Something about you (Norminah)

Chapter Fifty

My feet slipped on the icy ground as I rounded the corner; I lost my balance. Air rushed out of my lungs as I hit the ground and my heart beat frantically as I tried to take deep breaths, the cold air burning my nostrils and lungs.

"Run!"

I stood and picked my pace up again, a glance behind me telling me that the darkness was a lot closer now than it had been. I ignored the jarring pain that shot up to my knee from my ankle every time my left foot hit the ground. If stopped I was fairly sure the price would be worse than me not being able to find her.

Tears blinded me as I ran and I wiped at them anxiously, a crushing feeling of loneliness threatening to engulf me the entire time. It wasn't until I got to our place that I stopped; the darkness never made it that far, always stopping for some reason as though it had found something more interesting to go after than us.

"Dinah?" I called out to the empty house. "Dinah Jane?"

I whirled around at the sound of footsteps, ready to fight in case it wasn't her. "Shit Dinah, you scared—"

"–Look I don't know what you are or what you want, but you need to leave."

"Dinah it's me, it's Mani—"

"–Don't," she cut me off. "Don't you dare mention her name. I swear I'll scream if you don't leave. You might be able to kill me, but you can't kill all of us."

"Dinah what are you talking about—"

She charged at me and I had no choice but to move out of the way or let her take me down with her. While I was on the ground, Dinah took her chance and ran. I ran outside to stop her, but she was gone.

"Dinah!" I looked around, frantically searching for some sign about which direction she had gone in, but there was none. so I ran, aimlessly; desperation made me reckless and I yelled her name, not caring who heard.

It wasn't until I got to the lake that I stopped running and realized why Dinah wanted nothing to do with me. I was what she and everyone else were running from. I was the darkness.

-

I woke up with a headache and that groggy feeling that comes when you sleep too late and wake up too early. It was still dark outside; I groaned as I sat up, realizing a moment later that Noah had woken me up.

I got up quickly and rushed to his crib, "Hey," I murmured as I checked on him briefly before going to the bathroom to wash my hands. As soon as I picked him up, he lay down on my chest and held his elephant lovey closely.

"Je suis désolé chéri," I whispered, willing my own tears not to fall.

It was only three hours later, when I had exhausted every method I could think off to try and make his teething less painful that he fell asleep again. The sun was up and I could hear everyone already beginning to move around in the house as I put him back to bed. I took a quick shower once he was settled and sat on the edge of my bed.

Despite the warmth in my room, I was shaking and my breathing was rapid and shallow. "You're fine, you're fine," I murmured to myself. Everything started spinning when I tried to stand. "Okay maybe you're not fine."

I sat completely still and took deep breaths as I waited for the dizziness to pass. But as soon as I stood again, everything began to spin and I ended up lying down on the bed, eyes shut and hands clasped together as I tried to pray it away.

Noah didn't stir at the sound of the door knocking, but I did. I was still too weak to get up and Louis opened the door anyway a moment later. "Hey—what's wrong?"