Maple

Ch11

Maple

I'm at my recital. The piano keys danced beneath my fingers, the sweet melody filling my ears. I look to the audience. There's no one there. I stop playing, confused. Behind me, a policeman beckons me over. I stand and walk over to him, my red dress swishing from side to side. He takes his cap off.

"I'm sorry" he says "your parents are dead" then his face contorts into a mean smile and we're no longer on the stage. We are both standing in a dark forest, the trees looming over us ominously. I look at him, but he's no longer the policeman. He is the man who assaulted me yesterday. I scream and run, but my dress slows me down, it was only a matter of seconds before he caught up.

My legs are pumping but I feel like I'm not going anywhere. I sense movement to my left and turn quickly, but whatever it was darts behind a tree. I look around, there's movement all around me, but whenever I look straight at it, it disappears. Suddenly, they all jump out at one. They grab hold of my dress and legs, clawing their way up. I fall to the floor with a scream. I look at my attackers and my breath hitches in my throat.

It's my parents. Their eyes are hollow and their skin is pale. I scream again, my throat going hoarse. I try to plead with them, but no noise escapes my throat. They rip through the dress and claw at my bare skin. Behind me, I see the man catching up. I try to rip them off of me so I could escape, but they won't budge.

"It's your fault" my mother screeches, her voice shrill and piercing, like nails on a chalk board.

"You killed us" it was my father this time, his voice garbled, as if his tongue is not completely under his control. I cry for them to forgive me, but they only grip me harder.

I look ahead. There's someone there. It's Al, he's watching from a few meters away. I cry, beg and plead for him to help me. But he remains immobile, watching, his face blank.

The man is suddenly upon me and the world goes dark.

I woke up screaming, my clothes stuck to my back with sweat. I was short on breath and tears were streaming down my face. A thin flow of early morning light shone between the curtains. I struggled out of bed and unwound the wrapping on my hand and foot. Stepping into the shower, I allowed the warm water to wash away my fear. It was just a nightmare, I kept reminding myself.

I was used to nightmares. I've had them almost every night since the accident. But they've been getting better lately, until the stalker incident. Now my brain jumped at the opportunity to make the nightmares even scarier with the new material.

I sighed and stepped out, wrapping myself in a towel before limping over to my cupboard. I threw it open and searched for something good to wear. I was going out to the cinema with David and his friends today so I chose a pair of jeans and a presentable shirt. After some thought, I threw on a light cardigan, the weather was getting colder lately and the last thing I needed was to get sick.   

 Today was my free day; no work, no school and David wasn't picking me up till 7.30. I had already given my testimony to the police yesterday. I had been nervous at first, going without a guardian. When they had asked where my parents were, I had said that my guardian, in other words, my grandmother, lives more than four hours away in the country and therefore couldn't just pop up anytime she felt like it. I had sort of 'forgotten' to tell them that she actually doesn't know about any of this, because then they would have called her and told her.

Well, in the end, everything turned out fine because Chloe had stayed with me the whole time and Dr. Lisa had already told her about the accident, so she had explained it to them. I hate talking about it. I wish I could wear something on me that people would look at and be like 'aah, her parents have passed away', just like an engaged couple wear rings. Chloe had said she'll call me when his sentence was decided.