Running From The Alpha

Chapter One

One of Those Days

Creak. Creak. I sit up in bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Creak. I looked towards the door. It was still ajar from when Mommy didn't close the door all the way and light from the hallway spilled in through the gap. I could hear muffled voices but couldn't make out any words. I pulled the blanket back and hung my legs over the edge of bed. The voices got louder but still not loud enough for me to hear. Were they fighting again? I get up and pad barefoot across my bedroom to the door. I started to open it. CREAK. I cringed and listened prepare to run back to bed in case they came upstairs to check on me. The voices continued undisturbed by the noise of the door. I let out the breath I was holding and squeezed through the opening out into the hall.

I could almost make out the words now. The voices were definitely Mommy and Daddy. I crept down the hall to the stairs. I was about halfway down when the voices stopped and then, "What are you doing?" I almost jumped out my skin thinking I'd been caught out of bed past bedtime again. I readied myself to apologize and dipped my head in shame. "Get away from me!" My head snapped up. I hurried to the bottom of the stairs and crouch behind the wood banister. I could see my mother through the archway to the living room. – "Violet." – Then the yelling started again. My mother screaming for someone I couldn't see to get away.

"Mommy?" I whimpered and her head snapped towards me, eyes wide with fear. –"Violet."– Red spilling down and flying through the air. Her mouth opens it. She screams out and yet I can't hear a sound. –"Wake up, Violet."– Suddenly the world is alive with sound. Growling, footsteps. Rapid breathing. Then–

I felt hands pressing down against my shoulders and I react in a single heartbeat before I even open my eyes. I flip my attacker and myself over off the edge of the bed. We land with a thumb and I straddle him and grab his wrists to pin them to the floor. He yells out my name at the same time I open my eyes.

I blink the dream away and blush when I realized who I was straddling. "Sorry Peter," I mummed as I got up and looked around my room. It wasn't the same room as the dream. It was bigger, the bed was not that of a child but an almost 16-year-old girl. The walls were grey instead of pale pink, carpet black instead of purple, and the curtains black not sparkling pink. A black desk with a Mac on it replaced a child's table with coloring books and the walls were lined by books crammed onto shelves rather stuff animals.

Pointing out the differences made it easier to forget the dream.

"A nightmare?" Peter asked getting up. Concern fitted itself into his dark blue eyes.

I tried to smile it off but only achieved a grimace like usual. "I'm fine." It's a lie. I'm not fine. I seriously doubt that I'll ever be fine again. Peter frowned, he doesn't believe me but then he knows me better than anyone. "What were you doing in here?" I asked before he can have a chance to press.

"Waking you up," he answered. "Time to get ready for school."

I sighed and looked at the alarm clock on my desk. I forgot to set it again. I ran a hand down my face. "Yeah, thanks. Forgot the alarm."

He nodded still frowning. "Do you want to tell me what it was about?"

Tell him that I was dreaming about the night I saw my parents die? "No thanks." He doesn't push. He knows not to after seven years of radio silence on the subject. "Give me twenty minutes and I'll be down."

He nodded and gave me a smile. "Save you an apple?"

"I don't eat breakfast," I replied with a sigh knowing he'd still get me that apple.