Chapter Four

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I rub the rest of my nightmare from my eyes and sigh to myself. I walk back into my room and close the door slowly behind me while leaning on it. I had my own silk red blanket on my bed, and there was no Kyle at the bottom of it.

I slide down the door until I'm sitting and pull my knees close to my body. I rest my head in my lap and shake my head.

"....you should've said I love you..."

I laugh to myself at the thought at this and quickly stand. I can't let a nightmare bring me down. My family knows how I am, and it's an unspoken agreement that we simply do not say 'I love you' to each other. If they were to actually die, they would know that I did love them.That's all that matters.

I pick up my phone to see a text from Kyle, which makes me almost drop my phone.

[Kyle] Good Morning beautiful.

Okay so my phone does fall out of my hands, but it doesn't really fall. I more or less throw it. I back away from the spot my phone landed and my heart pounds.

What is going on? Why am I so afraid?

My hands shake and take in a ragged breath. What the hell?

I need to get out of here before I go insane. I walk over to my closet and, pick out a pair of sweats and a hoodie. I throw them on with my black vans and run out of my room, leaving my phone.

I don't say goodbye to my parents, I don't even grab food, I just run out of the door. I continue down he street and once I hit the corner I slow down to a walk.

Walking the few blocks to school I look around me. The buildings to the left were falling apart, and abandoned, while the ones on the right were brand new, their sleek walls reaching up high. I don't understand, how just the side of a street, changes the class. The part of the block decides what kind of person you will be.

I shake my head at these thoughts and approach the front of the school. I walk in through the front doors and head to my first class. Nobody stops to say hi, or even bump into me. No one, until Kyle crosses my path.

I pick up my pace beginning to speed walk down the hallway.

"Annika! Wait!"

I heard a few confused murmurs, but I refused to stop. I don't know what drove me to get away from him, but I had to. My body was warning me. My mind was telling me to stay away. I continued walking away but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. He was getting closer. To close.

I turn around and, grab his arm right before he grabs mine, then rush him into an empty classroom. I close the door behind me and lock it, slowly turning around to face him.

"Uhhh Annika?..." He asks but I shake my head

"Listen Kyle you need to stay away from me. I can't explain why or how I would tell you this, but you need to stay away. It will be better for both of us. You can go find yourself a wh*re and I can keep myself away from you."

He flinches at my words, his eyes widening. I had and him where it hurts, and all he wanted to do was make it up to me, but I shook my head. I couldn't let him get under my skin. I look at him in the eye as I walk around the room. Quickly glancing around the room I give him a nod and leap up onto the radiator, opening the window. I hop out of the window and land on the grass, in front of the school.

As casually as possible I walk across the lawn. No teachers, or administration seemed to follow me so I kept on walking. My feet hit sidewalk and I sigh in relief. I'm just a bystander again, invisible to the eye. I walk down the street, walking around the block instead of going straight to my house.  My parents won't leave to go to work for at least another hour, so I have to fill my time.

I walk over to the park in the neighboring street. I don't remember ever playing in this park when I was a child, but, I probably had some memories here. I had to have memories here, this was the damn park in the center of my neighborhood. I mean, all little kids love parks, right?

I sigh and shake my head, plopping down on the green bench. I turn my body and lay down, draping my left arm over my eyes,shielding them from the sun. Slowly the sounds of the wind and birds blend together, and I drift off into sleep.

*****

Nine Years Ago

I rub my eyes with my hands and sit up my bed as quickly as possible. My short blonde hair bounces around and lands mostly in my face. The sun hasn't even come up yet, it's so early.

I run into my mom and dads room and jump up and down on the bed, landing in a sitting position. When neither of them woke up or responded to me, i climbed out of their bed. I shouldn't wake mommy anyways, she needs sleep.

"Humph." I mumble to myself.

My stomach responds and I climb down the stairs for the kitchen. Halfway down I stop cold in my tracks. A man, a big man, sat at the bottom of the steps, holding one of our family photos between his fingers. What's he doing in here?

I finish climbing down the stairs and tap him on the shoulder. He casually turned his head to face me. When he sees my face he smiles and puts one of his big hands on my back.

"Oh Annika. I'm not sure if you know this, but this is a pretty nice house you have. How would you like to be the princess? Turn this big ole house into a castle?"

He smiles at me with a toothy grin, causing me to smile back. "Yeah! Yeah! And I want to wear pretty pink dresses all the time!"

He chuckles and nods, "You can have whatever you want."

"Hey mister? I'm really tired, will you tuck me in?"

"Anything for you my princess."

I grab onto his jacket as he picks me up and brings me back upstairs. He opens my door and walks over gently placing me on my bed. I climb under the covers and hold them up to my chin.

"Goodnight mister!"

"Goodnight my Annika."

He bends over and quickly kisses my forehead, then walks out of my room, closing the door behind him.

*****

I wake with a start. The remainders of my dream fading. So strange. It was almost as if it were a memory.

My head spins, ask try to take in my surroundings. Oh yeah. I'm in the park. I look around to see if anyone had noticed me. The park was mostly empty except for a few moms with toddlers keeping them busy. I smirk to myself.

I check my watch to see almost two hours had passed and that my house should definitely be void of parents. So I walk home. Once I get to the side of my house I climb up to my window, which I had left unlocked last night for this reason.

Twenty minutes later my clothes were strewn across the room, and my phone was going insane. Kyle would not stop calling me. I turned off the ringer and climbed into the bath, letting water succumb me.

****
Hey! How'd you like this chapter?
It's finally starting to get interesting!!
Woot! Woot!
I'm getting back into the writing groove,
So the chapters will start getting a little longer!
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Lots of love
~Late

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