Mind Or Matter

Chapter Twelve

I frowned a little. "You, you can read my thoughts?" I asked curiously, not wanting to come off as demanding to this "girl".

She giggled. "Perhaps we all can." Her accent sounded British, which seemed normal to me. But her red eyes made me have a sinking feeling inside.

Twirling some of her light hair with her fingers, she looked up at me, her chin down. "My name is Arianna, and I don't like you." Pacing around in a small circle, she stopped, her back to me. "But I absolutely love Candi."

Starting to not trust this girl, I spoke up nervously. "How do you know who Candi is?"

Arianna giggled, her head turning all the way around to look at me, her shoulders sharp and rolled forward. "Everyone knows who their body is."

I frowned again. "What body?"

Arianna marched backwards, coming towards me. She stopped when her ashy eyes were just inches away from mine. She was much taller now, at least as tall as me.

"Us Demons are slowly replacing the bodies of your people." She giggled again, which annoyed me. Leaning in even closer, she whispered, "but He is saving someone special just for you."

But, before I could even think, Arianna grabbed my shoulders and hurled me towards the slide-down door behind me...

"He's breathing," I heard a man say. He sounded like a dad or some guy in his mid-forties.

Opening my eyes the tiniest bit, I was surprised to see a big crowd around me. Three mall securities were crouched close to me, talking on radios and such.

Candi was to my left. She looked right at me; she knew I was awake.

She opened her mouth. "He's okay!" she exclaimed, nudging the security guard crouched bellow her. "He's awake!"

Damn it, Candi, I thought, smiling a tiny bit. I wanted to look around for just another minute, eyeing everyone without them knowing I was awake.

A mall security woman helped me up. "You okay?" She had a southern accent, like she was from Texas. Her hair was in a low bun, brown like chestnuts.

I nodded, feeling my face and body. I was bleeding a little bit from my left eyebrow, my lower right cheek, and my neck.

Candi ran up to me, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. Unsure what she was doing at first, I sat there awkwardly, feeling myself blush.

She broke the hug, still holding onto my arms. "I'm so glad you're okay. You started running around the mall, so I went after you. Next thing I know, you're on the floor with cuts on your face." She coughed into her elbow for a second. "I called mall security over. What happened back there?"

She's talking so much, I thought. I can't... I can't do this... "Uh, er, nothing," I decided to blurt, looking away from Candi's eyes. I knew that, if we made eye contact, she would know I wasn't telling her everything.

"Oh. Okay," she said, smiling a little. "I threw away our pizza, since we were almost done anyways." Then, noticing the exit right in front of us, she helped me up. "Wanna go back home now?"

I grinned. "Sure."

The next couple of days were all the same. I went to teach my student psychiatry classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I managed to squeeze in time between that and work at Starbucks. Meanwhile, Candi was still job-hunting.

I woke up, sitting up straight in bed, panting. I was having the nightmare again. It was me, running through a red hallway, like I was in a maze. All of the sudden, I come to a dead end. Arianna is standing at the end of it, hugging a teddy bear. She starts laughing. At first, she's giggling like a cute little girl. But, slowly, her laugh transforms to a distorted growl.

But the creepiest part is that the red walls turn to mirrors, which reflect Candi. She's lying dead on the floor in her own pool of blood.

Checking my watch, I sighed. 3:01. Throwing the damp sheets off my sweaty legs, I got out of bed, my whole body aching. Trudging out the door, sneaking quietly past Candi's "bed", I tip-toed into the kitchen, sitting on the floor while eating crackers.

Since I had nothing else to do, I went on my phone until the sun came up.

I must've fallen asleep in the kitchen because, next thing I knew, Candi was shaking me awake.

"William! Wake up! It's eight o'clock!" she said, still shaking me by the shoulders.

I flinched, the chip bag falling onto the floor, crackers flying out onto the tile.

"Sorry," I blabbed, running across the apartment to my room. "Damn it! Candi, where's my shoes?"

Candi held them by the door, the other hand gripping onto a bag with a sandwich inside. I ran out the door, taking the things Candi was holding.

"Bye," she called, a faint smile on her face. I gave a little wave and she shut the door.