Frost on the Green (The Green Girl sequel) ✓

Chapter 4

Caden’s POV

She abruptly sat up in our bed, her mouth still gaping after she’d screamed, her eyes finally opening. They were filled with horror and her gaze franticly moved around the room, checking every dark nook as if she expected someone to jump out of the shadows and attack her.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, my little Alice,” I tried to soothe her with my voice as I dared not touch her just yet. “It was only a bad dream; you are safe with me.”

Her green eyes watered and she buried her face in my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, showing her I was ready to protect her from anyone and anything that could bring harm to her. I didn’t need to ask what she’d dreamt about; she’d been having the same nightmare ever since the shooting.

“It’s okay, Alice; I won’t let anybody hurt you ever again!”

*****

“Man, you look terrible,” Keegan pointed out, running into me in the hallway.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night,” I replied shortly, having no desire to brief him on the details. Something in my voice or in my general conduct must’ve tipped him off as to what had kept me awake as he adopted an appearance of compassion and concern.

“The nightmare again?” He asked quietly and I nodded.

We kept silent as we walked down the stairs together. There was no point in taking the elevator as we lived on the second floor.

“It’s been a while,” he pointed out, stopping in front of the basement door. “Beth told us that Alice didn’t have nightmares the past month.”

“Yeah, well…” I wasn’t sure what to say. It was true that Alice had not complained about nightmares for over a month but that did not mean she didn’t have them. I knew that if she could, she’d keep those a secret so that we wouldn’t worry about her. Silly, sweet girl; her friends always came first! The thought of that made me smile. She was so thoughtful and caring. My innocent little Alice.

“I should get going,” I announced.

“Yeah… Don’t want to be late for your first day at Vermont.” He readjusted the laundry basket he was holding and opened the door to the basement.

“Didn’t Skyler take care of those yesterday?” I queried, remembering Alice telling me some story about him and a spider.

My friend snorted.

“He tried to but after what happened, I think I better do the laundry myself.”

“What happened?”

“He forgot to add washing powder.”

I shook my head.

“It suits him to be blond!”

“That’s what I’d been telling him,” Kee laughed and closed the door behind him.

Can’t this darn weather make up its mind already? I thought, taking off my jacket and flinging it over my shoulder as soon as I was outside the apartment complex. Yesterday I was freezing with my jacket on, today I’m sweating even after I took it off. I kept on ranting in my head as if the temperature was the reason for my bad mood. I didn’t want to concentrate on the real culprit responsible for my dark thoughts. But trying not to think about it only made me delve on it more and throughout my walk to the Academy, my mind was occupied with nothing but fantasizing about what I wanted to do to the man who’d shot my Alice.