“Iris! Wake up! You’re going to wake up Anna!” Jake was shaking my shoulder. I had fallen asleep on the couch with the remote in my hand. It clattered to the floor as Jake shook my shoulder.
“What?” I looked up at him. “What happened?”
“You were screaming.” Looking behind Jake I saw Amber rolling her eyes with her arms crossed over her chest standing on the bottom step. “What’s going on Iris?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head slowly. “Just get me a blanket please.” Jake threw a blanket at my face as soon as I was finished with my sentence.
Unfolding the blanket I laid across the couch and rested my head on the arm. I had almost slipped into unconsciousness when the front door slammed closed and made me open my eyes.
“Bitch…” Jake huffed under his breath.
“What was that about?” I sat up rubbing my eyes.
“Go back to sleep.”
“You’re bleeding!” I noticed red dripping down the front of his black and white stripped shirt. Throwing off the blanket I had covered myself in I stood and forced him to turn his shoulders.
“I’m fine.”
Looking at his back my eyes grew wide at the sight of so much blood. The back of his long sleeve shirt had been torn to shreds, his back had three ragged gashes running diagonally from his left shoulder to his right hip bone. Without a second thought I walked in front of him and took his wrist, slippery with blood, and brought him upstairs into his room. “Jake, what’s going on?” I asked gently taking off his shirt for him, careful to avoid any scratches.
“What are you talking about?”
“Jake,” I started picking up a black shirt from the floor and drenching it with water from his bedside table and then wringing it out. “I’m not stupid.” Carefully I wiped his back with the wet cloth. Realizing that no more blood was flowing from the wounds I wiped the cloth over where one had been then dropped the shirt in amazement. “I know something is up. No one randomly gets wounds on their backs that seem like a bear clobbered them.” The wounds had already scared over. The only evidence that they truly existed was the smooth skin that was a little paler than the skin surrounding it. Picking up the shirt I finished wiping off the rest of his back I noticed three more scares that looked the same as the first one, each one a little farther over than the other. “You have a secret!” I came to a sudden realization. “You’re hiding something big, something I should be afraid of.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, or why you’re in my room.” Jake said standing in front of his door. “Or even who you’re talking to.” I looked down at the damp shirt I held in my hand, then to the floor where water still made the carpet darker in circles and other odd shapes. Knitting my eyebrows together I looked over to Jake, he had just been in front of me. How did he get over there so fast? Confusion swelled inside me. “You were sleep walking again weren’t you?” Jake walked over to me and took the shirt out of my hand. It came away leaving red on my hand. “No! Look at my hand!” Jake looked at my hand and raised an eyebrow. “What did you get a hold of? You’re dangerous to yourself when you sleep walk. Lay in my bed. You’re sleeping in here for now on.”
“No! Jake! This is real! You just had three huge cuts on your back! This isn’t my blood!”
How could Jake play everything so cool? He was just almost torn to pieces by, what did that to his back? Something’s going on and I’m going to figure it out. Feeling a sting across my palm I looked at it and saw a single thin line across my palm, bleeding. When had that gotten there? Looking up at Jake I was more confused than I had ever been. “Lay down, Iris. Something’s going on in your head and it’s making you crazy. Have you ever talked to anyone about what happened that night?”
