Recover

Chapter One

Dark water rises up passed my legs; the reflection of the midnight stars making it look like a rippling galaxy. A warm wind sweeps around my back then slithers its way over to the redwoods. I can faintly see it, giving off an unnatural glow, wrapping around the trees before it comes back to whip at my hair. With it comes the sound of an animal howling.

     The water is up to my waist; it feels like a snake coiling itself around me. As I watch the water climb higher it suddenly brightens. My eyes jump to the sky as clouds uncover the moon. It's light beams down and right in front of me, on the grass outside of the pond: is a wolf.

     My body springs upward from my bed, out of a deep unnerving sleep. Sweat drips down my neck and my heart feels like a balloon about to burst every time it beats. Cool air quickly fills my lungs. Instinctively, I lay back down trying and go to sleep. My eyes shut just as my alarm goes off. I groan in frustration and exhaustion, quickly slamming my hand down on the clock till the alarm finally stops.

     All I hear now is the sound of the ceiling fan spinning. A droning dull noise that paints images of beige and gray. Slowly I open my eyes and stare at the fan as it moves, never faltering in a spin. Damn, I hate mornings. Pulling off the dark blue covers, I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stretch. My hands begins to comb through my hair as I stand up still groggy. Ugh I feel like crap. I stare at my reflection in the full length mirror that is the door of my closet; my unnatural fiery red hair is in curls that fall just below my collar bone, a set of pale gray-blue eyes look back at me, my lips chapped from my hours of sleep. And I always look like crap in the morning. I pull my eyes away from the mirror and look around my room. The dark blue bed sheets match the white walls, the dresser with a mirror and the closet are both made of red oak; lastly there's a navy blue and white bathroom hidden behind the oak door in the corner. It's not that bad of a place.

     Checking the time I see it's 7:15.

     "Damn it," I mumble and quickly bolt to the bathroom and jump in the shower. Goosebumps show up on my arms and legs since I didn't have time for the water to heat up. Finished after about 10 minutes I quickly wrap myself in a nice warm towel.

     Crap, this is my first day of senior year and it's already off to a bad start. After I sprint to the closet and pull out dark blue skinny jeans, red high tops and a white blouse I quickly got dressed. 7:30. "Jeez Louise!" Hurrying I grab a cereal bar, my phone, ear buds, book bag, house keys, and quickly I get out of the apartment. Plugging into my phone I blast music and bring the black screen up to apply a quick thin layer of eyeliner and some red lip gloss. When I am done with my makeup I look happily at the weather before me: blue clear sky, the smell of the ocean with a hint of fresh bread and the warm sun tingling on my back. I stop myself and think about all of the ways I've walked to my first day of school. But then I remember all of the ones in my younger childhood that seemed to all be similar except that one. That day had more in-store for me than just starting a new school year.

     Walking through a pine forest on a beaten dirt path trying to avoid the school bus. A breeze falls down from uphill that smells distinctly like wet dirt. Under my feet crunch dried dead weeds and broken branches. For a fleeting moment it was silent but then a rustle came from the bushes. My hands started to shake as I took a dull pocket knife out and pointed it futilely at the source of the sound.  A white flash sprang from the underbrush and my hands moved without conscious. Suddenly a white and red figure lay on the ground in front of me. I stared in horror as I saw the rabbit stand and limp away with a bleeding leg. Quickly I felt for the pocket knife but I had dropped when the rabbit emerged. A fast warm liquid streamed down my chin. Feeling with my hands and pulling it away I froze as I saw that it was not clear but red.