[ WP ] You are awaken in the middle of the night by the sound of your baby crying on the baby monitor when you hear an unfamiliar voice saying `` It 's alright ... '' in your child 's room .

`` Hon, it's your turn.'' I muttered as our daughter's shrill cries filled our room.'' My wife did n't respond, so I pushed myself up on one elbow. She was sleeping soundly, oddly enough. Normally it did n't matter how sleep deprived she was, she was always the first one awake. 
 
 `` Hush now, little one, shhh. It's alright.'' The voice whispered through our room, as our daughter's cries faded. 
 
 I first realized that my aluminum baseball bat was already in my hand, then that I was running for the nursery. The flimsy door burst open when I hit it without bothering to stop and actually turn the door 
 knob. The woman filled the room with her presence. 
 
 She was not a big woman, though tall, she was slender. Her dress was long and ornate, like something out of an old painting. A small struggling bundle was under one arm, but I could see my daughter still in her 
 crib. Something almost unseen, a radiating presence pulsed around her. 
 
 `` I do n't know who you think you are, lady, but-'' She turned black eyes on me, and I fell to my knees, all thought gone, pulled into the infinite depths of her eyes. 
 
 `` You have no place here, mortal.'' Her voice was the same hushed whisper I had heard from my room. `` I do what I must for my own child, as do you. Sleep now.'' 
 
 `` Wake up, hon, time to start the day.'' 
 
 The light seemed a long way off, but I struggled toward it. Groggy, I managed to throw off my covers and sit up. `` Wha- She was doing-'' Throbbing pain in my head made it difficult to form a coherent thought. 
 
 `` Is something wrong?'' 
 
 I looked up at my wife and saw my daughter in her arms. `` A dream, maybe.'' 
 
 `` Bad one?'' 
 
 `` I guess.'' 
 
 She sat on the foot of my bed and offered our daughter to me. I took her and cradled her, looking into her deep blue eyes. She stared unblinking into my own. 
 
 `` Hey, love,'' my wife spoke from her open closet, `` How'd your baseball bat end up in the nursery?''
