Until Dawn

Chapter One

                                                                  Dawn

The nightmare was constant, repeating itself night after night for the last week or so. It was beginning to have an impact on my conscious life, bringing to life a little monster in the back of my head that yanked on the cords of my eyes, causing an explosion of pain to explore my head in the mother of all headaches. I couldn’t shake the image of the blood as the knife sliced through the girl’s tender flesh at her throat, almost black as it seeped over her chest and beneath the lining of her gown. I certainly couldn’t shake the sight of the life leaving her eyes as she tried to scream, the shocking blue paling as death took her away.

Sometimes I almost thought it was real. 

I had a box for the nightmare, deep in the back of my mind. It was one filled with all the other nightmares of my life, right back to the age of six. And, like every other time the nightmare surfaced, I stuffed it in said box and forgot about it until the next time it arose. It was the only thing I could do. So, sitting in the sixth form centre of Coldlake High School and Further Education, I buried the nightmare deep into my mind box while pretending to listen to my friends, who were rambling on about something to do with homework.

“Honestly, I swear we haven’t learned about this stuff yet!” Courtney Bellingham complained, sitting opposite me with her face propped on her palms, elbows braced on the table. A mix of work sheets and blank paper scattered the surface before her, one labelled with the title of Darklings; Then and Now. I wanted to roll my eyes; we had learned it, she just couldn’t be bothered to remember it.

“We have, actually.” My other friend, Nakita Night, objected, seemingly speaking my thoughts. She walked behind Courtney and leaned over her right shoulder, peering at the sheets. “I mean come on, these are easy!”

“I don’t see why we should even learn it, they’re freaks. Inhuman.” Courtney snapped.

“Yet fascinating.” Nakita chirped merrily, or Kita as she liked to be called.

I lowered my eyes, red creeping in my cheeks at the work freaks. It was a word I was all too familiar with, and when Courtney looked up to say something to me, she chewed her lip in realisation.

“Sorry, Dawn, I forgot.” she said quietly, but I just shrugged my shoulders.

“It’s alright, I guess I should be used to it by now anyway. It’s just a word.” I murmured, forcing a smile on my lips. I didn’t want her to feel guilty, because that’s all anyone ever felt around me. Guilty or pitying. It was pathetic really; nearly eighteen and everyone felt the need to be careful around me because they were terrified that I would break down in a ball of tears. That just made me look more pathetic.

I stole a glance at the clock above the door and withheld a sigh. Two hours of absolutely nothing to do. I hated free periods; what was the point in coming in to just do nothing? I could have done with the extra sleep.

“Rough night?” Kita asked, her voice soft as she spoke. Her green eyes were gentle when I looked up, but I didn’t miss them flicker to my left temple like they always did.

“Yeah, nightmares again.” I muttered, reaching for my back and placing it on the table, pretending to rummage for some work.

“You should see a doctor or something, I’m sure they’d subscribe some sleeping tablets for you.” Courtney offered with a smile, tucking a lock of brown hair behind her ear. “They help my mum a lot, knocks her out cold.”

“I’ve tried, it only makes them worse.” I told her. It was true. Somehow the dreams would only intensify in realism, so much so I could detect the smell of saltiness of blood, feel the heat of another body. The colours would be too bright, too, so intense that they were hard to look away from. With sleeping pills in my system, the standard nightmares morphed into horribly real ones, ones where it was hard to define what was real and what wasn’t.