The Oblivious Oblivion

Chapter 4: Apparitions

"Want to hear something weird?" Clover pulls a paper bag out of her backpack that she's set down next to her. Her legs hang over the brick wall, and I lean against it to her right.

"Uh, sure, why not?" I shrug and take a bite of my sandwich.

"So I don't really know how to explain this to you, but I had a really weird dream last night." I can hear the hesitance in her voice and she seems apprehensive.

"Try, I'll figure the rest out." My mind flashes back to what the creature told me last night in my dream, about the telepathy. I focus my eyes on the cement sidewalk and her voice.

"So, I had this dream last night, and you were in it, and uh." She pauses and rubs her temple. "I think we were in your room or something, I honestly don't remember, all I do remember is hearing this weird voice talking to you. I couldn't really hear what the conversation was about or what you were saying. All I could hear was your muffled voice, and this other darker one." She scratched her head nervously.

"What do you mean, 'darker'?" I take another bite and look up at the trees.

"I don't... know." She says this slowly and seems to be concentrating hard on remembering the voice. "I just remember it was really deep, British," She scoffs to herself and shakes her head, "and... there was more than one voice to it."

"More than one voice?" I turn to look at her and she smiles weakly.

"Yeah, I don't know how to describe it, it was like... layered." Her hand is gripped around the curled top of the paper bag, and I stare at her hand.

"Clover, are you going to eat your lunch?"

She seems to be lost in her own thoughts. I wave my hand out in front of her and snap. Blinking and shaking her head, she opens the bag taking out her sandwich. She holds her sandwich in her hand but doesn't eat it. "It scared me."

"What?"

"The voice, I couldn't sleep after that, one minute I'm nowhere but I can hear your muffled voice talking to this other voice, and then nothing. I'm awake in my bed and I can't get to sleep. Every shadow seems to take the shape of something else, you know?"

"Not really." I do know, too well.

"You've never seen like a jacket and thought it was a monster as a kid?"

"No, can't say I have." Another lie.

"Well, I couldn't sleep, and now we have that history test coming up, and then we have to stay after school."

"We don't have to."

"I don't want him to call my mom, even if that was a monster and not our principle, I just want to get it over and done with and maybe they won't mess with us." I see her look around nervously.

"Okay." I finish my sandwich, and jump up on the brick wall with her. "I can help you study for the history test if you want?"

"I'm good, thanks though."

"Yeah, no problem." My eyes have retreated back to the ground. I swing my legs slightly, kicking them back against the brick. The brick barrier holds the plants and mulch as decoration around the school. During lunch we're aloud to walk around some areas of the school, and so every day Clover and I walk out here and eat our lunch.  I don't know where Baker eats, I've asked him to sit with us but he always declines.  "So that was the dream, huh?"

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, you know... that was it?"

"What do you mean, yeah it was a weird dream where I heard you and this weird other voice talking and then I was terrified and couldn't get to sleep?"