It was a long first day. Assignments, classrooms to find, schedule to memorize. Mary was thrilled to finally be home.
Before she takes her shoes off, she grabs the umbrella in the hidden compartment by her door, whilst checking the alarm. 'So far so good'
She holds the umbrella up like a bat, checking behind the couch, behind all the doors and inside each closet in the house. Fortunately, the only thing she found was a small mouse trying to escape the cold air. She let it out the door and breathes a sigh of relief.
"One day down. Nearly a thousand days to go until graduation." She says to herself.
No matter how safe she may seem here, she can't let her guard down. After everything that's happened, she has to be prepared for anything.
...
"So, what do you think the dream means?"
Benny just finished telling his grandma about his nightmare, unsure and scared of her answer. She stays quiet for a moment then steps out to grab a book from her magic room.
"From my general knowledge, a dream like that could have countless interpretations." She says while flipping through the worn out pages in front of her.
Benny groans and puts his face in his hands, "see, Ethan, I told you. I'm never gonna be able to sleep good again. By this time next year I'll have a coffee addiction."
"Now hang on a second," Evelyn says, "I may have something here. It says that it may mean, you're feeling mixed emotions right now and that girl you're seeing may represent something you want; such as love."
"Well, yeah, of course I do. Everyone does. But why am I running and who, or what, am I running from?" He asks her. "Yeah, and what's with all the doors, and why are they locked?" Ethan adds.
"It could mean he's feeling overwhelmed, you guys nearly died not too long ago to stop Jesse. You may be experiencing feelings of trauma you haven't recognized yet." She explains, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
Benny sighs, "I guess that makes sense. It still doesn't explain why there's only one unlocked room with a girl inside and why I wake up every time right before I see her face."
"I'm not so sure about that either." Evelyn shrugs, "you'll figure it out eventually, dear." She gives them a soft smile and leaves the two in Benny's room.
Benny falls back onto his bed, throwing his hands in the air in frustration, "this is hopeless. How can I stop it?"
"I would normally never condone using magic like this because it usually doesn't go right, but, maybe there's a spell you can use?" Ethan asks.
"I already tried that. I looked through every spell in my book that had to do with sleep, nightmare and everything in-between. I came up with nothing." Benny says.
"I'm sorry, man. Hopefully your grandma is right and you'll figure it out eventually, or maybe they'll stop on their own," Ethan suggests, "here come on, let's play Knights of Ninjitsu 3, it'll take your mind off it."
Benny stands up from his bed, "ugh, fine, you're right. But we have to do it at your house."
"Why mine?"
"I broke my game system yesterday." Benny mumbles, embarrassed.
"How?" Ethan laughs.
"I don't want to talk about it."
...
"Come on! Open! Please!"
Benny jiggled the door desperately, but it wouldn't budge. He ran to the next door, then the next and then the next. He glanced over his shoulder, the dark shadow continued to get closer as he ran and ran down the seemingly endless hallway.
He finally found an open door and slammed it shut behind him, breathing heavily. He looked up to see a girl drenched in a luminescent light. He felt calm, almost relieved to see her. He ran up to her eagerly, placing a hand on her arm to turn her around.
He caught a quick glimpse of brown hair, glowing from the light surrounding her and a hand catching his wrist.
"Whoa!" Benny wakes up to his scream, causing him to practically jump up from his position. His chest moves up and down fast. He saw more than just a white light this time; he saw hair, he saw a hand, he felt her touch.
But why? Why did the dream suddenly change after being the same for weeks?
He kicks his blanket off and stands up. He wants to figure this out, he needs to figure this out, or else he'll never be able to have a decent night of sleep again.
...
"Oh, come on, don't do this to me!" Mary shouts while struggling to open her locker.
It had already been an irritating morning. Her alarm didn't go off, her microwave broke before she could heat up her breakfast and she stepped in a deep mud puddle on her way to school. Needless to say, she did not need to add, being late to class because she couldn't open her locker, to the list.
From across the hallway, Benny is shutting his locker when he notices Mary struggling with hers. 'Does she want to talk to me? Did I make it too obvious that I loved talking to her? I couldn't help it, there's just something about her. Alright, I can do this.'
"Hey, everything okay?" He asks.
"Yeah, no not really," Mary sighs, "I can't get my locker open. I tried my combination like five times and it won't budge."
"Here, let me try. What is it?" Benny says.
"30, 9, 20."
Benny turns the knob, "see, the key is to push the handle up, and then..." he pulls the locker open roughly and grins at her, "sometimes you just gotta use force."
Mary laughs, "wow, thanks." She strips her bag off her shoulder and places her books inside.
"So, um," Benny clears his throat, "I know you probably know your way to class now, but uh, I was wondering, if I can, maybe still walk you today?" Benny asks, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets.
Mary hesitates for a moment. Benny seems sweet, but she still isn't sure if she should continue with this. She knows it's safer not to have any friends, especially now.
But, she has this gut feeling that she can trust Benny, but she still can't figure out why.
"Yeah, I'd like that." She replies.
Benny smiles, "okay, cool. Let's go."
...
"So you've never seen a single Star Wars movie? Not one? Not even the new ones?"
Mary shakes her head at Benny and laughs, "nope."
"Wow. I mean it's one thing to see them and then not like them but the fact that you've never seen them just blows my mind." Benny rambles.
"Hey, you haven't seen Coraline. Now that I find hard to believe." Mary replies.
"Alright, alright, fair enough." Benny admits.
They both laugh quietly together. They're almost to class, but Benny doesn't want this to end. She's so easy to talk to.
"Hey, I was gonna ask, you doing okay? You have like major eye bags." Mary jokes, gesturing to Benny's face.
Benny chuckles, "yeah, just been having trouble sleeping lately."
"Really? Me too. Maybe it's something in the air." Mary shrugs.
"Well at least you don't look like you haven't been sleeping." He adds.
"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" Mary asks, stopping her pace for a moment. Benny's face flushes, 'crap, I guess subtly isn't really my thing.'
"Uh, yes?"
Mary gives him a strange look, but then smiles. "You're funny."
Benny laughs in relief, "I try."
...
"Ethan!"
Benny hurries into the cafeteria and sits next to him. "Hey, you alright?" He asks after noticing the annoyed look on his friend's face.
"No, that ghost coach is still following me. Here, I found him in this yearbook," Ethan says, "coach Ed. It says that he was the gym teacher here 30 years ago."
"He's ancient!" Rory Keaner says, sitting down across from them. "Is he here right now?" Benny asks while picking up his sandwich, only to have it be slapped out of his hands and fly across the cafeteria.
"I'll take that as a yes, jerk!" Benny exclaims. He sighs and turns to Ethan, "okay, I gotta talk to you. I saw something different last night in my dream."
"Really? What did you see?" Ethan asks, attempting to ignore the ghost behind him. "It was the girl. I saw brown hair, and when I went to touch her arm, she actually grabbed my wrist. It felt so...real." Benny admits.
"Huh, I wonder if there's something going on with that girl you told me about, the one you met yesterday? Maybe she's connected somehow? You've been having the same nightmare for weeks and as soon as she comes in, something changes." Ethan suggests.
Benny thought about it for a minute, and it actually made a lot of sense. "Well then that means she may be important or, something," Benny says, "do you think you could get a vision from her?"
"You want me to go up to this girl that you've only known for one day, that I haven't even met and get a vision from her? I don't think so. I have my own crap to worry about right now." Ethan says, picking up his stuff and walking away.
Benny throws his head back, "damn."
"What girl is he talking about? Is she hot?" Rory asks, his mouth full of food.
Benny looks down at his tray and frustratingly runs his hand threw his hair, "she's the new girl, Mary. She's in algebra with us."
"Wow, a girl who looks like that talked to you? What'd you do, potion her or something?" Rory jokes.
"Shut up, Rory."
...
After a long day, the last thing Mary wants to do is work her shift at the restaurant tonight.
Benny stands up from his position behind the bushes, he was watching their friend, Sarah Fox, with a guy and he had to report back to Ethan. But he completely forgets about his mission when he sees Mary.
"Mary! Wait up!"
Mary turns to see Benny running after her, waving his arm frantically. "No need to signal a plane, Benny, I saw you," she teases.
Benny chuckles, "ha ha. Listen, um," he pauses, glancing down at the ground, "I was wondering if maybe I could walk you home today?" He asks, fiddling with a loose string on his hoodie. He needs to know if she was connected to this dream, she has to be.
Mary's instinct was to say no, this is too much for her. She needs to keep this a strictly school friendship, not an actual friendship, no matter how much she enjoys talking to him, or how nice his smile is.
"I-I would love that, but I actually have to get to work in like less than an hour." She says. That wasn't a total lie, she did have work tonight, just not until 4:00 and it's only 2:30.
"Oh! Yeah of course that's totally fine. Uh, I'll see you Monday morning then?" He asks, clearly disappointed. Maybe he was wrong, maybe they weren't getting along as well as he thought.
"Definitely." Mary replies, shooting him a reassuring grin. He smiles back, but a lot less enthusiastically than usual.
"Later." He mutters and walks away in the opposite direction.
Mary feels a pang of guilt. But she has to brush it off. She knows this is the safest route for her, but she can't help but wonder if she was wrong. Maybe she doesn't have to be afraid, maybe she can trust Benny.
...
Benny slumps down onto Ethan's bed. "Here. There's definitely something going on with Sarah and Kurt." He mumbles.
"What even is this drawing, I can barely tell what I'm looking at. And what's got you all down?"
Benny sighs, "vampires don't show up on video, so, I did my best. And it's nothing."
Ethan studies his friend's expression for a minute. "It's about that girl, huh? Or the dream? Or both?"
"I hate that you know me so well." Benny groans.
"What is it? Awe, Benny, did you show her your alien DNA detector goggles? You know those are an immediate turn off."
"No I didn't, and no they aren't, they are awesome. I wanted to walk her home because I thought her and I were becoming friends but she said she had to work. I just feel like she blew me off." Benny says while slumping his shoulders.
"Don't think like that, maybe she really did have to work," Ethan reassures him.
"Yeah, Ethan, because it's so uncommon for girls to blow me off."
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