November 23rd: 7 Nights

I woke up, I felt normal. I hadn’t felt that way for over a week. The last week showed me that all my questions where pointless. I had no answers and I needed things to be normal again. Even my parents were normal again fighting and yelling home sweet home. The thoughts of what happened that night became unimportant. I was healthy that’s all that mattered. Maybe it was all a miracle that I survived without a scratch. Maybe I blacked out for a reason, seeing my classmates die, seeing Bramm tossed out of the SUV. In any case I didn’t remember and forcing myself to look into things that may or may not be part of this crazy blackout night was ridiculous and pointless. People all over the world had nights where they get a little wild and forget what they did. What made my blackout special? Nothing that I could remember.

I did remember the memorial service my school held for the three friends that died. People where allowed to talk and share feelings about the death of students. The schools theater was packed with my whole class and teachers. There was a projector that showed pictures of the three, Topher, Ken, and Rainy in school functions and at home with family. Bramm had made it to the memorial and delivered a tear jerk speech in a wheel chair; his family had bought him a live in nurse so her could leave the hospital sooner. Other then that service the week seemed to drag on with doubt and gloom that filled not just me and Bramm but the whole student body.

I spent my nights doing homework and walking around the neighborhood. I didn’t sleep well any more. When I did sleep it was a deep sleep but it didn’t affect me. I felt awake and I didn’t look tired. I had felt better than I’ve ever felt. I had more energy and healed quicker. I got a paper cut on my finger and it healed in what seemed like minuets but I probably imagined the quickness of the healing. Besides all of that I felt more at ease about everything, maybe I wasn’t happy but I was close enough.

All that I needed to do was make things right with Serena and then all would be well. I woke up a tad earlier to walk over to Serena’s to talk. When I arrived at the big brown house that she lived in I saw all the windows were black and cars were gone. Was she avoiding me? I tossed the though aside and walked to school. I arrived just before the breakfast line got long. I grabbed the first sweet thing I saw and started my search for Serena. I her checked her locker, her classes, and the library. I heavily sighed when the first bell rang. I tossed my bag on the desk next to my desk. There was a note on it from Serena, wrinkled and crumpled yet it was written like a formal letter.

Eve,

I know we haven’t talked for a couple days. I know you are probably wondering why I haven’t called or IM. Well to put it simply I’m on lock down. I can visit the hospital and Bramm to help him with homework and that’s it. My mother and Carl decided that it is time for me to act “my age” and are changing all my classes. I’m taking most of my classes on the nerd wing of the school. Oh well to my sad social life, it was better than one I don’t have now. I think I can sneak out of my room tonight and we can talk. BTW I’m sorry for blowing up on you. I was confused and well I hate not knowing the answer to things. Please leave your window unlocked, a latter outside your window wouldn’t hurt ether. 

Serena

I read it and sighed with relief. My best friend wasn’t mad at me. She was trapped in the “Nerd Wing”. It was the wing of the school where the entire non social active lived. They wanted lives but didn’t know how to get them so instead they played WOW. They knew that they couldn’t get them so they gave up and ended up breathing and eating school. Don’t get me wrong I like school, but they would make out with the science building if they could. Poor Serena, she was really smart and could totally hang in the hard AP classes but if the nerds knew this they would cling to her more than the new text books the school got five years ago. The nerd wing or as the school calls them the “Accelerated Program for the Intellectually Gifted” or the “APIG”. Yes the school jocks, as a joke once set loose a pig with black rimed “nerdy” glasses to scare the nerds. I had never seen so much hand sanitizer used in the span of two minutes. I couldn’t even see her at lunch any more. They used that time as an independent study time.

A ladder would be rough to get under my window without an explanation. Then I thought about the rope ladders on the second floor of the school. The school bought them a few years back when a parent had seen one too many news reports of teenage pyro and freaked out other parents. So the school bought them to put their minds to ease. I think the announcement of the purchased went something like “Parents, ease your mind. Your tax dollars bought your kids five rope ladders. So if one of our students decides to burn the place down, your kids have the opportunity to calmly line up and wait to climb down a ladder. Or fight to the death for a spot of freedom.” 

After class I walked right up and grabbed one. They were unguarded. Nobody really thought they were worth guarding or locking up. This was the easiest part of my day. Somehow everything seemed to go downhill from that. I walked into my next class, history; I sat in my normal seat when he wheeled in. 

Bramm came back to school earlier than expected, he was in a wheelchair. I watched in my chair as his gallery of girls asked if how they could help. They looked at him as if he were a lost puppy. I waited until the end of class to try and talk to Bramm. Unfortunately Bramm had five Gallery Girls religiously walking around him with his things. I wanted to talk to him again but his gallery wasn’t leaving much room to talk or even walk near him. 

I didn’t really hang out with anyone but Serena so it was weird because I had no one to eat with or talk to. So I sat on the front steps of the school eating a homemade PB and J sandwich alone. It sounds pathetic but I didn’t feel like doing anything about it. I bit into my sandwich then my hand seethed with white hot pain. I dropped my sandwich and clutched my hand with the other. It was the scar. The stupid scar was making my hand feel like I stuck it in water. I looked up people weren’t even paying attention to me. I looked down to the road and I saw a new black Hummer. It was a normal Hummer though something about it seemed faster and stronger then a normal Hummer.  

More unusual was the guy who stepped out of the Hummer. He looked about my age. His dark hair shinned in the sunlight has his clothing was giving me the image of a typical guy with a good eye for style or as the red necks would eventually refer to him as a f*g. His clothing hung on him perfectly and seemed to only make his emerald eyes pop out with a mysterious flavor. The closer he got the more painful my scar burned. I held my breath holding on to my hand. He walked by and looked at me. He kneeled down and smiled at me, his bright white teeth and even brighter were him emerald green eyes. I felt like I knew him yet I couldn’t place a name or anything else about him.

“Do I know you?” I asked, the pain in my hand was barely bearable. He looked down at my hands and tilted his head slightly.

“We met once… your hand?” He asked gently. He reached out for my painful hand; I pulled it away from him. “Sorry, is it alright if I take a look?”

I paused for a long moment before I held my pain ridden hand in front of him. He touched it and suddenly my pain washed away. His hands felt hot, not warm like more people’s hands. I looked into his eyes and saw pain, why is he in pain? He got up suddenly and forced a smile.

“I got to go.” He walked away without looking back. I looked back down at my hand and my scar became darker more intense than it had been five minutes ago. I let my mind wonder to the place it went to on the day after. I was not a Sherlock Holms type. I hated figuring out puzzles and now my own skin was beginning to feel like a mystery. The crescent moon shaped scar made me angry. I got up and walked to my next class. I threw my bag onto the desk and sat down then shoved my face onto the desk. 

“What’s eating you?” Bramm said as he wheeled into the room. He rolled next to me and smiled.

“Where’s your followers?” I asked without picking up my head. He shrugged and his care free smile left his face.

“You know I keep asking myself something. I want to know how you got home. I was sitting there next to you when we crashed. I was, you where the last thing I saw before I got tossed out. You had slammed you head you were bleeding and…” He stopped from finishing his sentence. He rubbed his face, sighed then looked me in the eye. “You should be where I am at. Not healthy.”

“What happened to you saying things got blurry? Maybe I wasn’t as bad as you thought and I walked home…” I looked away from him, there was a feeling in my stomach making me want to question that night again. I knew this was not a normal my blackout was a normal one. “I would have called an ambulance. I would have done something.”

“You didn’t though.” I forced myself to look at him. “I know you have some mixed emotions when it comes to me and our friendship but you wouldn’t want me dead. So maybe you’re not missing something but someone. I told you I thought I saw something running around us, maybe it saved you?” 

“Like who? God? An angel? Oh I know Jesus himself came down and gave me a lift home.” I asked his sarcastically. Just then a switch flipped inside of me I wanted to punch Bramm. “Why didn’t they save you too? Or Topher or Rainy, or Ken?”

“Yes. I think something very much like that happened. Which makes me ask that same question, why not me too? I’ve been an a*s. To you to everyone who died in my car and I’ll make it up to you. If you need anything, just ask.” I got up and stormed out of the room. I couldn’t control myself, I ran, I ran faster and longer than I ever had. I ended up tearing up on a hill miles away from the school. I was mad and I didn’t know why. Found a tree and started punching it. It didn’t hurt to punch if felt good like having weights lifted off my shoulder. Weights I never knew existed until I had landed the first punch. I kept punching and clawing until the tree broke in half. I stood back, and looked at my handwork. I was oddly satisfied by this destruction but then I understood something very wrong now lived inside of me to allow me to do this. I looked at my hands they were perfectly fine. 

I looked around and noticed that it was late. I grabbed at my bag that was tossed down away from the tree and searched for my phone. I looked at the time and growled. I threw my bag over my shoulder and started my run back to the school to get my car. It didn’t take me very long to get back because I ran full blast and when I stopped I wasn’t even out of breath. I was almost disappointed when I had to drive home. I hopped out of the car and ran up to my room and opened the window. I hung the ladder out the window and waited on my bed. Somewhere during my time lying on the bed I fell asleep. I was woken up by Serena. She looked at me like I had just died. 

“Eve, are you alright?” She looked down at my hand with the scar. It glowed in the darkness. “Did that always do that?”

“It’s nothing.” I threw on a sweatshirt that was on the floor next to my bed and flipped on the lights. Serena looked away from the hand that had that scar. “So the nerd wing?”

“Yeah, it’s not too bad. All the guys use too much axe body spray and some of them are in need of a pimple cream but they really are sweet. Every class I have a guy who wants to be my lab partner or just help me even if I don’t need it. I hate it. I never get a moment to myself. Someone’s always trying to touch me, and it’s just weird.” I couldn’t help but laugh eventually Serena laughed too. Both of us stopped laughing suddenly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blamed you. Bramm told me you weren’t in the car. I spent a lot of time in the hospital with him. He said that you told him about the cops coming and he got out of there. You were going to go with him but then you got out looking for me. You must have walked home.” 

“Yeah maybe. I haven’t talked to Bramm so maybe that’s what happened.” Why did I lie to Serena, why did Bramm lie to her? I know I was in the SUV after the SUV is when I blacked out. This all seemed wrong, why did my life have to get all complicated? “You know I’m real tired. I think I’m going to go t sleep.” 

“Your right, it’s pretty late. Plus now that I’m a nerd winger I have an early bird class.” We hugged and she left. I flipped the lights back off and tore off my sweater. The scar still glowed. I no longer was tired and that gnawing that attacked my stomach before about the gap in time on that night was now a burning nauseating fire. I needed to know what was happening to me now and what happened to me then.  

I wanted to get up and run again. I wanted to fight. I felt overly aggressive and pissed off at the whole world. I wasn’t going to be able to sleep and I had nothing to keep my mind off of anything. I got up and walked around my room and stopped at my window. That’s when I saw the Hummer. 

Why is that Hummer here? I opened my window and climbed down the latter that was still there. The Hummer stayed where it was. This was turning into that moment in all the movies where you screaming at the girl to run, but somehow I wasn’t scared. I was pissed off at the Hummer for being on my street. I tapped on the window and it rolled down. It wasn’t that guy from before he was older but not by much. He was college age and blond with sapphire eyes. He was slimmer than the other guy but more attractive. I was surprised by this blond guy I’ve never seen.

“You have six nights left. I thought you should know.” He turned the Hummer on. “You should think about saying good byes.” 

“Who the Hell are you?!” Anger like I’ve never felt build up inside of me. This guy was another mystery on top of the rest and I couldn’t take it. I hit the Hummer leaving a large indent. He sighed but wasn’t shocked by my hitting the Hummer.

“Think of me like a mentor. My name is Lysander Spiro.” He drove off leaving me alone and in the dark. Even my scar stopped glowing. I walked up to my room in a daze I had six nights left until what? I laid back down on my bed, not even an inch closer to sleep. My mind was reeling with thoughts and questions. My life was complicated and I was screwed.