Prophecy Girl (Lacuna Valley #1)

Chapter Twelve

 The next morning Sam kept replaying her dreams in an attempt to get back into them. With her eyes closed tight, she could see the snow on the ground, hear the dogs barking and their nails scratching at the gate, see Nick hesitating on his way to open it, and then just as the girl started screaming the vision would get fuzzy and she found herself awake, clamping her eyes shut, and trying to start the dream over again. When she finally opened her eyes she sighed in frustration. Her chest ached with sadness left over from the dream she couldn't fully remember, which only made her more desperate to know what had happened. Exasperated with herself, she sat up and rubbed her eyes clean. What was she doing getting so upset about a stupid dream, anyhow? A little nagging voice in the back of her head kept telling her that she should be upset about dreams, but she shoved that away and rubbed her chest to try and get rid of the ache.

Three little knocks came at the door. "Hey, Violet," Sam called. The door cracked open.

"Can I come in?" Violet snuck in quietly, closed the door, and then ran and jumped up onto the bed. "What are you doing in here?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Sam raised her eyebrow and half smiled to let her sister know she was teasing.

Violet shrugged. "Want to play Littlest Pet Shop?"

"We just played that two days ago," Sam argued.

"Exactly! Two days ago! That's forever." Violet rolled her eyes. "So, you want to play?" she asked again.

"Not right now. Hey, what time is it?" She was so focused on getting back into her dream that she only just remembered it was a school day.

"Five."

"In the morning?" Sam asked in disbelief. Violet rolled her eyes. "Right. What are you doing up?"

"I'm always up this early," Violet answered.

"How did you know I was awake?" Sam asked.

Violet turned her head away to cover up her smile. "I just did."

"Viiiiiolet. Are you the reason I'm awake?" Sam's skin prickled. She'd been counting on her sister's unwillingness to use her ability on Sam's mind, but an eerie feeling that it was a bad assumption to make crept over her.

"I had a bad dream!" Violet dove under the pillows and made her way under the one Sam was laying on.

"Hey, hey. Don't worry, you're awake now. What happened in your dream?"

"Stuff. I don't want to talk about it," Violet pleaded, afraid Sam would make her.

"Okay, okay." Sam wiggled her arm under her sister and pulled her out from under the pillows. "We don't have to talk about it. How are things with Zach?" Sam stroked her sister's hair.

"Zach's fine. People are mean to him at school, but he says that's okay because I'm his friend and I'm better than them, anyway." She smiled proudly.

"Damn straight you are." Sam nodded.

"I thought about praying for them to leave him alone, but that didn't seem fair." She stared at the ceiling, thinking.

"Oh, but it's okay to use that to wake me up at five in the morning?" Sam laughed.

Violet tried to make herself smaller. "Sooooorry."

"It's okay, just next time, wake me up the normal way, okay?" Sam patted her sister on the back.

Violet rolled over and raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Okay. And you won't be mad?"

"I won't be mad," Sam promised. Violet laid her head back down and fell asleep within a few minutes. Sam wished she were so lucky; she was wide awake now. She wasn't sure how much of that was due to the nightmare, or that Violet had woken her with her power. It seemed like any other time she'd ever woken up, and that was what was bothering her the most. How was she ever supposed to know if any of the things she did were of her own making, or were actually the decisions of Violet, or an orb, or worst of all, her mother. Though she liked to tell herself that she never listened to the things her mother said, she knew that they always affected her one way or the other. If she purposely didn't do something because her mother said to, or she did it because her mother said to, she was still basing her decision on what her mother said. She didn't know how to just ignore her. Did anyone ever make any decisions that were just their own? And if not, what was the point of trying? Why bother trying to figure things out and do things on your own, when none of it was really your own doing, anyhow? Sam pulled a pillow over her head and wished for a way to drown out her own thoughts.