Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Beginning

She woke with a scream, at least she thought she had screamed. It seemed unusual as she didn’t normally make noise while asleep. Still breathing heavily from the panic of her nightmare she realized that was exactly what it had been, a nightmare. The same nightmare she knew, as the ones she had been suffering from for the past week, but once again she couldn’t remember any of it. Brushing her long auburn hair out of her eyes she scrambled slowly out of her bed managing to make it through the maze of dirty clothes on the floor to her door. It was still early morning so there was a good chance no one else in the house was awake, which was good, any other day she would have had to wait for the bathroom to be open.

“Six people and one bathroom, what the hell were they thinking?” she mumbled on her way down the hall. Seeing the door slightly cracked she exhaled a sigh and sent a silent ‘thank you’ to whoever was watching out for her this morning. Slipping through the door without opening it enough to make it creak she flipped the light on and shut the door behind her. “You think they’d have put a lock on the stupid door by now.”

Squinting in the bright lights over the sink she stared at herself in the mirror. “Come on Arabella, remember, what was that about?” she murmured to her reflection. The girl in the mirror stared back maddeningly, her face just a little too pale, eyes the color slate. They weren’t blue, no matter what anyone said, sure they could look blue at times, but they were definitely gray. “Ugh…something is off…but what?”

Something beeped, then vibrated, then… “Shit, phone…” Arabella tore her gaze from her reflection, flipped off the light, and slipped back into her room as fast as possible, not wondering for a second who would be calling this early in the morning. Sam, it’s always Sam. Glancing at the florescent red numbers of the alarm clock before grabbing her phone she saw with some surprise that it was 3:30 in the morning. He’s an hour later than normal she thought before flipping open the phone.

“Hello” Arabella half whispered into the phone hoping the loud ring hadn’t woken her family. It’s not as if her parents knew she regularly took calls from boys in the middle of the night. Well, just one boy actually.

“Arie, what happened, are you alright?” the warm male voice on the other end sounded concerned. Sam, the only person on the planet that knew what mood she was in with just one word. Unfortunately after he graduated two years before, he had done nothing with his life. Now he spent his time working the night shift at some warehouse and calling her in the middle of the night whenever the spirit moved him.

“Of course I’m alright, its 3:30 in the morning. I’m sitting in my room, what could be wrong?”

“Don’t lie, something is up and I know it.”

“I don’t feel like talking about it right now and unlike some people I have school tomorrow, so I’m gonna get to sleep.”

“You didn’t have to answer, I would have left a message.”

“Yes, I did have to answer, and you know it. Now, good night.” Arie said, not unkindly, and snapping the phone shut she fell back on her bed. She did have to answer, they had had this conversation before. She somehow knew instinctively whenever he was going to call and she always woke up just before the phone rang. Sam rarely called for no reason at all, usually there was something he needed to talk about, even just to get it off his chest, and he knew Arie was the one person he could talk to who wouldn’t judge him. Feeling slightly guilty for ending the call so abruptly she closed her eyes and prayed for a dreamless sleep.

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