Sister Midnight

 

It was 2:00 AM according to the bright red LED clock. Jamie stared at it before realizing he just had woken in the middle of the night yet again. Will I ever have a full night’s sleep? He rolled onto his back and looked at the glowing stickers of stars on his ceiling.

            The stars. They’ve became a much needed friend in the last week, welcoming him back to reality. It also reminded him of his dream. The same dream that’s plagued him in the last seven days. Tonight was the most clearest image of the dream. Jamie could remember every bit of it. 

            Jamie found himself drifting nude in the void, surrounded by stars, planets and other solar objects. He felt at peace here, one with everything. But behind him, a great heat arises and he finds the Sun, growing hotter and brighter.

            A wave of noise invades Jamies mind, indistinguishable languages speaking directly to him but he cannot make it out. The noise hurts Jamies head, he tries to scream but can’t. This angers the star, and in turn its color darkens into a angry red and begins to expand, devouring everything in the solar system. Jamie tries to escape, but right before it reaches him he awakens. He knows this is the same dream from the past week. Jamie reflects on it over and over, and wonders if there’s some kind of hidden meaning in it but can think of nothing. 

            As he turns onto his side to try and go to sleep for school in the morning, he suddenly feels a presence. His adrenalin shoots and his heart starts pounding. He looks around his room wide-eyed before feeling it coming from outside.

            Jamie got up and ran to the window just to catch a police cruiser speed by, rushing somewhere east. The killer? He quickly dug out a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt and snuck downstairs into the back hallway where he slid on shoes without any socks on, trying to be as quiet as he can be. His mother and Mary were still in the bar, cleaning from this nights work. Rick was nowhere to be found.

            He slowly unlocked the back door and went outside. Out here, he didn’t have to worry about being quiet and made a dash out the direction the police cruiser went. The suburbs weren’t gigantic and there’s only so many places it could of went going east.

            Six blocks down, he could make a faint glow of red and blue flashing against the grown ahead of him. Down King Street, he saw three cop cars and one ambulance. There was no onlookers like last time. Jamie snuck up to the nearest cruiser, hiding in the shadows.

            A red and black mass of gunk laid, spread out across the ground. Jamie couldn’t figure out what he was staring at until he noticed an object sticking out of the mess that looked somewhat like a hand and fingers. He realized what it was. One of the “inside-out corpses” the killer leaves behind. He began to feel ill and scared and most of all stupid. What if the killer is still around!? Jamie slowly snuck back around the street corner.

            He started a slow run back to the bar when the presence returned. The killer! The presence was a menacing feeling, it caused his heart to sink. Without hesitation, Jamie spun around, looking for any signs of a humans presence. The street was dead, no one around. Only signs of life were the bugs attracted to the street lights and the stars above.

            Don’t stop! Jamie began his run again, still looking back and wound up running head first into someone causing both of them to fall to the ground. Jamie screamed and got back up and tried to run away before he heard a voice telling him to stop.

            Jamie turned around and saw a girl on the ground. She had short strawberry blonde hair and a red sweatshirt on that said “ALIVE INSIDE”. She looked around 16, maybe 17. The teen got up and said, “what the hell? Just gonna run away and not help someone you knocked over out?”

            Jamie didn’t say anything. He looked around and the presence was gone.

            “Well?”

            Jamie looked at her again, he didn’t recognize her from the neighborhood or school. “Sorry,” he said in a awkward tone, and began his way home again.

            The girl watched him, shook her head and went her way.

            It was now Monday and the fall uniform change was supposed to be at the start of the month, but Ms. Smith put out that because of the heat wave, the school would allow summer uniforms to continue to be worn until the warm weather dissipated. Aaron was fine with that, as he preferred the summer uniforms over the winter sets, Jamie didn’t really care as he laid face down on his desk, trying to get some sleep.

            Lunch time was in effect, Aaron stared up at the ceiling with a pencil in his mouth, thinking of something to draw, occasionally eating his sandwich. “Hey Jay,” he said, “what should I draw today?”

            Jamie rolled his head around in his arms and said, “I don’t know.”

            “Still not getting sleep?” Aaron said, leaning back on his chair looking at Jamie.

            “No.”

            “Is it nightmares keeping you awake?”

            “Maybe.”

            “Man, I had a nightmare on Saturday night,” Aaron said, now hovering over his desk having thought of something to draw, “we were in space and the next thing you know-“

            Jamie sat up wide-eyed, looking at Aaron. “We were in space?” he said, sounding astounded.

            “Yeah yeah, we were in space,” Aaron said, then he blushed a little and whispered, “naked too.”

            Jamie looked the other way, feeling himself blushing as well before turning back to Aaron and said, “then what?” 

            As Aaron was about to continue with his story, the homeroom teacher returned, signaling the end of lunch. “I’ll tell you later,” Aaron said, returning to his drawing.

            Ms. Smith decided on giving a lecture on the sun. “When you kids hit junior high, you stop learning the fun stuff,” she said. “I remember how it was, through primary school we learned all about dinosaurs and space. Things that are actually interesting. And now, you’re forced to learn about history and various forms of math you’ll probably never use after high school, or college for that matter.”

            Ms. Smith, 27, was always blunt but it was something the class respected out of her. She had honesty, but legitimately cared about the students unlike most of the teachers at Macross Private School.

            The day went by slowly. Jamie sat in his seat, shocked by what Aaron just told him. He had the same dream I had. He thought back to yesterday morning and thought he had a dream with Aaron in it too. This is too weird.

            By the time the final bell rang, Jamie was a zombie. If it wasn’t for Aaron poking him awake every time he fell asleep, he would have been long gone. The pair packed their bags, Jamie eager to prod Aaron for more information on his dream and they headed out the front entrance of the school.

            The courtyard was packed with students trying to get home as soon as possible. The heat was too much for everyone, it was hotter than it was this weekend. The walk to the bar was going to be a excruciating fifteen minutes at the very least.

            “Hey!” someone yelled out to Jamie. He and Aaron turned around and Jamie recognized the strawberry blonde girl. She was in a heavy-looking red jacket that reached her knees.

            “It’s you,” Jamie said, annoyed at being halted out in this heat.

            “Who’s she?” Aaron asked Jamie, surprised by someone with so much energy out in this heat in such an outfit.

            “I don’t know, some jerk that ran into me last night.”

            “Look a*****e, you’re the one who ran into me!” the girl said.

            “What were you doing out last night?” Aaron said.

            “I’ll tell you later,” Jamie said, then turning back to the girl, “what do you want?”

            “I want a f*****g apology, damnit!” the girl said. Passing students looked at them and began whispering to each other. Jamie and Aaron were surprised by the language she was using.

            “I’m pretty sure I said ‘sorry’ last night.” Jamie said. Who is this joker? I’ve never seen her before and now she’s everywhere? Jamie began walking away, Aaron in tow.

            “That was a half-assed apology!” the girl yelled out.

            Jamie turned around and said, “Look, I’m sorry, okay!? Christ, don’t act like it’s the end of the world or anything.” The pair began walking away again from the girl but she ran up in front of them and said, “hey, we should be friends.”

            “Friends?” Jamie said, confused. Aaron stood there confused as well by what was happening.

            “Yeah! I’ll be going to Macross tomorrow. The names Priscilla “Priss” Katz. Ms. Smith will be my homeroom teacher,” the girl said, extending her hand. Jamie looked at it.

            “Priscilla Katz, huh?” Jamie replied and shook her hand. He was a bit surprised to hear that she was to be in their class, she looked older than any of the other girls in it. “Jamie Olvera. Short round here is Aaron Brazda. Ms. Smith is both our homeroom teacher as well.” Aaron made a slight nod and waved, blushing.

            “Cool! Made new friends without any effort!” Priss said, smiling. “We’ll I’ll be seeing ya’ll tomorrow then! I got to get home and help finish unpacking with dad. Laters!”

            And as soon as she appeared, Priss disappeared around the corner ahead. Neither of the two boys could make out what just happened.

            “Where’d you two meet again, Jay?” Aaron asked, scratching his head.

            “As I said, she bumped into me last night when I was going back to the bar.”

            “What were you doing out at night?”

            “I just wanted to stretch my legs, that’s all.” Jamie said.

Author's Note

The first major revision that is kind of confounding. Originally Jamie ran into a "strawberry-blond haired boy" who was going to be Remy from my last story "Purest Feeling", but I went back and changed the character into a female as I felt there were too many males in the story. I don't know, I'm weird like that.