Bloodlust (The Blood Series #1)

Chapter 6

Blood. There's blood everywhere. I'm running but I don't know why. My feet beat the asphalt and my breath rags as I run faster and faster. I hear screams but I'm not sure if they are just in my head or not. Tears rush down my face, they are blinding me. Everything I know is a pain so fierce that it feels like I'm being torn in half.

But then I'm pulled somewhere else. I'm in my high school's cafeteria, everyone is looking at me and whispering. The mob around me is faceless, just a white mass that has the features and customs of human beings. I'm standing before a jury, I feel the judgment in their eyes, I hear it in their voices as they weigh me in.

"Yeah, that's her", they say and glare at me.

I cry and scream, beg them to understand. "I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to, I swear, please just don't kill me, please!"

"It's time to see if you can fly, little girl", someone says and pushes me down from a cliff. I fall and right before I hit the ground --

I wake up, fallen from my bed, tangled in my sheets. For a little while, I can't move which drives me into a further panic mode. I yank my restraints and I'm reminded of the nightmare that's still all too fresh in my mind. After struggling on the floor for too long like mummy, I'm finally able to free myself and get up. My skin is covered in sweat so the first thing I do is head to the shower. With the water running down my body I crumble to the bathroom floor, still wearing my PJ's. I'm too freaked out to take them off.

I don't know how long I stay there but when I finally get out after properly showering, morning sun is sneaking its rays of sunshine into my room. The light dancing on the walls and floor seems to vanquish all the remaining anxiety of my bad dream and for that, I'm grateful. I don't know why it shook me so badly. I've had nightmares before, especially these last few months. But never this vivid, so lifelike.

My mother is pleasantly surprised when I slog downstairs way before I'm supposed to. "Oh, you're already up!" she says.

"Ready to face the world", I mumble and navigate towards the coffee pot. On mornings, coffee is all I see, all I know and all I need. Thankfully my mom is the same way so she has already made coffee. All I have to do is pour it in a cup and start feeling like an actual human being again. With all the nightmares I was having last night, I got barely a couple of hours sleep. I'm exhausted and in desperate need to get some caffeine running in my veins.

"The alarm guy will come tomorrow at two so come straight home, okay?" Mom reminds me.

My head snaps up. Alarm guy? Why the heck would we need an alarm guy? Mom hates alarm systems, she thinks they're for old ladies who are scared of their own shadows. It's obvious that she wasn't raised in the tame suburbs. Dad told me once that when someone broke into their apartment while they still lived in NYC mom tackled the burglar and called the police while sitting on the poor guy.

I pretend to be still half-asleep and ask: "Alarm guy?"

Mom took a sip of her coffee and waved her hand a little. "Yes, yes, make fun all you want but you're the reason we're getting it so zip it."

I'm the reason? Oh no, does Mom know I didn't stay at either of parents last Sunday? Is that what she's referring to? Am I grounded?

"After the show you put up, I had to call and get us an alarm system. Just for my poor daughter who thinks someone has been here if her things aren't exactly where she left them", Mom chuckles benevolently and ruffles my hair. I feel myself grow cold once more. I had thought someone had broken in? Why would I think that? Mom and I live in a row house in a good neighborhood that has never had any problems with burglars.