Dreamers (part two)

Glin walks home alone, reminding herself that it's her birthday every five steps. It's my sixteenth birthday. I should be happy.

But something doesn't feel right. Something dark is coming over her. She feels herself get more mad for Liam ditching her today, for Kaylee not having any answers. For her father dying  four months ago and for everyone treating her differently because of it. She feels anger, so much so that she starts breathing heavy and clenches her fists. Her slow steps turn into stomps and she begins to feel angered, betrayed, and hurt.

Her vision starts to go fuzzy but she keeps walking. She sees a shadow come over her and she quickly turns around. Behind her are two shadows. They're not shadows from the trees or the fence, they're just...there. There's nothing casting them. They follow her until she gets to her driveway and then they move quickly to hide under the bushes and in the trees.

Glin looks all around her to see what could have caused the shadows to come but there is nothing. Well, what did I think would be there? Flying monkeys?

She walks into her house and instantly feels tired. She stumbles to the couch in her green-walled, carpeted living room and sits down. The anger is gone, the hatred for everyone is gone, but fatigue has washed over her. She groans and sits back on the couch, feeling her eyes slowly close.

She's about to drift off when her mother comes into the room, "Hi, honey. Happy Birthday!" She cheers.

Glin groans to herself and sits up, forcing a smile, "Thanks, mom."

"You're sixteen now! Aren't you excited?" She asks. She sits down in the red chair across the room from Glin. Her curly red hair looks nothing like Glin's, and Glin would never wear the pink scrubs she wears now. Glin's hair is straight and brown, while her mother's hair is short, curly, and red.

Her father's hair was brown as well.

Glin starts to wonder why her mother is all the sudden happy. For the past four months since her father died she's been slow-moving and barely talking to anyone. She puts on a smile in public but at home she doesn't even talk.

Her mother works at a hospital and is on-call all the time. She works as a nurse and is almost never at home. In fact, that's probably why she's wearing her scrubs.

"I wish I were." Glin responds flatly. Before her dad died, she used to complain about her mother working full-time at the hospital but now she can't, because it's the only reason Glin can stay in this house and not in an apartment. Or worse, the streets.

Her mother sees the sad look on Glin's face and says, "I know, honey. I have to work tonight, but I made sure to take work off tomorrow, to celebrate."

That just made Glin feel ten times worse. "No, mom. You can't take a day off. I'll just go out with Liam or Kaylee."

"This is your sixteenth birthday, Glin. We're celebrating." She insists. With that she gets up and walks over to the door. "I'll be back tonight at midnight. Tomorrow, we're going out to the mall, ok? Love you." And then she walks out the door with her purse and keys.

Glin hears their crappy car start up and pull out of the driveway. After she hears it drive down the road, Glin gets up. She barely makes it to the door, all she wants to do is take a nap, but as soon as she steps outside she feels ten times better, the fatigue is gone, the aches in her legs are gone, and she feels energized.

But she also notices that the shadows are back, and they're slowing creeping toward her. She walks back into the house and shuts the door slowly, watching the shadows snake over to the door.

Once the door is closed, she falls to the ground and passes out.

                              ~~~

She walks in the dark forest that seems to never end. She keeps walking, not knowing where to go or what she's doing. Is she following something? Or someone? Is she sleep-walking? Is this real or not?

She looks around at the dark trees. It feels weird without her shadows. She feels a longing for them, a deep pain because she's without them. She wants them to follow her, to stalk her and hunt her down. But the sun is not out, it is midnight and there are no shadows.

But then she sees what she's been following, and it all becomes clear. She follows it as it goes through the maze of trees. Slowly a small light comes into view and the thing she's following is following it. As they get closer and closer, the light gets bigger.

Is it an animal? What is it she's compelled to follow? She must know, she must catch up to it. She breaks into a run, yelling, "Hey! Wait!" But she completely forgets that the closer she gets to what she's following, the closer she gets to the light.

She wants to be afraid of the light but she isn't afraid of the thing she follows. She craves what she's following, as if it were a shadow. One of her shadows.

Finally, they get to the light. It gets brighter and brighter. Bigger, stronger, and scarier. The thing she follows stops moving toward it, letting it take it over. It turns around to face her just before it's taken away by the glowing, growing light.

And she knows what it is. Or who it is.

It's Liam.

"NO!" Glin screams, sitting up quickly. She's drenched in cold sweat. She looks around and notices she's right in front of her door, where she had fallen and passed out. She looks at the clock across the hall from her. It reads ten thirty at night.

Then Glin remembers the dream. She sits cross-legged and buries her face in her hands, remembering everything from today. Liam ditching her, Kaylee having no answers, the shadows following her home, making her angry as all hell. And walking outside, seeing them creep toward her. Walking back in the house and passing out.

The dream.

Liam.

She sighs, "What's wrong with me?"

Author's Note

Part two to Dreamers, had to cut the chapter in half (kind of) to make it a little shorter.

Reviews

[Jacques]

i prefer into into two parts and i like how you've cut it where you did because it's a good starting point for this chapter - can't wait to hear chapter three