"Tehya wake up!" My mom yells.
I roll over and bury my head in the blankets. I can see the light through my eyelids steaming in through my light pink curtains.
"Tehya!" She yells again.
"Fine!" I scream back.
I pull myself out of bed, stumbling to my closet and throwing on random clothes. When I finally make my way down the stairs it's no longer light out. The sun has disappeared, leaving the house in almost total darkness. I feel my way into the kitchen.
"Mom? Where are you?"
A groan responds to my question. It's throaty and guttural. I take a few steps back.
"Who's there?" I ask the dark. Silence. Then a small voice comes from the living room.
"Tehya, where's mommy?"
It's Alex. His childlike voice hits my heart strings. I'm afraid to look at him, but I can't help it. He looks normal, safe and unchanged. I run over and wrap him in a hug. Well at least I try to, but he disappears beneath my finger tips.
Then suddenly I'm in school, sitting at the lunch table talking to Sabs. Her light laugher fills the empty room. She playfully nudges my shoulder.
"T, you there?"
I don't get the chance to respond. I'm in a clearing next, zombies running at me from every angle. Alex, Sabby, Dylan, everyone I ever cared about. They all snarled, jagged teeth bared.
I screamed and ran, but it was as if my feet were stuck in caramel. I couldn't make any progress. My movements were sluggish and slowed. Just as I'd begun to move forward arms wrapped around my legs, pulling my down into the dirt. I scratched at it, caking my fingernails. The dragged me down. My brothers mouth came within inches of my throat, his hot breath on my skin.
"Help!" I tried to scream. But no one was here to help me. I was alone.
Just before everything went black my brother once again dropped to my ear, but he didn't try and bite me.
"It's time to stop dreaming" he whispered.
I jolted up from the bed in a cold sweat, my heart racing and head pounding. Dylan stood in the corner, watching me.
"We leave in five" he said, then he was gone and I was alone with the sound of my brothers voice loud in my head.
