+ Incubus +

[Chapter 3]

Chapter Three: Branded?
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Anna's POV

Sleeping off the drag of the long day, after school I had come home and fell onto my bed. With all my clothes on, from my socks to my thick fall jacket, I fell sound asleep.

Being 17 had not lived up to its expectations as I had thought and as my friend, Joyce had said. She said you felt more...free--but responsible. Yeah right. Being 17 felt like my whole life had: boring, simple, caged and frustrated and stressed. But I suppose it had its good aspects.

Face down, half on my bed, I started to drift off into a restless sleep that my body much needed. I had hardly gotten any sleep in the past week from stressing over housework (I was the responsible one when it came to the household), schoolwork and work at the bookstore that I had gotten a job at. Soon enough I was softly snoring away.

Had I known that I wouldn't get any sleep because of another terrible nightmare, I wouldn't have fallen asleep. It would haunt me throughout my day too...like it had when I was 15.

It was that same dream. But instead of me losing myself, it had been my dad, officer Darwin and the whole entire town that had died a bloody death, and I had been the only survivor.

I woke up breathing heavily, my right hand clutching my messy, bed-head hair and my left hand at my chest. My heart was hammering away after the vivid memory of the nightmare I had just had. Weren't you supposed to forget your dreams within seconds of waking up? I wished the memory would just vanish, but it didn't throughout the rest of the whole day and I was scared to fall back asleep.

This nightmare had haunted me from when I had turned 15. I now realize that it had disappeared along with its lingering memory and came back just after my birthdays. When I had had my sweet sixteen birthday party with my friends, it had haunted me when I was awake--in a vivid daydream. Then it came to me again at nighttime. And now, it just returned once again, a few weeks after I had just turned 17.

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The next day

It was Saturday today so that meant that I would be home alone and my dad would be at the police station up until midnight. But that wasn't so bad. I did whatever I wanted like lazing around, eating junk food and jumping on my bed and blasting music until he came; I waited up for him until he came home on the weekends.

"Oh gosh did I tell you?" Maya, my quirky friend asked me loudly over the phone. I had put her on speaker and was busy painting my toenails pink. It had been a long time since I had painted my nails and I felt more...feminine somehow.

"No, what you'd want to tell me?' I asked her, waiting for her to reply.

"I woke up this morning and found this cool-ass tattoo thingy on my shoulder!" She whispers really loudly. "And my parents don't even know about it!"

"You got a tattoo?!" I yell at her. She was loud, funny, outgoing and crazy and loved to party, but she was too scared of needles and didn't like the idea of 'distorting her body' in any way.

"No! I just woke up and had it on my shoulder! And it isn't even inky...it's almost like a scar!" She bellows out into the phone, making me cringe at her fascinated tone and...excitement? Why the heck was she happy about this?!

"I feel so badass!" she yells into the phone and I understood why she was happy. Along with being a party animal, Maya was also a daredevil and that's what made her more interesting and fun to be around.