Reality

Day 7:

I was screaming, my hands hitting on the bed furiously and shaking my head fast, I thought I was dead.

If you're dead no one can hear you scream.

But I wasn't dead, so people did hear me.
I heard sprinting to my door and the door slammed open and a black figure ran up to me and pulled the string attached to my lamp which was the one from Jeffs room because I smashed my one.. The light flickered on and I saw Jeffs face glowing next to me.
I was shaking so much that I couldn't speak, my hands, legs, body and mind were shaking. I tried to speak but I couldn't.
"Hey hey hey, it's okay, it's okay, calm down, it's okay." Jeff whispered, holding my head against his chest. "Chey it's okay, you're safe, I've got you." He rocked me slightly in his arms but at this time I was crying, not streams, waterfalls. I could barley see anything due to the darkness of the room and the tears in my eyes making everything a blur.
"It's okay Chey..." Jeff whispered, still rocking me slightly. I felt his warmth surround me and it became a blanket of safety and love, it made me happy.
I heard running down the corridor and Jack appeared in the room and shoved Jeff off of me. All of his loving warmth being taken away from me...
"Chey what happened?!" Jack yelled; he didn't sound happy.
"I-im s-so-sorry-y" I stutter, rocking back and forth slightly on the bed.
Jeff leans over to me as if he's going to hug me but Jack smacks his hand away from me and glares at him.
"You saw what happened, she doesn't want to be near you. Go away." Jack hissed at Jeff. Jeff looked stunned, he looked upset like he was about to cry but angry like he was going to hit Jack at the same time.
But he did as he was told, and left.
He slammed the door behind him and I heard something crack, I'm guessing it was the door.
Jack turned back to me and held both of my hands. I didn't want him to but I was shaking so much I couldn't move.
"Chey, I know your mind made a horrible scene in your head but you can't let it get to you." He whispered, as if Jeff was right on the other side of the door. Which he wasn't.
"How did you see my dream?" I whisper a bit louder because I kinda wanted Jeff to hear and come back in here because I didn't want to be alone in a room with Jack.
"We see all of your dreams, and we can hear your thoughts and sometimes see them. It's just a thing we can do."
"You pervert!" I yell, about to hit him around the face. But he grabs my wrist.
"We can't help it." He whispered, emphasising on the 'we'. I knew he meant him and Jeff.
"Why not?" I ask in a sarcastic childish tone;
"Whenever we volunteer to 'look after' a person from outside, we are enabled to see their thoughts and their dreams. After the first day of knowing you and your basic information, like your name and age etcetera, we can read some of your thoughts. After a few days we can read your thoughts clearly and can see glimpses of your dreams. After a week or just under, we can see your while dreams and eventually, after the tenth day, we'll be able to read your thoughts, see your dreams, and even see what you're seeing."
"That's wrong, you're invading my privacy!" I raise my voice again, really hoping that Jeff comes into the room... But after a second or two of waiting... It turns out that he doesn't...
"I want Jeff" I whisper, but Jack doesn't say anything.
I stand up but Jack holds my shoulders and doesn't allow me to move at all.
My body is less shaky now so I can walk, I think.
"I want Jeff..." I hiss at Jack, but he just pushes me back onto the bed.
"I want Jeff!" I yell at the top of my voice, climbing off of the bed slowly.
"No!" Jack yells back, in a louder voice, startling me a little.
I don't say anything for a while but eventually I'm able to spill some words out of my mouth, "why not?"
Jack looks at me and has a confused look on his face. "What?" He hissed, "you want to see him?"
I nod.
Jack looked less angry now, "are you sure?" He asks. I nod again.
He sighs and walks off and out the door, shutting it behind him.
I hear some telling then after that I hear quiet mumbling.
After a moment or two, Jeff walks into my room and shuts the door behind him, Jack didn't follow him in, that's a first.
"Hey." He whispered, staying as far away from me as possible.
"Hi." I whisper, shuffling up my bed a little as if I was asking Jeff to sit next to me. But he didn't, he stayed where he was.
"I'm sorry." He sighed, looking at the ground,
"It's okay." I say, slowly getting up off of my bed.
"No.." Jeff snapped, "don't."
"I want a hug." I say loudly, slowly edging closer to him.
"I saw what happened." He whispered, looking up at me, now linking his hands behind his back.
"It's okay."
"You woke up screaming."
"It's not the first time."
"You shouldn't wake up screaming, it's not normal."
"To be fair What is normal classed as here."
He didn't say anything after that. It made me feel terrible.
"Sorry." I whispered, climbing back into my bed.
Jeff was still looking at me, he didn't say anything though. He just stared at me.
"I don't want you to be afraid of me." He whispered, rubbing his foot into the floor slightly.
"I'm not." I said with my voice slightly raised.
Jeff slowly walked over to me, thinking twice about stepping towards me.
I'm stayed where I was because I didn't want Jeff to think that I was flinching or something; he eventually got to me and I have to move over a bit so that he could sit down.
That made him think twice and he started to walk away but I grabbed his arm and pulled slightly. "Don't go." I whisper, not even looking at him.
He sighs and sits down next to me and held my hand.
"I'm sorry about that." Jeff whispered, shaking slightly.
"It's not your fault." I murmur, ripping his hands tightly because I didn't want him to leave.
I was still shaking a little bit but I was able to sit still and I could speak, Jeff wasn't looking at me though, he looked annoyed.
"I'm sorry for bothering you." I shudder, letting go of his hands. "You can go if you like."
The truth is, I didn't want him to leave. I wanted him to stay with me, but if it made him sad then I wanted him to go and be happy.
"I wouldn't ever do that to you."
"I know."
There was a little bit of quiet, Jeff was looking even more annoyed and a little confused, "I don't know why it was me though.."
"What do you mean?"
"In your dream, it could of been anyone, but it was me."
"It's just a dream, dreams do that."
"Do what?"
I pause, "They make the people who mean a lot to you do horrible things."
"But I don't.."
"Don't what?"
"I don't mean anything to you."
"Yes you do." I say, holding his hands tightly and looking into his eyes, "you do."
"I shouldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because you will never see me again in a year," he took a breath, as if he was about to speak but I cut in,
"I have no where to go. All my friends and family are dead. If I go out there I'll die. So when I leave you I'll die."
"You won't die.."
"Well I won't magically survive with nothing will I, and what if that person who set fire to our house wants me dead too."
Jeff paused for a minute, as if he was looking through all of the folders in his head, trying to piece together what has happened recently in a way which could've been the case for the fire at my house.
"Jane." He whispered, looking at me as if he'd seen a ghost, scared and worried,
"Excuse me?"
"Jane, she could of done it."
"How?"
"She doesn't like me being around other people, especially girls, it makes her feel like she has competition, so she kills them."
"I don't understand I thought that Jane wanted to kill you."
"That's what the stories say."
"Well what is the real story then?"
Jeff sighed and took a deep breath;
"I was thirteen... I had just moved into a new neighbourhood with my mum, dad and little brother, Liu. Our first day of school, wasn't a first day of school. Whilst me and Liu were waiting for the bus these other kids, about our age, came and zoomed past us on their skateboards. They stopped next to us and pulled out a knife and was like all hard and 'give me your lunch money' and shit, but we didn't have lunch money, but they thought we did so they tried to attack us.."
"Tried?"
"Yeah, they swung the knife towards us and scratched me on the shoulder, but nothing serious happened to me and Liu; but something would of happened if I didn't get the knife and.."
"And?"
"And stabbed one of them in the stomach."
We both paused, Jeff took a little break so he could catch his breath.
"Me and Liu ran off and the bus driver called the ambulance to get that kid to hospital. When me and Liu got home, there were police officers there, talking to our parents. They asked who attacked the kid and Liu blamed himself for it and was sent to jail..."
"What does this have to do with Jane?"
"I'll get to that... Anyway, about a week later, my mum told me to get ready for some stupid welcoming party at this kids house, or it was a birthday or some shit. And at that party I met a girl, who was really, really nice and like yeah we talked a bit because there was only three year olds to talk to and she seemed around my age so I went up to her and we talked for a while. After a while of chatting, those boys I mentioned earlier came over the fence and walked up to me and the girl, Jane, and were like 'oh look it's you two' and then they were having a go at me for 'flirting' with his 'girl' but Jane was like 'I'm not your girl' and that stuff, and eventually they pulled out another knife, and this freaked everyone out, but they were only pointing it at me. I ran up the stairs and one of them followed, the other two stayed and kept Jane away from me. The other guy who followed me up the stairs chased me into the bathroom, and I grabbed a metal pole off of the towel rack and hit him with it until he was on the floor. But because of his... Weight... He shook the wall slightly and a bottle of bleach fell onto me, covering my whole body in bleach. I held the pile against his head but he pulled out a lighter and lit me on fire. I hit him around the head and sprinted downstairs, whilst I was burning. And when people saw me, they panicked, they didn't help me, they just stared. And eventually I fell to the ground and I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital. After a few months of being in there I came home and Jane was around in the neighbourhood and she saw me and ran up to me but I pushed her away because I didn't want to talk to her. And a few days after that she ran up to me with her face like mine and she said 'look Jeff, I'm just like you!' And it made me so mad because I didn't want her to hurt herself because of me. And I ignored her after that. She tried to talk to me but I just ignored her. It made her mad and then she killed her parents-" he took a sharp breath and spoke quickly, "just like I did."
I held his arm, hopefully comforting him, and he looked up at me and smiled but it wasn't very convincing.
"But anyway," he whispered, "she told me that and showed me and I told her that she was messed up and she slit my stomach and I hit her but before she could do anything back Jack got me."
"Got you?"
"Yeah if you've done something which someone here could of done, you get taken here."
"So you and Jack were the first two here?"
"Yeah, I think I already told you that though."
"You did, yeah."
"But Jack was the very first person here, he never told me how long he was here for nor what It did to him." He looked at me sweetly then, "maybe you can get the answers out of him. I mean, you are his sister."
"I'm his foster sister."
"He still cares for you like you were his sister by blood though."
"Yeah by raping me."
"His father was going to kill you if he didn't do it, he was actually protecting you."
"Protecting me?" I say, squinting my eyes slightly and pulling my arms off of Jeff, "protecting me? Do you even know what protecting is?"
"Of course I know what protecting is!" Jeff yelled at me, standing up and waving his arms at me. He carried on shouting at me, "Would you rather be dead?"
I didn't say anything for a second. I was thinking about what I would do in that situation:
- let my dad kill someone who I really cared about
Or
- rape the person I really cared about.
I couldn't think of my answer before Jeff spoke, "exactly." He hissed, "so be grateful that you're not dead." He looked at me, rubbed his face then sat down next to me and rested his hands on his lap. "I'm sorry for yelling, I don't want you to think that Jack or I don't want to protect you, because that's the thing we want to do the most. We want you to be safe." He looked at me sadly and held his hand out and I rested my hands in his. And he smiled.
Then there was screaming.
"Holy shit what is that?" I say clutching my hands against my ears.
"I don't know," Jeff said wearily, walking slowly to the door, and I followed.
We edged out of the door and down the corridor and down the stairs, there were fuzzy black figures on the other side of the door, the screaming got louder now, I couldn't take it. I felt my head spinning and I was feeling really light headed, my hands were shaking and I had an insane headache.
"Jeff.." I whispered, holding my hand out to him, he turned around and jumped over to me and grabbed me but before I could stop myself from falling, I became unconscious.