An Open Sky

Chapter Twenty-Seven ~Alexa~

I closed my eyes and hugged my pillow to my face in an unsuccessful attempt at sleep. Stabbed to death, were the only words that continually haunted my mind. My nightmare, the image of the girl, Lalya, being stabbed to death, played like a movie behind my eyelids.

                         It was too odd of a coincidence for me to not think about it. Aidan knew her? She was real? If she was real, then is the killer real, too? I shuttered at Aidan’s warning. I figured that the killer could be him just as much as it could be Jay. It could be anyone. What if Aidan’s warning against Jay was a trap? Just a rouse to get me to trust him? I couldn’t accept Jay’s relationship with me being a rouse. He loves me; he told me so.

                         I flipped on my back, knocking my comforter on the floor. The cool air wrapped around my body like the blanket that was currently warming the carpet as a replacement for me. I was almost jealous of the inanimate fabric.

                         I stared at the darkened light fixture on the ceiling, tracing the intricate pattern of the glass with my eyes. I needed to get away. My upcoming shopping trip with Dani, will take my mind off of things.

                         I turned sideways and reluctantly pulled the comforter back onto my bed. I wrapped myself like a caterpillar in a cocoon and tried to relax. It was just past midnight. I couldn’t stay still. I tossed and turned, ruining my cocoon, until I finally just threw my blankets aside. I sat up on the edge of my bed in defeat. I absent-mindedly kept score: My paranoid mind, one. My will to sleep, zero.

                         I looked out my window to my tree, which actually wasn’t even my tree because it was outside the boundary of our yard. I smiled as I pictured the smirk on Aidan’s face as he drew the line with his foot. My smile faded as I pictured the tears streaming down his face as he remembered her; the tears that I made fall.

                         I scanned the area around the tree. Sure enough, there he was wrapped in his blankets, right where he always was. Even though he was only a smudged black shape in the darkness, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I looked at how he slept; he was a stomach sleeper. I wondered if he was awake now, too. I almost wished he was. I wished he would get up and try to get my attention again, to peer up to my room and watch me. I smiled, embarrassed; now I was the one stalking.  

                         I flopped back on my bed. I imagined how his skin would feel under my touch, how it would ignite my own. I thought about my trip with Dani. I almost didn’t want to leave, but I knew I had to. Who knew I could be drawn so strongly to a small town named Rexford? Who knew I could be drawn so strongly to a fascinating young man named Aidan?