Night Visions

*the girl in the photo: Lily Carlen*

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Prologue- Lily Carlen

"Nooooooo!," I wake up screaming. Tears start rushing down my cheeks. There was a cold winter breeze outside. It's usually like that in Chicago. The neighbors were sleeping, of course, because nobody would wake up at 3:00 a.m., except the for ones who work at Lenny's Diner, my favorite place to eat. It's usually where me and my buddies hang out. Lots of people I know work the night shift. Plus, its better than working at The Coast, the most dangerous job in the Society. The Coast is a place where people work to fight against the Enemy, such as making weapons, building ships, and risking your lives to fight for the Society. I mean, I'm not against it or anything. It's a really brave and dangerous job. A lot of people decide to work there because they might want to be an architect or they think they are skilled enough to fight. I've heard rumors that if people disobey the Society and the rules, they get sent to fight behind our borders as a punishment, and trust me, it's not pretty.

There used to be a country at peace, known as North America. But then, The Enemy fought their way into the Society to make us prisoners and that's when the Society invented The Coast. Now, The Coast is all we've got to defend us from the Enemy.

Chicago is a really small city. I know all of my neighbors and they all know me. They know stuff about me and my mom and I know stuff about them. Even my school mates know a lot about me. Now, I know what you're thinking. It's really weird and creepy that a bunch of my neighbors and probably all of Chicago know who I am. Honestly, I agree with you, but you know, there are only about a few thousand people that live here and every time there's a rumor, everyone hears about it in less than twenty-four hours. But there's one thing that nobody in Chicago, not even the world, knows about me.

I have night visions.

Night visions are visions I have at night at least twice every month. Some of the visions I have are about people I've never met, but most of them are about people I see in school. But this vision was worse than any other ones that I've had, even though they all are pretty bad. It was about my best friend, Skylar. We've been friends since we learned how to walk. We're practically sisters. We both have the same hair color, dark brown, we both have the same eye color, green, and we both laugh the same way. She's always been there for me, and I couldn't bare to lose her.

The vision I had about her was that we were driving back home from school, I was the driver, she was sitting next to me 'cause she had called shotgun, my friend Katie, and my other friend Sara sat in the back. We were listening to our favorite radio station. Skylar took her shoes off because she was wearing the sneakers that were two sizes too small for her and they made her feet sore and put her feet up, like she usually does, so I guess you could call it another normal day, but then this guy in a white truck starts going off course, probably was drunk if I may say so myself, and smashes right into us. We turn and turn and turn down a steep, long hill, then suddenly, we stop. I see myself, trying to push the glass of my face and chest. I reach for the seatbelt buckle,and start pressing my thumb onto it so I could try to get out of the car, but it wouldn't snap off. I push even harder, until I hear a click, and it slides off me. My forehead was bleeding and so was my cheek because it got cut from the glass. My hands were covered in blood. I turn my head a little to my left. My head was throbbing uncontrollably. I look out the window. At a close distance, I hear sirens. I look behind me to see if Sara and Katie were alright. Thankfully, they were, but they had a few cuts and bruises. I ask if everyone's ok, and Sara and Katie answer yes, but I didn't hear an answer from Skylar, and I knew what happened right away by the look on Katie's face.

Suddenly, everything goes black.

That's when I wake up, sweaty, cold, and sobbing. I tried to wake myself up so I wouldn't see what happened. I couldn't bare to see the death of my best friend, also knowing that since I'm the driver, it's sort of my fault. I sob even more.

I can't let Skylar die.

I can't drive the car tomorrow.

I can't lose my best friend.