Renee Forever

Chapter 1- Monday is a Nightmare

"Ugh, not again!" Amar grumbled as he blindly smacked his nightstand in an attempt to silence the obnoxious beeping of his alarm clock. After a few more unsuccessful tries, he finally turned the nuisance off. The clock is a neon-like screen, digits a minty green with a black background. Its only flaw was the time it depicted: 7:00 AM. It didn't feel like he slept in, though. He peered at his alarm clock again, and this time, it showed 2:37 AM. Amar sighed hopelessly, for the sleep-deprived teen was awoken, for the 9th day in a row, by nightmares.

At 16, he wasn't one to elaborate on that to any of his friends. Or, he wouldn't if he had any. There were the Dillons (Dillon and Dylan, actually. More on them later), but those two tend to be friendly rather than friends. At least they invited him to sit with their group at lunch. And there was also Kallista, but she fit more into the "secret crush" category rather than the friend one. Landi, who is known as the class prankster, was friends with Amar...when he wasn't teasing him. At least I didn't wake up my parents. Amar thought. They were losing enough sleep as is, due to his mother being pregnant. His parents could be counted as friends, but they can't exactly aid Amar's social standing. He wanted someone to chat with in the hallways; to email if he forgot homework assignments; to eat lunch with! Maybe he will get along with his baby brother or sister.

2:40. Time to get back to sleep. Amar thought as he drifted off into Dreamland.

Amar woke up in a lonely place with people scattered about it, roaming around uselessly. One lady stormed up to him, staring straight ahead as if he wasn't there at all. She shouldered him rudely. As Amar took a step back to avoid other humans, he tripped, leaving the crisp white suit he wore stained as it squished into the slimy ground below him. Mud, he observed. The sky was a peachy color, yet he couldn't see the ground. In seconds he was trampled by pedestrians in similarly formal clothing, leaving bruises everywhere. Amar's groans turned to shouts as the ground dissolved, rendering him limp as he fell from the sky into a steamy desert. He now had on a robe and was barefoot, the grainy sand pushing his feet into an oven of sweat. A claw foot bathtub was about 4 feet away from him, and somehow he knew that it was filled to the brim with cool water. Taking a couple steps forward, Amar reached for the edge of the tub. Suddenly, it moved. The clawed feet took off running, and Amar clumsily fell into the fiery...glass? The sand that was once burning hot turned back to normal temperature, the bathtub growing and growing until its massive body crashed over Amar, trapping him. The insides were also glass, and the sand dropped over him in an orderly line. He was stuck in an hourglass, and the paranoia of what would happen if time ran out was overwhelming. Hoping to concoct a plan, Amar glanced up, but saw a noisy clock instead of the top, minute and hour hands never ceasing movement. Sand was covering the other half. Pinpricks of it landed in Amar's eyes, and he was blinded with no way to escape. The steady tick, tock, tick, tock of his trap lulled him back to sleep, and into-

Beep beep! Beep beep! Beep beep! "No! Not again!" Amar woke up from another nightmare, only to be welcomed by something even worse: Monday.