The picture above is of the protagonist Atalie. This is how I envision her. You are free to envision her anyway you want.
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A woman sat at a desk writing something on a piece of paper. She looked like she was so engrossed in writing that not even an earthquake could pull her out of her trance. Suddenly a young child came running from the bedroom. The child's momentum was such that when her foot slipped and she fell, a loud sound resonated through the room. The sound pulled the woman out of her trance and she went running towards the child. Before she could enquire about the girl's well-being, she got up and after dusting herself hugged her mother. The action brought tears to the woman's eyes. She couldn't believe that she had given birth to this marvelous child who learned life's lessons with such ease. She pulled the child closer and whispered in her ear, "Always remember, whenever in life you fall down don't cry. Simply dust yourself and right back into the fray of things. Always."
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"Miss Atalie Rivera!" A stern voice broke the hold sleep had over Atalie and she sat awake with a gasp.
"Good Morning Miss Rivera!" Her science teacher Miss Coral Diego said with faux sweetness "So nice of you to join us in class this fine morning."
Atalie rubbed the sleep from her eyes only to see that she wasn't in her comfortable bed but rather in Miss Coral Diego's science class. Oh Heavens! She was doomed!
"So Miss Rivera is there a reason you are sleeping in my class or is it because you are simply bored?"
"Uh, actually, uh ma'am I didn't get much sleep last night so I uh-"
"Miss Rivera what is the first rule of my class?" Miss Diego asked suddenly, cutting Atalie off.
"Uh the first rule is that no student will sleep and/or laze around in your class." Atalie answered hesitantly.
"Right and what did you do? You broke the rule and therefore you deserved to be punished don't you think?" Again she wasn't asking she was telling. The faux sweetness in her tone simply irritated Atalie.
"I think a week of detention should set you straight. Oh and you will also be meeting Miss Sayyad after lunch today."
The thought of detention was enough to wake Atalie's brain from the haze of sleep and she quickly stood up saying, " No ma'am please! The University I am hoping go get admission into won't accept me if they see even a single detention on my record. Please I won't ever sleep in any class again but please don't give me detention." She begged Miss Diego with all she had but Miss Diego remained firm.
"Just because you are a straight A student does not mean that you do not face consequences for your mistakes. You will carry out the punishment or not set a single foot in my class for the remaining classes." Miss Diego told her with a firm clear voice. She was a no nonsense woman and valued the time of the class. She had never tolerated students disrespecting her by sleeping in her her class and she wasn't about to do so now. "Right class so where were we? I think we were discussing the properties of the Heterocyclic compounds right? Well let's continue."
Miss Diego continued teaching the class as if she hadn't just dropped a bomb on Atalie. And despite the pull of sleep she paid her complete attention in class for the fear of given a punishment worse than detention.
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The next hour was lunch so after Miss Diego's class ended, Atalie went towards the cafeteria to eat a bite and prepare mentally for her slaughter. The very thought of Meherunissa or Meher Sayyad was enough to make her tremble. Everyone was aware about Meher and honestly why would they not be? That woman had managed to straighten out many misbehaving boys and girls with just a few sessions in her office. Her success rate was the reason for her scary reputation in school. All these thoughts ran through Atalie's head as she made her way to the cafeteria.
Upon reaching, she purchased a packet of kale chips and a can of cold coffee and made her way to the table where she sat with two other girls Alix and Avery. Alix and Avery weren't her friends. They were simply acquaintances, outcasts who fit in nowhere. She sat down on the chair beside Alix and began eating her food.
"Does anyone have a copy of Wuthering Heights? I need it for an English assignment ." Alix asked
"I have it. I'll bring it tomorrow and give it to you." Avery replied.
Again silence befell the table. Sometimes Atalie loved the silence while sometimes she hated it. It was funny wasn't it that the same silence could feel like the most beautiful language with two close friends or lovers but with two acquaintances or enemies the silence felt like a choking death? The very thought amused Atalie.
"Hey Atalie!" A male voice callsd out
Atalie turned only to find that Weston Brooks, the most popular guy in school was calling her.
"Hey Weston." Atalie said
"Hey. So listen. My parents are going out of town tomorrow so I am throwing a party and I want you to come to it with your friends." He spoke gesturing to Alix and Avery. "Okay?"
"Yeah I- I'll think about it and let you know. Okay?" Atalie said half-heartedly just to get him off her back.
"Okay. See you then. Bye." He waved as he went.
"Don't say a word." Atalie warned the 2 girls as she left the cafeteria. The truth was that she despised parties like these and made it her mission in life to stay away from them. Waste of time and energy. Besides she wasn't going to make herself hundreds of enemies overnight by going to Weston's party. No it was best she stay away from that magnet for female attention and the troubles he would bring in her life. Thinking all this, she made her way to Meher's office. It was time to face the music.
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Atalie knocked on Meher's office door and made her way in when she heard to soft 'come in'. When Atalie made her way in, the first thing she saw was the huge work table and women sitting behind it. Truly Meher Sayyad was a beautiful woman. With eyes of ebony brown and hair of raven black Meher had a lot of school boys as her admirers. Those ebony brown eyes looked up from the work and saw Atalie standing in the doorway.
"Come in, come in Atalie. What brings you to my doorstep?" she questioned
"I have a session here requested by Miss Coral Diego." Atalie said truthfully. Honestly there was no point in lying to Meher because her eyes could catch lies faster than you could blink.
"You have a session here? Wait you are the student referred by Miss Diego?" Meher question in disbelief. She was 100% certain that Atalie was playing a prank on her.
"No I am not lying. I have a session here requested by Miss Coral Diego." Atalie repeated. This seemed to jolt Meher from whatever stupor she was locked in and she quickly gestured to one of the stairs and told Atalie to take a seat.
"Alright what is the crime that you committed? Did you not answer one of the questions she asked?"
"It's not that actually I was caught sleeping in her class." Atalie answered.
"You, sleeping? Please this is not the first of April that you will pull this prank on me!" Meher scoffed.
"It's true! I don't know how to convince you but I was sleeping in her class." Atalie said. After a momentary pause she continued much more softly and seriously, "The dreams are back, they won't stop. Every time I try to sleep they are there waiting for me to simply close my eyes. It's like I can't even sleep peacefully anymore."
The mention of the weird dreams made Meher much more serious than she was at the beginning. The truth was Atalie had told her about those dreams but she had brushed them of a teenage fantasies. After all everybody has stupid dreams that nobody could make sense of. That is what her profession had taught her.
"Atalie I told you this before and I am telling you the same thing now. You are a teenager and it is normal for you to experience such things." Meher said with utmost patience.
"No you don't understand! It is the same dream every time. I dream the same thing every time a mother and a child. Sometimes I feel like it's what sets me apart from others like I don't belong with others now." Atalie tried to express herself
"Atalie I repeat my statement. You are a teenager and it is normal for you to experience all this it is just a psychological phenomenon. Once all of the settles you will be fine. I have told you this before it is just your unconscious nothing more and even if there is anything more all that it indicates is that you watch a lot of movies okay? Look I don't want to be insensitive but the truth is that these dreams you tell me of, what if they're just what you made up? Look every teenager has dreams, ambitions and fears and sometimes you don't acknowledge them and they come up as your dreams and you know it's ok to feel that way."
Suddenly an idea popped into Atalie's head and she said to Meher, "Remember Frozen 2 The movie which we watch together where Elsa becomes the fifth spirit?"
"Ye..........s?"
"Remember how in the song 'Into the Unknown' Elsa sings like she is sure or rather has a very good guess that she does not belong in Arendelle and at the end of the film she ends up at the enchanted forest?"
"Again ye.....s?"
"Well that is exactly how I feel right now. I feel like Elsa, like I am sure that I don't belong here but the only thing is that I don't know where else I belong."
"Okay this is new. How about you tell me when exactly did this feeling of not fitting in begin or rather emerge?"
"It all began a year ago. One day I woke up and I felt like like I don't belong here anymore." Atalie confessed.
"Okay how about this, I will talk to Miss Diego and get your detention cancelled but in return you will go home early and just think about all this from my perspective and if you still feel like these feelings are real and not just a byproduct of your age then we will meet again and try to get to the bottom of this problem, hmm?" Meher said after thinking for a moment.
"Yeah sounds good to me."
"Great then see you next time."
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Atalie went home and after telling her mom that she was home, she went to her room and dropped the bag on the couch before falling face-first on the bed. She was exhausted. It wasn't physical exhaustion that was troubling her but mental one. The sound of the door opening was what caused Atalie to look up.
"Hey Darling! Back from school already? How was your day?" Atalie's mother Janet asked.
"It was fine." Atalie's voice was muffled because her face was pressed onto the mattress.
"That bad huh? Well how about you sleep for some time and then do all your work?"
"Sure. I just needed the excuse." Atalie said already starting to doze off. Janet pulled the comforter around her and after switching off the light, she left.
It was a few hours later that Atalie woke up. Checking her phone, she realised that she had slept till quite late. She threw off the covers and went into the bathroom to freshen up. Just as she was splashing water over her face, she noticed something in the mirror. Upon closer inspection she found out that it was a black shadow. Suddenly the shadow rushed out of the mirror and transformed into a fist that was choking her. She couldn't breathe! She struggled against it but in vain. The shadow was just too strong. Desperation taking over logic, she grabbed the bottle of bottle of deo and hurled it straight at the mirror and the mirror shattered into a million fragments like the pieces of someone's broken dreams.
The dound of the mirror shattering brought Janet and her husband Jamie into Atalie's bathroom where they saw her trembling in a corner, hugging her knees. Janet immediately crouched down and hugged Atalie.
"Mom, dad there was a-a black shadow and-and it-it was chokin-" Atalie had become a panicking mess.
"Shush relax honey. I am right here and I won't let anything hurt you, okay?" Janet said consoling Atalie. Jamie searched the entire bathroom but found nothing amiss. He too crouched down and said, "Atalie there is nothing here. Maybe it was your hallucination. It's okay though, it's alright. I am here. See for yourself if you don't believe me."
Atalie got up and searched the entire bathroom but she too found nothing amiss. Maybe her father was right. Maybe there was nothing here.
"Now how about you quickly change your clothes and wash your face. Your mother has made your favourite lasagna. Eat it and then go to sleep okay? You need the rest." Jamie said in a soothing voice after which, he and Janet left the room.
Atalie too began to leave when suddenly she saw a faint black shadow in a broken shard of the mirror. "It was just my hallucination, wasn't it?"
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Hey guys! So I remember that I said that I will try and shorten the chapters but the truth is that once I start to right this is what happens (gestures above). Anyway do let me know what you guys think.
Do you think the shadow was Atalie's imagination? Or was it an actual thing that attacked her? Also how did you like the characters?
Don't forget to Vote, Comment and Share my story. Would love to hear more from guys in the comments.
Yours Fictionally,
Aurynn