Liar

Chapter 5

I was running. My heart was jumping and resisting me. I needed a break but, a gray skinned dummy pursued me at breakneck speed. I never stopped running until I face planted when tripping over a root. I got up and continued to run. I ran for my life. My breathes grew heavy and raggedy, my lungs burning. My body gave out after miles of running, my entire body hurting. I fell, possibly breaking something. Even though it was a dream, I felt the impact of the fall damage me.

I cried, as I could tell the dummy was getting so close. I closed my eyes and breathed, fear and dread heavy in my being. I willed myself to wake up. I knew this had to be a dream. But I didn't. After a while, there were no footsteps at all. I looked up and around me. Lavish velvet on the walls and plush black carpet. It looked like an overly-done version of our bedroom. There was a canopy with dark drapes over the bed, as usual. I lie in the middle of the floor, slowly getting up. I was clean and free of dirt.

I was also no longer sore and tired. I pushed my hair back and looked around. Gems and overly saturated fruit stacked on the dresser and along the vanity. Those fruits scared me, which really made me feel dumb. I pulled back the curtain to our bed. My eyes stung with tears. Another girl lie on her back while Anthony was face deep sucking her. She moaned sweetly and begged for him. In our bed.

She finally seemed to notice me and when she did, sighed lewdly and gave me a daring look. I wanted to throw up. Most of all, she looked old. Like, over 50, but her face and body flickered back and forth from young to old and back again. Her last switch was when I woke up in a cold sweat. I quickly checked my phone. 11:27. I sat up and quickly got out of bed. Wait. 11:27? Holy- I quickly shook Anthony awake. He sat up and looked at me tiredly." What time is it? " he yawned.

" It's 11:28. Anthony, you're late for work." In under 5 seconds he was fully awake. He got out of bed and quickly kissed my cheek. My face reddened quickly. " Thank you. Also, don't worry about breakfast, just do your coursework, 'Kay?" I nodded and ran to my desk. He ran downstairs and started some food. I logged on to my class hurriedly, inputting the wrong password twice before I could enter. It looked like my Art professor was in the middle of a lesson.

She looked back at the screen quickly " Zoe, it"s nice of you to join us. You're very late." I turned my mic on. " I know Nessa, I'm sorry. I promise this won't happen again." She shook her head in empathy. " It's okay, Zoe. Now-" she moved to the chalkboard in the center of her room and continued to critique my classmate's work. I made sure my mic was off and video, as I wasn't comfortable with myself on camera. My professor had a dyed fluffy white bob with large circular glasses. Today she was wearing her new denim overalls with a plain white shirt underneath. Her eyes were single-lidded and round- doe like eyes.

She was the youngest professor at the college which said a lot. She was also one of the few female professors, which sounded strange to me. But what was stranger was she was the only Asian female professor. It wasn't much for her to bear elsewhere, but since the majority of professors where males, students have overheard the overly-sexualized comments she got and things other professors have tried to do to her. Her treatment brought a bitter taste to my mouth. But she was an overall nice teacher. Strict, but nice.

Some of my classmates were more artistically inclined than others. There were also different types of art that some of them did. Lisa drew more comics and creative characters. Jasper liked to draw lots of anime-influenced art. Some of my other classmates like Devon and Mina drew more realistic art or my best friend Chancy who drew Meaningful art. She drew a picture of a Naked woman with thick and textured hair with a more curvaceous and full body type that resembled a lot of darker or African-American women. She had her arms covering her breasts and had her legs on the floor, kneeling. At the edges of the drawing there were many hands and cameras being pointed, some mocking and others preying on her.