Not Your Average Nerd

Chapter Twelve

                                                               12

            There was a strange chill in the air as my eyes fluttered open. ‘What time is it?’ I thought, sitting up on the side of my bed. My stomach rumbled, the sound nearly echoing. Everyone was down. Not a single sound, beside the rain outside, was made.

            A funny feeling sat in the base of my stomach. I tilted my head back, eyes still closed, and took a decent sized whiff of the air. My stomach growled once again, demanding it be filled. I stood to my feet.

 

‘Am I sleepwalking?’ I thought, walking through the cold empty upstairs hall in the middle of the night. Not a single light was on, yet everything was still so clear. My hand ran along the railing of the staircase, each wood plank giving a faint creak as I stepped down.

‘Or maybe I’m dreaming?’ My thoughts raced going a mile a minute. ‘Yeah. That has to be it.’ It was the only explanation. Trapped in my own brain? No. That was something that belonged in a movie. ‘Now all we have to do is… Wake up!’

 

Creak, creak, creak…

‘… Okay then… Wait for it… Now… wake up!

My body still moved, on a mission for something. Something I had no idea about. I could hear my heart pounding against my chest, the alarming sound ringing in my ears. But still, someone ‘else’ had the reigns. 

        ‘Ileana?’ Maybe thinking my own name was the secret word, the key, to get out of this dream. ‘Hello, Ileana? Wait. Holy shit, am I a zombie? Did I seriously miss the zombie apocalypse?’ I watched my body (… How weird does that sound…) travel through the living room, completely pitch, managing to avoid each dark obstacle gracefully as if I were a skilled ballerina. Or a ninja. It was a bad time, but I couldn’t shake wondering if I really slept through the zombie apocalypse. All those times of planning my escape routes, ideal weapons, and great catch phrases to use… Wasted.

‘Kitchen?’ I wondered, picking up my pace. My head tilted back as my nose flared madly. Something in my stomach was jumping around madly. It was like the lump I felt before was going crazy, surging with electricity. I sniffed the air, a single long drag, and began to shake.

‘Holy shit. Pregnant zombie. What?’

Once again, my feet picked up their pace and glided smoothly across the kitchen floor. My teeth began to grind as I inched closer to the fridge. ‘Wow… What is that smell?’ Without hesitation, I threw the door to the refrigerator open and grabbed the first thing I saw: meat. Everyone (minus mine, of course) dinner for the next night.

‘Hey wait,’ I yelled within my own mind to my defiant body. HEY. NO.’ But my body was weak. And well, doing its own thing. The feeling in my stomach demanded the bloody piece of steak. Right then, right there. And within a minute, the years of vegetarianism I stayed strict and true to, was wasted.

Blood dripped down my face, down my neck, and stained the collar of my shirt as I kept forcing more and more into my mouth. Raw meat. It was as if I hadn’t eaten in years.

‘No. Stop.’ I tried to toss out, but at this point, as I watched the third and last steak be brought to my mouth and ripped into, it was pointless to try and correct myself now. This had to be a nightmare, and the worst one I had ever experienced yet. A feeling of disgust surged through my… head. My hands, my vegetable-eating hands, were coated in blood, both fresh and dried.