Project Archangel Book One: The Conspiracy Project

Chapter 4

Michael dropped me off around sunset that evening, and as usual, my parents were full of questions the second I walked in the door. 

“How was your date?” my mom gushed.

“It wasn't a date, Mom.”

“Did he try anything?” Dad demanded.

“No, Dad.”

“You went over to a boy's house and he bought you dinner. Sounds like a date to me!” Mom teased.

“We were working on our science project. Now, if you guys feel comfortable letting me out of your sight for a couple of hours, I need to go do the rest of my homework.”

“Of course, Honey. Sorry to keep you.”

I nodded my appreciation and disappeared upstairs to my room.

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I snapped awake to the sound of my phone buzzing on my desk next to my ear. Had I really fallen asleep doing homework again? I yawned, stretched, and picked up my phone. It was 1:01 AM and the text message that had woken me was from Michael, who I had completely forgotten I had given my number to for science project purposes. I opened it to read.

I must be thinking about you. You keep appearing in my dreams.

It was a strange thing to text at one in the morning, sure, but I wasn't concerned about it right now. Instead of replying, I plugged my phone in and set it on my night stand before curling up under the covers to go back to sleep.

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I woke up several times throughout the night, each time from a different nightmare and within about thirty minutes of each other. My first dream involved running into Michael in an abandoned motel, but after I passed out and woke up again, he was gone. In my next dream, I was the little boy in the video he had shown me, and I was upset but couldn't stop myself. After waking up from that dream, I was both upset and starting to get annoyed. By the third dream about being trapped in a school and chased by an unseen being, I was actually mad.

I threw myself back on my bed and fought the urge to scream. I picked up my phone to see that only an hour and a half had past since I had moved from my desk to my bed. I rolled over, buried my face in my pillow, and screamed through gritted teeth. Why did I keep having these stupid nightmares? I had school in the morning, and I needed to get some damn sleep!

I tried to sleep one more time, but I began to dream almost instantly. Before I could even see anything, I knew I was entering a nightmare, and I began to feel nervous as the dream began. I fought to open my eyes and forced myself to wake up again, sitting up and burying my face in my hands. This was hopeless.

I sighed and reached over to my night stand, picking up my phone, and opened my text messages. I debated whether or not I should send Michael a text in response to the one he had sent me earlier, but honestly, it wasn't like I was doing anything else, and sleep seemed impossible. I hesitantly replied to his previous message.

I guess I'm thinking about you too. Well, he had been in some of my dreams. Sort of anyway. 

After a moment, he replied. You're still up?