The reason for my sleeping problems is as typical as it can be. A child, lost in the woods, alone and with no source of light. What lead to it was a series of unfortunate incidents: the father too drunk to notice, the mother busy with the father, a stupid cousin, a challenge, a scared dog, a hole in the fence.  

In the end, it all resulted in a child alone in the middle of a forest.  

I was found soon enough, but it did result in me being scared of being alone in the dark. This trait of mine did lead to a lot of traumatic boyfriend experiences for my father (stop laughing Gale. Well, it was his own fault in a way, should've paid attention to his child.), I would always fall asleep in their bed when they were sleeping over. Father luckily didn’t get a phobia for the concept of a boyfriend, thanks again to my phobia. I would always ask to sleep with my parents and he would always have this goofy grin when i asked if i could sleep with them. Best way to make him forget who i ended up sleeping with last night.  

It did get better with time, but I still had trouble sleeping without a night light. The day I met him, I was on my way to a bar close to where I lived. It was a nice place with few visitors, as in ten people at the same time is the most I've seen there. The boss is a nice guy whom I got to know over a few of my visits late at night. He always knew what to get me, I didn’t even have to ask for anything, he was already making something for me. So I became a regular at his place, even moved a bit closer to his place a few months after my first visit.  

That night it was rowdy at his place, it was a group of rookies from some company. They had just made a good deal and had gone out to celebrate. I was just about to give up and go home to try and sleep, when Reggie told me of some bar he knew I would like.

**

"Hello angel, you look like you hit a few birds on the way down from heaven." Reggie greeted me when I entered, a playful, yet gentle smile on his face.  

He had the face of an old soldier, a few scars here and there. The most notable being an ugly, old one going across his left eye, making his eye appear sunken in. For most young women, such a scar would probably be pretty disturbing, or at least make you want to look away. For me it was my favourite part of his looks, it made me feel safe, at peace. The reason was probably my deceased father, he had been a former soldier and his face had been riddled with small scars from his time at war. Reggie had become something of a second father to me. He even had the same gangster expression on his face, when an occasional young man would come and try to flirt with me.

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"Hey Reggie, seems rowdy in here today." Looks like no drinks tonight, too loud for me. Should I try and fall asleep without Glowy? (Glowy was my cute little night light, a strawberry smiley in the form of a heart. I had gotten it lost that day, which was the reason for my visit at Reggies.)

"Ye, some boys from XX company had a good day, they came by to celebrate. Couldn't fall asleep again?" Seeing me shake my head, he looked at me for a minute, seemingly debating about something. "You know what, since you don’t like when it's loud, go to this place. The bartender down there is a nice guy, you should like him. Tell him I said hi." While telling me that he fiddled around in his pocket, before handing me a black plastic card. Then waved a goodbye and went back to work.

I looked at the card while pushing the door open, it wasn’t black, nor was it plastic as I thought before. It was made of some kind of metal alloy, I couldn’t make out what kind, not that I knew much about metal. It had a flowing kind of dark colour, with a tint of white, making it look like it glowed when you turn it. Turning it around I saw some words in a golden colour.  

'Aeriera'

'XX Street, number 7'

XX Street.. That’s not so far away. Well, if Reggie says I'll like it, then why not.  

Number seven, number seven, number seven... that’s five. Probably the next one, ah, here it is.  

In front of me was an old door, one of those you would imagine to see in the 18th century. Maybe calling it old wasn’t correct, it was a new, old looking door. It had a light brown colour and a beautiful number seven of a golden looking colour. To the left of the door, there was a big window like a shop typically has. But you couldn’t see inside through the window, because it was fully covered from the other side. The cover was a bit weird from the first look, but when I looked closer.. That’s.. Books! There must to be at least two hundred books covering the window, you couldn’t by any means call it a small one. At least two meters in height, with more than five in width. And on the window was the same beautiful inscription as on the card.

Aeriera.. A name?.. I wonder what it means.