I sank into my bed soon as I got home.... as I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, the events of today just replayed in my head and I still had no idea how any of this was possible...
"Hey honey, can you come down for dinner?" .... I heard my mum ask as she stood by my door.
I gave her a brief nod as I stood up and started undoing the buttons on my uniform.....a few minutes later I was heading downstairs towards the dinning area for dinner.
"How was school today D?".... my father asked looking at me.
"It was okay"... I answered not looking at his face.
"Just okay?" ..... he pressed even further .
"Yes dad, just okay"..... I replied as I felt the intensity of my father's stare.
"Well that's good. At least you're not complaining about any weird teacher or bully or bad event that might've taken place..... you youngsters indeed never really have anything to worry about"..... my dad said smiling as he squeezed my hand lovingly.
In my head I was screaming words no one could hear..... "of course we have problems, I just watched a girl die!!...do you have any idea how that feels like?..to watch a girl die?... I am being hunted down by a monster in my dreams....IN MY DREAMS!!... and you know what's worse?.... I'm not supposed to tell any of you that any of this is happening!!!!"... I kept screaming these words in my head over and over and over and over again... I felt my blood boil as my grip on my fork grew tighter.... everything although not making sense was starting to dawn on me that this was going to be my new reality.... the scraping of my chair on the tiled floors of our house disrupted the silence that had taken over the dinning table as I stood up with anger and frustration and ran up the stairs straight into my room locking the door and slowly sank to the ground as I burst into another round of tears.
I clutched my legs tightly to my chest as I buried my face in there letting my tears fall freely as I listened to the uneven rhythm of my heartbeat.
I must've fallen asleep cause then I started hearing faint unfamiliar voices.
Woman:"when do you think she'll wake up?"
Man: "I don't know but it better be soon cause you know we can't stay here for too long.... that thing is going to find us sooner or later."
Woman:"should we wake her up then?"
Man:"No, let her sleep....she was injured pretty badly by that thing".
Woman:"you're right.... we should let her sleep for a bit longer"
As I tried to open my eyes, I felt this throbbing pain on my stomach and head... I tried rubbing my head with my palm to somehow reduce the pain.
"Ah, you're finally awake" the voice of a woman probably in her sixties startled me.
"Uhm sorry but where am I and what happened and who are you?" I asked in one breath.
"We found you bleeding on the grass, I don't get how you ventured off into the woods without your parents even knowing. Aren't you bothered that they might be worried about you?" The man who apparently was in his late sixties replied scolding me.
"W-ait what are you talking about?.... what do you mean by I was bleeding on the grass? And I didn't leave my house and come into the forest....last thing I remember was that I was in my room on the floor crying.... wait! You mean I'm back to that dream I had about being cut by that... THING?? I asked staring wide eyed at both of them as my voice cracked with dread and confusion.
"Oh honey it's not a dream. Well it is but it's not". The old lady said as she looked at me, her eyes overcome by sadness.
"Okay, can you tell us exactly what happened?" The old man asked as he sat on a rock beside me. Apparently we were in a cave and they had managed to make a tiny fire that brightened the cave a little bit.
I cleared my throat then proceeded with telling them every single thing that had happened including what happened to the red haired girl from school. For some reason they didn't seem shocked....they just nodded with the occasional "uhum".
When I was done, the old man sighed and stood up walking back and forth in the cave.
"This is worse than we thought Harold" the lady said referring to the man I presumed was her husband.
"I know Charity, I really don't get why it's back to haunt us. We haven't experienced it in 49years" the man responded.
"Wait, you know about this???" I asked both of them. They were quite taken aback by my sudden outburst.
"Yes we do... but I'm afraid we don't have time to tell you. ... we're not exactly safe yet. We need to find a safer spot to hide before it comes back." The man who I now knew to be Harold replied.
"Hey D?, D you in there?"
I was woken up by a loud knock on my door. And the voice was very familiar.
"Hey D can you come open the door for me?.... it's Nurys," my older sister said.
And without a second thought, I sprung for the door and yanked it wide open as I jumped my sister and hugged her.
I had missed her badly since she went off to college.
"Woah there puppy, I know you missed me but woah chill out" Nurys said as she stroked my hair.
I just smiled as I took a full whiff of her scent... it was a mix of cinnamon and fresh leaves. A perfect fall scent.
"Yo can I get in on this sibling romance?" I heard My brother's voice say as a new wave of happiness hit me.
"Cameroon!!" I squealed as I lunged at my brother with full force causing us to crash on the floor.
"Easy girl" my brother said as he laughed at my dog like gesture.
"You have no idea how much I've missed you guys" I said as a new batch of tears formed in my eyes.... "so much has happened and I really need someone to talk to and I'm so glad you guys are around" I said sniffling.
"Hey puppy what's wrong?" My older brother asked as he looked at me with concern etched on his features.
Puppy was the nickname my two siblings called me.... it was the first word I said soon as I started talking... I actually use to call my dad poppy and as I grew older, Cameroon and Nurys changed it to puppy. And that's what they call me.
"A lot Cam... a lot is wrong." I said as I led them to my room and sat them on my bed.
I narrated the events of the previous days to them, showed them my scar, told them about Allyson, my dream, the two people I saw in my dream the night before. They just stared at me with an unreadable expression
Like they couldn't bring themselves to believe or understand what I was saying.
I know this whole thing had me rattled but I wasn't as scared as I was last night. Now I had my big brother and sister with me.... things might actually turn out good .
I hope.