Incarnadine

Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

"Elena, are you going to turn in your report or not?"

I blinked and rubbed my face. I'd been distracted. Grabbing the report I'd placed on my desk, I went to submit it to Mr. Zimmerman's desk. He took it into his pile with an expressionless façade.

I went back to my seat.

"We're going to learn about Magnetism today. Anyone had any idea what it's about?"

A guy raised up his hand. "Like Magneto and Wolverine?"

The class broke into laughter.

"Well, I've printed out the list of our materials for the coming project. Mr. Sanders, please share the copies to your friends."

Armand got up and began giving out slips of white paper to each of us. When he passed me, his face gave out no sign to acknowledge what had happened two nights before.

"The deadline is at the end of the semester. Extra credits will be given for the ones who succeeded in completing the project on time, no quota. And let me remind you, this is an individual project."

Everyone else groaned, but I was relieved. I'd never been good about any group project. I tended to mess up a lot. At least if I had an individual project, then the mess I was responsible for was only my own. Which wasn't a comforting thought, but still better than the alternative.

Slipping the paper inside of my textbook, I folded my arms and rested my face on them. Physics was so boring sometimes. I thought I'd just close my eyes for a minute, and drown the annoying voices out. The breeze from the window stirred my hair softly. Some birds chirping and it would be perfect. It had been awhile since I last felt so relaxed.

Before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

It was a wolf.

Running by my side, nudging me with its muzzle in the breezy noon. A black wolf. But it didn't hurt me, and I saw its eyes—a pair of human eyes. I trusted it completely. It turned its head to look at me, as if to say, "What are you still doing back there? Come follow me." I went to it, smiling.

He led me through a dark tunnel. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and I wondered for a second if it was where I would go when I died. But the wolf kept beckoning its head at me. I followed him to the light.

The tunnel behind me was gone. I was in the meadow. I saw myself, or at least a girl who looked like me, with a man with his back to me. I recognized the place—I had no doubt that the guy was Duane. This was clearly a dream I'd had before. But I was seeing it now through a third person's eyes.

"Eiko," I heard the girl who could be me say, "means eternity."

I couldn't breathe.

I turned to the wolf with the human eyes. Gray eyes.

I woke up at the sound of Mr. Zimmerman's voice.

"Elena Cadwell," his voice boomed. "Go wash you face."

I didn't check my face for drool. My mind was still in my dreams. As I went away in daze, I felt Armand's eyes on me.

I stared at the reflection in the mirror. It was me. It was me in that dream. It couldn't have been a memory. I was found in the woods when I was fifteen. In the dream the girl was at least my age now, if not older by a year or two. I'd heard about this before, how the mind could make up thousands of stories just to rationalize with the impossible. Am I going crazy? I wondered.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

I turned. I recognized the voice.

"Oh, hi, Sylvie."