Don't Fall Asleep

Chapter 3

Awake

Monday. July 21, 2014. 5:10 AM

The cold morning air surrounded Zena as she sat up on the wet ground. This time she had awoken outside in a place she didn't recognize. That was odd because she had lived in this town her whole life so she knew her way around most of it. Looking around, she found herself in a dark alleyway. As her eyes adjusted, she looked up and saw the sky was starting to get brighter which meant the sun was rising.

Looking back down, Zena's heart stopped when she saw what was in front of her. There lay a pale, motionless body in a puddle of blood. The same puddle Zena had awoken in.

Taking in that sudden realization, she jumped to her feet and cried out, throwing her hands over her mouth to muffle her screams. She felt tears steadily flow down her cheeks as she studied the body from a distance, hoping to see some sort of sign that they were still alive.

Thoughts flooded her head. Who was this person? Were they dead? How long have they been dead for? Why did Zena awaken here, in this puddle of blood?

She took her eyes away from the body for a moment and saw a knife laying on the ground next to where Zena had been sitting. A question popped into her mind that made all the rest disappear.

Was she the one who killed them?

Zena fell to her knees as her legs gave out underneath her. Surely she couldn't have been the one who killed this person, could she? She had never even considered harming another human being before. She simply thought she was not capable of taking another persons life. Zena was fairly sure she didn't even know the person laying dead in front of her. She decided that she should figure out who it was before she started blaming herself.

Slowly, Zena inched forwards on her hands and knees. Reaching forwards, she grabbed the dead persons arm. She shivered at how cold they felt. After a moment of gathering her courage, she pulled them so they laid on their back and she could see their face.

Zena nearly screamed again, moving back faster than she thought was possible. The face belonged to a girl in Zena's school named Faith. She was popular and rude to everyone, even her own friends. Yet, everyone still loved her. She had been Zena's friend back in kindergarten, before she had started sleepwalking. Faith was the second person to find out about Zena's problem, Astronia being the first, and ever since then she was her biggest source of suffering.

The whole school knew about her sleepwalking because of Faith, and she did everything she could to make Zena's life a livin hell. If Zena was capable of hating anyone, it would be her. This only scared her more. She started to believe that she really did kill this poor girl in some alleyway.

Finally, Zena got to her feet. She took a few steps back, unable to look away for a moment, before turning around and running. The sun was up now and, thankfully, Zena had a sense of direction. Half an hour later, she found herself at Astronia's house. She hadn't been thinking about where she was going and somehow ended up there rather than her own home. Quickly, she ran up to the door and knocked.

While waiting for someone to answer the door, Zena noticed her whole body was shaking. She looked down and saw her body was covered in blood and instantly became thankful it was early in the morning so nobody was awake to see her. After what seemed like an eternity, she heard someone come down the stairs and was relieved to see it was Astronia who opened the door.

Astronia looked as if she had just woken up, which she probably did. She had no reason to be awake this early. Zena felt her eyes fill up with tears as Astronia took a moment to look at her and process what she was seeing. "What the-"

"Astro!" Zena ignored the fact that she was covered in blood and fell into her best friends arms, sobbing uncontrollably. "It was horrible! I woke up, and I- there was this body- I've never seen... So much blood..."

Astronia's arms wrapped around her slowly, making Zena realize how cold she was. "Shhh... It's alright," Astronia said, stroking Zena's sweat and blood covered hair. "Calm down and tell me what happened."

Zena walked into the house with her cousins arm wrapped around her shoulder. After they sat on the couch, Astronia goes to the kitchen and comes back a moment later with a glass of water and hands it to Zena. Taking a few sips of her water, she takes a deep breath and starts explaining as Astronia settles down beside her.

"I woke up hoping I'd be in my own bed for once," Zena started. "But I knew I wasn't as soon as I felt the cold around me. I was sitting in something wet that I thought was water, then I realized it was warm... I.. I looked down and I was surrounded by blood! There was a body next to me and... I think I... I think I killed them."

Astronia was quiet for a moment, sitting there staring at Zena, as if trying to figure out whether this was a joke or not. After a while, she seemed to realize Zena was telling the truth and hugged her tightly.

"If you really believe you could've done it... You need to go into hiding. I won't let the police take you from me. You aren't even guilty, it was in your sleep. You can't control that," Astronia said, pulling away from the hug slowly.

"You aren't afraid of me?" Zena looked up at Astronia with hope and tears in her bloodshot eyes.

"Of course not. Did you see who the body belonged to? If you don't want to answer, I don't blame you."

"It was Faith..."

There was silence after that. Eventually, Astronia stood up. "Well, we need to hide you. For today, you can stay in my basement. Then we have to move you in case the police search my house. Got it?"

Zena nodded her head then they both headed toward the stairs going down to the basement. The basement that she had always dreaded waking up in, she was now living in for a night. That was the least of her worries, however. Zena wondered how her parents would be effected. Her little brother. Would she ever go back to school again? She had never been as thankful as she was now for not having any friends.

She spent the rest of the rest of the day sitting in the corner refusing to eat. Think about what she was going to do with her life now, since she couldn't hide forever. Just as she was considering turning herself in, she drifted into a deep sleep.

She couldn't turn herself in, could she? After all, she wasn't really the one who killed that girl.