Nocturnal

Chapter two: The New Year

When I got home that day, I almost didn't tell my mother about what I'd done. But after a hard minute of thought, I began to walk to the door to my mom's room. As my fingers wrapped around the handle, I hesitated, wondering if there was any point. I took my hand off the handle and raised my fist up to knock. Once, twice, three times and then a muffled answer came from inside.

"Come in," I heard her voice say, following by the rustling of paper."

Marian was sitting crosslegged up against the side of her bed frame sifting through files and assortments of various documents. She always looked tired these days, but recently I'd noticed it was getting worse. Maybe it was her age catching up to her after all these years old solitude and insomnia.

"I'm supposed to write a report on the production updates in the last five years to give to my boss so he can give it to his boss," she said, setting down a stack of worn paper.

"Why can't he just do it himself?" I asked, walking over to the bed to look at the papers strewn over the floor.

"Because my boss is an arrogant bastard who thinks that he's too good to work," she rolled her eyes, reaching for a cup of coffee on the nightstand, "don't say that about your boss, "you're better than that."

I smirked, shoving my hands in my pockets, a nasty habit I had picked up after all the years of feeling guilty over tiny things like eating the last PopTart or leaving the house without saying goodbye. She saw this and lowered her coffee cup down to her lap.

"What did you do this time?" She asked scooting over on the carpet to make room for me to sit down.

"Well I didn't do anything bad-"

"You never do anything bad."

"How do you know that?"

"What did you do?" she asked raising her hand to squish my cheeks together.

"I joined choir" I mumbled, furrowing my brow to let her know I wanted the freedom of my face back.

She let go of my cheeks and I saw a wave of surprise wash over her face.

"Oh..." she trailed off and leaned back to try and determine if I was joking or not. When I gave her my 'for real' face, she broke out in a smile, but not just a half-hearted smile. A real smile was something I hadn't seen from her in a long time.

"When...did you decide to do that?" she asked, astonished that I had participated in a social activity on my own will.

"Before the school year started," I answered, not entirely sure why I had even thought it was remotely good idea, "I'm surprised I actually went through with it."

"Well I'm proud of you," she whispered, "I knew you had it in you."

I was brought back to the day in the snow, when she said I was like my father, the same warm happiness filling me up. Someone saying that they're proud of you is one of the best feelings in the world, and it always makes me feel like a little kid again.

That night we made dinner for the first time in months. Or rather we both tired to make fried rice then burnt it and ended up getting takeout instead. But either way it still was completely different that what we normally did, was come home to a silent house and maybe eat sandwiches together from across an empty kitchen table. We normally barely spoke a word to each other besides a "good morning" and a "good night" with the occasional "hi" or awkward conversation about our days. We didn't have anything against one another, we just didn't have conversation readily available.

"Hey mom?" I said as I turned around on the stairs to face her in the kitchen, "I love you."

She lowered down the empty to-go box in her hand to the table and let a warm smile spread across her face.

"I love you too baby."

I smiled back and ran up the stairs to the bathroom to take a shower, practically sprinting through the dark hallway. I had been long anticipating this shower, waiting to wash away the stress of high school with steaming hot water. I leaned over to turned on the faucet, pushing my hair out of my eyes only for it to fall right back in it's usual place. I stood up right and shuffled to the sink, taking off my shirt in the process. I was probably underweight. I didn't usually eat breakfast, school lunch was terrible, and dinner was a possibility depending on what we had. I stood tallest at 5'8, brown hair the color of medium blend coffee, and ice blue eyes. I had also gone over the possibility of being anemic, but logically thinking I didn't really get out much or eat nearly enough so I was possibly perfectly fine besides the malnutrition.

I sighed and took off the rest of my clothes and stepped into the shower, standing with my face being directly hit with steaming hot water that only slightly hurt. Time always seemed to slow down in the shower, just being relaxed by a blasting jet of water was next to heavenly. just being cold all the time is enough to drive anyone crazy for heat.

That night was maybe not one of the best nights I had had, even though I was dead tired and my arms felt like they were going to fall off from carrying a backpack all day. First when I was almost asleep I had one of those miniature dreams that makes you jump and possibly hit your head on your headboard, then I fell asleep at 2:15 exactly, then I had an experience I hadn't yet been blessed with in my lifetime.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm block screaming, and sweat dripping down from my face, even though It was 4:26 in the morning so my alarm wasn't even on, and It was about 65 degrees in my room with the window open and leaves blowing in from the tree right outside.

I sat up and dragged myself off the bed and over to the window, leaning over the side and letting the wind cool me down. I decided that wasn't enough and climbed out of the window to sit on the tree branch, feeling my temperature drop considerably. I let my head fall to allow the wind blow down my neck.
The night was silent, the lack of sound was almost unnerving beside the never ending wind that swept through the town.
I looked back to my window, wondering why my room was lit. I hadn't turned on any light, and the shadows on the walls seems to be flickering.
But then I realized something.
Shadows..flickering....MOVING SHADOWS
Everything went black.