. 

The wolf, it was pouncing on me! It was real! It was actually happening! I’m told by the others in my family that I sounded exactly like a VERY loud alarm. 

  I screeched again. The wolf that had woken me jumped up and screamed too. Mom came in running and asked what had happened. I couldn’t stop screaming. My mouth wouldn’t let me. So the wolf told her.

 “I sat–I sat on her.” It stammered, “I–I didn’t mean to. I thought it was my bed!” All the while I kept screaming like an alarm.

  Wait, I thought. Wolves don’t talk. And I don’t know of any wolves who own a bed in my house. I took an actual look at who sat on me. It was my sister, Cora.

  And that made me scream even more. Was Cora trying to attack me?!

  Mom took a seat on my bed and held me for a second and then she said, “ I have to go put your baby brother back to bed. He woke up when you screamed. I don’t think Cora meant to. I think she was half asleep.”

  Still unable to talk, I nodded and shivered. I wanted to keep screaming. I wanted to let mom hold me for the rest of the night. I did NOT want her to leave me alone with my sleepwalking sister.

  But since I didn’t say anything she left the room leaving me in the dark with a little face staring up at me. I felt like I should call out for mom and tell her to come back. 

Yet again, my mouth wouldn’t let me say anything. So I looked up at the ceiling, dreadful scenes flashing across my vision.

  “Cora?” I squeaked. “Don’t do that again okay?”

  “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” She lodged my fear in my throat. I knew then that it wouldn’t be the last sleepwalking incident in my future. And that little sisters can be much scarier than any nightmare wolf demon pouncing on you.