Hello Stranger

Chapter 28

"Andrea, get up!" A female voice yells. I was back on the cold, hard metal table. My wrists and ankles were bound to the table.  Except, this time everything felt like it was going slower. The voice sounded more clear, and all of my senses were heightened. Screeching came through a PA system, louder and longer. I felt a sharp pain in my ears as something started running down the sides of my face. Then, the screeching stopped.

Where's Asher? Where am I? How did I get here?

"Get up!" The lady pleaded. I could hear her, but she wasn't in the room. It almost sounded like her voice was coming from the clock.

12:00 am.

Who the hell is she and why have I heard her voice before?

A mans voice came in. "Andrea," He taunted. "Are you ready?" His heavy footsteps got louder as he got closer. I took a deep breathe knowing what was coming next.

"Andrea, please fight it." The lady's voice begged.

"I can't," I whisper to no one except the random lady who's voice had to be in my head.

"You can. And you have to," The lady says sternly. "How else am I going to find you?"

"Who are you?" I ask choking down tears.

"Your worst nightmare." The man jumped in. "See you Friday." He placed some kind of cloth over my mouth and I tried not turn my head away but it didn't work. The room was getting darker and it was spinning again. I tried scream. Unlike last time, it made a sound the guy pressed the cloth down harder causing me to hit my head hard against the table as things went black. It was as if I was floating in a black pool of nothingness.

Everything was still and silent. I could hear my heart thumping against my chest. "Hello?" I say. But there was no response. Then, suddenly something grabbed my arm and yanked me and I fell letting out a scream as I kept falling and falling.

"Andrea! Andrea! Hey, I'm right here," A guy says shaking me.

I gasp for air as my eyes fly open. I look around as I tried to catch my breathe. I was in a bedroom. Grayson's bedroom. Grayson. I turn to face the worried guy beside me. He examined my face closely. "I'm okay," I choke out.

"You were screaming and crying. That's not okay," He replies carefully.

I was hoping the nightmares stopped. This is what I wanted to avoid. "I'm okay now. Just a bad dream."

"What was it about?" Grayson asked. Maybe I should tell him. He can't be there for me if he doesn't even know what happened. But I really don't want to. I just want to pretend it didn't happen like I always do.

There was a knock at the door and we both looked at it but neither of us moved. There was another knock and I sighed and got up to answer it.

"You don't have to," Grayson states.

"Yeah, I do. It's probably Ellie," I say. I opened the door to see Ellie standing in front of me calmly.

"Walk with me," Ellie says.

"What?" Grayson says from the bed.

Ellie rolls her eyes, "I'm taking my best friend for a walk. I'd ask if you're okay with that but I really don't give a shit if you're okay with it."

"No. You guys are not going," Grayson says as he strides to the doorway where we stood. He was wearing nothing but grey sweatpants and I felt my face get hot remembering I was wearing his shirt and a pair of my spandex shorts.