Consciousness

Chapter two- The waterfall

When I finally entered the ice cream shop, I was ten minutes late. Matt looked at me with a certain look of disapproval as I stepped behind the counter and tied my apron behind me.

"You're late" he scowled.

"This time, was a complete accident" I assured him as I scooped a little girls strawberry cone.

"You say that every time Ol" he sighed in between taking a costumers order. "No problem ma'am, one sundae coming up" and he gestured for me to start making her order. I walked into the back and Matt followed soon after.

"I told you Ol, you need to step up this summer. I have a lot going on and my parents are trusting me to run this place while they are out of town."

"I know, I'm sorry. I can explain, I ran into this person at the library and I tripped. My books flew everywhere, it was quite embarrassing actually" I explained as I motioned the books falling with my hands in the air.

His scowl finally turned into a laugh. "Olive, what will I ever do with you?"

"Sorry dad" I giggled.

"Just go bring that lady her ice cream please" he motioned.

I returned to the counter and began taking orders again when I heard a now familiar voice call my name.

"Olive?"

I looked up and saw Micah standing on the opposite end of the counter.

"How'd you know...?" I asked confused.

"I didn't..." he answered looking even more confused. "Let me guess, you come here all the time?"

"I work here" I laughed and pointed to my name tag.

"Well uh when do you get off?" he asked as he looked down towards his feet.

"Nine. That's when we close" I shrugged.

"Well, girl with the name of a salad topping, do you want to hang out after? I mean we keep seeing each other anyway, we might as well plan the next one" he grinned.

"Sure, why not" I smiled.

Nine came faster than I anticipated and Micah was waiting for me out front.

"Bye Olive, don't be late tomorrow!" yelled Matt from the other side of the street.

"Yeah yeah!" I yelled back.

"That's Matt? Your...boss? Micah pointed.

"My best friend. I'm helping him run the shop well his parents are away" I sighed as we walked down the dimly lit street.

"If you hate it so much why don't you just quit?"

"Because I need the money, so I can move" I replied. "Where are we going anyway?"

"I figured I'd show you this place I found" he smiled excitedly and we started down a path in the woods.

"So where did you move from?" I asked as I moved branches out of the way so that I could pass.

"New York" he stated as he followed close behind me.

"And you left to come here?" I shouted.

"Have you been to New York? It's overly crowded. No fresh air. No nature and certainly no places like this..." he pointed up ahead to a huge waterfall hidden behind the trees. It was lit only by the moonlight above it.

"Wow. This is incredible." I exclaimed. "Why have I never found this before?" I wondered.

"Maybe you weren't looking hard enough" he grinned.

We explored the area around the waterfall and soon after took a seat right below it. The moonlight was shining right into the crystal blue water.

"So what's your story?" he asked me as he splashed his hand in the water.

"Nothing interesting. I live with my grandparents and I'm saving up money to move out of this stupid city"

"What about your parents?" 

My head turned as I tried to hold back a tear, I never talked about my parents and now a complete stranger was asking about them.

"Sorry, you don't have to answer that" he frowned.

"They died last summer" I breathed. "Car accident."

"I'm so sorry" he whispered while placing one hand on mine.

"It's fine, I'm dealing with it" I stated sternly as I got back to my feet and resumed exploring the area.

"What's that?" he pointed to my journal as I was trying to stuff it back in my bag.

"My journal. I write in it a lot, it helps me think properly" I shrugged as I walked behind the waterfall to find a hidden room. 

"This is epic" Micah gleamed.

We entered the room to find it empty with nothing but a hole in the center. The hole contained blue water that looked identical to the water outside.

"What is this place?" I breathed.

"No idea" Micah said hesitantly.

I dipped my finger into the water and suddenly became entirely unconscious. I then saw a terrible vision of me at a funeral and on the tomb stone laid Matt's name. I screamed at once and was immediately woken with Micah's face above mine with a look of pure fright upon it.

"What happened?" yelled Micah.

"I saw a vision that Matt was dead" I cried, jumping away from it.

"It was just a dream. You hit your head" he assured me.

"No you don't understand Micah, it was real"  I screamed.

"I'll touch it to show you nothing will happen" he whispered as he pointed his index finger to the water and suddenly he too was completely unconscious. I shook him desperately until he opened his eyes once more.

"What did you see?" I cried my arms shaking on the cold ground.

He looked at me with glossy eyes. "My hamster died" he whispered.

"What" I whispered. "That's it?" I stood back up and back away from it again.

"Yeah" he laughed. " I told you, it's not real Olive, we just bumped our heads" he demanded.

"Matt, we've got to warn him!" I screamed as I ran out of the room and back out to the path.

"Olive!" Micah called after me. "It's not real. If you tell anyone, they're going to think you're crazy."

I just stood in place staring at him unable to move a muscle.

"Olive, trust me. It was just a dream" he begged.

"Fine" I shivered.

"Let's get you back home you'll feel much better in the morning" he said as he led me down the path and back into the city.

When I arrived back in my bedroom and I was laying tucked in my bed, I could not stop thinking about the vision of Matt. I barely slept that night.