Surreptitious

Chapter 1: "Change The Story"

"Josie, change the story!"

Josie jolted upright in her bed, beads of sweat covering her face and neck.

"Hope..." She whimpered.

(...)

Josie rolled over in bed when her alarm clock beeped incessantly at her from her bedside table, swinging one heavy arm the next second to smack it clean across the room in one fell swoop. She was still so tired, and the nightmares were not helping.

She had been having strange dreams nearly every night, though she could never quite piece them together by the time morning came. They evaded her as they seemed to drift off into nothing but foggy images of a forest, a cabin, a clearing with the ruins of what was once a stone chapel, and a statue of a girl.

"Jo, you'll be late for class." Lizzy's voice pierced Josie's thoughts from where she sat in front of the mirror, combing her hair. Josie's blonde twin was already dressed in her uniform and seemed ready for the day, though Josie could not bring herself to understand why. Why would anyone care about school or class or breakfast or anything vaguely resembling a normal teenage life when the boy you loved was dead and your best friend was stuck in an eternal sleep.

"Come on. It's been too long. You need to get back to your life, Jo." Lizzy tried again, but Josie groaned and pulled the blanket over her head, wishing she could simply hide away from the world forever. Even once she was finally out of bed and dressed and off to class, she continued to hide herself away as much as she could. She conversed with no one and barely even looked at anyone. By the end of every day she was back in her bed and under the covers, seeking solitude and darkness once more.

Then every night, the dreams would return.

(...)

"Your subconscious made a fairytale: that the good you is weak, and the powerful you is evil. Tell yourself a different story."

Josie's eyes shot open, Hope's name a whisper on her lips once more.

She felt out of breath.

Slipping out of bed, Josie softly padded to the bathroom adjoining her and Lizzy's room and headed for the sink. She splashed some cool water on her face and closed the tap. When she looked up into the mirror before her, black eyes were staring back, causing her to yelp and jump back reflexively. Given another second to study her reflection, however, her normal doe-brown eyes were staring back at her, though wide with fright.

She clutched her night shirt over her racing heart and swallowed hard.

(...)

Josie scratched around her plate listlessly at the breakfast table. Her friends surrounded her and the chatter was easy-going, but she heard none of it. Every voice sounded like a lifeless droning in her ears, as if she was floating under water. She felt about the same amount of dead as if she were.

Rafael had been joining the gang more often as of late. He was also still quiet and melancholy, though you could see he was trying harder than Josie to re-immerse himself into normal school life. Josie was glad that he seemed to be able to take small steps towards normalcy. She was even proud of him for it, though it made her feel all the worse as she felt even more unable to do the same.

She didn't feel like anything would ever feel normal again. Not for her. Not with the demons haunting her.

(...)

"She would do the same for me."

Josie unconsciously clutched the pillow, but she didn't wake up.

"Of course I would, Hope. Hope!"

Josie followed the red cape in her dream. She called out to her again, but Hope didn't turn around.

"Hope, stop, wait! Where are you going? Come back!"

Josie jogged to catch up with the other girl as she moved through the archway of the stone ruins, then paused and turned around to look at Josie. As she did, however, a small smile starting to form on her lips, Josie caught her breath as she watched, horrified, as Hope turned into stone.

"Hope! No!" Josie called out as she jolted awake, panting, tears wetting the corners of her eyes. She quickly glanced around the dark bedroom, flustered. Her eyes fell upon her sister who was watching her worriedly from her bed, clearly having been woken by Josie's restless dreaming.

"Jo, are you okay? You were dreaming... about Hope." Lizzy looked both concerned and confused, and maybe a little weirded out. She reached to turn on her bedside light while Josie caught her breath.

Josie turned her wide eyes to her sister. "Lizzy, I... I keep seeing her. I think she's still in my head..."

(...)

"Are you sure this will work?" Josie looked skeptically at MG, who simply shrugged unsurely at her.

"I don't know, but it's worth a try?" He looked hopeful for a second, then tried to focus his mind while waiting for Josie to give him the go-ahead.

Lizzy was pacing the room on the other end as she watched the two seated in front of each other on Josie's bed. After Josie figuring that Hope was probably stuck in her subconscious, the twins enlisted the help of their vampiric friend to try and allow Josie entry into the deepest reaches of her own mind in order to find Hope. They felt very unsure of what they were doing, however.

"How exactly is this supposed to work anyway?" Lizzy asked, impatience lacing her voice. She was not fond of the idea that the tribrid, with whom she had only recently called a shaky truce, was taking up residence in the back of her twin's mind, especially not when it was causing Josie so much nighttime distress, and interfering with Lizzy's sleep.

"I don't know, Liz. It's not really an exact science. I just know that when Hope was stuck in the Necromancer's subconscious, he was the one to bring her out. Maybe Josie can do the same now." MG wasn't feeling very sure of himself or the situation. He was no expert in taking head dives yet, though a part of him felt responsible for Hope being stuck in her current predicament as he is the one who essentially put her there in the first place.

"Okay enough. Just do it." Josie snapped, not in the mood for any bickering while she dealt with the current dilemma. She sighed and closed her eyes, emptying her thoughts as MG did the same, his hands reaching for hers.