Introducing Cassie

False Awakening

"Keira." The voice whispered. Barely audible in the darkness of the night. Keira opened her eyes and sat up with a smile, throwing the bed sheets to the floor and standing. The figure in the doorway stepped back into the corridor, and Keira bounded forward to wrap her arms around his waist, and lean her head against his chest. He was tall and skinny, with muscly arms and legs, and looked to be about 18 or 19. His pale, freckly face bore a wide smile, and his scraggly reddish brown hair was spiked up with gel.

"Hey Keira." He said, resting his hands on her shoulders.

"I love you." Keira said stepping back to look at him. "I've missed you so much... I haven't seen you in ages... please don't go again, please stay!"

"I love you too Keira... but you know I can't stay. I'm not even supposed to be here. I've missed you too... but I have to go... it's been good seeing your face again." He smiled and gently squeezed Keira hand staring into her eyes for far too short of eternity. He turned and walked slowly down the corridor without looking back.

"No... come back... please!" Keira called after him.

He kept walking, his skate shoes making no noise on the tiles as he crept through the house.

"Please...RITCHIE!"

Keira woke with a start, tears dibbling onto her pillow. She rolled over and looked out the window at the starry night sky. Keira rarely remembered her dreams, but this one stayed with her. The memory vivid. It was her first dream of Ritchie where he hadn't still been a little boy. Keira thought over her dream. All the other times her late brother had visited in her sleep, he had been what Keira remembered of him. So this Ritchie must have been an invention of Keira's imagination - what she had hoped her brother would turn out to be. Well he was good looking, healthy, he was well dressed, so probably had a good job. She doubted that he would have quit cricket, and he would definitely have kept up his grades... Keira wondered what he would have been like if he was still alive... would he have turned out how she imagined? Or the opposite? Because that's what happened in your teenage years, wasn't it? You change into the person you said you'd never be. Into the opposite of what you had hoped. Into who you had always tried to avoid being. Wasn't life such an unfair punishment. Keira closed her eyes and tried to get back to sleep. Tried to forget her horrible life. But she knew that wasn't going to happen soon, because deep down, Keira believed that Earth was just some other world's hell. And whatever she had done on that other world to deserve this, it must have been bad. Really bad.