Living in the Shadows

CHAPTER 4 FLASHBACK #2

Night of May 2nd

I didn't sleep for my usual hours. (When your bedtime schedule is nine o'clock, so you can be up by six, waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to fall back asleep is kind of a problem.) I went down to the basement, hoping a workout would tire me out. Unfortunately, the groundskeeper's house is at eye level with the basement, and when I turned on the lights, I woke my brother up.

"Jenna, what are you doing here at this hour?" he asked in an irritated voice. My brother is even-tempered, but you do not want to wake him up in the middle of the night. He can be very cranky when you do.

"I woke up and couldn't get back asleep," I told him as we stood next to the punching bag.

"I won't tell Sakei about this," he said, using the same tone of voice as before as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "But you better get your butt back to your room; now."

"Fine," I sighed as I left.

When I was back in my room, I did a lot of sit-ups and push-ups on my bed, so I'd have a soft place to land after exhaustion. When I looked at the clock, the time was 4:37 a.m. I sighed. "Jake won't be the only one cranky today."

May 3rd

We had a silent breakfast and an even more silent ride. Jake was in a better temper than he was last night, but still tired, if the dark circles under his eyes were any sign. I was suffering from frequent yawns and also had those same dark circles. (My excuse is insomnia. Don't know what his is. I thought he'd gone right back to sleep after we left the basement.)

Before I went to my first class, I stopped at the cafeteria to purchase a cup of coffee. While there, I saw I wasn't the only one doing so. At least half of the school was there, and almost all the students and school staff were getting coffee, too, even the headmistress.

"Morning, Jenna," she said after a yawn.

"Morning," I replied the same. "Dare I assume everyone here had a bad night's sleep?"

"Mm-hmm," she replied as she drank her coffee. "One nightmare after another. You?"

"Insomnia."

That surprised her. "You didn't have any nightmares?"

"No, ma'am. I'm either too light or too deep a sleeper to dream. And when I do dream, I don't have nightmares." I told her as I drank my coffee.

"Well, don't head to your first class," she said as she finished her coffee and got up. "We're having an emergency meeting in the assembly hall after the first bell."

"Thank you for telling me."

After said bell rang, everyone in the cafeteria made their way to the assembly hall after getting refills on their coffees. When I got there, I noticed that only two-thirds of the academy's students were present while the Mayor, Nurse Joy, and Officer Jenny were on the stage.

The Mayor was giving a speech. She was too far away for me to see her face, but I could see her white business suit.

"As most of you already know," she began, speaking into the mic. "More and more of our island has been suffering from a lack of sleep. It's getting to where it's becoming a hazard. Now, on your phones, I want you to text your questions to the big screen behind me." Then the screen lit up, and we all saw her tired face with dark circles under her purple eyes, while strands of dark green hair hung limply and haphazardly from her messy bun.