Prehalia's Demons(Completed) I #Wattys2019

3 I RESTART

Two days pass by in a blur. Me and Jess continue on going to school, even though we are both on our toes at any given moment, alarmed and aware that the danger is near.

But our family is not ordinary: we are taught to be actors. Even in our darkest moments, we are able to smile and laugh and pretend that we're doing just fine; in this city of the rich you cannot show weakness because that's all it takes to get used up and left broken. I found out about it the hard way.

Jessica Samuels is still the bitch that everyone knows and her entourage is still full of plastic barbies, all of them blonde and wealthy, and snobby. I have no time to go around pretending to be someone else and getting a good use of my theatrical skills as this is my sister's role. I have other things to do, a skin to protect.

After lunch, Jess is again at my side, her stupid friends gone. I guess that it's an important situation if the clique is not around. "Keels."

"Yeah?" I lean back on my locker that has in a way become our meeting place. A few boys pass by and check both of us out, only to whisper something to each other and laugh. The action makes me shiver slightly and the hairs on my hands stand up. I break eye contact first. They disgust me.

"Can I have your ID?" Jessica finally mumbles when the intruders are gone, her blue eyes roaming around the hallway for potential danger.

"What?" I am completely taken aback by my sister's request. She knows that it's a scary game of hide and seek that I'm playing and my ID is the only proof of my illegal habitation. "Jessica, is it time already?"

"Keelian, I know that it's not something you want to give but trust me. You have to let me take it. Come on, I'm your sister and it's only for a few hours." She begs, her eyes wide with request, her hand slowly grabbing mine.

I sigh and close my eyes for a moment, then proceed to grab my wallet and the document inside. I take the ID and stare at my face on the photo. I don't look like myself. I am tan and glowy, all smiles and sparkly eyes. Nothing like me today. Nothing like what I've become.

Keelian Samuels, born april eighteenth 4023, Pretorium.

The beginning of the end was that day, right in the middle of that damned spring when my life fell apart.

"Keels, are you giving me the ID or not? Come on, the girls will become suspicious." She points an accusing finger at my chest. "You know I'm acting that way and hanging around those hags because of you, right? To keep the attention off of you!"

"I know it, Jessica, alright. And I'm thankful for that. Here, take it and give it back by tomorrow morning. No excuses."

"No excuses." She looks at me with determination and puts the ID in her back pocket.

I didn't ask her why she needs it because I know. It breaks my heart to have her do my dirty work while I'm hiding like a coward. Like the cowards that everyone in Pretorium is.

I wait for the bell to ring and punch my locker hard. I can feel the cuts on my knuckles start to bleed and my vision blurs. No, don't cry. Don't panic. Not now. Not in here.

My breathing becomes twice as fast as it should be and my body starts to shake.

You're a disgrace!

Keelian Samuels you deserve everything that's going on right now.

Hateful bitch!

Can't wait to see that pretty face in Traum one day. I promise I will.

I want the memories to stop flooding my head but once I let them inside there's no way to rid yourself. They hurt me deeply but the worst of it all is that the one who said those things is right. I deserve it all. I deserve to go to Traum.

"No." I whisper to myself, my consciousness fighting the demons inside my head. "Keelian Samuels from Pretorium deserves it, you don't."

Suddenly my breath returns and my heart slows down to a peaceful rhythm. That's right, I am not that Keelian. Not anymore.

Just when I begin to walk down the hallway again, the students leave their classrooms in unison. I'm glad that they weren't here to watch as I completely lose my mind once again.

I've known for a long time that the guilt of what I've done would never leave me but now, when I've paid for it dearly I can finally see myself as a little better of a human being.

The tears finally disappear, the blurriness of my vision is gone and my mental instability seems just like another awful nightmare but as I stare down at my hands and see the red streaks of blood coming from my scraped knuckles, I know that it wasn't just that. I pull down the sleeves of my white sweater and curse under my breath, thinking of ways to explain the red stains to the maids.

But I can't think of that now, I have to go home and do my part of the job, which would be to hide, as being ID-less is when I'm most endangered.

As I'm about to open the front doors of the school, I'm met by a hand that grabs my wrist tightly.

My breath almost stops for a moment.

Nobody touches my wrists. Ever. Nobody but one person who knows the reason why I never want them exposed.

I don't have time to react as his lips hover over my ear and whisper with that same old voice that I still dream of. The voice which still makes me scream in my sleep.

He leaves as soon as he comes but my wrist feels like its burning from the inside out. As if there's a fire in my bones that's slowly eating me alive.

The words keep repeating in my head and my heart is about to burst into a million pieces.

He can't be here. Why is he here?

His presence is like that of a ghost that's haunting me and his words of those of a ghost as well. A ghost that belongs in my past.

My ears ringing, my lungs screaming for air, I leave the school building and run straight towards my car. Before I've given my body the chance to take a real breath, I'm already on the road.

If I wasn't having two panic attacks in the span of five minutes, I would've been impressed with myself and how good of a driver I am. If someone saw me from the outside of my car, they wouldn't see the cold sweat that's running down my back, or the horror in my eyes, or the trembling of my hands on the steering wheel, they would see a rich girl driving her expensive car down a road so smooth that it's virtually impossible to make a mistake.

My wrist is burning, my mind is blank other than the familiar feeling of devastation that always takes over me in his presence and that single thing he whispered in my ear.

Those forbidden words, tucked under the blanket of nothingness in my brain.

Those that I shouldn't ever free out of their prison, but that I still dream of hearing every single night.

The ghosts that have been haunting me for long enough that even the screams in my sleep aren't audible anymore.

Him being the only ghost that is still alive.

Or is he?