Two

Second draft of my second chapter. Not quite as bad as my first draft... but still, not great.

TWO

 

 

That night, I dreamed of Kira.

          She wore a dress and a floppy white bow. Her eyes were spring green and sunken. In her hand was a knife, a steady trickle of blood dripping from the blade. There was a kind of washed-out light shining around her. It made her look serene, despite the murderous expression in her eyes.

          Although this dream had been on the less scary end of the spectrum for someone as disturbed as me, I woke with a jolt and a light gasp.

          According to my clock, it was just past four in the morning. I groaned, smashed a pillow over my face, and began untangling myself from the sheets.

The previous September, two things had changed for me, and I didn’t doubt they were linked: my vision had begun deteriorating, and I had started having the dreams. When I told this to Ariel, she said to think of it as a swap of my outer eyes for an inner one. I tried not to think of it at all; it only made me feel resentful.

          My eyes had become incredibly sensitive to light; most of the time, I cringed like a vampire whenever I walked outside. I wish I could say I got used to it, but I never did. Instead, I took to wearing sunglasses whenever possible. My friends said this made me seem cold and impersonal, and it brought out the fact that I didn’t smile much, but I preferred it to the pain.

          I didn’t like the dreams any better. Most of them were horrifying. A couple had been pleasant, but I never managed to cling to their memories in the morning.

          Over time, I grew worse; I became quiet and guarded. Nobody knew what was wrong with me, as I refused to discuss it.

          Everything worked itself out when I joined the Society. I was able to go back to living life as I had before September. My burden still existed, but its weight was easier to bear.

          I lost a lot of friends that September. My heart smashed into shards as I realized the multitude of people who didn’t love me.

          The only good thing that came out of it was my friendship with Dean and Rissa. Contrary to the opinion of most everyone who’d ever met me, they liked the new, darker, more mature me better than the carefree, flighty prankster I had been.

          Dean and Rissa are about the two most opposite people you’ll ever meet. They have a couple of basic similarities: they’re both extremely clever, and they see the world through the same eyes, the eyes of a realist. I’ve known them both for a long time, but I never really got to know them until September.

Rissa is best described as striking. Her eyes are violet, her hair light brown and pixie cut. She’s always full of surprises. I’ll admit that it can be tiresome to be friends with Rissa. She switches moods every other minute. But she’s honest about everything, and she gives good advice.

          Dean looks like a cross between a movie star and a college professor. When we were in seventh grade, I was a head taller than him, I could beat him in arm wrestling, and I couldn’t stand him. Now, he’s nearly eight inches taller than me, he owns me at arm wrestling, and I can still barely stand him (but in a brotherly way.)

          Rissa and Dean have been best friends since they were in first grade, just like Luke and me. All four of us are well-liked by kids from school, even if they don’t quite understand us.

 

I arrived at school at seven o’clock; the grass was crunchy with frost. Dean and Rissa were already there, both sitting on top of a table in the courtyard and watching little brown birds peck at the earth. Rissa had a thin smile on her face; Dean’s arms were around her shoulders.

          I stood motionless. I knew Rissa was having one of her perfect moments. I had them, too. My last had been two weeks ago, while I was sitting on Luke’s front porch with him during a rainy sunset, wearing moccasins and ripped jeans and eating chocolate-chip cookies. Life felt safe and right and beautiful…

          Very quietly, I turned on my heel and walked up the stone steps in front of the school.

          My ringtone burst to life. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and consulted the caller ID. It was Ariel.

          “What is it, Ari?”

          “Alice, hey. My train leaves in like half a minute but I need to talk to you.” Ariel went to art school in the city, and she had to leave early each morning to catch the Metro there.

          She sounded the slightest bit uncomfortable, so I could guess what about.

          “I want you to stay away from Luke.”

          “No.”

          Ariel sighed. “I thought you’d say that.” There was mostly just exasperation in her voice, but I thought I detected a little bit of pride. She was impressed with my loyalty. “Can’t you at least be around him a little bit less?”

          “Luke’s my best friend. It’s going to stay that way, no matter what you say.”

          She exhaled slowly before speaking again. “I guess I already knew that. Just… keep an eye on him.”

          Greatly cheered, I said, “Okay, I will.”

          “Bye, Alice.”

          “Bye.” I flipped my phone shut.

          “Hey,” said a voice in my ear.

          I jumped and turned around. Luke was standing right behind me, grinning.

          After thoroughly smacking him, I asked, “How much of that did you hear?”

          “Enough.” He suddenly got a serious look on his face. Tracing a hand idly across my cheek, he asked, “Is it getting harder for you to trust me?”

          Surprised, I said, “Of course not.” I looked him in the eyes. “You’re letting it get to you, Luke.”

          “Maybe I am,” he whispered. His voice sounded funny, kind of broken.

          Neither of us said anything else for a full five minutes. His face was inches from mine; I could count the freckles splashed across his nose. He didn’t move his hand from my cheek.

          They made a statue of us, and put it on a mountaintop… A Regina Spektor song broke out in my back pocket.

          I bit my lip, breathed deeply, and answered it.

          It was Spencer. “Hi, Alice,” he said slowly. “So I thought about what you said. Last night, I mean.”

          “Did you?”

          “Yeah.” There was a pause. “Do you want to come stay with Ariel and me for the weekend?”

          This seemed so random and unexpected that I said, “Wait, what? Why?”

          “Because… I want you to.”

          I smiled; it was exceptionally hard for Spencer to admit he needed anyone.

          “Yeah, sounds fun.” I noticed Rissa and Dean heading towards Luke and me. “Can I call you back?”

          “Sure. Bye.”

          “See ya, Spence.”

          Rissa had tears of happiness in her eyes. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but I thought Dean did, too.

          The sun was peeking over the horizon. I pulled my sunglasses out of my bag and slipped them on. Luke put his arm around Rissa, and I linked mine with Dean’s, and we all walked off to watch the sunrise.

 

Dusk found me sauntering across the park with Luke and listening to his iPod, one earbud in his ear and one in mine. The fading sun made his hair shine gold whenever he moved his head. Our laughter was musical.

          We were headed to Rissa’s. She lived on the very outskirts of the city, in a pretty white two-story house with blue shutters. I was staying the night there while my parents were out of town. Luke was walking with me because I wasn’t supposed to be out alone once it got dark.

          A damp chill had settled over the vacated park. I shivered uncontrollably in my thin jacket. There was only one other person on the grounds, a girl staring into the lake. She wore an ivory pea coat; her long lignite-colored hair stretched down her back.

          I recognized it was Ariel, but as she turned her head in my direction, I stopped abruptly. Her face was utterly terrified; a wild panic danced in her eyes. She looked not at me but straight through me.

          “Ari, what’s wrong?” I said, sprinting to her.

          She blinked and frowned, like she was seeing something that wasn’t there.

          “Ariel?” Luke said softly. “What’s the matter?”

          She still wouldn’t say anything, but her mouth moved soundlessly.

          “What’s the matter?” he said again.

          He touched her arm. Her face crumpled, and she started to cry.        

          Without another word, he took her elbow and guided her to Rissa’s. She looked taut and uncomfortable, but she didn’t struggle.

Rissa invited us in and poured us steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She didn’t ask a single question, but there was the same fragile, troubled look in her eyes she’d had the night Kira disappeared.

          We sipped our drinks in silence for a very long time, and I checked my phone for messages under the table. I had one from Spencer saying Ariel had been gone for three hourse, did I know where she was? I shot him back a quick text with Rissa’s address.

          He arrived there four minutes later. I cannot describe Ariel’s face when she saw him. It was beyond relief. She tackled him in a hug, and he hugged her back with the love of a real brother.

          I looked away. I missed Michael.

          Luke’s eyes met mine, and he smiled gently.

          Rissa and Ariel sat down to finish their hot chocolate, and Luke went out on the deck, probably because he didn’t want to talk to Spencer.

Spencer took this opportunity to mutter to me, “What’s wrong with her?”

          “I don’t know,” I said; I hesitated, then continued, “but she reminds me of the way I was when I started dreaming.”

          “You think she’s having waking dreams?” He seemed skeptical, but there was worry in his eyes.

          “I don’t know,” I repeated. “Maybe.”

          We were quiet for a few minutes. Then Spencer spoke again, sharply. “Who’s that?”

          I followed his gaze to a picture from last winter that was tacked to Rissa’s wall. A handful of people were in it, but I knew he was referring to Kira.

She was grinning, her arms around Luke. She wore her favorite red sweater and those pretty plaid shoes that always hurt her feet. She looked unrealistically happy.

          Ariel looked up. When she saw the picture, she gave a choked sound between a gasp and a sob; she jumped up and backed against the opposite wall, spilling hot chocolate down herself.

          Almost simultaneously, there was a commotion and a muffled slicing noise from the deck.

          I found Luke, unconscious, his face covered in blood. A deep gash ran from his temple to his jaw. It looked like it’d been made by a knife.

          There was a girl staring up at me from the lawn. Her hair was long and blond. Her eyes were unmistakable, the palest shade of green.

          I tore down the steps, knowing it was useless: by the time I reached the spot where Kira had been standing, she was gone.

Author's Note

Here's my second chapter, which for whatever reason, I cannot stand. Thanks for reviewing, I really appreciate it.