"Nathalie wake up. Wake up now."
She hears the faint voice urging her to wake up from a distance as she jerks wildly on the bed.
She is having the terrible nightmare again, the same nightmare that has become a part of the after the murder of her parents. She saw the monster with a face hiding behind a hoodie but the hoodie couldn't hide the large scar on his left cheek and his mismatched ash and brown eyeballs. He shot her father and moves to her mother who is desperately pleading to be spared.
"Mother." She calls and tries to reach out for her but as usual, she couldn't lift her leg, it gets as if her legs were glued to the floor. She stood rooted to her spot as she watched the monster pull the trigger of his gun.
"No, no. Mother. Nooo."
She screams out loud and sprang up from her bed while sweating profusely. It's the same dream again! She saw her aunt, Serena who is now a mother to her, wiping her cheeks with a small smile on her lips. She didn't even realize she has been crying.
"It's okay Nath, it's just a bad dream." She pats her back and mutters soothing words to her as she has always done since she was a kid.
She spots her cousin, Charlotte also sitting beside her on the bed, great! She has woken everyone up with her screams.
"I didn't mean to wake you up." She says with remorse while biting her lips nervously.
"You didn't wake anyone up silly girl. Do you even have any idea how long you have been sleeping?" Serena asks with a small laugh and pulls her into a warm embrace.
"It's seven already, Mr. Russell is so going to kill you."
Nathalie let out a dramatic gasp and take a look at the wall clock just to confirm in case Charlotte is just pulling her legs.
"Oh my! Me Russell is so going to kill me as you said." She jumps from the bed and sprinted to the bathroom not wanting to confront her school principal, Mr. Russell.
She picked up her toothbrush and was brushing her teeth in front of the mirror in the bathroom, she was studying the bags under her red eyes due to how bad her nightmare made her night when she saw that her amulet which was normally red in color has now turned to red. She dropped her toothbrush diverted her full attention to the red amulet which started glowing the moment her hand made a contact with it and it stopped glowing when she dropped it.
"What the hell is going on?" She whispers to herself in confusion while studying the amulet.
Not knowing what to make out of it, she shrugged and went back to rushing to make it to school on time.
She was scurrying off to her school when she suddenly heard the voice.
"Hello, human girl." The feminine voice drawls, she heard the voice right inside her head. She almost tripped on her feet but was able to catch herself before falling flat on her face on the sidewalk.
Strange. She thought and look around to see if someone is actually talking to her and not just a voice she is hearing in her head but instead, all she is seeing is a man taking a stroll with his dog and people just going on with their daily activities. She is sure she heard a voice, or is she hallucinating?
"I know you can hear me, stop pretending as if you can't." The voice says in her head again.
"W-who is this?" She whispers in panic and almost had a heart attack when she felt a warm and wet sensation on her leg followed by a soft bark.
"It's me. I'm Maggie." She whirls around just to see the dog she spotted with the man taking a stroll before.
No, no, no. Not what I'm thinking.
"You?" She says to the dog tentatively and noticed the collar around its neck with the name tag 'Maggie.'
"Yes me, idiot." The dog pants whilenodding its head up and down.
Blood drains from her face and she looks pale with her mouth hanging open and her eyes as wide as saucers as she watches the dog sashay away with its master.
"See you around later, it's nice meeting a human who can speak to animals even though the said human looks kinda dumb." It huffs while walking away.
What was that? Nathalie wonders in a daze.
"It won't hurt asking for her digits will it?" She halts when she heard another voice in her head and she saw an anxious-looking guy ogling at the lady in front of him. Shaking his head as if waving off a thought, he walk up to her and started a friendly conversation with her. Minutes later she saw them exchange phone numbers.
"I should not pick his calls, he is definitely calling to borrow money from me again." She heard another voice in her head and her eyes settled on a woman not far from where she is contemplating whether to pick the incoming call on her phone or not.
"I'm sure I kept it in my pocket before leaving the house." And then to a man searching for something from his pocket while looking around where he is.
Her face pales when the realization that she has been listening to their thoughts dawn on her and she stood there gaping like a fish.
The voices stopped for a few minutes later and she looked around just to see that almost everyone's attention is now drawn to her, they are all looking at her in confusion probably because she has been standing here looking lost for a while.
She glanced at her wristwatch subconsciously and almost cried out in frustration when she saw that she is already five minutes late.
______________________________
Nathalie
I rushed out of the class to the washroom the moment the bell dinged for break, I take a beep breath and sigh in relief when I saw that there is no one in there. I locked myself in and splash some water on my face and my wrist before leaning against the door in exhaustion. What is wrong with me?
"Nathalie."
My eyes flings open instantly and I look around to find out whose voice I'm hearing this time around but there is nobody in here with me. Maybe I imagined that voice since I have been hearing voices since I stepped out of the house this morning, I place a shaky hand on my face and take another deep breath, I'm going crazy.
"Nathalie." I heard the voice again and this time the voice sounded vaguely familiar.
I think I have heard that heard that voice before but where? My eyes went as wide as saucers as realization dawns on me, how can I ever forget that voice.
"M-mom?" I whisper tentatively while trying to hold back a sob that is about I escape my lips.
"Nathalie." The voice replied and I know then that it's really her.
"M-mom." My back slid down the door till I'm sitting on the floor and I broke down into tears.