Holding Onto Heaven

Chapter 10: Research

"The story of Dr.Jekyll and M.Hyde takes place in London during the Middle Ages."
"M.Hyde is a separate personality in Dr.Jekyll's body."
"In this excerpt we understand that the character of Dr.Jekyll is a magician who created Hyde..." I stopped reading the essays I was marking because it was hurting my eyes to see the wrong interpretations of some pupils. Sometimes I am wondering what is wrong with them. I mean, It's been a month now that we're studying this, doing exercises, reading the book and some of them still can't understand that the two characters are the same person! Poor Stevenson!
Or maybe I'm just a terrible teacher...
I put away the essays and took my laptop. I turned it on and remained motionless for a minute, wondering what to do. The thing is, I don't really want to use it and I mainly want to sleep (I had a rough week and I still don't know how I managed to give classes and talk to people with only four hours of sleep per day) but I can't. I keep having those terrible nightmares every time that's why I don't want to.This is the reason why I'm trying to entertain myself as much as I can in order to stay awake: Tv, correction of essays, Skype with my friends and family...
I stretched my arms and typed something on the search bar: 243 results.
I clicked on a page and read the article. "You shouldn't be doing this Sophia." I told myself.
I downed my fifth cup of coffee then opened another tab on my internet browser. I clicked on a link and read an article on a website.
"Its claws are long and secrete venom that can paralyse victims for hours." I know, it's like the hundred times I read the same thing! The drawing of a Kanima who looked more like a jaguar accompanied the text.
I still took some notes and wrote them down on my notebook in which the pages were now covered with scribble, sketches and informations about the notorious Kanima. Since I know that the creature is Jackson, I'm trying to help as much as I can... Although my attempts failed miserably. Every time I think I'm holding a new information, it turns out that Scott and his friends already figured it out. I haven't talked to them since the meeting that we held a week ago in the library. I think they understood that I won't be a great help. I sighed in frustration and printed all I found on the different websites I browsed. Way to spend my day off! I could do a lot of stuff out there like shopping instead of staying home, doing useless research in the middle of the day. I read other articles but the letters where becoming blurry and I struggled to keep my eyes wide open. But once again, it was a failure.

I'm running through the woods as fast I can, avoiding the trees who keeps appearing in front of me. My breathing is really fast and every heart beat feels like my heart is about to burst. I hide behind a tree to catch my breath. When I lower my head I notice that I'm barefoot and that my feet are covered with blood. I look at my attire and I  have my pyjama on. But I don't have time to do anything because I hear the familiar sound of the beast coming so I start running again. I trip on the ground, feeling the wet mud and leaves on my face. Everything is so cold. I turn around and try to stand up but I can't. I try with all my strength but I fail again. I scream of frustration. I can feel the beast coming. It's near. But then I feel something lifting me up. I stand up to face my saviour.Peter. He smiles to me while caressing my cheek. His hands diffuse warm in my entire body. I suddenly feel safer in his presence.
"I wonder what colour is your blood."he says.
I look at him confused but I don't have time to say anything because he plants his claws in the nape of my neck as I scream of pain.

I suddenly woke up, sweating. I looked around the room to see if there's something unusual. Nothing. There are still the laptop, the essays, my notebook and all my stuff on the small table in front of the couch where I am. I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. These nightmares are terrible. Plus being on my own makes me paranoid. My throat is aching so much, it feels like I haven't drink for a long time. I stand up and head toward the kitchen where I open the water tap and fill my glass with water. I downed it within a second. I was indeed really thirsty. I looked at the clock on the wall. I thought it was now night but it is still the afternoon. Seems like I lost the notion of time. I went in the bathroom to clean my face. The bags under my eyes are terrible! I opened one of the drawer to look for my under eye concealer but all I could found was body lotions, boxes of hair wax and tampons! I opened the second drawer which was full of nail polish, deodorant, lipsticks and other stuff.
"Where did I put it?" I said.
I couldn't bend anymore, my back was hurting. So I sat in front on the floor and looked everywhere in the bathroom. After more than God knows how many minutes, I gave up. I looked around me and let out a loud sigh. I made a huge mess, everything was on the floor. "Uuuurgh!" As if I don't have other things to do than to clean up this  bathroom which was clean at the first place! I started cleaning everything and when I finally finished, I stood up and sight even more louder. I brushed my hair and made a ponytail. Just when I put down my hairbrush I caught the red bottle of concealer just right in front of me. It was here the whole time and I didn't see it. I took it and applied it under my eyes. It's better!
When I returned to the living room, my phone was ringing. I rushed to take it and looked at the caller ID. "I don't know this number." I thought. But I still replied.
"Allo?" I said with an hoarse voice.