Until Dawn

Chapter Two

                                                                  Dawn

When I got home, dad was sitting at the dining table with a bottle of beer and his laptop. He didn’t notice me come in, so when I touched his shoulder with my hand he jumped and swivelled, grey eyes wide with alarm.

“Easy, it’s me.” I said with a smile. His eyes raked over my face, the only pair of eyes that never rested longer on my Marks, and he reached up to cup my cheek in his warm, rough hand.

“How’s my baby girl?” he asked tenderly, and I just smiled sadly and leaned into his palm, touching his wrist with shaking fingers.

My dad and I were two people against the rest of the world. We could only ever truly rely on the other when everyone around us leered, two fishes in a tank of sharks. He suffered more than I did, I think, because when we lost mum it was like his entire world crumbled around him as well as mine. He couldn’t say the right things to make me feel better about the bullying, nor could he offer comforting words when I sometimes cried over mum. He was just a simple thing unable to cope, and I knew that even though he couldn’t say anything right, he was the only thing in this life that could make me smile.

My dad was my home.

I pulled out the chair beside him and sat, flinging my bag onto the table. I felt him eye me, his eyes raking every last part of my face until latching onto my trembling hands. He caught my wrist, flipping my palm down on the table. His eyes flashed with anger, staring at the swelling of my hand, which was practically glowing red now. I pulled it free, tucking it beneath the table.

“It’s nothing.” I said softly. I could feel him shaking in the chair beside me.

“I swear to God…” he breathed, slamming his laptop closed. “Dawn, I want you to go to a new college.”

“No.” I snapped. I met his gaze, pointing heatedly at my Marks. “If I do it won’t make a difference as long as I have these. People hate me wherever I go, dad.”

“They don’t hate you,” he objected. “They just never get the chance to know you.”

“Courtney and Kita know me, and claim to be my friends, but they still laugh and judge behind my back, don’t they? Just leave it, okay?”

“You can’t go on like this!”

“I’ve managed for nearly fourteen years, I think I can manage a few more months.” I forced a smile and stood, kissing him on the crown of his head before making my way to the kitchen in the next room. Flipping down the switch of the kettle, I propped myself up on the counter and waited for it to boil. I let myself smile a little; mum used to scream at me to get off the counter, claiming it was unhygienic, but I never listened. It was a thing we had in the kitchen, where I’d boil the kettle and mum would go off on one, while dad did the sensible thing and kept out of the way. Now it was always quiet, the usual laughter having once come from both mum and me, but I guess all happiness died when she did.

I made a cup of tea and placed a pizza in the oven for both me and dad, telling him to check it in fifteen minutes while I went to my room. When I climbed the stairs, I felt all of my energy drain from me as if I had a leak in my system, every step becoming more and more exhausting to take. I barely remember falling into my room, placing my tea on my bedside table and crashing down on my bed. All I knew was that as soon as my head hit the pillow the world spun out of control before my eyes, pulling me away with it in a twister of images before plunging me into a black pit of nothing.

The girl was beautiful. No, beautiful wasn’t the right word. Extravagant.

She was small in height, shorter than me, perhaps five foot, yet she looked like she might have been sixteen or seventeen years old. Her hair was a platinum blonde, falling in waves to the small of her back, while her eyes were grey like fog in a graveyard, yet they glittered with what looked like sea blue flecks. Her lips were as red as blood against her pale skin, and the silver of her gown made her all the more radiant.  The gown’s train followed her as she walked, occupying the grace of a feline, and she was humming something unrecognisable to me.