Illusory | ✓

i l l u s o r y : p r o l o g u e

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p r o l o g u e 

t  w o   y e a r s   a g o 

"Jane," the soft but persistant sound of Jared whispering my name awakens me from my sleep as I stare up at my high ceiling above me. In the bruised air around me, everything is ten times darker in hue. Yet, Jared's crystal blue irsies are the only light that is striking in the darkness. Amusement floats in his eyes.

Sighing, I sit upright in my blankets and bring my knees up against my chest as Jared stands in front of me with a flash light in his hand and an Iron Man t-shirt over his red swim trunks. Raising my eyebrow up, I question the fact that he's dressed to go to the local pool when it's early Autumn and the pool is closed by now. His brownish red hair is styled in a mohawk and he's not wearing his glasses even though he's supposed to. He never wears them though.

"What is it, Jared?" I ask him as I push my pillows back and lean against them, pieces of my own brownish red hair falling in front of my face as I fold my arms against my chest. In the corner of my eye I see the bedroom door cracked open, enough for the both of us to hear the sound of our dad snoring down the hallway.

"I'm going to the lake to have a midnight dip. You want to come?" Jared turns on his flashlight and points it in my direction, earning a groan from me and an arm covering my eyes from the brightness blinding me. He turns it off and I let my arm fall back down again.

"No, but I'm coming anyway. I don't like you going out there by yourself." I hear a groan in annoyance from Jared before I slip out of my bed and head towards my dresser. I pull out my navy blue bikini before going into my closet.

Turning the light on and shutting the door, I begin to slip my t-shirt up over my head before flickering my eyes at the closed door again.

"Jared, was everything okay at school today? I didn't see you at all, you weren't in lunch either," I question him with my voice being the only noise in the bedroom. He can hear me.

"It was okay...until I walked into second block and saw Nick Garceia sitting at his desk, bawling his eyes out because his grandmother passed away. I couldn't comfort him because his grandmother appeared next to him. She wouldn't leave me alone all block. She said that she wanted me to tell Nick's dad that she was sorry for not showing how proud she was of him over the years," Jared admits this in a rushed tone and feeling my heart sadden, I finish slipping off my pajamas before slipping on my bikini.

"Sometimes I wish I could turn it off...at school at least. No one likes me, except for the few friends of mine that actually believe that you and I are clairvoyant. They think that we're lying or that we are creepy for knowing things about their deceased family and family friends that only they know," Jared continues as I yank down a huge t-shirt that was my dad's before he gave it to me from its hanger. I put it on and open the closet door, seeing Jared sitting at the end of my bed with his head tilted down to the carpet.

"I know how you feel, Jared. At least it's Friday though and you won't have to see Nick until Monday," I reassure him as I turn off the light and head over to him. I awkwardly pat him on the shoulder and he looks up at me, giving me a small smile. It almost reminds me of our first day of school in grade school and how we clung to each other in fear because we saw a bloody ghost on the way to school, but now we're sophomores in high school and we can't do that anymore. Well that and ghosts don't scare us like they did when we were little.

"Actually, Nick had invited me to his birthday party on Sunday. I don't know if I should go or not. If I go, then maybe I can talk to his dad and his grandmother to get her to cross over," Jared lightly brings the topic up almost as though I'm going to demand him to stay home on Sunday. Instead, I move away from him and sit next to him on the bed.