Scarlett Wonders

    I’m shaking, shaking with fear. There is something
coming after me.  I don’t know what, but I’m too afraid
to look back. I’m running, running for my life. I can hear the
leaves rustle and the twigs snap. It makes me want to run faster. As
I duck at branches, and turn corners, I wish I had listened to my
dad. Makes me wish that I was safe at home, tucked in my bed,
snoozing the night away. I run as fast as my feet can carry me.
Finally I can see the city glow from atop the trees. My breathing is
shallow; my heart is beating so hard I thought it would burst. My,
lungs, oh my lungs, how much they burn. There’s a light,
(finally a light!) peeking from the distance. I’m almost there,
come on me, I tell myself. As I burst out of the forest, I scream
with joy. I outran whatever was following me. I slow to a halt and
stick my tongue out at the trees. “Ha! You can’t get me
now!” then I turn around and walk the rest of the way home.

Half an hour later…

                I walk up the front steps, everyone is asleep. If
I use the front door, I might wake my family, if I use my window, I
can easily slip into bed without hesitation. So I climb the
rock-paved wall and reach over my balcony on the second floor, tiptoe
to my glass door, reach under my rug for my extra key, unlock the
door, walk inside, lock the door back up, kick off my shoes, then
climb into bed.

Dreaming…

I’m running, running, running. I’m back in the forest.
Oh no. not again! I struggle to untangle myself from these vines of
poison ivy. Vary itchy. How long do I have before this creature
arrives? I don’t care, I just want out of this mess. “Help!!”
I scream. Even though I know that nobody is in this forest with me.
But I feel that if I scream loud enough, someone will come. But
nobody does. As expected. I try to wipe my tears, but my hands are
behind my back. Suddenly, I hear a snap of twigs, a rustle of leaves,
a laughter than bring chills down my spine. It’s here. What do
I do? What do I do? What do I do? I start to panic. I see this ugly
creature. He had teeth the size of a vampire’s, blood red eyes
and a messy mop of hair. “Who are you?” I ask. The man
flinches. I ask again this time, in a softer gentler voice. “Who
are you? Please, tell me.” He stands back and turns around.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” when he faces me again, it is
not the face I saw just seconds earlier. His teeth grew longer, to
the size of wolfs’ teeth, his eye gold, his body the shape of a
man killing dog with a scratch across his face. Starting above his
eye, ending near the bottom of his snout. I scream at the top of my
lungs.

                “AAAAAAGH” I scream and bolt upright.
This dream, why did I dream it? It felt so real. About a vampire, or
was it a werewolf? Either one I didn’t care. I glance at the
clock. Oh, no! I’m late for school. I got up and rush through
my daily morning routine. Shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, and
comb my hair, shoes and socks, breakfast. Wait, I don’t have
time for breakfast. There is a pot of coffee sitting on the counter.
I feel the temperature. Still warm, I grab my mom’s portable
coffee cup, hoping she wouldn’t mind, pour myself some coffee,
grabbed a packet of calorie free sugar, picked up my keys, and left
the house. My car, a red Volaster, is in the right place, next to the
fence. I hop in, start the engines, and zoomed off to school.

                As I arrived to the school yard, I head for the
parking lot. My usual spot was taken. I growl a little bit as I
realize the car that fill my space, was my best friends’ green
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. Yep. The most expensive car in the
school. But, ZeZeLynn knows that this is my parking spot. How could
she not? I told her many times; do not park in number 1. I’m so
going to scream at her pretty porcelain doll face. The bell rang as I
walk in the front main doors. I take a glance at my watch. Great,
second period has just ended. Off to third period I go.

On my way to Spanish I bumped into my crush. His beautiful black
mop hair dip dyed purple, dark blue eyes, beauty mark on his
cheekbone under his left eye, and a birth mark the shape of a
lightning bolt under his on his right collarbone near his shoulder.
Everyone thinks his name should be Lightning. But I love his name
just the way it is. Bolt. Sometimes people say he was named after the
dog from one of those kids movies. They can barely see his birth
mark. His parents named him Bolt because his mark was darker when he
was born, but it got lighter through the years.

There was something different about him today. He had an open
scratch stitched shut, held with thirteen threads, across the right
edge of his face. It started at mid-forehead, over his cheekbone, and
met right about his lip. But it looked so familiar. But he didn’t
have one yesterday. Did he? I can’t seem to remember anything
from yesterday. I can’t remember anything I did yesterday. What
is wrong with me? What happened to all my memories?

“Ohmigosh” I hear a voice say to my right. I glance to
the side. ZeZeLynn is heading my way. I quickly apologize to Bolt,
and start walking towards ZeZe.

“What in the world! Why are you late to school? You never
miss two classes in one day.” She says in a panicked hurry. The
she sees my confused expression. “What’s wrong?”

I think about whether I should scream at her for taking my parking
space, then think maybe I should just move on to our regular everyday
routine.

“I’m okay. I just… my mind is so blank today, I
can’t remember anything that happened yesterday. Can you help
me refresh my memory?”

“Sure, well since yesterday was Sunday, we did what we do
most Sundays. We went shopping at the Country Day Hill Mall, we were
looking for the cutest designer outfit we could find at Candies, then
we stopped to look at the really cute prom dress, sparkling yellow
with green floral under the cleavage of the dress. You decided to try
it on and since it fit perfectly, we brought your dress. Then we
checked Salamanders’ Jewels and found this beautiful necklace
made of green fabric flowers with real diamonds as the middle. You
totally loved the necklace. So you bought that too. Then we drove
your Volaster home to eat a snack and headed out for the movies. We
saw this super creepy movie. Gosh, how scary that movie was. Then we
went to my place to have some pizza for dinner. When you said you
wanted to go for a walk, you disappeared after I finished talking.
That freaked me out. Can that help you remember?” she said.

“Oh yea, I remember now. Thank you ZeZe.” But really,
I didn’t remember. We met up with LizaBelle on our way to
geometry. As the rest of the day went by, I was exhausted, wanting
the day to get over with. I felt dizzy, sick to my stomach. I had no
idea what was happening. So I walked up to the teacher during seventh
period, and asked him if I could go to the nurse. He wrote me a pass,
and then let me go.

The nice nurse took my temperature. “Oh my gosh! Honey, stay
calm, let me contact your parents. Do you know their number?”
she said.

“Yea, but what’s wrong?” I asked. But she
ignored me, got impatient, then started looking through the student
directory. As she found my parents number and called them I kept
thinking to myself, what is going on today? Why me? I mean, what did
I do wrong? I drank eight cups of water every day, ate my fruits and
vegetables, ate everything the food pyramid says I should, and I
exercised every day at the Surge gym. So I am completely healthy.
Could I be having cancer? Oh, God, no way!

Stupid me! I thought to myself. Stop thinking about things that
will never happen to me. I’m as healthy as a horse. The nurse
is probably just trying to freak me out. But I realize that as the
nurse is talking to my mom, or dad, whichever one of my parents, she
tells them that I have a temperature that is 138 degrees. IMPOSSIBLE!
How can that happen, and still let me live? Shouldn’t I be dead
by now? I mean… HELLO! *snaps fingers* a temperature of a 138
is deadly.

A couple minutes later, as the nurse hung up the phone, my mom
rushed through the open door. Her eyes were filled with tears. Her
face was red, as if she had been crying for days. I hate seeing my
mom like this. Makes me want to cry too. I tried to hold back the
tears, but there were too many. I was choking on my pain and misery
that I finally released the flow of my thousands of teardrops. I am
going to die. I know it. I can see it through the pain in my mother’s
eyes. How much this fact of my life coming near an end scared me. I
got up and tried to hug her, but she backed up telling me she didn’t
want catch whatever it is that I have. She walked out of the nurses’
office and checked out of the school log.

As we walked out to her car, I started to worry about mine. Mom
knew what I thinking and told me that she will call a tow truck to
come and pick it up. That helped me relax a little. I got into the
backseat of her blue Ford Fiesta and lied down for more comfort. But
the thing is, I mistakenly fell asleep.

Dreaming

Where am I? It’s dark in here. Oh, I see a light. A very
faint light. It’s getting brighter, brighter, brighter. I can
see the room I’m in. or is it nature. I see someone. Bolt! What
is he doing here? I scream his name, but he can’t hear me. Or
can he? He flinches when I scream his name, but he doesn’t turn
towards me. There is someone in his arms. The person is limp. I hear
growling coming from Bolt’s direction. I look up. there’s
a full moon in the sky. This dream seems to be trying to tell me
something. I look back at Bolt, but Bolt is not there. In Bolt’s
place is a dog. A fairly large dog. As he turns around, I only see
one familiarity. The facial scratch that Bolt had at school today.
The dog comes running towards me as he drops the limp body. I can see
who the person is. ZeZeLynn!

I bolt upright in my bed, screaming, once more today. Wait, wasn’t
I in moms’ car? Ehh forget that. Mom must’ve made dad
carry me up. I hear a running of footsteps coming up the stairs. They
heard me. They are probably coming to check on me. I glance to my
clock, seven sixteen pm. I slept most of the afternoon. Dad throws my
door open and dashes in my direction. He has a thermometer in his
left hand and a glass of water in the right. Mom is behind him, eyes
swollen form crying all day.

“are you okay Misty?” Dad asks me.

“yea dad, I’m fine. Just a crazy dream.” I
answered.

Mom walks up and puts her hand to my forehead.

“jay. I think we should check her temperature again”
she says.

“okay Shawnee” he responds and sticks the thermometer
in my mouth. As he removes it, his face lights up with happiness, and
supprise. “ Misty! How….how… how did you get
better so fast? Your temperature is completely normal now. You’re
at a 97.9 now!”

My face lights up as I hear this. But as I start to get happy, my
left arm starts to ache. I lift my arm and take a look. I have four
enormous gaps of blood on my lower arm. Something must’ve
scratched me. Did I sleepwalk? How did I get these? Then my dream
came back to me. Werewolf or a vampire? Or was it Bolt?

My dad tells me to wait on my bed, that he will be right back.
“Don’t touch anything” he says.

“Alright dad” I respond. My mom takes my arm and piles
a bunch of tissues on the wound. My dad returns with stitching
equipment, a cup of water, paper towel roll, rubbing alcohol, and a
pan all stuffed in a bucket.

My mom takes my arm gently and pulls it over the pan as dad sets
it out and gets ready. First, he gives mom the cup of water and paper
towels. Then, he takes the rubbing alcohol and pours a little on my
wound. I scream in pain. Then he applies a little more and takes a
few towels from my mother’s hand. He rubs on the wound careful
not to make the pain any worse, wincing when I clenched my teeth.
Then he took the needle and thread and starts stitching me back
together. It took about 23 stitches before we finished.

My phone vibrated on my nightstand besides my bed. Mom picks it up
and gives it to me. A text from ZeZe. Thank goodness she’s
alright.

ZeZeLynn: what happened! I heard u left early. No1 told me why or
where you went. I just noticed and started 2 panics till Liza told me
that u had a hi-temperature.

Me: I’m fine. No need 2 worry. I will be back 2 school
2morrow morning. But 1 thing u hav 2 know. Don’t freak out when
u see me 2morrow. I have stitches. 23 stitches.

ZeZeLynn: 23 STITCHES! O, sorry. But still, 23 STITCHES?

Me: yes zeze I know. Sux. But hey, look at the brite side, I still
hav my entire arm! And my fingers are working!

ZeZeLynn: tru *nods head* tru.hey, guess wat.

Me: wat?

ZeZeLynn: Bolt told me that he likes u and wants 2 hang out.

Me: idk, zeze… o.O. I have a bad feeling bout this.

ZeZeLynn: common misty! I know you like him. But what about your
dream relationship?

Me: I know, I kno. But I suddenly don’t feel secure with the
idea.

ZeZeLynn: y?

Me: im not sure y.

ZeZeLynn: did something happen?

Me: crazy dream yea. But I kno that if I told u the truth, u wont
believe me.

ZeZeLynn: try me

Me: no, seriously

ZeZeLynn: common, what happened 2 bff never keep secrets from each
other?

Me: fine, I had a dream bout him. This dream gives me a weird
feeling. They seem real. They… I dream these dreams almost
everynight now. Idk y.

ZeZeLynn: what kind of dreams?

Me: I believe these dreams. They keep
telling me that Bolt is a werewolf, or a vampire, idk which, but the
picture keeps changing. I’m totally confusing myself right now.

ZeZeLynn: well, the only way 2 find out is talking 2 him tomorrow.

Me: thnx ZeZe bunch of help, I knew you wouldn’t believe me.
Well, 2dles.

ZeZeLynn: 2dles 

I put the phone on my night stand and ask my parents to leave. As
they left, I began to feel tears welling up in my eyes. I start
breaking to pieces in my heart. My life is confusing me. Should I
listen to my dreams? I feel insecure about my thoughts. I can’t
take it anymore. I want to die. I want to feel the safety of heaven
above. I want to be in god’s hands.

I cried myself to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I felt
scared. What was I going to do? I can’t just arrive at school
feeling completely out of place all over again. I know ZeZeLynn is
going to spill word about our conversation last night. She always
does. There are totally going to be many eyes on me. What if she told
Bolt? Oh god. What would he think of me then? A retard? A total fake?
What am I going to do? I can’t just tell my parents I’m
sick. They know I’m feeling better now.

My stomach starts to turn, twist and tangle. I pushed myself up
out of bed and checked the daily weather page on weatherU.com.
Today’s highs are at about 60/67 degrees Fahrenheit. The lows
are -11 degrees Fahrenheit. Partly cloudy. Full moon. I get dressed
in a light long sleeve V-neck tee, long sweat pants, the top rolled
so that they become tighter and more secure, and my Osiris hi-tops. I
grab my letterman jacket, car keys and head out the door.

I get into my Volaster and turn on the engine. I’m feeling
bit sad today, so I turn on the slow pop station. Gosh! My favorite
song! I just love this song. ‘If I die young, bury me in satin,
lay me down on a, bed of roses, sink me in a river, at dawn, send me
away with the words of a love song, uh-oh, uh-oh.” Good thing
it is just beginning. I sing along with the Band Perry. I feel so
much better as I drive thru the schools parking lot and park in spot
number 1.

I walk into the school building and first person I see is Bolt. I
realized that he gathered up his own courage to actually speak to me.
“Hey. Misty, right?” he asks.

I blush a little. He even knows my name.

“Yes, my name is Misty.” I respond.

“Cool, I’m Bolt. Nice to finally meet you in person.
Your friend Liza talks so much about you. Says I should hang out with
you every day. So I decided I take her word and hang out. You know,
as friends.”

“Number one. I know your name. Number two. I am totally fine
with you hanging out. Number three. I’m so going to jump down
Liza’s’ throat. Thank you for the knowledge.” I
say.

“Okay then. So, what’s up today?” He asks,
forcefully trying not to look at my left arm.

I blush a little more then pull my arm out of what should be his
point of view. “Oh, not much. Just going to do my normal
everyday routine. Skip first, second and third period, take Spanish
class forth, take a smoke during lunch, skip fifth, go to biology
sixth, and calculus seventh, then skip eighth and ninth to go home.
So… yea. You?”

“Not much either. But, shouldn’t you be in your
classes? Aren’t you a senior?”

“No, I’m not a senior. I’m a sophomore. Why?”

“Oh, eh, just wondering that’s all”

“Spill.”

“What?” Bolt says raising his arms defensively. “I
got nothing!!! I was just wondering. Chill Misty, chill”

Rolling my signature eye roll and smile. God, I just love this guy
now. I don’t believe there is any reason to yell at LizaBelle
anymore. I mean, Bolt seems perfectly harmless. Maybe I was just
overreacting over big nothing. I stop in front of my locker, file in
the combination, 12-59-38, and it pops opens. I stash all my books in
the top shelf, hang up my backpack, and slam the locker shut. 

As I turn around I literally crashed into Bolt, his arms out wide,
his hands holding my shoulder as if to protect me from falling
randomly.

“Whoa there, easy lady.” He says. “Got to watch
where you’re going”

“Sorry” I respond, blushing, clutching my left arm.
“I’m just a little dazed right now. That’s all”