Visions

Chapter 2

206; hanging out 11/23

Today is the day. Today all my misery will end. I walked into the warehouse aware of the fact that it would be empty. Earlier today I wrote my note, it ended with 'I'm sorry'. It might be selfish of me but I don't want to live like this anymore. I prepared everything about an hour ago. I would hang myself. Now I'm standing on the chair, the rope tied around my neck. I can't do this. I'm supposed to jump of the chair, instead I try to untie the rope. Suddenly I feel two hand on my back. "I knew you didn't have the guts to do this Luke. Lucky for you, I want to help." He pushed me of the chair. The last thing I heard where footsteps, fading away.

It has been a day since my diary disappeared. Dan helped me look for it yesterday after I explained to him why it was so important to me. He didn't freak out like I expected him to, he was quite understanding. Now I was writing my dream down on a random piece of paper.

I just finished my sketch when I heard three knock on my door. Maybe if I ignored it, the person would go away. After a minute the door opened. I recognized the boy with the sand colored hair immediately. He didn't seem to notice me but when he looked around he took a step back in surprise.

"I'm sorry, I knocked and nobody answered, I thought you weren't here." We looked each other in the eye. I can't deny I like him but I'm not going to show it to him.

"What are you doing here Nicholas?" He winced at the sound of his name.

"I found something that's yours." He showed the object, my diary. I sighed in relief. He kept looking at me. "A bit of gratitude would be nice."

"I'm so- thank you." He placed the diary on my desk but didn't leave the room.

"I read it." I looked at him.

"What did you just say?"

"I read it." I kept staring at him with worry and confusing etched on my face. "The diary, I read it. I'm sorry. But the things you wrote..."

"I know. They're weird and creepy and I'm a freak. I heard it all. Now please leave."

"No, that's not what I meant. One of your stories." He grabbed my diary again and started to go through the pages. I stood up and walked over to him to grab the diary out of his hands. I grabbed it held it close to me. He grabbed my wrist and looked at me. "Please let me show you." I nodded and handed him the diary. He looked for a page and when he found it he showed me. It was story 128. He started reading it aloud.

"I came back from court. My divorce ended well, I think. After eating the leftovers from yesterday I went to bed. I realized I was alone, no person filling the other side of the bed. I heard footsteps in the bathroom and water streaming. I walked to the bathroom where I saw that the tub was half full. Something hit my head. I woke up in the bathtub. But before I could check my surroundings I got pushed under water. I gasped for air and screamed for help. But I wasn't loud enough. My lungs slowly filled with water." He looked at me. "I remember this."

I looked up at him. "Yeah, you read it yesterday. Listen Nick, I really don't like this game."

"It's not a game. I remember hearing it on the news. A woman died in her bathtub."

"Maybe it was someone else."

"I did some research yesterday and I found the article." He took a piece of paper out of his back pocket. "Look."

I took the paper out of his hands and saw a picture of the woman. He handed me the diary on the page with the drawing.

"It's the same woman." He said. "And that's not all. Look at the date of the article, it's the same date you wrote in your diary."

"I don't believe it. I don't believe you." I took a few steps back again. "This could all be one of your stupid jokes, you and your friends like to pull on me. You might have made the article and decided it would be fun to scare me. Well guess what Nicholas, it's not funny anymore. Get out." He looked shocked. When he tried to say something I repeated myself. "Get out."

He turned around and started walking towards my door. He stopped and turned around one last time. "I'm just trying to help. There's a reason you dream about all of this but if you don't want my help, I won't help you. Just think about it Cameron."

Days have passed since the encounter with Nick. I haven't talked to him since that day. It's not really strange that we don't talk. We live in two different worlds.

I grabbed my lunch in the cafeteria and was on my way to my room. When I walked passed the popular's table I tripped and fell to the floor right on the plate with food. Laughter erupted. Before I could get up I felt a heel in my back, I looked up and saw Carly.

"You should stay where you belong Freak."

One of her 'puppets' got where she was going and continued. "And where is that Carls?"

A group of people started to form around us.

"Right where she is now." She started pressing harder on my back with each word. "On. The. Floor."

"Stop it Carly." Students gasped in surprise. The great Nicholas Bright just told Carly Pennington to stop embarrassing a freak.

She raised her heel and she and her puppets walked away while the crowd also disappeared. The only people left were Dan, who must've watched the whole thing happen, and Nick, who stopped it.

Dan ran to me and knelt down beside be. "Are you alright?" He helped me up. "I swear if she does something like this one more time I'll kill her."

"Calm down Dan. I'm fine now. Except for the stain on my shirt." That made us both laugh until a cough interrupted us. I completely forgot Nick was still standing there. He handed me my bag that must've fallen to the floor.

"You need to be more careful with this Cameron." Dan looked at us with confusion written all over his face.

"Thanks Nicholas. We should probably go now before we ruin what's left of your reputation." He looked around him and then back at us.

"It's sweet that you're concerned but I'll be fine. Let's get you some fresh clothes."

The three of us walked out of the cafeteria together to my room. After I put on a new shirt we decided to skip class.

"Why are you doing this, Nick? I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with her."

"I changed my mind, Dan." He turned to me and continued. "I'm sorry for all the joked we pulled on you. I didn't know you went through all of this."

"Listen very carefully Nick. Cam is my best friend, if you do anything remotely bad to her, I swear I'll kill you."

"Calm down Danny-boy. I won't harm her in any way. I'm trying to help." I laughed at the nickname he gave Dan which brought the attention back to me. They both looked at me, expecting me to say something.

I looked at Dan. "I trust him, he tried to help me a few days ago too and he brought back my diary.""

"Well of course you trust him. I just don't want you to get hurt." He turned to Nick. "Again."

Dan stormed out of the room.

"He gets like that sometimes." I assured Nick.

"Are you sure he is just your best friend? He's really protective over you." I was surprised by the question. I never thought about it. I never had to think about it. But I didn't care. All I could care about is that he has been here for me.

"When you got the whole school to hate your best friend and call her a freak, you get that." I looked at my lap.

He stood up and sat next to me on my bed. "I'm really sorry, Cameron. I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"It's funny how you already knew I was a freak before you knew about the nightmares."

"You're not a freak Cam." He stood up. "I should probably go after Dan. Meet me at the library in an hour." And he stormed out of my room too.