It's All Lies, Darling.

5. Nathan

Chapter V

• Nathan •

•<><><>•

// Kimbriella's POV \\

"Kim?" my mother calls again after I don't respond for the third time.

"Y-yeah, Mom.... I.... I'm coming,"

I watch the girls as they watch me. They do absolutely nothing as I talk back and forth to my mother, and they stand perfectly still as I begin to step away from them.

If there's one thing I've learned from being legally insane, it's that you NEVER turn your back on a hallucination. At no cost should you make yourself so vulnerable to your mind.

Because your mind has seen things; it knows what makes you tick, and what it would have to do to make you become afraid. Its seen what can happen in real life, or in some strange scary movie. Whatever comes to mind first, is what your head unleashes upon yourself.

I remember back on many occasions when a hallucination got the best of me. Once you turn to leave and look away from them, they pop up right in front of you, and stare closely into your eyes and deep into your soul. They scare the shit out of you, and cause you to scream in fear. After you scream, they become stronger; wiser. They now know what to do to make you swell with fear.... So they do it more.

By the time someone spots you, you look like you're having a mental breakdown. People see you as your weakest, and they never forget.

"Kim?" My mother was close, and it surprised me. My gaze shoots down the attic stairs where I find my mother standing at the bottom, holding the phone against her chest so the person on the other line couldn't hear.

Right when I realize what I had done; for that split moment that I looked away, I was afraid to look back. So instead, I shut the door without looking away from my mother, and climb down the stairs at a fast rate; scared if anything was following me down. My mother was sensing my unease, and she creases her brows in confusion. But I didn't want to answer her questions. So I swipe the phone from her hands and head to my bedroom.

"Hello?"

"Hey, is this Kimbriella?" a familiar voice asks.

"Yes," I say, trying to hold back on my out-of-breath sounds.

"It's Nathan." I felt my heart skip. "I just wanted to talk to you about what happened at the market. Is this a bad time?"

He sounded so confident, and it made me feel so small and.... nerdy. I felt very low in self-esteem around normal, good-looking people, even though people told me all of the time that I was pretty. I never believed it though; I thought of it as sympathy. I'm crazy. I can't be.

"N-no, it's not a bad time,"

"You sure?"

"Yeah," I smile, wanting to laugh at how stupid I sounded. I was so awkward...

"Well, what are you up to?" he asks. I could almost hear his grin through the phone as he spoke. I looked around my room and stared at where I stood, to find myself doing absolutely nothing. So you would think my reply was "Nothing,", right?

Well, no.

Mine was: "Eating."

I blush immediately and smack myself in the face over my stupidity.

"Am I interrupting?" Nathan asks.

"No, no, no! I'm fine."

"Oh, okay." he chuckles. "What are you eating?"