I jump to the next paragraph, my heart rattling and thumping against my ribs like a caged animal. Suddenly, the lights flicker out, and I am plunged into a thick darkness.
My lips part into a piercing shriek of terror, and I lose consciousness.
“Katrina!”
Nooo stop....
“Katrina! Wake up!”
I open my eyes. I am laying on a cot. Lights are flashing straight into my eyes. My throat hurts but I still scream as loud as I can and struggle to get up.
“Katrina!!!!!”
Cleo is over me, her red eyes piercing me. Her black hair swoops over me like an owl swooping down on a helpless mouse. I moan and shout and cry for somebody, for anybody, to help me, but nobody does.
“Katrina! Please Katrina! It’s Ok! I’m not going to hurt you!”
The wild animal inside me is telling me to flee. To get away from this place. But Cleo’s voice is soothing and thick, like honey. I calm down.
“Katrina...... I have something to tell you. Oh.... How do I put this..."
She looks into the distance, and a silence comes over us for a moment. Finally, Cleo takes a breath and opens her mouth. “ Sometimes I turn into a monster. I can't control it. It's like flipping a card. One side of me is normal. The other side is dark and evil. I mean, it’s not like I grow fur and tentacles or something like that. It’s more like dark spirits are churning inside me."
She stops for a breath, and even though I'm confused and disoriented , I jump at the chance to ask her a few questions. “When does it happen? H-How did you get like this? Is there a way to s-stop it from happening?” My voice shakes.
"It usually happens when I feel an emotion really strongly. Mostly it’s anger or fear. But sometimes it can be sadness. Like when my mom and dad died.”
She chokes out a sob. I wait a few seconds, then I urge her on. “I saw an old newspaper at the library today. The headline was about a girl named Cleo Sky disappearing in the woods?”
Her face loses color.
“ The past...” she whispers.
“Pardon?”
“ Twenty years ago I had a real family with a mother that loved me and a father that would give me gifts just for fun. Twenty years ago I foolishly wandered away from my parents when the sky was dark and ominous. Twenty years ago I lay cowering behind a rock while a storm destroyed my surroundings.”
She pauses and looks into my eyes. Tears are welling and struggling to stream down her face. “Twenty years ago the spirits of everyone who had ever met their ends in those woods imprinted themselves into my unconscious body.”
“Twenty years ago I became a monster.”
She sits on my bed. Her hair almost hides the fact that her face is in her hands and that tears are leaking through her fingers. I am afraid of what might happen if I ask her another question. I was always a curious person. Curiosity is what led me into this mess. Curiousity, like looking at the old newspapers just an hour ago. Curiosity. And curiosity overwhelmed me that day in the hospital when Cleo was crying at my side. I ask another question.
“ Is... Is there a cure?”
“Who knows?!”
She rests her head on my lap. She’s crying and hiccuping and who knows what else. I’m afraid she might choke. I hug her and tell her it’s going to be all right.
She’s crying so loudly I don’t hear her whisper: “ No it won’t.”
A nurse comes in and tells us we can leave. She hands me a bottle of water and tells me to drink it all by tonight because I was dehydrated.
We leave the hospital about forty five minutes later. We walk beside each other. Cleo stares straight ahead. Her face is tear-stained and flushed. Suddenly, she stops. At first I don’t notice it. I walk about ten spaces ahead. I glance behind me.
“Cleo?”
Her eyes are looking at me, but they are hazy, and unfocusing,
“Cleo, are you ok?”
Flames erupt in her eyes. That’s all I can say. It was like her eyes; that were hazy and unfocused a minute ago; now sharpen their gaze, and seem to burn with anger, hatred, and what just might be a bit of sorrow.
“Cleo?’
