Standing in the Shadows

I

The sound of an alarm in the distance pulls me away from my dreams. I open my eyes to discover myself laying in a whirlpool of blankets and pillows. Early rays of sunlight are shining through the peeks of the curtains. It has been a terrible night again. Every night awful nightmares taunt me, ending with me waking up screaming and crying. Each night a different nightmare displays in my head, never once a happy dream. All are all different, except for one thing. Each time a nightmare is at its peak of horror, the shadow appears. Never too close to see what he looks like, but close enough to feel his seriousness. He always says only one thing: "Hide".
Something about him feels so real, within my reach but yet a million miles away. When I try to speak to him in my nightmares, not a sound is able to come out of my mouth. My throat throbbing and painful. Every step I try to take towards him, seems to create only more and more distance between us. But it's not the nightmares that wake me up. I wake up, when the shadow has vanished.

I wipe away the salty stain from my tears off my cheeks and I stretch my whole body. As I get out of bed, I take a quick look into the mirror. The reflection of a skinny girl with brown hair all tangled and empty eyes stares back at me. I don't recognize her. She looks like the ghost of a once happy and lively girl.
As I put on my clothes I look outside through my window. It's still early in the morning and there's a thin layer of snow on the ground. It has fallen overnight, the whiteness almost blinding me.
I hear my mom making breakfast downstairs. As I pack my bag for the first day of school after winter break, I look in the mirror one last time, and put up a not too convincing smile.

"Goodmorning Serena." "Morning" "Did you sleep well?" mom asks. "Fine" She doesn't know about my nightmares, and I like to keep it that way. She looks anxious. "What about you? Did you sleep well?" I ask. She hestitates a second before speaking. "Well I'm a bit worried. Someone at work got the promotion I hoped to get, so I don't know how I'll be able to get on top of the rent and -" I quickly interrupt her before she starts panicking again. "Mom stop, calm down, we'll figure it out. I can do some extra shifts at The Lazy Union and you can use my birthday money I got from grandma to pay the bills this month," I say. She doesn't seem too happy with the idea of using my birthday money, but she knows I don't care about any luxury and just want to stay here in our new home. I kiss her on the cheek and with a heavy heart I start walking to the door. "See you later!" I open the door and an icecold ghust of wind slams in my face, freezing me to the bone. Great.

The usualy short trip to school was a challenge on it's own. Ice on the roads and strong cold wind delayed me badly, but being late was one of my last concerns. Surviving the day - that's the main one.
I park my bicycle hastely to get to the warmth inside the building. I glance at the old sign in front of the school; 'Clearwater High School". Being very creative, the school was named after the town. Clearwater is a small town, far away from the big cities - with lots of rain and cold.
I step inside and take a deep breath. "Here we go..."