Veronica Blue

Chapter 12

I woke up rather late the next day. Not only did I have difficulties sleeping, I kept having short nightmares. I didn't even recall what happened in them.

I eventually got tired of trying to fall asleep peacefully and decided to do some research.

I got the spell book from where I had hidden it in my closet and went straight to page 665. The page it was at when the incident occurred.

Just like I remembered, there was a disturbing image on that page. It was a shadowy figure. I couldn't tell if it was a female, a male or the grim reaper.

"To Identify An Unholy Presence." I read out loud. Apparently if you said the spell three times, raising the pitch of your voice with every chant, a strong gust of wind would come from the least expected place and whirl around wherever the threat was.

Maybe if we had successfully tried that spell, we would have identified what happened to Amira.

After going through a few more pages, I eventually fell asleep.

I did say I had short nightmares I couldn't recall, but there's one of them I could never forget:

I was lying on something cold, wet and hard. I couldn't tell what it was because my eyes were closed.

And then I heard it. The sound of a turkey with a woman's voice laughing. That sound I would recognize anywhere. It sounded like it was coming from a distance, echoing from wherever as if we were in an empty hall, yet the sound was clear as day.

I didn't want to open my eyes. I didn't want to open them unless I was waking up from that nightmare.

"Won't you open your eyes!" She screeched into my ears. I couldn't help but scream. I thought she was far away. And the scream was ear piercing. I still didn't open my eyes, I was too scared. Maybe if I don't look at her she'd go away. Why did it feel so real. "Open your eyes! Look at me! Look at me!" She screeched again. I shut my eyes even tighter after that.

Then it was silent, extremely silent for a while, and the atmosphere was worse. I still didn't want to open my eyes, not for anything.

"Are you scared?" I heard someone say. It was the voice of a little girl, she sounded like she was only a few feet away. "I'm scared too. But she's going to come back. She always does. And she won't stop hurting you until you..." She paused. "...look at her." She added in the softest whisper I had ever heard in my life.

"Who are you?" I asked. But my voice sounded dry and croaky. Like I had been walking in the desert for days.

"I can't say it out loud." She whispered. "She'll hear me, and she'll eat me. But if you see me, you'd know it's me, you'd recognize me."

I turned my head in the direction of the little girls voice and opened my eyes.

"You thought you could leave without looking at me?!" She screeched as a strong gust of wind slammed me into a wall. It was her all along, she tricked me.

It was then I realized where I was. I had been lying in the middle of the road on an empty street. Apparently, it had just rained, which explained the wetness of where I was lying.

"Look! At! Me!" She ordered. Without my intention or consent, my head shot up and I was staring at the shadowy figure from page 665.

It had long hair, all the way to the ground. It was wearing a sack-like thing that didn't look like there was any body parts inside of it.

"You thought you could expose me!" She...it shreaked. "No no no." It said and cackled. "It's not yet time." And out of no where, I could here little children repeat "not yet time" like they just learned the sentence. But there were no children. At least none that I could see.

"Be careful!" It shreaked. "Or I'd consume you." Out of no where it was right in front of me, choking me. "Faster than I already am."

And then I woke up.

Which is to say, my sleep that night was not the best I'd had. Not even close.

I got to school rather late and rushed off to math class. And to my greatest and fortunate surprise, I saw Amira.

"Amira!" I whisper shouted as I sat beside her. "Are you okay?"

She only nodded.

"What happened back then?" I asked. But then her eyes went wide and she started gasping for breath and shaking her head. "What's the matter?" I asked rather panicked. But she kept up the act. "Are you okay?" I asked, but she shook her head more vigorously. "Say something!"

She stopped and looked at me with terror in her eyes. She tried to talk, but it was like she couldn't. She kept trying and trying and trying. And that's when I realised it. It was so obvious, but I never imagined it so it never crossed my mind.

Amira couldn't speak anymore.

She was mute.