The Red Evening

Chapter Fifteen

"Wake up," someone whispered.

I looked around and saw myself in a dark, dingy room. I felt alone but looked around and saw everyone that had hurt me to a substantial degree. They all were talking, their mouths moving at a fast rate but nothing coherent was being said. My mother was trying to come close to me, but I stepped back. Pia had her hands cupped together and seemed like she was pleading. Hal came out of no where and tried to swing at me with an already bloodied fist. A man whose face was blurred walked over with his hands spread open.

"Fuck off," I spat at him.

I couldn't see his facial reaction but based on his body language, he was furious.

"Wake up," I heard someone whisper from the corner of dark room.

I focused on the voice that urged me to wake up. I attempted to listen to it as I saw a dark figure emerge from the shadows. I realized that the order had been coming from the shadowy figure himself, but it had echoed as if the voice was from another person.

The shadowy figure stepped under a beam of light and before he could reveal himself to me, I heard someone yell.

"Morena, wake up!"

I gasped loudly as I woke up and sat up, nearly colliding heads with Elijah. His panicked blue eyes scanned my face with worry. I placed my hand over my chest and tried to catch my breath.

He gingerly placed his hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"What kind of question is that?" I asked, annoyed.

"I'm sorry for asking. You were grunting, moving around, and seemed like you were having a nightmare." His hand rubbed my shoulder, but I felt no comfort and shrugged his hand off.

He placed his hand on his leg and looked at it in disappointment. "Well, we should be heading out soon. Your next exam is in less than an hour."

I rubbed my swollen and burning eyes. "Fucking hell," I groaned. As much as I understood Statistics, I wanted to brush up on some material I wasn't confident in. I had planned on spending last night on studying, but I felt drained, unmotivated, and hopeless after finding out that I was lied to by Elijah. I could feel my heart trying to keep itself together by thin, worn out threads.

"Baby," Elijah pleaded as he tried to bring me into his arms.

I pushed him away and looked at him in disgust. "Please, just don't talk to me right now."

He exhaled deeply. "Can we talk after your exam?"

"I don't know," I said, slipping on a pair of old jeans. I walked over to the bathroom to look at what I had to work with and it was not pleasant. My eyes were bloodshot, my lids were puffy, my nose had crusted muscous, my hair was a frizzled mess.

I could cry again, but I had to pull myself together for my final exam. I could sulk, scream, or slap whomever after I completed my first semester of college. I had worked my ass off to get myself to where I was and I wasn't going to let deceivers tear me down.

The bathroom door opened a bit and I quickly closed it.

"I want to give you eye drops, that's all."

I opened the door and yanked the bottle from his hands. I looked at him and he could barely make eye contact with me. I closed the door in his face and proceed to make myself look somewhat presentable.

After ten minutes, I managed to muster up some average looking appearance. There wasn't much I could do about the puffiness of my eyes, but it had to do for the next few hours. I grabbed my backpack and headed towards the front door. Elijah had been waiting for me, his key in his hand.