Mike and Aki

Chapter Three

Aki stared at the ever so slowly moving clock that hung above her homeroom teacher's desk. She hadn't stopped thinking about the creature from her dream last night, she had even drawn a picture of it. What was it? She had many nightmares as a child, but she had never been so shaken up by them before.

The final bell rung suddenly and everyone jumped out of their seats and practically sprinted out of the door. Aki walked slowly through the crowd as she puled out her headphones and turned on her playlist. Her playlist was full of peace, something she knew she would need to hold onto since the walk home was the perfect time for the other kids to attack.

She walked peacefully down the block, quietly humming long with Regina Spektor, until, "Hey, spaz!" said Josh Carrie, one of the kids that harassed her, "Watcha listnin' to spaz?" he said. Josh Carrie was the kind of person you'd guess would spit at people in an alley, as if saying "Look how badass I am." eve though he'd probably get beat up in seconds if he ever tried to harass someone with real fighting experience.

"Hey, he's talkin' to ya!" said Robbie Kelly. He pushed Aki, and she lost balance and landed on the damp ground. Robbie was considered "redneck." A rumor surfaced that his father once walked around with a gun in his sleep, his mom almost shot him.

Aki got up an kept walking, trying to act aloof. Robbie pushed her again, and this time Aki landed on her face, and her journal fell out of her backpack. "What's this?" Josh asked, his voice like a snake's. He opened the journal, looking at the drawings with malicious intent. He began to rip the drawings out of the journal and toss them into the air. Robbie laughed with amusement, and Aki watched with horror as all the hard work and feeling she had put into the journal drifted and fell onto the wet and filthy ground.

Aki grabbed the drawing nearest to her and stared at the picture. It was of the creature, the creature that she had dreamt about. Robbie pulled the drawing out of her hands, looking at it like there was supposed to be meaning behind it. Josh had finished ruining the journal and took a look at the drawing. "Ha! Is this your imaginary friend? Were you so lonely that you had to make up another monster? Well, he's not gonna help you now." he said, dropping the drawing into the sewer drain.

Aki got up and ran. She didn't look back. She didn't dare look back. She just ran.