Chapter 6

<< The next morning I woke up and tried to open my eyes, but it felt as if they weighted a thousand kilos.

The next thing I knew was that it wasn't only my eyes, it was also my body. I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, I couldn't scream. I panicked. I was trapped in my own body.

"Skye" A voice called me inside my head, I knew I was a weirdo but I wasn't crazy.

A tightness in my chest made feel as if I was slowly and painfully running out of air. And everytime I tried to pull it off, the heavyness increased. I tried to look around to get out of that terrible and horrible nightmare that kept me kidnapped in a dark, obscure world.

And then I saw her.

The little girl with two high black ponytails kept together with a pink hair tie that had butterflies and a cute pastel purple dress up to her knees that made her blue shiny eyes glow in all that darkness. I walked towards her, staring at her kind expression. Like a bunny who walks volunteerly into the wolf's cave.

"Skye," She called my name again in this honeyed voice that rang a bell as she smiled like when you do when you meet an old friend. "Why did you forget about me?"

I tried to talk, tell her that I didn't know who she was. But I desesperately felt my mouth open wide and no sound coming from it, as she kept that horrible kidness in her eyes. My chest hurted like a thousand bees were stinging it, my stomach was about to trow all the dinner from last night. But nothing came out, not food, neither words.

Then she raised her finger and pointed a place right behind me, inside the darkness.

"Now he's coming for you"

Her face vanished as a hand grabbed my head and another my waist. They pulled me to the darkness. I was so terrified I only wanted to scream, I wanted to fight, I wanted to wake the fuck up, I wanted to cry and I wanted to be left alone.

Next thing I knew I opened my eyes and I was in a basement. An old, dark and forgotten basement that had from furniture to old toys rotting in there and gathering dust. I tried to walk around to find the exit, but as I started to run I felt a tug on my neck and I was pulled back. My neck hurted as if someone had just strangled me. I tried to open my mouth and cough but my lips were sealed together, I touched them in horror, they weren't sealed together. They were stitched up.

If the panic and terror before wasn't bad, now it was chaos. >>

"Wake up!" I sat in my bed, in my room, safe.

With my eyes open wide as Jen searched through my body to check I was fine, I tried to breath, stop crying and, basically, keep my shit togheter. But everything felt so real. I was trapped in there. I felt the pain as if I was wide awake.

"Oh my god..." Murmured Jen, getting close to my neck, taking a close look at it while raising a finger to check if it truly hurt. " What has happened to you, Skye? "

"A nightmare" I answered briefly, grabbing the sheets to hide my body, trying to hide the cold sweat, the tears, as she pulled back and got me the little mirror that she used to do her eyebrows.

"Nightmares don't choke you, honey" She answered passing me the mirror and directing her finger to her neck, inviting me to check for myself what I already knew.

When I finally gathered all the courage that was left in me, I raised my arm and helded a silent gasp. I certainly didn't expect this big bruise surrounding my whole neck. It wasn't also discreet, it was almost black and dried blood from scratches with nail marks.

"What's this, Skye?" Asked Jen probably as scared as I was. I faced her and told her the truth wide-eyed.

"I have no fucking idea" But it was terrifying. And my guts told me it wouldn't be the last time.

But right now, what was important, was the two exams ahead of my day. So I woke up, I showered, I dressed up with a long-neck sweater to hide the bruise and went straight to the cafeteria with Jen, where we decided not to talk about the dream thing and, instead, focus on the first exam and answering all the doubts we had. And, for once, I thanked her for not insisting on the thing.

I had the feeling that, If I talked about it, I would remember something that would follow me forever.

So we just pretended that nothing happened and went through our day as if it was any other.

Once we finished our exams, she told me that she had a meeting with her book club and left me to have lunch and dinner alone. I was bored in our room, and when I'm bored I think. And thinking made me remember Victor, made me remember my dream.

So I took my phone and tried to call Mason. Yes, last night he gave me his number. But it was turned off. I supposed he was working so I decided to go for a run to burn some steam. I put on some black tracksuit pants, a navy blue sweater and a black scarf that would sure keep me warm during my exercise.

I decided to go to the football field to run, there always were people there, even at night, and the lights were always on. It was a safe place to go to. I felt like shit. And it seemed like a good idea, and it was. Apart from some first years throwing a party, and some couples hooking up on the dark corners, there wasn't anyone to bother me.

I started running the enormous field with fresh cut grass. I always loved that smell, it reminded me of my father and the good times. Before everything was messed up. I caught my breath for a minute, when I heard a voice that I could recognise everywhere through the crowd that was in the party.

"Jen?" I touched the girl's shoulder that was wearing the same black dress that Jen had in her closet, and had never even given the thought of putting it on, as she found it horribly short.

When she turned around I was surprised to check that, one, yes, it was Jen. Second, she smelt of booze so much it almost left me without sense of smell. And third, she had bitchy eyes, as if she didn't recognise me.

"Hey, Jen?" I said loudly enough so that she could hear my confused voice above the noise of the crowd. "Are you okay?"

She always had hated parties, we had been roommates for two years and a half, I was completely sure when I say that I would put my hand on fire before she even thought of going to a party. I remember when we were first years, I begged her to come with me to the welcoming party one of the sorority's had organised, I even promised to do her projects for a week, I ended up going alone. And I never saw her outside the library.

I'm not saying it was wrong for her to have fun, it's just that it was weird to see her like that, even more drunk.

"What..." She said so drunk she was slurring. "...I'm havin fun!"

Okay, that was weird, because if she was having fun... why were her eyes so sad?

"Do you want me to bring you some water?" I asked looking at the red plastic glass that holded a big share of tequila.

"Water is for losers!" She screamed, and the crowd howled after her. I sighed and tried to think of what she would do in this situation.

When I finally decided that I would just stick around to watch after her, and that no one got her hands on her, a boy popped out of nowhere and grabbed her waist with force. She only giggled and rejected his octopus hands that insistently tried to touch her every chance he had.

"Leave her alone" I confronted the boy who was probably even more drunk than Jen and wasn't taller than me.

I didn't expect Jenna, with her messy hair and lost eyes to yell at me to leave her alone, that she could take care of herself.

"You're drunk Jen," I replied with begging eyes. "Let's go, you need to sleep it off"

I reached my hand to her, hoping that she would take it and she could leave the asshole that was touching her ass without her consent. I really couldn't recognise Jen that night.

"You don't know what I need" And then she kissed the asshole in front of me. When she turned her eyes to mine, we both knew that this wasn't what she wanted, but she was more stubborn than me and, at that moment, she just wanted to be left alone. "Leave me alone, Skye"

I didn't want to regret leaving her behind, so I backed off, went to get a drink and waited in the field stands for Jen to get to our room safely. It was a long night, but it was worth it, because when the party died, around six of the morning, Jen tried to go back to prepare for the exam but the boy insisted on going to his room. She said no, clearly, like five times, then he hit her and called her a bitch for making him horny all night for nothing.

I run over immediately and beat his sad ass until Jen begged me to stop.

Good part, she's safe.

Bad part, she doesn't talk to me anymore.