The Point of No Return {sequel to The Arbitrary life of Avery Blake [teacher]}

The Point of No Return {sequel to The Arbitrary life of Avery Blake [teacher]}36

Chapter 36

Guilt- My mind spun and my anxiety pulsed.

I fly forward in my bed, panting heavily as sweat dripped down my face, unattractively. My pillow and pyjama shirt now stained with sweat.

Darkness surrounded me as my head continued to spin. I was enveloped with fear…unnecessary fear. However, when you’re asleep your emotions seem to be magnified. In a dream where one was mocked and laughed at, the individual would wake up, possibly terrified and scared but later would find themselves recounting the dream and seem embarrassed by their reaction. They would feel pathetic for being scared out of wits end by a simple and perfectly normal dream.

That’s the unknown -the unconscious state- for you. Thus I awoke with such a startled and unexplained panic, drenched in sweat and fearing to close my eyes once more.

I don’t remember much of what I dreamt about, but it’s what I do remember that confused me.

I distinctly remembered seeing faces…faces everywhere; faces of people I knew, faces of people I knew very much, each displayed their own unique emotion.

It was this confusion…this great unknown…this misunderstood that led me to such an awakening. I was convinced that my nightmares about Corbin were over. He hadn’t been in any of my dreams since the incident with Meghann’s stepfather occurred. I distinctly remembered those dreams in which the face of my almost murderer haunted me. But this time, the nightmare had no real significance to myself. This time, Corbin wasn’t displayed such like the monster he was. He was in the dream, sure, but so were many others.

Of course, many of my nightmares of late revolved around Meghann’s stepfather but he played a minimal part in this once…from what I could remember.

I tried to regain myself as I flung my feet over the edge of my bed, throwing my head back and taking many deep breaths. Afterwards I walked over and turned my lamp on before retreating to my bathroom, taking a long drink, cooling myself off and hopping in the shower.

By the time I came out, the alarm clock read five am.

Two hours until I was expected to be awake.

I sighed heavily, changing into some jeans and a baggy jumper, grabbing my phone and putting on my shoes. I shut the door firmly behind me before tiptoeing down the corridor, eyes on full watch.

There weren’t any teachers on watch as it was far too late for that. The teachers tended to drift off to their buildings (ending their watches) around 1am, latest, on school nights at least.

I was safe.

I was free to do as I pleased.

However, there were obvious restrictions, what with the sun not yet up, the temperature not yet bearable and the silence which was nothing if not eerie.

I didn’t exactly feel like running as my energy wasn’t the best and my patience not entirely present. Instead, I merely decided to walk. This would have looked peculiar had someone looked out of their window and witnessed such. However, I continued to walk.

Subconsciously, my legs guided me to Cole’s cabin, but it was far too early to disturb him. Instead, I simply slowed down my pace and circled the long way for a while before I realised the sun had begun to rise and the air wasn’t as chilly.

Thus I approached his cabin and knocked softly, stepping back a moment. When no answer arrived, I carefully jingled the handle, testing if it were locked.

Apparently not, I said to myself as the handle gave way and the door opened.

I stepped in and took in the scene.