Harmony

Chapter One - Ten years later

I woke up covered in sweat, gasping for air. Morning like any other, waking up from the same nightmare I had for years.

I am running in the dark forest again. Thousands of shadows and voices chasing me. Whispering and calling my name. Their words often merge into one and it's hard to understand them clearly. The only thing that I can clearly hear is them telling that I should have never been born. The forest gets darker as deeper I'm going into the woods, and the whispers turn into screams, loud enough to still echo in my ears even when I wake up.

I stare at the ceiling until my heartbeat settles down and  the sound of the wind-chimes hanging on my balcony slowly replace the voices from the nightmare. Taking one big breath, I reach for my phone on nightstand beside my bad and check the time. It read 9:35, so I got up. I picked up the silver sweater that was thrown across my chair,  took out a pair of jeans from the drawer along with clean socks and underwear and headed to take a shower. 

I used to have trouble falling asleep, since the moment I closed my eyes the nightmares would start.  Dr. Wagner, my psychologist, thinks that the nightmares are somehow linked to my real parent who might have abused me and then left me alone in the middle of the forest.  He tried various methods, such as hypnosis, to try to make me remember my past but whenever I would come a bit closer to something that might have been linked to my past, my head would be in so much pain you would think that someone was trying to brake it in two. After I was prescribed sleeping pills I could get more sleep, but lately it seems that they are starting to get useless. I should definitely ask for a new prescription on my next appointment.

After drying my hair, I tied it in a messy ponytail, and went down to the kitchen to grab breakfast. My mom, Jennifer, was already in the kitchen, while the twins, Peter and Sam, were in the living room fighting for the TV remote. 

 "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" she asked me, while she flipped the pancakes.

"Yeah." I lied, not wanting to make her worry, and went to take out the plates and glasses and put them on the table.

She didn't know that I still had the nightmares. Before I used to wake up screaming, then she and Richard, my dad, would run into my room. Richard was the one who found me in the forest ten years ago and later decided to adopt me. I was thankful to them for that because I could have ended with some other family who might have not be so understanding as they were. I couldn't imagine anyone who would love a broken girl, who couldn't even remember being broken in the first place, the way they did. I was still broken, but I was happy.                                                                     

"Sam, Peter. Enough with the fighting. Come and eat your breakfast." She scowled at them, as she put the pancakes on the table. They ran to the kitchen and hugged her, making her stumble. That was their way of saying sorry, or getting what they wanted because there was no way for you to stay angry at them when they looked at you with their big puppy like eyes. When a smile broke her face, they let her go and went to hug me.

"Why were you fighting?" I asked them, ruffling their hair. They were my adorable little brothers who just turned seven last week, even though we weren't blood related I loved them to the sky.

"It was my turn to pick witch cartoon to watch." Peter said as he climbed onto his chair.

"It was not. You were the one who choose last week, too." Sam whined looking at me. "Tell him, Mony."

"Sammy is right. You chose last time." Peter crossed his arms, pouting at Sam, who was sticking out his tongue at him. 

*  *  *                        

After breakfast the twins and I settled for a Toy Story marathon, while mom went to a book club meeting. We were at the second movie when the phone rang, and I went  to pick it up. 

 "Hello." I said, leaning to the wall.

"I am  B-O-R-E-D." I heard my best friends, Chloe's voice. I chuckled, knowing that she was at her weekly family gathering at her aunt's place.

"Well, we're watching Toy Story 2, if you are interested, you can join us."

"I'll watch anything, just to get out of here." she said, then I could hear her yell to her mom. "MOM. I have a project to finish for school. I'll be at Mony's." she didn't wait for a reply but we both kew that her mom would't have anything against it, before she answered me back, "Be there in a few." and hung up. About ten minutes later Chloe arrived with hands full of snacks. 

"What?" she asked me when I raised my eyebrow looking at all the snacks she brought. "You know I like eating while watching movies."

"I know, but that much? You're lucky that that doesn't show on your figure." 

"I got that from my mom." she grinned, "Besides, I'm not eating alone. Hi, boys." she put the snacks on the table in the living room, and sat next to Sam.

"Hi, Chloe." they said in unison, not taking their eyes from the TV. I took a few bowls from the kitchen and poured the snacks in the bowls, then handed them to the twins and Chloe and sat on the floor leaning my back to the couch.

Saturday and Sunday went by quickly and before I knew it, it was Monday. I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I got up and went to the bathroom to wash my face, I took my tooth brush, squeezed tooth paste on it and brushed my teeth. With the tooth brush still in my mouth I went to the window and opened the blinds. Going back to the bathroom I rinsed out my mouth and the toothbrush and went to look for clothes to wear. I pulled out from the closet a pair of skinny jeans and a cream knitted tunic. After brushing my hair I grabbed my bag and went down to put on Ugg boots and a knitted hat. I took my car keys from the drawer and went out. Mom's car wasn't on the driveway beside my car, a black Ford Fusion, which meant that she was already at the office after dropping Peter and Sam off. The car was the present for my seventeenth birthday, dad really knew how to choose a car. I liked it a lot. 

When I arrived to the school I parked next to Chloe. When she saw me, she got out of her car and hugged me.

"Morning." she said. I noticed that she had dark circles under her eyes.

"Not enough sleep?"

"Math homework." she said rolling her eyes, "I totally forgot about it. And I have math first thing in the morning. And you know how strict Mrs. Watson is." I nodded. One time when I was still a freshman  I forgot to do my homework and for punishment Mrs. Watson gave me  four pages of problems to finish for the next class,which was the next day. It was a real torture. "Wanna go to the new bookstore after school?" she asked.

"Sure." I said. "I'm in need of new books anyway."

The bell started ringing, so I went to my history classroom. I sat  in the back next to the window, and took out the homework that was due today. Staring outside the window, as my classmates happily chatted, I hoped that classes will be over soon.