A Young Adult, sci-fi novel - Red in my Head

Chapter 1 - The beginning of the end

I'm screaming. I can't stop screaming, and that thing on my plate is doing the same. It's so loud, drowning out everything else, including my breathing.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I yell, stumbling back as I attempt to silence it. I cover my ears, but the sound is still as loud as before. It almost feels as if it's coming from inside me.

In a panic, I back away, trying to get as far away as possible, but my left foot hatches onto the leg of my chair.

I trip and fall to the ground.

When I hit the floor, I'm pulled out of the trance, and the screaming — mine and the thing's — abruptly stops.

Blinking away tears, I notice the eyes on me. The school cafeteria, usually a noisy chaos, is now eerily quiet.

"What's wrong? What's going on, Sierra?" Annie, my best friend and the prettiest girl I know, asks.

My cheeks redden with embarrassment and I feel so mortified I could die. I don't dare to look up at her.

"Nothing's wrong..." I say weakly, my throat burning. I can hardly speak — from the shock and the screaming. Although, my statement was far from the truth. I have no idea what just happened and things are the furthest from okay.

Just two minutes ago, I was poking at the steak on my plate, half-listening to the conversations around me. Everything was normal. I stayed quiet, as I always do, prodding at the ketchup-soaked steak that looked to be out-of-date already. It looked the furthest from appetizing.

Then, all of a sudden, the steak began to change. It turned a crimson red, with an unimaginable amount of blood oozing out from underneath. It started trembling, and out of nowhere, some monstrous figure floated out from it — some sort of animal head, possibly a cow, but it was hard to tell — it was completely deformed. It was missing an ear, its eyes were hollow, and its nose was riddled with holes and gashes, bleeding endlessly.

The sight was horrific, giving me the overwhelming urge to throw up even though I hadn't eaten yet. The shriek it made was ear-piercing, sending vibrations through my entire body.

"Miss Reeves, is everything alright?"

I look up to be met with my English teacher running towards me, a middle-aged woman with light-brown hair. Crouching over me, she carried a smile that conveyed such warmth.

I shake my head in response. I'm not okay. All I know for sure is that I am going insane.

I slowly get up from the ground, not forgetting to glance at all the students staring back at me.

What I just saw was unimaginable. It didn't happen. It was all in my head, yet it felt so vivid and real... I'm afraid to peek over at my plate for fear of it still being there. I don't want that thing to come back. I don't want to see anything like that ever again.

I'm dreading that there must be something seriously wrong with me. How will I explain this to my parents?

Oh god, and in the school cafeteria of all places. Great. I had managed not to bring any attention to myself in the last two years and now I ruin it by causing some scene. How humiliating.

I want this to end. I can't deal with the embarrassment.

I go to rub my face but realize there's blood on my hands.

"Oh god, you're bleeding!" Mrs. Ginger exclaims, her eyes widening as she pulls my hand toward her to inspect it.

"Annie, bring Sierra to the nurse," she says, her voice laced with genuine worry.

Concern feels alien to me—unfamiliar. I don't experience it often. My two moms are always caught up in their work, and there's no other family around. No siblings, cousins—not even a pet. I have Annie, my best friend, but I know she's only nice to me because my family is rich. That's why I get to hang out with the most popular kids at school. It's the reason I can sit across from Arthur in the cafeteria.

It's also why Richie doesn't speak to me anymore. He thinks I'm using my parents' money to get close to the cool kids. And he isn't wrong. But it's the only thing that makes me interesting, and it's the only way I know to make friends. It's easier like this. They pretend to like me and they compliment me. I know it's not real but I don't mind it—anything is better than being alone. I hate being alone.

Annie interlocks her arm with mine, practically dragging me along the way. "Sisi, what's going on with you?" She asks, her voice a mix of curiosity and concern.

I don't want to respond, but I know she won't drop it until I give her something that will satisfy her curiosity.

"I think I'm going insane" I finally answer.

"In what way? Did you see something?"

"Well, I saw—"

"Come on, what did you see?" Annie cuts in, her impatience bubbling over before I can even finish. She always has to know everything, as if being the first to hear something somehow sets her above the rest of us. People like Annie thrive on gossip—it's the fuel that keeps their world spinning. What she doesn't realize is that I know exactly where the rumors about me come from: the secrets I only ever trusted her with.

Clearly, I've been wrong about her. I've misjudged her as a friend—someone trustworthy. And yet, I can't bring myself to confront her about it. I wouldn't dream of it. She's my best friend. Losing her would mean losing everything, and I can't risk that.

"It was some dead animal or something... I don't know, just something weird on my plate" I mutter, desperate to move on.

"Your steak, you mean?" she scoffs.

"It wasn't that. It was like... a ghost," I say, my frustration simmering just below the surface.

"You saw an animal ghost? on your plate?" she snickers, the sound light but dismissive. She doesn't believe me, and her chuckle feels like a slap in the face.

But I know what I saw.

"Yeah, I know. I told you—I'm going insane," I respond, my tone flat. I just want to change the subject.

"Look, Sierra— maybe you're just very sleep-deprived. Did you get any sleep last night? You said you've been having trouble sleeping lately"

For once, she might have a point. Nightmares have been eating away at my sleep these last few days, so sleep deprivation sounds plausible. Maybe I imagined the whole thing and I just need some sleep.

"You're probably right," I mumble, still unsure if I'm agreeing to stop her from asking any more questions or because I need to believe that what I saw was all in my head—something harmless.

"I'm always right," she says with that smug smile—her final flourish, the icing on the cake. Of course she's right. She always is.

The rest of the walk is heavy with silence. Our arms stay interlocked, but neither of us say anything. I fight to keep my face neutral, careful not to show even the slightest trace of irritation. If she catches on, she'll pester me relentlessly until I give her something—a distraction, an excuse—just to make her stop.

But I can't tell her the truth—that she's the most maddening, frustrating, infuriating person ever to walk the earth, that I think she's the human embodiment of the devil.

If I did, she'd abandon me. And if she leaves me, her friends would too, and that includes Arthur...