Discovering the Moonlight

8

Chapter 8

The steady rhythmic hum of my alarm clock brought me back to reality. I had not managed to fall back asleep since the nightmare. The beast from my dreams wouldn’t let me close my eyes, his glowing amber eyes would appear in my head when I tried.

I lazily slapped a hand over the now loud alarm until it finally clicked off. The house was still very quiet and dad had not managed to make me breakfast this morning.

”Claire?” My father’s voice echoed through the house. “Are you up yet?”

I slowly got to my feet and walked over to the edge of my room. “Yes I will be down in a few.”

My reflection in the bathroom mirror scared me. I had large dark circles under my eyes and my skin was so pale. My eyes were another story. Light gray with a hint of green around my pupils. I was shocked. My appearance was so foreign to me that it scared the hell out of me.

I grabbed a hair tie and pulled my curly hair back into a messy pony tail. I attempted to smear my darker colored foundation on my face in order to calm the paleness down. I looked as if I had been suffering from the stomach virus for a month. I finally gave up and finished getting ready so I could make it in time to go to school.

My dad’s eyes told me everything he was thinking.

I threw my hand up before he could say a single word. “Yes, I know but what else do you expect me to look like after seeing a dead body.”

His brown eyes were now concentrated completely on my face. “Sweetie, I know. Why don’t you take the day off from school? I can call the principal and explain that you are just now up for it today, I’m sure they would understand.”

Shaking my head no I grabbed a bagel out of the cabinet and flopped down onto one of the kitchen chairs. “I have tests today so I really need to go.” The lie came out a lot smoother than I had anticipated. I needed to see my friends. I was way outside of my comfort zone and I needed Lydia and Erick to tell me that I wasn’t going insane.

He reluctantly nodded his head as he holstered his gun quietly at his side. He pulled a black light jacket over his uniform and ran a hand through his dirty hair. I could tell he didn’t get much sleep himself last night. I knew the case was weighing heavy on his heart.

“At least let me drive you to school.”

“Sure. I guess I could let you do that. I don’t really feel like walking by myself to school anyways.”

He smiled and pushed away from the counter. “Grab your stuff then, we need to get going. I have to be at the department in a few.”

****

I went straight to my locker and fumbled around with the lock and couldn’t get it to open. I silently cursed under my breath and slammed my fist into the locker. The pain vibrated sweetly up into my arm sending a hiss from my mouth. I slowly removed my fist from the now indented locker and cradled it softly to my chest.

“You need help with that?” Erick’s voice brought my attention back to the present. His bright blue eyes scanning my frail frame up and down. “No offense Claire, but you look horrible.”

His words hit hard. I knew I wasn’t looking my best but apparently I looked worse than I felt. “Yea, I had a weird night.”

He reached around me and silently opened my locker up for me. His gaze lingered over the new fist impression that was in the middle of my locker. “Yea, we heard about that. Are you ok?” He grabbed my face in between his hands and scanned my face. “What’s up with your eyes?”