When she turned seventeen, Thea Lynch encountered a nightmare that would haunt her ever since.
In her memory, it was still summer in Westmere on that day.
Because she relied too much on sleeping pills, her grandmother, out of concern, tried stopping her medication for a day.
Whether it was psychological or not, she indeed found it hard to sleep without the pills that day.
Even though she closed the windows before bed and didn't wear her hearing aid, the cicadas outside were still loud enough to hurt her eardrums. Even with the air conditioning on, she felt hot and restless, as if a hundred thousand tiny bugs were gnawing at her bones, causing her to toss and turn anxiously.
She didn't dare turn on the lights, fearing her grandparents would see the light through the crack in the door and worry about her.
