Cursed

Chapter 1

Hi this is just a rough edit of this chapter. I'm going to be going through the few chapters I have and edit those too. With the quarantine going on I have nothing to do and decided to work on my book. Thanks for reading and please share and like. Comment where you think the story is going. 

I can't see. I can't breathe. There is nothing, only black all around me. I run searching for something knowing that I wouldn't find anything. I scream and feel them being swallowed up by the nothingness. I feel the stares, but I see no one. Help me, please. I don't want to be here. I fall and curl into myself resigning myself to my fate. I don't know if my eyes are open or closed but I feel the cold sinking in and with it the peace of nothing floods through my body. And I fall....

"Brooke," My eyes pop open and I look around, "Wake up!"

My heart is still racing and I can feel the numbness in my body start to fade. I look towards the window taking in the light and sounds outside trying to shake the unease from my body. The same dream every night and I still feel the same. Countless therapist having told me its nothing, only my imagination going wild. But the pure black of the dream, the feeling of resignation, of feeling nothing, feel so real that it takes a while for me to get over it.

"Brooke, don't make me come up there," I sighed and looked at the clock; 7:30 it read.

Time for school and another year in hell. I rolled out of bed and waded through the mounds of clothes on the floor. My walls full of posters all stared back at me, a frozen image of a fabricated happy moment. I unlocked my door and walked out into the hallway, seeing the bathroom unoccupied. I rushed towards it and slammed the door before anyone could get to it first.

"Are you up Brooke," the voice of my mother waded through the door.

"Yeah, I'm up," I sighed and looked at my reflection, reaching for my toothbrush. I ran my hands through my hair, getting caught on the many knots and kinks. Guess another top bun it is.

"Grace already left so you're going to have to walk to school," Again I wanted to add. My mom said the same thing every morning. Ever since we moved in, I had never caught a ride to school from Grace. Grace the perfect daughter, the girly one, the one who was captain of the cheer team, who made good grades and was guaranteed to get into an Ivy League. She could also be described as a stone-cold bitch.

Grace was a terrible person, but everyone somehow fell under her spell. One flutter of her baby blue eyes and she had caught you. Her dad Chris was the complete opposite. He was a kind man who I had never heard say a mean thing about anyone. Before he married my mom, he was married to another woman. From the pictures she was beautiful, and you could see were Grace got her looks. Hopefully her personality was nothing like hers. They made the prefect all-American family until a drunk driver came and destroyed it.

Chris and my mom met when she was waitressing at a diner, and he had stumbled in one night in a drunken stupor. And from there it was history. My mom found her prince charming; Chris found his Cinderella and we became one big family. Of course, there was talk among the town, a rich white guy marrying the poor black single mom brought about speculation but we pushed thorough. Me and mom once a duo, became a part of a quartet.

I opened the door headed towards my room to get dressed and came face to face with my mom. My mother, Monica , was a beautiful lady, how she gave birth to me I don't know. Her pearly white teeth a contrast against her creamy brown skin. Her caramel brown eyes stared back at me, a constant remainder of the contrast against my murky brown eyes.

"You should really let me do something with your hair. I could help you do a cute little twist out." I sighed inwardly then pushed past her towards my room.

"I'm good, thanks" I saw her shoulders sag and the eagerness leave her body. I closed the door as I saw her mouth open about to suggest something else.

I loved my mom but ever since she got married to Chris things have been different between us. We no longer had late night snack runs to the store, no longer stayed up late watching movies, or her picking me up early from school just to go shopping. Once she got married, she committed fully, no longer a struggling mother, but a wife running a household. I sighed and pushed those thoughts away, not dwelling on something we couldn't go back to.

I looked towards the clock and saw it was 8:00 am. Shit, I had 40 minutes to get ready and be in first period. I rushed towards my closet and tried to make an outfit of the clean clothes I had left.

When I headed downstairs it was 8:04. I saw that my mom was in the laundry room. I walked by quietly not wanting to have a conversation and headed to the kitchen. The kitchen table was full of food, that would have been amazing had it still been hot. Just another task completed by my mom, the stay at home wife. I grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl and ran out the door.

The route to school passed through the neighborhood and then pass a patch of deserted land. It was weird it you saw it. Houses, forest and then the town, like someone had deliberately skipped this space of land as they were developing this area.

As I neared that patch of land, I saw a crowd gathered near the edge. The closer I got I picked up a couple words from the onlookers; " body" " wild animal", and " missing organs" . I tried to peak over the top of the crowd to see what was happening, I saw the yellow police tape, and a body bag on the ground.

Hooooonk. I jumped and nearly fell as a car passed by behind me. My hand landed on a shoulder to stabilize myself, earning me a look. I instinctively reached for my phone and glanced at the time, 8:25. I had 15 minutes left with a 20-minute walk ahead of me. I backed away sparing one more glance toward the crowd and started walking again.

Minutes after leaving the group I heard a car slowing down beside me. I turned to look and saw a sleek back Toyota Camry. I had my suspicions of who was in the car and it was confirmed when the window rolled down doing a slow reveal.

"Hey Brooke," I gritted my teeth and forced a smile on my face.

"Hey Grace, thought you were at school."

"I was but I had to go pick up Daya and Michele. They didn't have a ride," Neither did I, I wanted to say.

"I would give you a ride but," looking me up and down, "I just got my car detailed and don't want to get it dirty." You understand right?" Her two friends who could only be classified as dumb blondes both started laughing.

Before I could respond or even think of anything to say, the window was rolled up and the car was moving. I saw the black car drive through a puddle,and before I could move or try to protect myself I felt the water fall over me. I heard more laughter as I stood there dumbfounded.

I didn't know what to do , I couldn't go to school looking like this but if I turned around I would for sure be late for school but if I continued forward I would definitely be the laughing stock of the school not that it would ruin my reputation further. I pulled my phone out and saw that it was 8:32 now.

Still debating what to do, I heard something creak beside me. I looked over and saw that it was a house. A house I don't remember being there, but it gave me an odd feeling inside. The same feeling when I had those dreams. My arms went slack and I felt my bag fall down my arm. The thud of it hitting the ground pulled my attention away and I saw that everything had fell out. I knelt to pick it up and felt something next to me.

Looking over I saw a pair of pale dirty white feet. The toenails chipped and covered in dirt the cuticles overgrown. I tried to force my eyes up but felt I couldn't lift my head no further than I already had.

" Hello there. Let me give you a hand, "That voice. It was intoxicating. My vision narrowed and blurred and I saw a hand reach out to me. I felt a numbness rushing through my body. I couldn't think straight.

"Here, take my hand and come with me," The only strength I had left in my body and I felt my hand reaching out. As my hand neared its hand, black began to edge my vision and I knew that if I somehow was able to move, get up and run away I wouldn't. What that unassuming outstretched hand was offering me was something I knew deep down I wanted. That feeling that outreached hand was proposing to me was inebriating. My hand fell and it grasped me, my sight now completely gone.

"You're the one," the last thing I heard. I relinquished myself to the darkness and I fell.