The Phantom (Camila/You)

Chapter Fourteen

"So, how long have you been bitter for?" I rolled my eyes.

"I've always been this way, it's who I am. I don't put up with shit." I didn't dare ask her about the newspaper, though I wish I had it back, I already knew it existed and that was enough.

I knew she was just testing me.

"Not always." She said, my eyebrows furrowed.

"How would you know?" I asked back, keeping my eyes on the blank and dark wall. Another sleepless night because of her, her presence didn't make it any better.

"Oh, Y/n..." She sounded sad.

I felt the bed dip down, her back was facing mine and I could feel her body temperature.

Cold.

Usual.

"You used to be so..." I waited. "Kind." She finished, her voice trailing off into a soft sound that seemed to echo. "You don't know me." I felt myself bracing emotion, I didn't know why but this subject felt so delicate to my mind.

"Unless you're a creepy stalker." I mumbled, curling up into my bed more, trying to find warmth. "This isn't a game I'm playing."

"Oh yeah? You stalking me and not letting me see you? Yeah sure it seems like an adult version of creepy hide and seek..." I protested softly.

"I'm not doing this to taunt you, I just..." She never finished her sentence.

That night I stayed up until the sun rise again, when my body finally forced me into an unconscious state.

She never left me, she sat there throughout the whole night, never leaving my side. I didn't know if I felt comfortable or not, but I was definitely content.

The morning I woke up was startling. I couldn't breathe, my eyes were glued shut and the room felt uneasy. 

I tried to take a breath but my lungs seemed to be paralyzed along with every limb on my body. I tried moving my fingers, my toes, anything to get me out of this annoying sleep paralysis but nothing was working. 

So I laid there, my anxiety beginning to creep up through my body, making my heart pound harder. I tried to calm down my thoughts, "C'mon, focus on right now, right now, nothing else. Don't worry you'll be fine." I said to myself in my mind, but this didn't change anything. 

I continued to stay put, as if I had a choice, waiting for my body's chemicals to disperse and let me get out of this state of paralysis. 

I tried to get myself to breathe, and it worked partially, some moments I couldn't at all and others I could. That's when I felt a hand on my chest. "You're not okay?" She asked, I didn't reply because of my state. She hummed and dragged her hand along my chest. "I will help." She rested her hand on my cheek, it startled me slightly but I didn't physically react. 

She slowly moved her hand towards my shoulder, her other hand rested on the other side of me. "Wake up, Y/n." She said softly. I tried to move then but I simply couldn't, except a twitch in my fingers. She gripped me slightly, still soft on my skin but just enough that she had a hold of me. 

"Wake up, it's time to go." 

I blinked my eyes open and then closed them again, throwing my covers up above my head. "Come on, Y/n." I groaned as I was being shaken. "Camila, let me sleep." I said annoyed. "No no, it's the last day of school, come on." I felt her shake me again and I got a bad feeling that waved over me like an ocean crashing over sand. 

I sat up in my bed, uncovering myself. I looked around, the walls were different, my room wasn't in the right place. 

"Come on, ugh, here put these on." Clothes were tossed out of my closet onto my bed, I looked over, there stood a girl with brown hair flowing down her backside, wearing a pair of jeans and a loose shirt, my shirt. I looked down at my bed spread, something I was familiar with but it was only a distant memory of my early living situation. 

"Camila?" She hummed in question. "Where are we?" She stopped pushing hangers back, examining my clothes, she paused and looked down. I waited patiently.

"What are you talking about, Y/n? Did you hit your head?" I furrowed my eyebrows and lifted my hand to my head without realizing it. 

"For the last time, we gotta go. Your mother would kill you if you missed the bus." I shook my head. 

She carefully took a shirt off of a hanger and began turning towards me. 

Her eyes trailed up and down the shirt, then she met my eyes. Her smile formed largely across her lips and her brown eyes gleamed with bliss.

"Wake up now, Y/n." 

I pushed myself up and gasped, my body tingling from recently being asleep. Without thinking I tore the blankets from off my body and scurried towards my closet, I opened the door and looked through all the things. I scanned my eyes towards the top of it, seeing an unfamiliar bag. 

I reached up and grabbed it, my head pounding as it tried to process things. 

I ripped open the bag in urgency, and there it was. 

My shirt, the one the girl in my dream was wearing, covered in stains and ripped up.