Encounter

With a jolt, I opened my eyes to a familiar, dimly lit room. Beads of sweat rolled off my skin, soaking into my damp shirt. As I stared at the ceiling, I could hear my heart pounding away and in the quiet morning, it was loud.

"It's not real, it's not real, it's not real. It's a dream, you were dreaming."

Murmuring the words over and over again while taking deep breaths did the trick. With my nerves finally calming down, I got up, untangling myself from the bed sheets. Slowly, I padded towards the door, skillfully maneuvering around the stacks of books that littered the floor.

Just as I was about to grab the doorknob, a black figure flashed past my peripheral sight. Immediately, I whipped to my left but all I was greeted were my bookshelves. Frowning, I left my room.

"You're up early, its the holidays, you should have slept in"

Turning around, I spotted my uncle's figure as he walked up the stairs, pausing to lean against the wall next to it. He stared at me, his eyes moving swiftly as he studied my appearance.

I chuckled. If someone were to compare our looks, no one would have guessed that we were related. With a head full of black curls that framed his honey coloured eyes and set against tanned skin, my uncle retained his boyish good looks which garnered lots of affection from his female students. Whereas for me, I had the same dark hair and together with muddy brown eyes, contrasted sharply against my pale complexion. This gave me a perceptual sickly look and coupled with my habit of rarely going outdoors, rumors abound about the "dying kid" living with her hot uncle. On the bright side though, my rumored "sickness" was a good excuse for my uncle to evade the hordes of girls that pestered him.

"Couldn't sleep. It's too damn hot and anyway, I have somewhere to go" I rolled my eyes as I entered the toilet.

"Is your somewhere, the library?"

"Yeah"

"Bookworm"

"Guess who I got that habit from?" I laughed and closed the door.

Having been under the same roof with my uncle since young made me develop a couple of his habits, both good and bad. Being an anthropologist and a lecturer, he developed a nasty habit of book hoarding, which I unfortunately gained as well.

While normal girls at my age are out making friends, I was busy immersing myself in books. Ignoring the comments about me being 'anti-social', it further strengthened others' belief about me being 'crazed' due to witnessing my parents deaths. A belief that stemmed from my 5 year old self's claims that monsters had killed my parents. Thankfully, uncle stood on my side, refusing the claims others made. And look how I turn out? Pretty normal if you asked me.

By the time I got myself readied, uncle was at the main entrance with a luggage in tow.

"You sure took your time, kiddo. I thought I was going to miss my flight at the pace that you were going"

"How long will your trip be?"

"Around 3 months, if we find anything significant during the trip then probably longer. So while I'm gone, be good and don't miss me too much okay?" He grinned and ruffled my hair before walking towards the cab that had just arrived.

"Be safe! See you later!" I shouted as he entered the car. He turned around, waved and the car sped off.

I watched the cab till it disappeared before heading off to the library. It was a usual event for uncle to be gone for long periods of time. He loved fieldwork and would grab any opportunity to get out of his lecturing duties. When I was younger, he would describe his findings to me, from skeletal remains to how indigenous people lived their lives. It was a matter of time before we both got used to not seeing each other...well for me that is. From time to time, uncle would do his spot checks, calling to ensure I was alright or even getting his buddies to check up on me. At the beginning, I would get at least 5 calls a day but thankfully it reduced probably due to crazy phone bills he accumulated.

Probably due to my uncle's obsession with books, we live a stone throw away from the library. So reaching my destination was rather quick. Just as I was about to go around the final corner, I heard a yelp behind me. Turning around, I noticed a kid sprawled on the pavement next to an open manhole and I quickly approached him.

As I got closer, I was intrigued by his looks- The kid was probably around 8 years old judging by the baby fats still present on his chubby cheeks. He had short thick wavy white hair that partially covered his eyes. His skin was slightly blushed, probably due to the combination of being very fair and out in the sun. When he looked up to me, I was greeted by a pair of pink eyes- not the disease, his irises were pale pink with flecks of red in them.

"Hey kid, are you alright. Need some help?" I smiled and extended my hand towards him. The kid's face lit up and he quickly grabbed hold of my hand. I pulled him up easily and briefly scanned him for any injuries.

"Seems like you are alright. Are you in any pain?"

The kid shook his head and grinned, a set of dimples appearing on his cheeks. The blush across his face gaining a brighter tone.

"Where are your parents?"

The kid kept quiet and stared at me with the same silly grin on his face.

Weird kid, well at least he is not injured. Better just get going.

"Alright then, be careful next time okay? Watch where you are playing. I'll get going now, bye kid." I waved at him and turned around.

Just then, I felt a push and a sudden weightlessness.

I had fallen into the manhole.