The night had begun. The silvery light of a young moon fell on the ground and the trees outside, but none of the soft color penetrated the eerie bedroom. Alexis lay wide awake in her bed, unable to sleep. It was not that Alexis was unable to sleep. She was refusing to sleep. It was late at night, and she had to wake up early in the morning for her classes, but still she refused to sleep. Because sleep meant dreams, and it were the dreams that scared her to bits. For almost two weeks, she had been having these dreams. They were always the same. But an even more peculiar fact about these dreams were that every time she woke up, she could not remember what happened in those dreams. She knew the dreams were always the same, but she could not remember what she saw.
Alexis was exhausted. She knew she could not keep awake for much longer. She tried thinking of the dreams, trying her best to remember something, to try and understand why she was having these dreams and what they could mean to her. But she couldn't come up with anything.
She almost felt as if she were looking into someone else's dreams. As if these dreams did not belong to her.
What a weird idea, she thought.
Searching her brain for the memories she knew were not there, she drifted off to sleep - back to those dreams.
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It was around twilight, at a lonely road where no light could be seen either way for miles. After a moment, a black car came silently down the road. In it were a middle-aged couple, the wife holding what looked like a newborn baby in her arms.
Her daughter.
Anyone looking at them wouldn't have thought, even for a moment, that there was something unusual about them. They looked calm enough. A bit too calm, perhaps. However, no one could have known, what with the darkness that actually seemed to turn itself and veil them, that they were asleep. The darkness bended itself to cover the moving car from view as if by magic.
And then, suddenly the man driving the car snapped out of his sleep, only to see a dark, hooded figure standing in the middle of the road, the car about to collide into him. Without giving it a second thought, the man reacted, and the car swerved to the left, down a cliff.
The man had already died when the baby woke up. By some miracle, she was unharmed. But her father was dead and her mother seriously injured, unable to move.
Then the woman opened her mouth and, in a voice barely audible, said, "Leo... help,"
She seemed to be calling someone. And, indeed, a moment later a young man appeared. He seemed to have materialized out of thin air. Even though it was too dark for anyone to see clearly, the woman knew that it was whom she had called for.
The young man, Leo, looked at the woman with shock, and asked, "What happened?" His voice trembled.
"I- I don't know," was her reply.
"Come with me, I may yet be able to save you," he pleaded.
She shook her head.
"There is no hope for me now, but take my daughter..." she heaved in a deep breath, her breathing becoming scarce, "save her life, take her... my sister's house..."
And with those words, she breathed her last.
Leo reached out and cradled the baby in his arms. He took one last look at the wreck, a hint of moisture visible in his eyes, and disappeared into the night.
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Alexis awoke with a start. She'd had the same dream again. She did not understand why she kept having those dreams again and again. They had to mean something, right? She knew these dreams were not normal. She knew that. But what could possibly be the reason why she kept having the same dreams again and again? As Alexis slowly came to her sense, she realized that it was already morning. She squirmed out of bed, knowing that she would once again have to leave her thoughts behind and get ready for the day. She would have to forget about the dreams until night came, just as she had been doing for the past few weeks - disturbing weeks.
Alexis knew that things were starting to get out of control. She knew that she needed to talk to someone. But who would she talk to, and what could she possibly say that would not have the person believe she was insane? After all, she was just fussing over a dream.
"Lexi, are you ready yet?" called her mother's voice from downstairs.
"Coming, mom!"
She hastily showered, got dressed up and rushed downstairs. But upon reaching down, her mother was nowhere to be seen.
She probably left for work, Alexis thought. Let me just grab some breakfast, then I'll leave for school.
Just as she was about to grab something to eat, a chill ran down her spine. It felt almost as if time stood still for a moment, and a dark shadow passed over the world. Everything turned cold.
And that's when she saw it – that ghastly shadow that she'll never be able to forget. A big, humanoid figure that was almost see through, standing outside the living room window, staring right at her with its cold, dead eyes. Alexis felt as if her limbs had solidified and were turning into jelly at the same time. She could not look away. She could not move. There was a hollow feeling in her stomach. Fear gripped her heart with its cold hands, tight.
Just as suddenly as the shadow had come, it disappeared. All of this happened within a second, but Alexis knew that its impact would last forever.
That shadow, a vaguely humanoid figure, had left Alexis shell-shocked. She couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't breathe.
Even when she came out of the shock, she was shaking terribly. Some part of her even protested that she shouldn't go out today, just stay home and rest; but the other, more sensible part, reasoned that it would be way better for her to be in school, surrounded by people, than at home, alone.
So, with trembling fingers, no longer hungry, she opened the door. It was drizzling slightly, so she grabbed an umbrella and stepped outside in the rain.
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The whole day, she tried to avoid thinking about that little incident, but all her thoughts came back to that one moment. As the school bell rang, signifying the end of the school day, she took her stuff and slowly exited the building. She was walking at a slow pace, with hands in her pocket and her head bent low – lost in thoughts of that very morning – when she stumbled into someone.
Instantly, she realized that it was a man. She looked up, only to be met by his striking gray-blue eyes. He smiled at her, and she noticed the crinkles by his eyes as he did so; eyes that she now recognized.
Colin, she thought. It's just Colin.
After the incident with the shadowy figure that morning, Alexis was worried – paranoid, really – that something might try to harm her. But when she saw that it was Colin, someone that she had known almost all her life, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hi," she smiled.
"Alexis!" He grinned, "I haven't seen you in forever. Where have you been?"
Forever? Seriously? She had just hung out with him and his sister, Cassidy, not two weeks ago. Cassidy and Colin were twins, and Alexis had known them since the first day of preschool. But they didn't really see each other in school that much since they barely had any classes together.
Alexis pursed her lips, "I just... had some things going on,"
"Oh," he frowned, "is everything alright, Alex?"
He looked genuinely concerned. Alexis had always looked up to Colin as a brother, and he always looked out for her as he would his own sister.
"Yeah, nothing to worry about," she forced a smile. She didn't want to worry him.
"Cool, let's hang out sometime then," he grinned, making her smile too.
"Sure, see you around," she said, and then continued on her way back home.
The house was way out of the main town area, a little way into the woods. She did not have any answers as to why they lived there, just that they always had. It usually only took Alexis a five minute walk into the woods to reach home, but lost in her thoughts, she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because she looked around after walking for fifteen minutes, and had no idea where she was.
These thoughts are really messing with my head, she thought.
In her seventeen years of life, she had never once been so helplessly lost in these woods. As she looked up at the sky, the realisation of what had just happened finally dawned upon her.
She was deep inside the woods, alone, and with no idea which way her home was.
And the sun was setting fast.