Somnia Moon

Chapter 2: Christina

The arrow spiralled through the air, embedding itself into the young girl's chest before Alex had time to register what had happened. She stared at the girl, who was standing in front of a ball of light that was slowly decreasing insize, as she fell to the dusty floor. The sky was painted red by the setting sun. The only sound was the desperate screams of Rowen, who had fallen to the ground in despair, her ginger hair cascading over her tear-stained face.

All of a sudden, everything disappeared, and Alex found herself in a room, her own room, with two people standing above her bed, where she was lying. One, a 19 year old woman named Zoe Blackwood, and the other a 12 year old girl named Holly Keres, both of whom she had met a little under a year ago. They were laughing, but it wasn't in the casual way that they normally did; it was menacing, like she was a little girl in a school playground and they were the bullies.

"You shot her? You actually shot her?" Zoe said, smiling.

"Rowen is going to be pissed..." Holly added, sending Zoe into a fit of giggles. And then they disappeared, to be replaced with a long corridor that seemed to stretch on forever. Rowen was standing directly in front of her, her usually immaculate hair knotted and stained with blood. Her expression was neutral, as usual, despite the fact that her white shirt had been ripped open in several places and countless deep cuts decorated her pale skin, staining her shirt red.

"I'm going to kill you, Alex." she said without emotion. She smiled, a sickly-sweet smile, and then everything went black.

*

Bright light shone through the window , filling Alex's mind and forcing her to squint despite her eyes  being closed. Opening her eyes took a little while as she adjusted to the light, but once she did she found that she was still in the wooden hotel room, not back home.

So it wasn't a dream, then.

Ever so slowly, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched her arms above her head in an attempt to wake herself up. She sat there for a moment, staring at the trees outside the window, wondering what on earth she was supposed to do now. Really, it seemed like the best course of action would be to leave the hotel room and attempt to find answers to the ever-growing list of questions inside her head – she imagined that would be easier said than done, but decided to get ready to leave regardless.

She stood up and walked towards the bathroom but stopped halfway there, remembering her dream. She hadn't 't had one like that in a while. One that reminded her of the past. She pushed it aside – thinking about things like that could potentially be dangerous, especially now when she needed more than ever to be focused.

Upon opening the bathroom door, Alex discovered that it consisted of merely a shower on the right hand side and a bath on the left. Nothing else.

Strange.

On the subject of strange, she realised she was neither hungry or thirsty despite the fact she must have been in the hotel for at least twelve hours. The entire situation seemed to get weirder by the minute.

Showering was an unpleasant experience, as the shower didn't seem capable of producing warm water and the velocity at which the freezing water sprayed was inconsistent. There were times when it shot out so forcefully that it physically hurt when it smacked against her skin, and others when it trickled out so slowly it was like a broken tap, so she got out as quickly as possible. She got changed into her own clothes, black jeans and a bright red vest top, after finding the contents of the wardrobe unsatisfactory and took the key from where it was placed on the coffee table before leaving the hotel room.