Teigra's Story

Chapter One

"No!" I screamed, bolting up to a sitting position in my bed, sweat making my pajamas stick to my skin uncomfortably. I groaned and rolled out of bed and grabbed some clothes out of my closet, heading for the shower. I studied my reflection in the mirror, spotting my usual red eyes and a fresh scratch running from my collarbone to my shoulder. It looked like I'd been attacked, and I had been, in my dream.

I've had this dream over and over for the past week, and I was getting sick of it. Every night I woke up with red eyes, drenched in sweat, and a new scratch on my body. It started right after I turned sixteen, on May 27th. I mean, seriously, I hate this. My mom has gotten so suspicious, she won't let me out of the door until she's had a long and thorough conversation with me about my sleeping habits, trying to figure out what I was hiding. I've started to just leave a note on the kitchen counter before climbing through my bedroom window.

After I got out of the shower and got dressed, I gathered up my homework from the day before and stuffed it in my backpack, not caring if it was crushed or not. I zipped it shut and threw it over my shoulder, grabbing a piece of paper on my way out of my bedroom, and headed for the kitchen. I made it to the counter without being seen by anybody, and I quickly scribbled down 'Goin 2 school. B bk @ 5. -T.' on the piece of paper and headed back to my room, where I cracked open my window, climbed onto the sill, and dropped to the ground. I walked around to the front of the house and found my jeep, parked in the garage. I dropped my bag into the passenger seat, got in, and started the car, before I backed out of the garage and drove over to my best friend's house.

I stepped up onto Jade's front steps, and yelled, "Teigra." loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. I heard muffled voices before Jade opened up the door. "Jade. Nice to meet you." She laughed, hugging me. I tensed my shoulders, and lightly set my head on her shoulder. I didn't really like hugs. Rarely did I ever give someone a hug.

"Jade."

"Yeah?"

"You're hugging me."

"Oh, right." She said, letting go of me and grasped my hand instead, pulling me inside. "So what's going on since I last saw you yesterday?"

"Um, can we go somewhere private?" I asked, since she had lead me to the kitchen, where her mother and father were having a conversation. I glanced at them, then back at Jade, forming a peace sign with my free hand. She understood and tugged me outside, to her backyard.

Ever since we were little we used the peace sign as a sign for 'let's go to the treehouse'. Jade has a simple treehouse in her backyard, and it was nothing special. There were blocks of wood nailed into the tree, forming a ladder to the square hole in the floor of the treehouse. Beat-up bean-bag chairs sat in one corner, and a couple of blankets sat on a shelf with some Doctor Suess books.

We climbed up the short ladder and sat in the bean-bag chairs, Jade looking expectantly at me. She tapped her foot to some rhythm in her head. I took a deep breath and showed her my scratch from this morning. "Again?" She sighed, running her finger along the scratch.

"Yeah..." I said, covering it up again.

"This sucks, dude." She said, sitting back in her seat. She studied the floor, her foot had stopped tapping . "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. What do you think the dreams mean?" I asked, looking at the place she was studying. She was wringing her hands together, a sign that she was thinking.

"Well... I think it's an omen." She mumbled.

"An Owen?"

"No. An omen. You know, a sign of the future." She said, looking out the only window of the treehouse.

"A sign of the future?" I asked, astonished. I sat up in my bean-bag chair and stared at her.

"Yes." She mumbled, watching a squirrel climb up into the branches of the tree.

I sat back, and stared at the floor. "Why do you think that?" I asked Jade.

"Well, I read up online that if a dream is repeated exactly the same for than once, it usually means that someone is trying to warn you of something to come. And I searched the meaning of your name, and it means 'Tiger', from the Greeks."

"So my name literally means tiger in Greek."

"Yes."

"And someone is trying to warn me of something in the future."

"Yes."

"Wow." I say, rolling my eyes. "That's so easy to believe isn't it?"

"I guess so..." Jade says, looking at me strangely.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. I thought I just saw stripes on your face." Jade studies my cheeks.

"Great. Now you're hallucinating." I say, making Jade frown.

"No, I'm serious," Jade said, scooting forward in her beanbag chair. She grabbed a tiny plastic mirror from the floor of the treehouse, and handed it to me.

I looked at her with an 'are you serious' look on my face and I rolled my eyes, holding the mirror up so I could see my face in it. I studied my reflection, and grew angry at myself. "Do you expect me to believe you saw stripes on my face?" I growled at Jade.

"Yes!" Jade said confidently, gesturing for me to look again.

I sighed in frustration and turned back to the mirror, watching the sides of my face. I gasped as stripes appeared on my cheeks and forehead, and watched as my pupils turned from round pupils to ones of a cat's. I threw the mirror across the treehouse and looked at my hands, and screamed as I saw black claws coming out of the tips of my fingers. I looked at Jade desperately and she looked back at me with wide eyes, "Try calming down! Maybe it'll go away!"

I nodded and tried to calm down, but found that I couldn't. I stood and immediately collapsed onto the floor, writhing. I felt extreme pain from the top of my head and I curled into a ball, shutting my eyes tight. I growled and all of a sudden I roared, and I couldn't see. I looked around, and the last thing I saw was a tiger in the tiny mirror, staring back at me with horror in her brown eyes.