Darker Than Blood

-I-

[ I - The Beginning of The End ]


[ Addison's PoV ]

Have you ever had that feeling that you're sinking?

That unmistakable dream, where you fall in the water and you can't swim no matter how much you move? No matter how many strokes you give, the water just keeps entering your lungs, and then, when the pain become unbearable, you know that it's the end? That you're not getting out of there?

That was my every night. I always had that dream of drowning. Someone was screaming for me to come out, but the voice was muffled and I didn't know who it belonged to. I had my suspicions that it was a man, because of the depth of the voice, but then again everything was wrong and I was completely disoriented, panicked even. I was drowning and I couldn't get out, no matter how hard I tried. My feelings were on edge and I didn't know how I had gotten there. I couldn't even focus on my own name, all I had in my mind was the thought; "I am drowning."

But there was something wrong with the water I was drowning in. It wasn't water.

It was blood. I was drowning in blood.

Waking up with fear as your only emotion is like running face first into a brick wall. Sweat made my hair stick to my face like glue and I was panting heavily as if I had run a marathon. My heart was hammering in my chest and my whole body ached. In other words, it felt as if I hadn't slept at all. I heard the usual 'beep beep, beep beep' coming from the alarm clock on the small nightstand right next to my bed. Moving my head slowly to look at the time, I groaned.

Six freaking a.m., meaning Amora would come in, in three. .two . . .one-

"C'mon Addy! Rise and shine, we have to make a good impression today!" Came a singing voice which abruptly opened the door of my room. I groaned and laid back down, pulling the bed sheets over my head and giving my back to my sister.

Morning people didn't know what they were missing out on. Sleep is a marvelous thing, and right now I needed a lot of it. I didn't want to wake up and got to this new school. I knew that as soon as I stepped foot in it everything would become real. Everything I used to have would have to be forgotten in order for me to move on, like always. And I really preferred sleep over going to a new school and being the main attraction for the day.

I heard a loudly annoyed sigh come from my sister as she walked to the window in my room and opened the curtains. Almost immediately the little comfortable darkness around me faded and I was met with a bright light hitting my eyes. "Come on Addison! It's a beautiful day, and you are not sleeping in."

I groaned again as a response and wrapped the bed sheets even tighter around me, hiding my face in the pillows. I heard another sigh come from Amora as she stood at the end of the bed and tugged on the covers. "Addison-" tug, " Come-" tug, "On." On the last tug, the sheets are ripped away from me, letting the cool air in my room meet my warm skin. I groaned again in annoyance and tried to reach for them without raising my head from the pillow.

I could perfectly imagine Amora rolling her eyes right now. Could you really blame me for liking my sleep? "Addison, I swear if you don't get up I'll spill a bucket of water over you like last time." As soon as I heard 'bucket' and 'water' I sprang out of my bed as if it had acid.

It wasn't because the threat actually scared me, or because of the fact that I hated water, or because Amora would be raging if we were late to school, that got me moving. It was the fact that she had done this before and would NOT hesitate to do it again. "Jesus Amora, you and your threats," I groaned, yanking the bed sheets out of her hold.

"Good morning to you too," She chirped happily and then walked over to the drawers. Probably to search for a pair of socks, or a t-shirt of hers that somehow ended up in there, or maybe some 'colorful clothing' for me to wear. Those drawers were a mess of clothing and accessories. I always grabbed the clothes straight out of the hamper and threw it in there, without folding or even looking where it fell. It surprised me that my whole room I could keep neatly clean yet when it came to my drawers I always had a problem.