oceanperch:
I can remember waking up as a child & being absolutely convinced the sound of the heater was instead an intruder walking through the house. I did not move a muscle. I did not scream or call for my parents. I was scared to death; if I showed one sign of awareness, the imagined intruder would know and come into my room & kill me. (A child's imagination in the middle of the night can be as bad as the real thing.)
I can see myself frozen with fear for 2 hours. Sad to think she is automatically doubted because we look at her experience with an adult's perspective instead of a child's.