Hiraeth

Chapter 4

Samara Shaw

Everything felt heavy.

I had been awake for a few seconds, my eyelids closing with every chance they got. Keeping my eyes open for a second was a struggle, I felt drowsy even after what felt like long hours of sleep. My whole body was weak from exhaustion, I could not move a single muscle. My entire body was still. Everything looked blurred at first, I couldn't place my gaze on anything till a few seconds passed and I slowly regained my vision. Even after that, my mind still felt too fuzzy to remember what had happened. My head didn't wrap around the fact I was no longer at the edge of the bridge or in front of a stranger but lying up and staring at the ceiling.

I ended up losing the fight against sleep and sealed my eyes shut. I had not fallen completely asleep when I felt a poke on the tip of my nose. I ignored the first one, thinking it was just my mind playing tricks on me but it came again and this time, my eyelids parted to see what was interrupting my sleep. I felt it once more and that was the last it took to snap me out of my deep slumber.

Right above me with her index finger pressed against my nose was a girl with the darkest skin tone I had ever seen. Even though it was right before me and I could see her myself, I fought the fact she had a skin so dark. I doubted my eyes, she looked too dark to be true and if I had not settled on the fact it wasn't a dream but real life, I probably would've thought it was impossible to have such a skin. Not that I have a problem with dark-skinned people, I considered everyone equal but her's looked surprising yet beautiful.

Her skin wasn't the only thing that took my attention. Although, it was the first thing I laid my eyes on I couldn't help but notice her eyes. They were silvery grey, similar to the eyes of the man I saw at the bridge. The only difference was that her eyes were bigger and was evident on her small face. Other features like her nose and lips were also small, making her look less of a human and more of a fictional character. A thick mop of white hair sat at the top of her head. The strands were curly and so were the edges that went down to her forehead. It was a rare combination, of black skin and white hair, but it was beautiful.

I had only been in the school for a day and all three people I had met looked strange. Even though I never got the opportunity to leave my house that much, I met quite a lot of people and none of them had stark white hair, fuzzy bright red hair, or silver eyes. The people here were not normal, they didn't look like it and at that moment, it felt like I was in a fantasy movie. None of it looked real.

"Wake up sleeping beauty, you're gonna be late for school"

"What?" My voice came out rough and coarse as she walked away from where I lay. I pushed myself up and noticed I was on a bed. The room I was in looked way smaller than my bedroom back in the mansion.

Everything looked plain, there was nothing much about it. The walls were covered with white wallpaper and the ceiling was just as white as them. A small chandelier hung from the ceiling but this type was not like the ones in the mansion. They had candles on them and the metal around it looked old and rusted, like it had been there for years. There were two beds in the room, I was on one and the other was right across me. The distance between the two was about three feet, I could easily reach the person on the other bed with ease. Two closets stood at the end of each bed and both were just as white as the sheets, one for each person. The only things that were not white were the door that was in the middle of both closets, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and the shoe racks. One sat beside each closet and properly arranged on it were different shoes, either in black or white.

"It's six o'clock, the bathroom might get more crowded if we spend one more minute here. Trust me, it's havoc there on weekdays"

"What are you talking about? Who are you"