+ Incubus +

[Chapter 1]

Chapter One:Nighttime Nightmares
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Anna's POV

The air felt thick, sticky and humid. There was a storm coming on and I would soon be soaked to the bones.

I adjusted the strap of my book bag and pulled on the hood if my hoodie over my messy brown hair. The wind was starting to gently blow, making my hair wave along with it, all over my face.

Walking down the quiet street felt like something out of a horror movie. It was just me and another woman walking her tiny dog. She was far enough away from me that she wouldn't hear me scream if someone decided to jump out at me from the trees that grew densely along the paved sidewalk.

The moonlight was bright, but the thick canopy of rust, golden and orange leaves made it barely filter through. Walking was already tough for me; on the dimly lit sidewalk it was a bit more difficult.

With the wind picking up and tiny droplets of rain starting to fall down, I picked up my pace and lowered my head, trying to prevent the rain from falling onto my already wet and cold face. I didn't know why I had been crying.

I took bigger steps and suddenly there were lights and loud noises of sirens all around me. I looked up just in time to see two police cars and a ambulance rush down the street. I turn my head and look over my shoulder at them until they were tiny specks in the distance and their sirens only sounded like a little fly buzzing.

I walked quickly, the rain still falling slowly, all the way to my house. I turned the corner and walked up the porch steps. Something felt off. Well for one thing, there was a police cruiser parked along the curb outside of my house. My dad was the sheriff of our town but he was hardly home and he never drove a cruiser. I stood there on the porch, wondering if I should go inside and see what was happening. Could it just be one if my dads friends?

Before I could turn and walk inside my house, my father and another police officer came barreling out the front door. I stood there watching the scene. They didn't even notice me, though I'm sure they were talking about me.

"What do you mean?" My dad asked the other officer in a loud, demanding tone.

"We found a girl. She wasn't breathing!" the other officer, who was actually my dads friend and almost like an uncle to me, said.

"Dad--" I started, but neither of them heard me because they started rushing towards the police cruiser and talking in frantic voices.

They both got into the police cruiser and drove off, officer Darwin driving and my dad yelling out multiple crude words and demands. I jog off from our porch and watch the vehicle whizz down the street. I sigh in frustration and annoyance. I had been right there, but since they were so strung up and lodged into their own matters, they didn't even hear or notice me.

I started to walk back from the way I had just come from and follow the distance sound of the loud sirens that could be faintly heard.

When I finally reached the point that I had been literally 5 minutes ago, I froze and stared at the hectic, noisy scene before me. There were two police cars, but plus the one my dad arrived in, it would be three. There was an ambulance there too with paramedics quickly filing out the back. Tow of then carried a stretcher and the other two carried red boxes; first aid kits.

They rushed over to the front of the ambulance and bent down, disappearing from my line of sight. I decided to edge my way over to my dad who I could see was standing at the same spot the paramedics were doing their job. Officer Darwin was a little farther away, looking depressed, like my dad--actually my dad didn't look depressed, he looked downhearted, dragged and dispirited. He looked like he had lost everything and that just made me more curious as to find out what was happening.

I walked over to officer Darwin and asked him the question that was on my mind since I saw my father and him rush out of our house.

"What happened?" I asked him, looking up at his forlorn face. He was just as broken as my father. He didn't reply or even look at me. Was he that broken and sad? Should I leave him alone?

I was about to walk away and wait for my father, when he came walking up to us, crying. I had never seen my dad cry before and it ripped at my heart strings.

"Dad..." I trailed off listening to his quiet, broken words.

"She's gone. No one knows what happened." He said looking down. Officer Darwin hugged him and he sobbed harder.

"Hey buddy, it's going to be alright," Officer Darwin repeated some different comforting words to my father. I needed to know what was happening.

Instead if breaking apart the moment and disturbing these two friends who were comforting each other, I decided to make my own moves. I walked over to the back of the ambulance; it's doors wide open, travelling a girl on a stretcher. Did my dad and officer Darwin know her? I couldn't see her face, just her brunette hair and the deep red puddle that spread out across the white sheet where her abdomen was.

"Anna Frey," One of the paramedics, a grey haired man with sad blue eyes, said my name. He wrote it down on the paper which was attaché to a clipboard. He jotted down some other things that I couldn't see.

"Time of death, unknown. Colour of eyes, green. Colour of hair, brunette and she was only 15..." A lady paramedic says to the man.

He nods his head and writes down the information. I wasn't dead. I couldn't be. If I was dead, wouldn't I know it? Wouldn't I know what happened to me? Wouldn't I see angels or a tunnel with light at the end of it? Would I not feel different?!

I pulled off my hood and clutched my hair with both my hands. This couldn't be happening.

Is that why officer Darwin and my father didn't hear or see me? Was I a ghost? I didn't want to be dead; I didn't want to die.

"Anna!" I heard my dad yell as the paramedics closed the ambulance doors and prepared to leave for the hospital to deal with my dead body.

My heart broke and I broke down in tears, my dad yelling my name, officer Darwin trying to get him to go with him and me being dead, I couldn't handle it. I was gone and my father was alone now. He didn't have my mother either; she had left him.

"Anna!" I heard my fathers voice again, but from a distance. I heard my name being called again and again, seeming to come closer every time.

"Anna!" He yelled one last time before I opened my eyes and woke up in my room. My father was standing over my bed looking down at me. "Wake up! You'll be late for school!" He yelled and I sat up.

"It was a dream...only a dream..." I trailed off and my dad looked down at me, an eyebrow raised.

"Ann, just get up and get dressed, I will have to drop you off or you'll be late," my dad tells me and I slowly get up and do as he says.

I open the door to my bathroom and look up at my pale face in the mirror. My green eyes were wide in shock and fright and looked lubricated, as if I had been bawling, which I bet I had been. My hair was crazy and looked like it had been windblown. My hands were slightly shaking as I looked down at them. I looked up again, at my face, into my eyes.

"It was all just a dream. A terrible dream." I said to my reflection. But I knew somewhere in my mind, that it wasn't just a dream as I wished it would be.

"It won't be any longer," I heard a deep, hushed voice whisper in my ear. I turned but saw no one. Great, now I was going crazy too.

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