Fix the future by changing the past

A shadow's whisper

The beeping of the alarm broke through the still morning air, a slender hand reaching over to the electric clock on the nightstand to turn off the incessant noise that woke her up. Yawning tiredly and stretching slightly, Claire sat up in bed, not ready for whatever the day would bring. 

She wasn't at all looking forward to going to class with barely any sleep, her body ached from laying in bed. How could she sleep after the events of the previous night? 

Getting out of bed, she picks out a set of fresh new clothes to change out of her pajamas, and into her signature turtleneck, pencil skirt, tights, and vest, all branded as her favourite band's merch, after washing up. 

Claire splashed her face with cold water one more time before looking at herself in the mirror. Sunken eyes with dark bags under them, she was also rather pale. 

God did she feel sick. 

Toby wasn't the only reason she couldn't fall asleep though, she knew this. It was because of those voices she heard, specifically the one that called out to her in the heartstone, and the pain that accompanied them. 

It was like, she knew those voices, but she didn't. Like they were a missing part of her. There was a strange sense of fear and sadness that welled up within her at the thought of those voices. 

She remembered one of the voices that spoke was hers. And she spoke multiple times, but she never remembered ever saying any of that. 

"Claire! You're going to be late for school!" Javier, her father, called out. 

"Coming!" Claire called back before running to her room and picking up her bag, quickly steeling herself for school. 

The drive wasn't long, about ten minutes in comfortable silence as her father drove down to the school. Once there, Claire gave her dad a quick kiss on the cheek before getting out of the car, her mind still thinking about the events in heartstone.

Claire couldn't focus, everything around her was hazy. She needed time to think, time to process, time to prepare for anything. There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that told her that she needed to find and tell someone, someone specific. But who? 

With a sigh, Claire rubbed her forehead trying to think of who she was supposed to find as she leaned forward against her locker. 

"Hello? Mare to Claire? You in there?" 

Jumping slightly from surprise, Claire turned to face her two best friends, Mary and Darci who watched her with worry clear as day on their faces. 

"Uh… sorry… lost in thought." Claire said, opening her locker to grab some books. 

"More like completely zoned out!" Mary exclaimed, arms crossed over her chest with her eyebrows furrowed. 

"We've been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes, Claire. What's wrong?" Darci asked, a gentle hand on Claire’s shoulder to make her face them. 

Claire knew she couldn't tell them about what happened the previous night, not about Toby and the trolls at least. But that didn't mean that she couldn't tell them about the voices that had called out to her or the visions she would continuously have the previous night whenever she closed her eyes to sleep. 

"It's just…" she started, looking down to her feet, trying to come up with a half truth, just so she wouldn't sound crazy. "Last night, I barely got any sleep… I kept having these… dreams?" She said, walking next to her two best friends. 

"What kind of dreams?" Darci asked, helping lead Claire through the crowd of students that were also heading to class. 

"Well..." she trailed off, chewing on the inside of her cheek, she tried to make sense of what had happened in order to form proper sentences as they entered Strickler's classroom, said teacher already up front, writing down their class objectives for the day.