Living In Shadows

Dreams Do Come True

"What's wrong?" Tara asks me, as I stop walking. My mouth is dry and I have to swallow a few times before I can say anything. Should I lie? Should I tell her about the dream? Maybe I'm just going crazy. "Nothing." I reply. "Just nervous for school to start, I guess." Is my lame excuse.
She eyes me suspiciously, but seeming to not find anything in my carefully set, emotionless face, Tara shrugs and keeps walking.
I carefully work on bringing down my heart rate, and try to not stare at the girl. Like in my dream, I try to glance back to see if anything could be causing the strange shadow, but she's standing in the middle of a field.
Maybe I'm starting to hallucinate. Maybe I'm schizophrenic. I think to myself, not exactly helping to calm me down.
As we reach the high school's doors, the loud bell rings, and in come the river of kids to sweep us down the hall. All thoughts of the previous event leave my brain while I struggle to open my locker.
Finally putting in the right code, I grab my books and wait for Tara, whose locker is just 5 down from mine.
"Common, we'll be late for our first class." I urge. "Yeah, yeah I'm coming." My best friend replies.
Eventually she slams her locker shut, bouncing her red-orange ponytail around. We half-jog, half-walk to our first class, knowing the bell will ring in about 20 seconds.
A few kids are still in the hallways, but most have already settled in their classes. We dodge past the remaining few, and make it to our class with about 3 seconds to spare.
Upon seeing our teacher, I inwardly groan. Mr. Elizah. He's an elder teacher, 65 years old. To me, Mr. Elizah looks much older. His skin is wrinkly, his scarce white hair is pulled into a comb over on his greasy head, and he has crease lines on his forehead from knitting his eyebrows so much.
   He has a reputation for yelling with no reason, tearing up work if one answer is wrong, and being one of the strictest teachers in the school.
"Welcome to General Math." He says in a flat, cold voice. "Listen, don't talk, get answers right, and you'll do fine."
    He starts to drone on about his rules and what to do and not do, allowing my mind to wander back to what I saw.
   I start to put together a mental list of possible explanations.

(1) I'm starting to hallucinate.
(2) I'm becoming Schizophrenic.
(3) My dream from last night is just continuing in a day dream.
(4) There could've been something to make the shadow look that way, that I didn't see, and the dream was just a coincidence.

   "Angelica! What is the last rule on my list?" I hear the math teachers voice boom.
   Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tara, who's sitting next to me, do a series of hand motions.
   "No day dreaming." I reply.
    Mr. Elizah looks at me in a dissatisfied way, before nodding his head. "Correct." He says. Thanks. I sign to Tara in our made-up hand language, used for just such occasions. We've been using it for so long now, we're completely fluent.
   No problem. She 'says' back.
The rest of the day isn't too bad, most of the teachers just make us play some stupid ice-breaker games.
   The final bell rings, and now that I'm not focusing on anything in particular, my thoughts drift back to the girl with the weird shadow.
   I mindlessly pack my bag and close my locker, all the while too deep in thought to notice Tara is talking to me.
   " - reason why?" Great. I missed her whole sentence. I give  myself a mental face palm before I say "uh... What?"
   "See! Just like that! What's on your mind man? You're starting to scare me." She exclaims. "What do you mean?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
   "You keep looking like you're trying to figure out a really hard math problem or something, I don't know... And then you totally shut everything out while doing it!" Tara half-yells, causing a few heads to turn.
   "Pipe down." I say. "You know I don't like attention. And nothing's wrong, I'm just... Uh... I'm..." I flounder for an answer that makes sense, but can't  think of one that seems logical.
   "Why can't you tell me the truth?" She squeaks angrily. Usually it's  funny to see Tara mad, because she's about 8 inches shorter then me. But today, there is real hurt in her expression.
   "Alright. I'll fill you in, but it could just be nothing, I could just be crazy." I say to her. She claps her hands happily as I lead her out the school doors.
   When we're a good enough distance away from the school I start to fill her in about my weird dream.
   "Ok... I'll admit that's pretty strange, but it's just a dream Ang, nothing more." She says, knitting her eyebrows together in confusion.
   "Well, when we were walking into  school today, the reason I stopped was..." I falter not really sure if I should go on.
    "Common, you can't just stop talking now!" Tara said, pushing me to keep going.
   I heave a sigh, then continue "one of the girls, I don't know her name, her shadow...it had wings... Just like the man in the dream." I rush out the words, tensing for when my best friend would call me crazy.
    "There wasn't any-"
    "I checked. She was standing in the middle of the field."
I say, cutting her off.
    "So, do you think I'm insane?" I ask her.
    "I really don't know what to think. Maybe we should just wait and see if she dies."
   I almost refuse, thinking that's crazy,  just waiting for someone to die, but realize there's really nothing else to do.
   "Alright." I say. "I guess that's all we can do. And thanks... For not saying I've lost it... Yet." I thank her.
   "Of course! I'm glad you told me. And if you're crazy, I'll still love ya don't worry." Tara said with a little laugh.
   "Oh wow, home already." Tara says, stopping in front of her large, 2 story house. "I'll see you tomorrow then. Maybe try to not be late this time?" I laugh. 
    "You know that won't happen." She replies, opening her door. I give a last chuckle and head down the 3 houses to my own.
   I unlock the door and step inside, relieved the day is over. I decide to help my mum by starting supper, and throw together some marinaded chicken.
   I preheat the oven and start to make a salad, finishing just as the oven reaches the right temperature. I shove the chicken in, and set the timer.
   
   An hour later, just as I grab the chicken out of the oven, my phone rings. It's Tara. Weird, she hardly ever calls, just sends a text.
   "Hey, what's up?" I say.
   "Have you checked the news?"
Tara says, her voice unusually solemn, "um, no why?" I reply, my heart speeding up.
   I practically sprint towards the living room and grab the remote, flicking on the TV.
    "Which station?" I ask.
    "Illinois news."
Finding the station, I click on it and wait.
   " - a Robert Trébor High School student was found dead in an alley way, with multiple stab wounds...." A picture flashed across the screen, confirming my fears. The girl in the picture was the same one I had seen in the field today, the one with the shadow of an angel.