Chapter 5: Chapter 5

"I felt the same as you when I knew them at first. The way they behave; the way they don't talk much, especially the guy, yet girls fall at his feet. I'm quite sure he doesn't even talk to them before they invite him to their bed. Their hospital baffles me as well, they always have this repetitive sets of people that patronize them for blood bags. It's a weird thing, but don't worry, I don't think they bite. More also, their hospital is approved by the government. You would forget them, existing in weeks more." Shade says to me, glancing at me through her natural, long lashes every now and then. "They'll soon appear as a shadow to you."

I don't think I can forget them, the guy particularly, as he's like a stain I can't wash off. The way he looks at me at the walkway, I can still remember it. It is as if I'm seeing the same scene unfolds right in front of me again, and again, and again.

"Maybe. How are your parents Shade?"

She smiles and watches me. She faces ahead again, fazed, I assume her expression to be.

"Why did you ask? Why did you change the topic to that?" She is surprised.

"I don't really know. I feel like we have something in common about parents."

"Well, you don't need to know much about my parents, they don't stay around much."

"Mine too. I had my guess right."

"Sure you do."

"And your nationality?"

"Hey, you sure I shouldn't have any reason to want to save myself?"

"Nope. Your accent makes me ask. It has an hint of Africa."

"My parents are from Nigeria, so you can say that's why I got the name, Shade from. It's a Yoruba name."

"Cool." I state and Shade snicker.

She presses down, increasing the speed. When we get to her house's parking space, I alight and ruffle my hair before putting my bag on.

"Thanks for the ride, Shade. You have been a good friend so far."

"No need to thank me, it's nothing. Congratulations on lasting your first day at Franklin without getting hurt by Lydia's stupid tricks." She smiles a crook smile. What does she mean by that?

"Why would Lydia want to play tricks on me? We barely know each other." I'm sure Lydia won't even have the thoughts of tricking me because I don't like her so, I will not try to near her at all. I face my business and she faces her.

"Oh, that will not stop her. Welcome to Franklin, girl. See you around." Shade says in an increasingly raising tone as she walks into her house.

"See you." I say after her in a low tone and face the building of my house.

Walking past the street to the opposite side, opening the front door, I enter the house. It's silent and emptied of beings. In the kitchen, after dropping my bag on the living area's couch, I take a medium-size, carton of fruit juice, and gulp down it's content.

I scoop the bag up from the couch, as I pass by the living room to my room.

Opening the door, I drop my school bag on the desk when I get to the study area at one side, opposite to my bed and latter to the window, where the bed's headboard is aligned to.

I slump onto the bed, suddenly feeling floppy and drift off into a deep slumber.

In my dream, I see the bad boy, staring at me intently, trying to figure out who I am, as if with the way he's looking at me, he's trying to read my mind, or rather to decipher me.

Darkness is around us, nothing is in sight, being like a hard, black wall. Only him and I are in the little space. Suddenly, he's in front of me. I tense when his hands fixates on my shoulders, cold and gentle, they push me downwards, wanting my back to meet the blacken floor.

My knees almost touch the ground, and from him, I only feel coldness. The dim spotlight, shining on his face from nowhere only helps in increasing the intensity of his paleness features. He only emits something eerily, but deep inside me, my dreamy part trust him that he will not hurt me.

"Why are you cold?" My faint, trembling voice ask as he lays me down. My back, touching the ground, I gasp and find myself on my bed. His frame is on top of me. His hands, moving my hands from my sides only to pin them when they reach above my head. He releases one hand to brush my cheeks, using the other to still hold me. It feels real, different than a dream. Adrenaline pumps in me, and for a reason, I didn't yell. His lens changes to a tint of scarlet red, increasingly glowing.

"Forget, or I will make you." His voice is progressively becoming faint and vanishing into the air.

When I open my eyes, I'm covered in coldness. The dream. My subconscious recalls my consciousness.

The aim of brushing my hair to the back of my ears invades my mind and that's when I notice, my hands are on one another, as if pinned.

It can't be real. He can't be real. None of this can be real. I say in a form of mantra within my head. How can the bad boy come into my room, not to say pin me down?

The chilled breeze blows in and I turn to the window, above the headboard, leading views straight into the woods and close it, then, pull down the small curtain.

The sound of a call from my phone, ringing covers every space in the silent room all of the sudden, and startling me. I blot up scarily, angrily picking up the phone from the top of the cabinet. It is mom, calling.

"Hi, mom."

"Rayne. How are you?"

"I'm good." I hear her sigh in relief.

"Have you eaten?"

There she goes again with the questions. I roll my eyes inwardly.

"No, but I will."

"Okay, I just wanted to know if you are feeling fine. I will be back before eleven. I love you, dear. And your dad loves you as well. He would have called, but had a tight schedule in the afternoon. He's probably sleeping now." She explains in a motherly tone. I calm, understanding her, at least I think.

"I think I will do the same. I feel really sleepy."

"Let me not disturb you, then, dear. Have a sweet dream, Rayne. We love you." She says in a high-pitched tone. "And please do eat."

"I love you both, too." I say, and ignore her last statement.

Putting down the phone, I slump back into the comfy bed and put all thoughts away, finally being able to drift off into another, dreamless slumber.

The door to my room opens lightly, making low creaks. I shuffle under the sheets, covering my face and open my eyes. It is morning.

"Rayne." Mom calls.

I take the sheets off of my face and sit up, looking at her. She's wearing a simple, mid-night blue gown, stopping below her knees, bringing out her ivory, natural, undertone skin. Mascara on her eyelashes, with a light makeup; her lighter, straight, rusty-blonde hair is worn in a top-knot with ribbons, holding it together. Her legs are covered in black socks, shoe-less.

"Ma." I answer, raising my head at her.

"Good morning, how are you?" She release the knob, leaving the door open as she approaches the bed. She sits next to me, while I give her an answer.

"I'm good. How are you? You look stressed." I say, concern in my tone.

Oh, now I realize the reason why she's using mascara— it is to cover the swelling like bulges in her eyes. Her features are dull as she forces out a ghost of a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. She's only putting up strength in front of me, but I know better. I'm not a kid anymore.

"I think I am okay for now. It's just the work. There are lots of people rushed into the hospital yesterday. We are still treating them till now. Said, there was a fatal accident caused by an unknown occurrence. Well, that was what I overheard yesterday by the police man. I will need to go back this morning. There are not many staffs, working in that hospital and my help will count. I came here to tell you that. But I promise, when I come back, we will discuss everything we haven't discussed — school problems, boys and others. We love you, Rayne." She finishes and lean closer to kiss my forehead. I smile genuinely back at her in a childish manner.

"Aren't you vexed?" She ask. Her expression is fazed. Is she expecting me to get angry?

"I am not. Why would I be? Your job is to save lives and if you have an opportunity to, why should I stop you?" I ask, a bit annoyed.

Mom brushes my hair, messing it than before, and laugh, watching me with those precious looks like I'm a jewel before her amber eyes.

"Maybe I think wrong of you."

"Oh, you do, ma." I tell her, making her laugh.

"I've prepared an apple pie and pancakes for you. It's in the kitchen — your choice for breakfast."

"Thanks." I say with a smile, touching my eyes that the sides wrinkles.

Mom takes her stand and go out of the room. She closes the door gently.

I shift my gaze to the window, and pull up the curtains, before sliding the sill upwards to have a clear view of the woods on the outside, but it is of no help at all. The foggy weather has arise too much that it makes seeing a difficulty. Nevertheless, I watch the unmoving large trees, listen to the low chirping sound of the birds around the area, and observe the inner parts, that's intensely dense to my sight.

Moving my watching eyes from ends to ends, I caught something and fixate my gaze on it, peering at it, attentively. For a moment, I thought it was probably my imaginations or rather, part of a tree, torn from the effects of the wind until it moves. It is staring at you, Rayne. Unknowingly, the thought comes to my mind. I hastily shake it away.

The thing takes the shape of a human, but I couldn't be sure. Before I could be at all precise what it is, the frame runs off. I gasp and fall back into bed, totally losing balance. It was there for a moment, and then, it is gone. It had looked like a human being — maybe the man, who helped me the other night. But if it was him, does this mean he's living in the woods?

"And, um, I forgot to tell you, a friend of yours — Shade is here. So, hurry up." Mom informs me, tucking her head into the small space of the door she opened lightly.

"It's not a shade from the blockage of light by an impenetrable object. It is Sha-de, mom."

"Correct your old woman as you want." Mom scoff. "Are you okay? Why are you in that position?"

Oh!

I change my un-upright position caused by what I had seen earlier. I'm losing my mind, I guess.

"Nothing, I'm okay. I will go get ready." I roll off the bed and rush to the bathroom, not glancing back to see if mom has left yet.

In the bathroom, I quickly brush my teeth, had a sharp bath, and put on a plain black, simple gown, stopping at my thighs; a red cap, letting my hair to draw at my back, reaching my ribs; red, flat sandal, with a black, leather wrist watch, and then, my school bag.

I check myself in the mirror sharply, before I check the wall clock at sideward to the portraits of a random beach and it's sceneries. It has been twenty minutes since mom informed me about Shade's arrival. More also, we are technically almost late for school.

Getting to the kitchen island, I find Shade, sitting on one of the golden-structured chairs, pressing her phone, and eating an apple pie with apple cider next to the plate.

"Morning. I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

Her head raises to watch me. Her eyes grow big, shocked, I assume her to be. She releases a smile at me, her eyes, going up and down, peering at me.

"Um, it's nothing. Morning. You look beautiful. Black looks good on you, the red helps in the beautifying the glow." She compliments and I flush, looking down at my fingers that are entwined together, and tapping my thighs. I obviously don't know how to take in compliments.

"Thanks." I say back, still looking down. I glance at her, seeing her flashing white teeth at me. "Mom has left for work, right?"

I take that as my way of escape from her flushing-causing compliment and eyes, watching me. I make my way to the fridge and open it, taking out a glassy jug of blended fruit juice from it. I pour its chilled content into a glass cup and return the jug back into the fridge.

I pick two pancakes into my plate and sit opposite Shade, and take in her appearance; intermixed blue and white shirt, white leggings, white sneakers, brown cap, and light makeup. She doesn't look bad herself, beautiful in her golden, caramel skin. Maybe it is true after all that we have some things in common.

"We are late, you know?" I ask. Shade raises her gaze from her phone to me and nods.

"Yeah." She croaks. "Your mom is a great cook." I smile at her, as a reply to her compliment.

"I know."

I pick the piece with my hands and eat the pancake from them, not bothering to pick any cutlery. Shade finishes her food before me. She joins me again when she is done with washing her plate, which I argue with her not to do.

Gulping down the cake with my drink, I question.

"Your car, or mine?"

"I brought my bicycle, we are taking them to school. It will be fun." She adds. Is she trying to entice me with that? I hate taking bicycles to far, especially commercial places.

"No, Shade. I can't. I don't even have one." I lie. Now a professional one, uh? I wish I could slap that being in me that owns thoughts sometimes, like now. She's too troublesome.

"I saw it outside before your mom told me, certifying that it is yours."

My mother is certain to give me away. I say in my head.

"It's too dangerous." I try another approach.

"Let us do this, Rayne. I want you to enjoy the chilled breeze of Murrysville, while on a bicycle. It will be ecstatic for you...and me."

"I've enjoyed enough overnight." I refer to my window that was opened when I awoke.

"Uh?"

"I don't know, Shade."

"Let's do this, Rayne."

I sigh, knowing there is no point arguing over this particular matter.

"Okay." I give in, finishing with my food and drink. I take it to the kitchen and rinse it with my hands instead of the dishwasher.

"You're going to love it."

I smile.