Devil's Game

Chapter 4

Numb

                 I was surrounded by darkness. It was black, cold, and endless, but I wasn't scared. The cold air churned around me as voices whispered. I was really happy to finally be there. I looked around for the boy, thought there wasn't much point in doing so, for he appeared right in front of me, his eyes glistening in the darkness.

               Once again, we had an instant connection. I didn't know what it was that was causing it. He kept reminding me of someone I knew, but I couldn't quite put my finger on who. He smiled at me.

"Emma Smith" he began. "Emma, my sister"

               I was so confused. My parents never told me I had a brother. I never recalled having a brother in my whole life. I gave him an alarmed look. I tried to speak, but words simply drifted out of my mouth, blurring in an inky black and floating away. I needed to know the truth. It sounded cheesy. This boy couldn't be my brother, but somewhere deep inside of me, I knew it was true.

"Something bad" he said all of a sudden. "Coming"

               The winds changed as my dream shifted. I was standing on a cliff, about a 20 meter drop. It was much different from the dark room.

              The vast sky sprawled across the surroundings as small flowers stuck up from out of the ground, rocks littering the cliff. I peered down. I could see the whole town from this high up. I guessed it was about 5:30 am, for the sun was just peeking above the vast horizon, covering the whole town with it's warm glow. Silver buildings glistened in the light. I could hear cars bustling to get to work.

             I turned around, forgetting everything the boy had told me. I could see someone in the distance. He was wearing a black coat and ripped jeans. He looked about 40.

"Emma?" he called out. "Is that you?"

             I didn't know who it was. I didn't know how he knew my name. He looked familiar, just like how I felt about the boy, but this time, I knew for sure that I knew him. The wind blew in my face, whipping my hair across my face. I didn't bother to brush it away, for I knew it would just bounce back.

           The man walked closer to me, but the closer he got, the closer I got to the edge of the cliff, like some magical barrier keeping us apart. A powerful force kept pushing me back, as if it wanted us to be the exact same distance apart. It didn't seem to care that I was about to fall off the cliff. My heart was racing. Would I really fall?!

           "Stop!" I yelled in a panic. The man didn't hear me. He kept walking closer. "STOP!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. My heart pounded even harder, as though it would bust right out of my chest. He still didn't listen, as if he was stuck in his own dream, his own world, unaware of what was happening. I stumbled back, and tripped over the edge of the cliff, falling. I watched as the world crumbled around me.

           Suddenly, the sky started blurring in front of my eyes. My head started spinning, and then, I woke up.

           "Gasp!" I jerked up from my bed and sat up, my white bed sheets now covering only half of my body. The smell of candles filled my nose with their sweet aroma. My body was shaking with fear, though I didn't really know what I was afraid of. Who was the man? How did he know my name? Did I truly have a brother?

           After a few minutes, I shrugged my thoughts away. After all, it was just a dream, right?

Abruptly, the loud ringing of my alarm clock rang through my tired ears.

           BEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!

I jolted my body awake and instinctively slapped my hand against the clock beside my bed. I noticed it read 7:00. The irritating beeping stopped as I sat on my bed in silence. I wasn't thinking of much. Actually, I wasn't thinking of anything at all.

           I peered down past my bed and noticed my dog, Scruffy. His big furry head rested against a pillow on the floor as his long, furry, brown boy lay stretched across the wooden ground. My mom had never let Scruffy come into my room. I didn't know why he was there.

           I reached down and my hand across his back. He opened one eye, then closed it. Removing my hand from his back, I nudged the sheets a few feet of my body, and stretched myself over to grab my phone. Text messages from Clarice appeared on the screen. I rested my back against a pillow and scrolled through them. She had asked me where I had been.

           I breathed out and planned how I was going to reply. I decided not to say anything. I didn't care that I was leaving her hanging, though I probably should have, considering she was my only friend. After seeing the boy, my mind could never seem to focus properly. I should have cared about many things, but since then I never could.

           At 8:05 my mom drove me to school. I had been ready the night before. Our car rattled as I listened to the cars whilst we silently drove across the dusty, dry road that smelt metallic due to the light drizzle of rain from last night.

           I sunk my upper body into my black, school hoodie. I wanted to disappear into the darkness, though at school I felt just the same. I tried to prepare myself for what I was going to say to Clarice, but my mind was left blank. I wondered if anyone knew about it. I guessed I would simply move schools again.

           I wasn't concerned about anything except if I was going back to the dark room again. I felt an urge to ask my mom if I really did have a brother, but my mind seemed to be stopping me. It was as if the darkness was preventing my mind from being curious, and only letting me focus on one thing; itself. I did still want to know who the boy was, but my brain was stuck in it's own daydream. Soon after, I forgot everything. It's not that I had dyslexia, it was just that my mind was automatically moving those thoughts to the back of my head. I still knew about it, but it was just foggy, like it happened in another life.

           At last, the car jolted with a stop. I blinked my eyes awake, though I wasn't even sleeping.

"We're here Emma!" exclaimed my mom. She turned around to face me, giving me her serious look, the one she gave me everyday once we arrived at school. Once again, she asked me the same old question.

"Did you do your homework?"

"Y-y-yes" I stuttered, though honestly, I didn't remember if I had. She unlocked the silver car doors.

"Good"

           I grabbed my grey and black bag and stepped onto the pavement, The air was cool, and left a damp feeling on my hands and I closed the car door, the wind racing behind me as she drove away. It was Friday, October 13th. Not once did I stop to think about how unlucky today could be. After all, most people would describe my life recently as unlucky. However, to me, it wasn't.

           I trudged down the street and onto the stairs I had once ran up on, when my mind was able to be curious. It still was, yet not as much.

           Hands in my hoodie pockets, I dragged myself over to the front entrance, the banner showing the words "Respect" hanging lopsided. My bag weighed me down and I opened the big, shiny glass doors to the school. The awful aroma of mud was sucked into my nose as I rubbed it away. Breathing out, I hurried over to my classroom.

           Clarice was waiting for me at my locker beside my class. I breathed in, preparing for what she would say. Instead, she walked away once she saw me.