Facing The Reaper

XX

I don't remember the last time that I had had a dream so vivid that it felt like I had left my own body, but I awoke that night; cold and clammy, s I lay there hyperventilation at the ceiling. I jumped out of bed, seeing that the sun was already poking over the horizon. The day already beginning and underway. 6:53 am was written in bold red letters on my beside alarm as I left the shadowed interior of my room to rush to the bathroom and jump into a cold shower.

At first the water was soothing, but then it felt as if I was being submerged into ice as my mind slowly started to fall back into my own skin. The panic was taking its time to fall from my body as I scrubbed harshly at my skin, trying to rid myself of the feeling of panic and death. I herd my alarm sounding off in the distance from my room and when the last traces of tension refused to budge from my tensed muscles, I decided to settle from the small fragment of relief I now felt and headed out of the bathroom.

I was shivering by the time I entered my room, the eater dripping off my hair and onto my carpet creating small arm marks on the worn-out fabric. I dried myself off before chucking my uniform on, then sat on the edge of my bed as I looked around my room. The walls have started to feel more and more unfamiliar to me as I slowly begun to lose myself more and more to my new subconscious reality.

I had found myself staring at my own reflection recently, barely able to register the person staring back as myself anymore. I was losing my mind to these insistent nightmares that continued to plague me.

I listened to the sounds of the rest of the house waking up. The movement of doors opening, doors slamming shut and feet shuffling across carpet was so loud in my ears and grating away slowly at my nerves until I felt like a spring that was coiled up and about to snap. I jumped up from my bed, barely remembering to grab my bad from my room as I rushed out of one door, down the stairs and straight out the other.

I heard my mum call out my name in confusion as I called back something incoherent to her in return. I needed out of this house, and fast. As I made my way down the street, my body moving on autopilot, I reached the end of the street before the school and found a small group of people gathered by the bus stop a few feet away on the other side of the road. It was a relatively normal sight to see, but as I turned my head to the left to look for oncoming cars, my eyes fell on to a girl, not much younger looking then myself, stood just across from the group with a strange look on her face. I don't know what made me keep watching her at that moment, but I did.

I watched her face change curious confusion, to frustrated panic, noticing something painfully familiar about the pattern of emotions that flew across her face. Knowing full well that I have shown those same expressions myself in multiple occasions over the past couple of months. I felt my chest flutter as I followed the directions of her eyes to the group of people at the bus stop, almost certain of what this meant and that it would be my opportunity to catch Kia. However, when my gaze landed on the others, all I saw was the slow series of events as of the bystanders suddenly dropped to their knees before the rest of them followed their movements to the ground. The was a flurry of activity then, as the others rushed around, one calling out form someone to call the ambulance as the others fussed over the man whom I could already tell was now lying lifeless on the ground. I looked back over to the girl and to the expression of pained shock that was painted across her face. I couldn't stop the disappointment from reaching me. Had that been Kia? Why hadn't I seen her? Was I already to late? I didn't let myself ponder this for long as I made my way over to the girl. Her short brown hair was being tugged harshly by the wind and there were tears forming in her brown eyes.

She didn't notice me as I approached and stood beside her, she looked so fragile that even a feather floating aimlessly in the wind could knock her over at any minute. I reached out hesitantly to her and placed my hand on her shoulder. Her skin was pale with shock as her eyes snapped over in my direction.