Chapter 1

In this chapter, Nicole experiences a frightening dream that involves one of her family members dying in the near future. She learns that her cousin Katie has something on her mind as well....

Chapter 1

     Golden sun rays leaked through the blinds and dappled the room with patches of light.  Humid air hung around outside, announcing the arrival of summer.  And along with summer, came summer vacation.  And that had to be the best time of year.  And this time would be the greatest.

     It just had to be.

     She stirred in her cushiony warm bed, and pulled an edge of the blanket to cover her eyes from the intruding brightness.  

     The summer had been a long awaited occasion for Nicole Shalie, and she had decided that not any second of it would be wasted �" especially for the likes of the sun that didn’t know that it wasn’t yet the time to wake up.  

     Nicole let out a long breath of air as she wiggled over onto her other side, being careful not to break her delicate state of sleepiness.  The silence in the house began to flood around her once again, as if wrapping her up, and she began to drift back into slumber.  

     It had felt so good to get a decent amount of rest.  During the high school year, Nicole was forced to awaken at the ungodly hour of 6 am every single morning, which didn’t suit her conditions.  It had barely given her any time to rest!  But luckily school had ended recently, and summer vacation had come along to save the day. 

     As she lied there curled up in her soft sheets, grateful for the silence that had swallowed her up, she noticed a strange lump that wouldn’t seem to move out of her mind.  As much as she tried, it kept on returning and making her feel worried about something.

     Sleep, seeming less and less reachable now that she was being bothered by a concerning thought, Nicole rolled onto her back and opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling.  

     “…So much for getting a decent amount of sleep.”   She spoke to herself in nearly a whisper.

     After staring up at the roof above her for a few passing minutes, she turned to glance at the clock that stood next to her bed.  The numbers flashed 7:30.  Not yet ready to get up, she curled up back on her bed and let out another long breath of air. I don’t deserve to get up so early.  But deep down inside, she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep now that she had broken her state of sleep.

     Nicole’s mind slowly began to open up as she became more awake.  After a couple  more minutes of looking at the ceiling, she dragged herself up into a sitting position, and began to process her thoughts.  The lump still hadn’t left, and more then feeling irritated, she felt puzzled mainly because she didn’t know why this new thought made her feel so uneasy.  There was just something about it that made her so alarmed and concerned at the same time.

     She crossed her legs, and gazed up at the ceiling once again as she tried to come up with what was bothering her.  

     This is so odd.  I can’t even figure out why.

     And then it hit her.  Nicole became instantly aware as images started whirling around in her head.  She began to take several shallow breathes as her heart raced.  A memory started to play threw in her head, which she wasn’t sure how she knew it, but it sent shivers down her spine.  It showed a dark figure, staring at her with soft blue eyes.  

     Nicole held her hands up to the sides of her head, as if to stop it from spinning around with the images.

     The dark figure began to open its mouth, and its eerie voice spoke words that Nicole could barely make out;

     Someone you love will die.

     Her racing heart felt as if it skipped a beat once she heard what it spoke.  Feeling too overwhelmed by the vision that she was experiencing, she forced herself out of it, and sat there on her bed again.  In the sheer silence.  Letting her mind whiz around to try to soak up why this just happened.  But the single line that the shadow had told her felt it had frozen into her thoughts.   

     Someone I love will die.  She mouthed the words, and felt her stomach knot as it was mentioned once again.  

    Feeling so powerless to help that poor person who was supposed to die, Nicole began to list off all of the people in her head, and as if she didn’t feel bad enough, she mentally imagined how drastically it would affect her life if each individual were to pass away.  

     She felt the knot in her stomach double in size.  She wasn’t even sure if she was capable of saving someone who was going to die.  She wondered if any of this was even real �" if it wasn’t just a weird daydream she experienced.  Had the shadow figure been telling the truth?

     Nicole recalled how its light blue eyes looked as her.  They didn’t seem at all threatening.  As she closed her eyes to focus on the mental picture once again, she almost saw empathy deep within the figure’s calming blue irises.    

     She opened her eyes, and even though panic bounced around in the pit of her stomach, she couldn’t help but wonder if the figure wasn’t evil, but maybe a messenger that came to give her a friendly warning of what was to come.  

     A cell phone began to ring loudly, which snapped Nicole back into reality.  Feeling thankful to have something to distract her from her unresolved thoughts, she answered the call without stopping to look at the caller ID.  

     “Hello?”  She spoke into the phone as she dropped back onto her bed.  There was a pause, and a slight crackling noise as if whoever was on the other line had a bed cell reception.  

     “Hello?  Anyone there?”  Nicole spoke again, becoming slightly uneasy about the call having no one on the other side.  

     There was another pause, until she heard a familiar voice finally answer.  “Hey Nicole!  What’s up?”

     Nicole recognized her cousin’s voice, and that little uneasy feeling she had vanished.  “Oh hey Katie!  Do you have a bad connection or something?  Your voice sounds kinda crackly.”  

     She chuckled into her phone “yeah sorry, the battery’s pretty low so it’s probably not working too well.”  

     Nicole smiled, and tried to ignore the same chilling thought that kept on entering her head.  “So… how are you?”  

     “I’m alright,” she answered, although Nicole could sense she wasn’t entirely telling the truth.  

     “Come on, I know that’s not really how you feel.  What’s bothering you?”

     Being cousins meant that they had known each other since the day they were born.  Over the years, they had gotten really close to each other.  Nicole had felt very thankful for having such a special connection with her cousin.  And now that they were just a year apart, they had almost mastered the art of knowing how the other one felt, even over the phone.  

     “Nothing’s wrong.”  Katie answered quickly.

     Judging by the way she said it, Nicole could still tell that there was something she wasn’t saying.

     Katie spoke quieter, “just come over to my house later okay?  I’ll see you then hopefully.”

     Before Nicole could answer, the other end was hung up.  She frowned slightly, and put her phone down next to her bed.  I hope she’s okay.  She thought to herself, as her total amount of worry increased.  

     Not wanting to think about the earlier message at the moment, she pushed it out of her mind and stood up for the first time that morning.  She slipped on a white tank top and a loose fitting pair of shorts.  Next, she straightened her long blond hair and brushed it through to make sure it looked half decent.  You never knew when something would come along and you needed to look alright.  

     The rays of light that were still poking into her room seemed to grow brighter as the sun raised itself higher into the clear sky.  For a moment, Nicole peeked out of the window from which they came in and admired the soft shade of blue that the sky was that day.  She wished that her mind could be as clear from worries as the sky was from clouds.  She began to watch a family playfully shooting each other with water guns in a neighboring yard, and noticed the genuine smiles on each of their faces.  “That’s something that I should be doing right now,” she thought as she kept her eyes on the people, “it’s my summer as well, and I shouldn’t have to have such stressful things on my mind.”  

     Now truly beginning her day, Nicole opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway.  The house was still flooded with silence, and as she took note of that, she assumed that everyone was out at the moment.  

     From this, she felt disappointed because she had hoped that she could tell her family about the frightening and puzzling dream that she had experienced, and hopefully they could help her think of what she should do about it.  

     No, she told herself, you can’t tell them.  What would they think if you told them that?  A dark shadow came in my dream last night and it said that someone is going to die, and even though it’s just a dream, I believe it’s true?  

     Nicole shook her head as she scratched out the idea of telling them about it.  It just wouldn’t be right.

     But there was no reason why she had to feel in the dark about this problem.  There was someone she could tell who would understand.  

     Just then the phone rang for the second time, and Nicole went to go pick it up.  

     “Hey, are you coming soon?”  Katie spoke as static filled the other line.  

     “Yes, don’t worry I’ll be over as soon as I can.”  Nicole answered her before hanging up.

     Why on earth is she so eager for me to see her?  Does she have something that important to tell me?

     But there was something important Nicole had to tell her as well, so she felt almost as eager as Katie to speak with her.

     As she stood there, she wondered how much time she had left before the one she cared about would pass away.  She wondered, Can I prevent it from happening?

     Can Katie’s problem be even more urgent then mine?

Author's Note

What do you think of this chapter?:) (please ignore any grammar of spelling problems)