The Haunted Town

#4 - Strange Messages

"Simone, honey are you up?" She heard her mother's concerned voice and squeezed her eyes a bit before opening them up. She was in her bed and three faces were bent over hers. 
"What the hell?" She grumbled as she looked at them.
"You screamed and then you fainted."
"Nathan carried you here upstairs, I had no idea what to do."
"Why did you scream anyway?"

Everyone asked the questions one after the other but she was too stunned by the presence of the boy from her locker to acknowledge anything else. What was he doing at her house and in her bedroom? Consciously, she pulled her blanket till her neck. Only her face was visible and she was still looking at Nathan, her eyes narrowed. 
"She is shy." She heard her brother say mischievously.
"I'm sorry Simone. I was just passing by your house when I heard the scream. I didn't know it was your house but I rushed in anyway to check if everything was ok." Nathan said sheepishly. 
"Honey, why did you faint? Did you see something?" Her mother inquired, sitting down beside her. Did I see something? Simone wondered but she could not recall. 
"I don't know. Where was I? I don't even remembering screaming." She mumbled, trying to recall last few hours of her day but she could not. There was nothing. Her mind was blank. 

"You sure?" Her mother asked, her forehead creased in concern.
"Yeah. I am. Where was I and what was I doing?"
"Oh my GOD!! She doesn't remember! Are you suffering from amnesia or something?" Jayden asked in a horrified tone with his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Simone bit her lower lip as she looked at one face to another. 
"I found you in the kitchen. You were collapsed on the floor and your mother was trying to wake you up." Nathan said, confused as he studied her.
"Thanks for you help, dear. Jayden will see you to the door." Her mother said to Nathan, forcing a smile in his direction. Thank God, her mother had recalled that there was a boy in her daughter's bedroom. Uninvited one at that. As Nathan followed Jayden out of the room, he stopped at the threshold to give Simone an apologetic smile. She just nodded absently, her mind still trying to grasp what had happened to her.

Later that evening, Simone sat down on at her desk and took out her daily diary. Last entry was three days ago. Never before Simone had missed more than a day or two of entry but this time, she had missed three days in a row. Sighing, she held her head in her hands. She hated this place and everything about it. Nothing made sense and her mind was blank. It was just like it had been the night before. Feeling helpless and annoyed, Simone wrote down about her evening.

  ༼;'༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽༼;'༎ຶ ༎ຶ༽ 

A week passed without any incident. After her fainting episode, Nathan had taken it upon himself to walk her to every class. She hated it and had requested him to stop doing it but he had shrugged and had pretended as if it was nothing. It should have been nothing but it was. She could feel everyone's eyes on her. Simone often caught Brianna and her friends watching her. She could not read their expressions but she knew that they did not like Nathan's attention on her. When asked why he was doing it, he had simply stated that because she was a new girl and someone he wanted to know better. Simone had scowled and left him in the hallway as she had ditched into the girls' bathroom.    

She still believed that she had hallucinated the shadows of her parents and from the night they had shifted into Elmdale. It was on Wednesday when she got another letter. A note which read:

They're onto you. 
- M

Simone still didn't know who it was. She had kept the previous one and that is where she saved this as well. Two days later, she found a strange entry in her daily diary. One she couldn't remember writing but it was dated the previous night.

I can't sleep, she'd written. I am sitting down in the window and looking out at the dark trees. Cool wind is blowing. Winter is coming. My neighbors are awfully punctual. At exact 9PM, they are turning off their lights and pulling the curtains. I should turn off my bedroom light too.
I turned it off. The only light is coming from the street lamp outside. Its a beautiful night. Now looking at the road, I'm sure that I'd hallucinated the shadow there. I must really hate this town but not at night. Its beautiful. I want to..................... SHADOWS! HUNDREDS OF THEM. ON THE STREET. A WOMAN.....