Safe Haven

Chapter 6

March 19,

I woke up on my bed, panting and sweating intensely from the nightmare I just had. I've been having Ryan nightmares since forever, but this one actually scared me. It was one where he actually showed up at my doorstep. Well- Kate's doorstep. I'm so happy I just woke up, or I probably would've start screaming and panicking. I really don't want to wake Kate up over something this childish like this.

I laid my head back on the pillow, aching for the air conditioner to turn on any minute now. I was literally on fire, making it impossible to fall back to sleep.

It was pure silence when I heard something outside. My heart leaped as I quickly sat up on my bed as well. I couldn't help but to immediately freak out when I heard the footsteps on the ground just outside my window- it can be a cat, right?

No, the footsteps sound way to heavy.

I felt relieved as soon as the noise went away, sighing softly when I realized that it could've been anything, there's nothing to worry about.

I looked at my clock after a while in exasperation as to why I still hadn't fallen asleep; 3:39 a.m.

The rest of the night went by discomforting, I couldn't sleep any more. Most of it just consisted looking up to the roof, which wasn't even visible in the darkness while I counted endless numbers, just anticipating to start feeling my eyes get heavy. But that didn't happen.

I saw the room begin to get brighter as the sun rose, seeping in through my new white curtains. I rubbed my eyes, feeling disappointed that I wasn't able o fall back asleep. But that's when I smelled the scent of coffee roam into my room.

I stood up from my bed and looked in the mirror, not even recognizing myself. How could such little sleep cause such a hair-do?

I walked into the leaving room to see Kate already up.

"Morning," I smiled at her, seeing that she had made us both coffee. I grabbed the cup, thanking her.

"Morning." She sipped her coffee. "How'd you sleep?"

I narrowed my eyes on her, not even hesitating before answering. "Terrible." I sighed.

"Aw, why?" She looked like a puppy dog as her eyebrows created a sincere facial expression.

"I had a nightmare about you-know-who... Ryan. Then heard creepy noises outside."

"Well that's not good,"

"I know it's not, but at least it wasn't reality." I tried to make it positive, this really wasn't going to scare me.

We drank our coffee for a while as we watched the news about a dolphin being saved from landing far on the shore. I really liked dolphins- they were my favorite animals. But I've never even seen one in real life which I guess sucks, since that's honestly something I'd really enjoy.

"I'm going to go get the mail real quick," Kate assured me, standing from the stool as she dropped the cup in the sink and walked over to the door.

Before heading out too far she came back in, her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at me. "Um, Kristen?" She asked me, looking outside at something that wasn't visible from my spot. A look of confusion ran through my face as I got up to check on what she was possibly questioning me about.

As I made my way outside, I saw a bike latched onto the tree just outside. I approached it, seeing a key chain on top of the seat with a note.

The key chain read 'Kristen'. I was surprised, but I read the note right after.

*You didn't look hard enough. -H*

"Who brought that?" Kate called out from the doorframe.

I turned back around to her, unaware that she was still standing there. I sighed, signaling her to come as I handed her the note.