I was in the woods again. I bent over for a moment, catching my breath. I glanced up, but it was the same; stands of pines and poplars, silent and still as the grave.
"Run!" The command startled me, and I turned around. The boy from school. Shaggy Hair. His formerly arrogant expression was gone; in its place was a look of anxiety, shadowed by a nameless fear. “Run! Don’t listen to him!”
"Listen to who?" I was confused.
"There’s no time to explain! Run!" I almost laughed at that corny line, when he started sprinting off away from me. Moments later I heard a thunderous crash.
"Run!" His voice was everywhere and nowhere; I couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but it sounded tinny and distant. I started running, when I heard footsteps behind me. Another crash exploded somewhere to my right. I tried to run faster, but no matter how hard I tried, the footsteps got closer. Terror seared my heart, and I screamed as something grabbed my ankle, tripping me, so I fell flat on my face. Then I felt hot breath on my cheek, and something chuckled gruesomely next to my ear. “Open your eyes, Zeya….”
I woke up, yelling and covered in sweat. It took a few minutes for me to recover sufficiently to breathe properly. I glanced at my alarm clock. 6:30. I scowled. Too early by far. I groaned and rolled over. That boy! This was the third dream in which he’d made an unwelcome appearance, and I was losing sleep over it. I had to do something.
I tried to talk to him during Tuesday and Wednesday, but he kept slipping away whenever I got close. It was starting to seriously piss me off. I, the Fantastic Tree Girl, had enough on my plate without some creep stalking me.
It was Thursday lunch when I finally managed to corner him. He was watching me from the corner of the cafeteria, slouching nonchalantly against a wall. When he caught my stare, he turned and walked away. For Christ’s sake! This was going to end now, one way or another.
"Hey!” I shouted. He looked up at me, surprised, as I started marching towards him. “What the hell is your problem? Every time I turn around, it’s like ‘hey, I’m Mr Queer, don’t mind me, I’m just frigging STALKING YOU!’" I yelled at him, trembling with fury. He looked confused at first, and then angry.
"I’m not stalking you.” His voice was different from how I’d imagined it, quiet, yet filled with enough force to make me stop and listen. I snorted.
"Um…ok. Let’s just say for a moment I believed you. Why the hell are you following me?"
"I'm not stalking you!" He repeated, a little louder.
"My god!" I yelled, storming off, sick to death of Shaggy Hair and his evasiveness.
"Hey, where you going?” He called after me. I headed towards the gym, knowing Chelsea had intended to go there during lunch. To my surprise, it was deserted.
"Just my luck,” I muttered, furious. “The one time I need someone to talk to, they’ve vanished somewhere.” He walked in behind me.
“Is it always this quiet?” I glanced at him.
“No…why do you care?” I asked, shooting him a sidelong glance.
“Shit. We need to move.” His expression was tense.
“Huh?” Something flickered in the corner of my vision, and an inherent feeling of utter wrongness reverberated in the air. Shaggy Hair sighed.
YOU ARE READING
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FantasyZeya always thought she was different, an outcast. Until a cute boy shows up in her dreams and in her school. She tries her best to ignore him, but he's more important than she knows. He's watching out for her, not stalking her. One day he saves h...
