Chapter 4: Him

Early in the morning, the doors of the school finally opened although, I had no time to go back home, I had no choice but to change clothes with the extra clothes I had in my locker. The school bell rang reminding me of my first subject in the morning, science class again and coincidentally, I met the boy with the nasty attitude again, he was my lab partner in science class. Up until now, we never had interest at each other even though we were a lab partner, not even a proper conversation or exchanging names happened between us, he was always quiet when he's with me, so I never cared about his presence but now that Effie Lewis is involved, he suddenly had the interest to talk to me. Who even is Effie Lewis to him?.

As soon I knew that he was the first person that I was gonna sit with for an hour, my energy drained. Soon, the class was about to start and the professor also came in, I wanted to leave immediately but he aggressively pulled my hand and forced me to sit beside him, the sound of us fighting at the back sit attracted the professor and students eyes.

"Is everything alright back there, Miss Nellie Livesy?", the professor who hated my presence for some unknown reason blamed me for the noise and had an irritated face everytime he see's me in his class, I shut my mouth and just silently ignored him. This acts were all seen by my bestfriend Gemma who is somehow rarely in the same class with me, she was curious with the relationship I have with the boy beside me.

When the class finally ended, I was the first to get out of the room, followed by Gemma who kept on nagging me about my relationship with a boy whom I don't even know his name. Gemma who is like a class recorder of the school knew everyone at school who is very famous, she was a walking info to me.

According to her, my lab partner was the younger brother of Effie Lewis, his name was Zaire Lewis, the smart, cunning and honored student of the school, the same as her older sister, they were both academic achievers, the difference was they had the opposite attitude, Effie was enthusiastic and liked by everyone while Zaire was introvert but somehow has a lot of friends, not one person saw them being close to each other or even talk to each other, no one knew if they were really close siblings or not .

"But rumors has it that the day Effie went missing, both of them had a fight at the school festival that night, Zaire was the last person that Effie met", Gemma said which made me wonder even more about him.

In the afternoon, I was so tired and sleepy that I didn't have the energy to attend my next class so I stayed at the classroom alone, sleeping at my desk. Then it happened again, I met Effie however, this time, she was calm and open to a conversation, opening my eyes, I found myself sleeping at her lap in the middle of an unfamiliar place. In my dream, we were in an abandoned school that was taken charge by the nature, inside the school were growing plants and tree's around it, inside and outside, it was peaceful but I couldn't enjoy its nature due to my trauma at the Arlo forest it felt like it was real but I knew deep down, I was dreaming again.

"Why do you keep appearing in my dreams?", I asked her as she caress my hair gently like a mother combing her daughter's hair, still, she didn't answer my question, she remained quiet and smiled genuinely. She was mumbling some words I couldn't hear properly, I wanted to listen but was disturbed by the sudden action of some person throwing my physical body in a bath tub full of ice that woke me up from the dream, I was one step ahead of knowing some answers with Effie.

When I regained my consciousness, it was shivering cold, couldn't speak properly with my mouth freezing and right in front of me was the culprit who surely lost his mind drowning a girl in a bath tub, it was Zaire again with a bandaid covered in his injured nose that was caused by me.

"F*CKING B*STARD!!!, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!!!", I shouted, then I realized we weren't in school, I was inside his dark dorm room like a haunted house which made me fright in fear,why would he take me to his room. He sat in a chair in front of me, shamelessly smoking a cigar in front of me.

He explained to me that as I was sleeping at the classroom, he tried to wake me up but I wasn't waking up, he checked my pulse and breathing and it was unresponsive, can't believe I almost died in my dream. In a beautiful dream that was made for me always ends up to ways that can kill me no matter how beautiful it was, it was always deadly.

After realizing that, it scared me, what if I don't wake up in my next dream, tears was coming out of my eyes, Zaire noticed my despair and I tried to hide it, I didn't want anyone to pity me.

"You were dreaming about her, weren't you?", he asked with a smoke of the cigar casually blowing out of his mouth but I remained quiet. He then explained to me that the Arlo forest is full of mysteries and supernatural experiences that cannot be explained by science. He suggested that maybe Effie and I are connected in some way but I didn't want to be involved in it, I wanted to live a normal life. Again, with the silence between us, Zaire was observing me carefully, his eyes which was focused on me, head to body, he was thinking of something that he was reluctant to share but he then mentioned something really crazy.

"What if those missing people in the forest are still alive", he said that it made me laugh miserably, he's gone crazy, maybe the guilt and sadness of losing his older sister made him crazy. When I laughed, his emotion changed in a swift, he stopped smoking and he didn't bother to explain more about his theory on the forest, he only gave me a pair of clothes to change and left the bathroom quietly, I felt bad for not listening his side, Zaire's eyes showed lack of sleep and tiredness, maybe up until now, he was still looking for his older sister.