California Dreaming

Chapter One

can't believe i actually deleted this!!! :S sorry for anyone who was missing the first chapter!! anyway, here it is, please view it lots so i can gain the views that i lost from my stupidity! thanks!! xx If you get a chance, PLEASE check out hushhush's books, they're really great :) xx

NEWSFLASH READERS! If you are reading this between Jan 1st 2013 and Jan 31st 2013 and you've enjoyed it...PLEASE go vote for it in the Watty Awards! You can find it under undiscovered thrillers :) it would mean the world to me if I won! 

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   A stifling mist was slowly encroaching, spreading throughout every space, smothering every part of my body. It was grabbing out for me, clamping it’s ugly hands around my throat, suffocating. I gasped for breath, desperate to escape it’s grasp, as the darkness became increasingly closer, winding it’s way around me tighter than before. It was like a living being, the darkness, feeding on my fear and my weakened heartbeat, squeezing any last piece of hope from my fragile body. I tried to speak, to scream but not a sound escaped my lips, it was as if my lungs had no more air to give. This was it, this was the end. 

   Then, out of the fog emerged a pair of dark, menacing eyes, gleaming with a madness I knew all too much about. They were jet black, deep pools you could fall easily into, bottomless pits of love and heartbreak and despair and fear, all the things I had not known of these eyes at first. They were misleading, because of their softness; they were oddly trustworthy. 

   And then everything turned red. 

   I sat up from my bed, my breathing labored, as my chest began to heave. I tried to slow down my heart rate and wipe the sweat from my brow, reminding myself that this was the reality, not the one I had just woken up from. I pulled open my curtain a crack, peering out, seeing the Los Angeles sunshine, engulfing everything in a golden glow. 

   My alarm clock began to wail, unceasingly, and I couldn’t help but groan, covering my face with my trembling hands before slamming my fist down against it; the room fell silent. I lay back down and tucked my knees up to my chest, wishing more than anything that I could get at least an hours decent sleep before this day began, today of all days. I couldn’t quite believe that this was what it had come to, that my situation had become so bad that I’d had to move continents. 

   I had to admit, it was a relief not to have to lock myself in my bedroom, have the curtains blacked out so the reporters couldn’t get a look at my face. I felt safe, a freedom that I had not experienced for a long time. I could walk out this house and know that no-one was going to hurt me. 

   My mother’s shrill voice was reverberating around the house, as she ranted at my father downstairs. There was a clutter of bags, keys and phones, and then, finally, the slam of the front door. I threw the duvet from on top of me and sat up, brushing my fingers through my scruffy, black hair and rubbing sleep from my eyes. The first day was always the worst, that’s what I had to keep telling myself. If I could get through this first day then maybe I could last a semester, a year even. 

   I found the strength to stand from the bed and yank my new school uniform from my wardrobe, slipping on the tartan skirt and white, polo top over my body. I crossed the room to my bathroom and lent against the sink, my clammy hands gripping to the cold porcelain and watching my reflection with disinterest. My eyes were bloodshot and there were purplish bruises forming beneath my eyes. A sudden glare of light through the bathroom window made me squint. I found my navy blue blazer, hung neatly on the back of my chair by my mother, and shrugged it on hurriedly, finding my shoes and bag before leaving the house and braving out into the warm Californian air.