My Guardian Angel (In Combat Boots)

Chapter Two: What an Odd Dude...

I gasped awake.

 I was tangled in my bed sheets, drenched from head to toe with sweat.  My bed looked like an orangutan had slept in it.  It was dirty and wet and torn to pieces.  I took deep calming breaths, I'm alive I told myself. It was all a dream. I laughed a little at myself and saw the sun peeking through my curtains.

I wiped the hair stuck to my face out of the way and looked at my alarm clock.  It was 10:00? I groaned and got up.  I knew I had to shower, but for some reason I felt super weak.  My legs shook under me as if they could barely hold me up.

"I need food." I said out loud to no one in particular.

I descended the stairs, making sure to hold on to the railing for dear life, to hear my mom shuffling in the kitchen. 

"Hey." I groaned, plopping down on the bar stool at the kitchen island.

"Well hello, Houdini. You must be tired after your amazing disappearing act." She said, handing me a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

I raised an eyebrow.  "My what?"

My mom licked her fingers, getting off the peanut butter that was stuck to them.

"Yeah your Dad and I waited up for you to get home from tutoring last night, we were in the family room watching The Big Bang Theory."

She paused grabbing me a cup of water.

"We waited and waited, and never heard the door open. Finally, after worrying myself to death I went to check your room and you were passed out on your bed!—swallowed by your sheets. Thank goodness too because I was about to call the police!" She laughed somewhat nervously, and smiled at me with her hands on her hips.

I swallowed the bite I was chewing down hard.

So... I did have tutoring last night? Why don't I remember coming home? All I remember was... that horrifying dream.

I drank some water and found myself too nauseous to finish the rest of the sandwich.  I had to see something.

"Er... thanks for the breakfast Mom.  I'm full though." I smiled, lying, and ran to get upstairs.

I hurriedly walked into my bathroom, and lifted up my T-shirt cautiously. My heart was beating in my ears, fearing what I was going to see.

Sure enough, under the bright fluorescent lights of my bathroom, there was a faded, pink, irregular scar where that strange man had stabbed me in my dream.

Or was it a dream?

I stepped back, covering my hand over my mouth. There's no way.  I would be dead—I had to be dead. 

I grabbed onto my bathroom counter for support.  My head was racing.  How could this be possible?

I'm alive. I woke up in my bed, I... I was fine! How could I have been stabbed and walked home and gotten into bed and be alive the next morning?

I may have a 4.0, but this was something I could not explain.

I don't know how long I sat on the edge of my bathtub, trying to find an explanation.

Those wings, I remembered.  The silhouette reaching for me... was that real?

That's crazy Violet! There is no way that was real...

But... that's the only thing that could possibly explain how I survived.  My arms filled with goose bumps and I shook it off.

This is crazy! I'm going insane!