SAVAGE

6.

"Mommy, can I stay with you?"

"No, Jersey...I told you that I have to handle some business. Now, I'll be back to pick up you and Preach."

Jersey sat in the back of the car with her arms folded as her mom drove casually to their destination. Preach sat beside her with his thumb in his mouth. That was his usual thing, he stayed sucking on his little thumb.

"Preach." Terrie started as she glanced at the rear-view mirror. "You better not be sucking yo' damn thumb."

Preach was small but he could understand what his mom was saying. She was always lecturing him about his thumb-sucking. Quickly, he pulled his thumb out of his mouth.

"I'm not going to spend all of my money on your teeth. If I see you sucking yo' thumb again, I'm going to put some hot sauce on it!"

Suddenly, the sky began to darken as the clouds hid the sun. The trees and grass outside had turned black. Jersey's heart drummed as she looked around and noticed the mess before her. She turned to her brother who was looking straight ahead with his eyes bugged.

"Preach what are you looking at?" She asked her brother as her mom slowed down her car.

"What the hell is that?" Terrie questioned herself as she stared at the figure.

A tall, slender woman stumbled in front of the car with a gun in her hand. Jersey screamed when she noticed that the woman in the road was her mom. She had the same outfit on that her mom was wearing to drop her off to her aunt's house, but it was bloody, and she was dead. Her corpse was grey with many gaping, bullet holes.

"Jersey! Jersey!" Kelli yelled as she grabbed ahold of Jersey's shoulders. She shook her roughly to wake the bellowing girl up. Jersey laid on the bed moving her head from side to side. She opened her eyes wide while trying to catch her breath.

Kelli stared at her and waited for her friend to come to her senses. Jersey laid there in her shirt and panties. Sweat outlined the bedsheets since she was sweating profusely. Not only was it on the bed, but it was also all over her face and neck.

"Are you okay?"

Jersey touched her forehead and started breathing heavy. Afterwards, her harsh breathing turned into wails.

"Jay, what's wrong?"

Jersey never replied back, she only continued to cry. Kelli didn't want to badger her, so she decided to comfort her instead. She placed her arms around Jersey and they rocked back and forth. Jersey's vocals were finally coming to a cease, and Kelli was relieved from that. Her friend was slowly coming back to reality.

"Are you okay?" Kelli questioned her.

"T-Terrie..." Jersey trailed off as she managed to say her mom's names.

"Terrie?" Kelli reiterated.

Before Jersey could say anything else, she jumped up and ran straight into the bathroom. Kelli followed her into the bathroom and watched as her friend puked up everything from her stomach to the toilet. Kelli walked up close to her and rubbed her back. Jersey hugged the toilet and cried loudly.

"I saw my mom, again." Jersey cried as tears streamed down her face.

"Oh, Jersey..." Was all Kelli could manage to say. She knew that Jersey had lost her mom years ago at a young age. Recently, she had started seeing her mother in her dreams and that was causing her to wake up screaming and sweating.

"I don't want to go back to sleep." Jersey cried as she sniffled. "She's hunting me because of my past."

"No, she's not." Kelli objected, "You're just having a nightmare, that's all."