He was shocked when he found out that his five-year-old daughter had been sleepwalking out of their house every night. He had tried locking all the doors in the house but somehow, his daughter was still able to get out of the house.
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So, one night, he decided to follow her. She led him to an old abandoned cabin in the woods. He tried to see inside the cabin and check what his daughter was doing. When he realized what was really happening, he immediately called the police.
Meet David
David is a single father. He had been raising his five-year-old daughter, Melissa, by himself and he considered her as the love of his life. He knew that he would do anything for her. But a problem came up and David had trouble handling it. His daughter had started to sleepwalk.
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Melissa’s mother, Milly, left the family when Melissa was about three years old. David never saw it coming. He always believed that they were all a happy family. David believes that Milly abandoning them had caused some trauma on Melissa, which manifested through sleepwalking since all this started after Milly left the family.
High school sweethearts
Milly and David were very young when Milly got pregnant. Milly was just 17 years old and David was 19. The pregnancy was not planned at all. But when Melissa came into the picture, they decided to get married right away. They believed that their love for each other would make things okay.
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But things did not go their way. Their lack of experience showed. They were juggling a baby, adult responsibilities, and jobs at a very young age and it was overwhelming. Milly started to feel pressured and she became unhappy.
The pressure of being tied down
Milly did not expect to be tied down at such a young age. She felt like she never had the chance to experience life. She felt that her high school pregnancy caused her to miss out on a lot of things. David, however, was content and did everything he can to support his small family.
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It did not take long for all the pressure of raising a family and earning money to become too much for Milly. She just wanted to be free. She knew that she still loved David and Melissa but her life felt like it was getting harder and harder each day.
The abandonment
One day, Milly decided to run away. She left the family unannounced so that nobody can stop her. While David was at work, she put down a three-year-old Melissa for a nap. Then, she packed all she can in one suitcase and disappeared.
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Milly’s abandonment was hard on David. He had loved her very much and how she left just like that broke his heart. But he knew he had to stay strong for Melissa. So, he made ways to work from home so that he could be with Melissa when she was not in daycare.
A child’s longing
Melissa was devastated when she realized Milly was not coming back. Imagine going for a nap and waking up to find that your mother is gone. The incident seemed to affect her sleeping pattern. Thus the sleepwalking started. And David was not sure how to handle it.
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Melissa started sleepwalking just a few months after Milly left. At first, she was just stumbling around her room and the bathroom. But as the months passed, she was able to sleepwalk around the house. And while she was sleepwalking, Melissa would often be calling out Milly’s name. Seeing his daughter go through this broke David’s heart.
A father’s protection
At first, David tried to wake Melissa up because he was afraid that she might hurt herself while wandering around the house. But this often had a negative effect – Melissa would be very emotional and cranky when he did this. David did some reading and learned that he should never wake up the sleepwalker – instead, he should just guide them back to bed.
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Given how much Melissa is everything in his life, he did extra precautions to make sure she stays safe while sleepwalking. He made sure that sharp and heavy objects were put away. David cleared the floor. And he even placed a babyproofing door on the stairs to limit her movements. This went on for months and for a while, the whole thing was manageable.
She started leaving the house
But one day, something changed. Melissa started sleepwalking outside of their house. David had no idea that this was happening. With the precautions that he made in the house, he was able to sleep through Melissa’s sleepwalking episodes because she often found her way back to bed.
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Imagine his surprise when he got a call from the neighbor about it. David was shocked and incredibly embarrassed to know that he did not notice his five-year-old daughter going out of the house in the middle of the night.
Examining the footage
Their neighbor happened to notice Melissa leaving the house at night while reviewing the security camera footage and was immediately concerned. She told David to come over to look at their security cameras. David immediately went over to check the footage.
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Sure enough, Melissa did go out of the house. He was horrified to find out that she had been doing it for weeks without his knowledge. He and the neighbor noticed that she always left the house at the same time. Was that just a coincidence?
Locking all the doors
When David returned to their house, he looked for Melissa to ask her about it. Melissa looked shocked and said she had no idea. This was true for most sleepwalkers. They often do not have a recollection of what they have been doing while sleepwalking. David was more worried now.
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That night, David decided to lock all the doors in the house. He even installed a lock on Melissa’s door so that he can lock it from the outside. He made sure to hide all the keys that night and he stayed up. However, he was also exhausted from his job, and eventually, he fell asleep.
A failed plan
When David woke up, he berated himself for falling asleep. He immediately checked up on Melissa. He found her in bed, sleeping. This was nothing new since she always found her way back to her bed after her sleepwalking episodes. So David went to the neighbor’s house and asked if he could check the footage from last night.
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David was shocked to see that despite all doors being locked, Melissa had left the house again. This time, she went out through her bedroom window. David became suspicious. Can anyone sleepwalk themselves to climb out of a window? This raised a lot of questions in his head. He knew he had to figure out what was really going on.
Caught in the act
When he returned to the house, he asked Melissa how she got out that night. Melissa claimed that she does not remember leaving the house but David was starting to doubt it. So, the next night, David drank a lot of coffee. He was determined to stay awake to get to the bottom of this.
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David knew that Melissa usually leaves the house around three in the morning. David made sure that he would be waiting outside when that happens. And at three in the morning, David could hear Melissa opening her window. He stayed in the shadows and watched as she climbed out of it. She then started to head for the woods.
Following his daughter to the woods
David’s initial reaction was to wake his daughter up but decided against it after remembering that it had a negative effect on her. Besides, he needed answers. Where was Melissa going at this time of the night? Was she really sleepwalking? Surely it can’t be that bad since she gets back to bed every time.
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David decided to let Melissa do her own thing and he followed her from a distance. He made sure he was quiet as he could so that Melissa would not sense that she was being followed. Melissa continued walking straight ahead without turning her head. Luckily, the woods in their area was not so dense.
The cabin in the woods
The deeper Melissa led him to the woods, the more curious and confused David became. It felt like a scene from a horror movie. As far as David knows, there was nothing in the woods – although he did not do a lot of exploring lately. He wondered how his five-year-old daughter could walk all this way by herself at night.
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Then, David saw something from a distance. There was a large wooden cabin up ahead. David was shocked at this discovery. He had no idea that anyone was living this deep in the woods. He immediately regretted not exploring further before they moved into their house.
The door opens
To his horror, Melissa seemed to be heading towards the house. David started praying that his daughter would not go into the house. He watched as Melissa got to the front door. Somebody opened the door and Melissa entered the old cabin without hesitation. David felt his heart stop as he watched what happened. What was happening? Who was in the cabin?
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David was still too far from the cabin to determine who was inside. Whoever was inside was interacting with his five-year-old daughter and he immediately knew that something had to be done. David took out the phone and found that his signal was weak. He looked for a stronger signal and began to dial 911.
Getting help
David explained the situation and the dispatcher agreed that an official intervention must be done to the situation. She told him that two police officers were on their way. She asked David to wait for them before he does anything but David did not listen. As he moved closer to the cabin, determined to figure out what was going on, he lost his phone signal and the call was totally cut off.
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David tried to move around the cabin, trying to peer into its windows. But the windows were too dirty that it was impossible to make out any signs of life in the house. He could not hear anyone and he could not tell if Melissa was in danger. But he knew that he needed to get her out of there.
Barging in
David tried the front door but found that it was locked. This alarmed him. He now was sure that Melissa may be in trouble – he could no longer wait for the police to show up. David started to pound his fists on the door and called out to be let in. His overprotective instincts made him mad. He was so mad that he was able to kick the door open.
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When the door opened, David immediately went through all the rooms in the cabin looking for his daughter. The whole place looked abandoned. David called out for Melissa. The entire house was quiet – as if nobody had been in it. Was he just imagining that Melissa entered the cabin?
A daughter’s cry
The longer David stayed in the cabin the more nervous he got. The cabin was actually bigger than it looked. He feared that he might be too late and Melissa may have hurt herself somewhere. Then, he heard Melissa call out “Daddy!”
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The sound came from the back of the cabin. David started running in the direction, yelling out that he was coming. He prayed that nothing bad had happened to his little girl. When he turned on the corner, he saw a door and light poured from behind it. David immediately turned the doorknob and he could not believe what he saw.
Mixed emotions
Melissa was there and just as he feared, she was not alone. He was so shocked that he just stood by the doorway for a few seconds, trying to process everything. It felt as if there were too many questions running through his mind and he had felt a mix of emotions all at the same time.
Source: GlobeTip
David was staring right into the eyes of his runaway wife, Milly! David had no idea how to react when he saw the woman who had abandoned them for the past two years. He had so many emotions running through him. He was relieved that Melissa was okay. He was very surprised that Milly was there. And then the anger he had repressed when Milly left them was coming back.
A plan uncovered
The light in the room was dim but he could see that Milly and Melissa were a bit flushed. It looked like they were both embarrassed for being caught together. It dawned on David that Melissa’s sleepwalking out of the house was not real. The two must have been planning this all along.
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Because David had trouble processing things, Milly was the first to speak. David had trouble thinking of what to say to Milly in front of Melissa. He feared that his anger might get in the way. So he thought that it would be best if he let Milly do the talking for now.
A runaway’s realization
Milly explained to David how she was overwhelmed with the responsibilities of being a wife and a mother at a very young age. She ran away to Thailand to start a new life thinking that it was what she wanted. But it did not take a year for her to miss her family immediately. Unfortunately, she was too embarrassed to return home after the way she left things.
Source: GlobeTip
But despite the shame, Milly could not help but want to see Melissa. She had missed her badly and she deeply regretted leaving them. She wanted to make things right but she needed to come up with a plan since she was not sure if David would allow her to see Melissa.
Reconnecting with her daughter
You see, the house David and Milly purchased was in the neighborhood that Milly grew up in. When Milly was younger, she and her friends would often go to this abandoned cabin to play. Not a lot of people knew about it and since Milly spent all her money to go back home, she decided to move into the abandoned cabin.
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Milly then thought of a way to get to Melissa without David knowing. She decided to visit her daughter in school during her lunch break. She waited for Melissa on the playground. Fortunately, Melissa recognized her instantly despite her being gone for almost two years and they reconnected right away.
Secret meetings
Although things with Melissa turned out well, Milly was afraid of David. So, she told Melissa that David should not know about their meetings in fear that David would prevent them from seeing each other. Melissa had been telling Milly about sleepwalking and they came up with a plan to use Melissa’s sleepwalking as an excuse to meet up at night.
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David was listening to all of this in shock. He should be very mad at Milly for doing all these things behind his back. But seeing how happy Melissa looked next to her mother, he could feel his anger decreasing. In the end, Melissa was all that mattered, and he was just relieved that she was okay.
Going home
As David was reacting more to his relief than his anger, he started realizing how much he had missed Milly. Seeing his high school sweetheart, the woman that he loved so dearly again after two years were started to stir some familiar feelings in him. David was not sure how to process these feelings. But he reminded himself that no matter what, Melissa would be the priority.
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David decided that they all go back to the house to talk everything out. On the way out of the cabin, they ran into the police officers that were sent by the 911 dispatcher. David almost forgot about them. He assured them that everything was fine now and thanked them for their time.
A second chance
Once they arrived home, Milly and David put Melissa to bed. After that, they retreated to the living room where they started to have a long and serious talk. The sun was rising when the two have agreed to give their marriage another chance.
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Now that Milly was back in the house, it was undeniable that the love between Milly and David was still there. Melissa could not be happier seeing her parents together again. Milly promised them that she had learned her lesson and that she will never run away again.