The Rift

Chapter 2

A birdcall takes me from the jungle, depositing me in the real world. My room is nothing special, pale blue walls with a green carpet. I have a small window that looks out into our backyard. My bed is still the one I used when I was ten. I’ve always been short though, so it’s all right.

I snatch clothes out of my dresser, and walk into my bathroom. Glancing in the mirror, the dark circles under my green eyes are too prominent for my liking, but I can’t make them go away. Unlike most of the girls in my class, I never wear makeup. After wrangling down the tangled mess of wavy hair, I slipped out of my pyjamas and into some sweats, and a green t-shirt. Shit. That was a mistake.

Seeing the green in the mirror brings me back to last night. With the little girl in her green tunic….

Stop right there Brooke. Push it out of your mind, I tell myself. I pull on socks and race downstairs, putting distance between myself and my bed.

My mother greets me downstairs with honey toast. She’s dressed for work, a knee length pencil skirt and a white blouse.

“Hey honey,” she says with a smile. I know lots of parents call their kids “honey” but in my house, the nickname comes from the color of my fathers and my hair. I look just like him, down to my short stature, small hands, and thin face. Although he’s a lot more easygoing than I am.

My mom settles down, and sips at her coffee. She flips casually through the newspaper. I nibble on my toast. Turning one page, she makes an unhappy noise in the back of her throat.

“What?” I ask, worried.

“You know Ms. Richmond, who lives down the road?” My mother asks. I nod. She’s one of my mother’s friends from work. They take the city bus together.

“What happened?”

“Her mother died yesterday. It’s in the obituaries.” I walk behind my mom, see the black and white photo and the simple paragraph. But something else retains my attention.

“Can I see this for a second?” I ask, motioning towards the paper. My mother smiles and hands it over.

“Of course. I should be leaving anyways. Have a great day at school!”  She kisses my forehead. I nod absentmindedly. She walks out the door, shutting it almost silently behind her.

I stare at one of the pictures in the obituaries, shocked. Because one of them is the little girl from my dream. I’m almost certain of it. The face matches hers exactly, down to the ribbons in the dark braids, and the freckles on her nose. Down to the vacant look in her eyes. Above her, the name reads, Faith Hannigan.

 The name of the little girl I watched die. Her paragraph is oddly short.

Faith, a ten year old from Silver Meadows, died late last night in her sleep. The cause is still unknown. This is similar to a couple other deaths found in the Alberta area, where the victims died from strange causes in the night, often after weeks of physical and mental deterioration. Research is being done to stop this mysterious disease. Faith’s condition worsened after her grandmother died last spring. Her family and friends are acutely feeling the loss of such a young and happy girl.

That was it. I had to read it through several times before it really stuck in my head.  Silver Meadows was a community on the other side of town.  Something really freaky was going on. I’ve never met this girl before in my life. How could I dream up a copy of her so exactly? Also, she had said something about her grandmother… and so had the paper!

What was going on here?!?!?

I pushed the newspaper away from me, the pages sliding off the table and scattering on the floor. I didn’t bother to pick them out, fleeing from the house as fast as my legs could carry me. But because of the little distraction, I still didn’t make it to first block on time.