Another Life, JenniferNewman [short story to read .TXT] 📗

to every day life. Living the lie as best I could. Ech after ech enhanced by the nearness of rocked sounded. Suddenly a loud bang sounded and I jumped. Jumped right out of bed and onto the carpeted floor.
What!
Huh?
When?
Why?
I stood in a quick fluid motion and stumbled back down onto the bed. Blinking several times before fully opening my eyes and looking around my room. I was Rose not the girl; by the beach. I was me. Breathing softly letting the heart ache of the girls loss seep away from me as the dream distanced itself from me. The images of the sea and the feel of the rushing wind was seeping away. Replacing itself by the feel of ruff covers and a breeze from my open window.
Wait open window? Arr crap!
I stood up once again now fully awake and hurriedly dodged my way over to my window slamming it shut and slumping against the wall with my head on my knees.
Well great cant I have just one moment of peace? If it wasn’t weird enough I have now found out that Cody can control my sight. The little episode at the park two days ago was enough to freak me out but now I have a feeling that he has control over my dreams. Well tis just gets better and better…..
Yep I'm a wimp. Get over it! I stood up again and walked over to my computer desk. Time didn’t matter to me now I still had the feeling of lose. That I had had during I'm over real dream. I felt like my heart and soul was out there in the dream like sea. Just like the girl I had been in there. I had never in my seventeen years had a dream so vivid as that. And this freaked me out. Really this ghost thing was really messing up my sleep. Really I used to get like fifteen hours sleep if I wanted now not so much.
I reached my computer chair and say down leaning over the desk to reached the phone there. I was thinking about calling Sophie to talk. Just to get my head straight. But typically I glanced at the clock and thought twice. Unless I was in the mode to get yelled at for waking her at 1:30am I think I’ll just put the phone down.
Well there has to be some way for me to feel like normal again and not keep thinking about the chance that Cody was watching me now. Well isn’t that just a great thought. I grimaced and twisted the button ion the computer to turn it on. Maybe reading long emails about pretty much nothing would be the cure to this stupidity.
When I logged onto my MSN I pretty quickly figured out that this would defiantly not be the cure to my stupidity or freaking ghosts story’s anyway. Well you know I don’t thinks this is going to be that easy… hell if I was only that lucky!
I quickly gave up on trying to concentrate on the emails and shut down the whole thing and unplugged it just for something to do. I really was doing anything to avoid going back to bed and with that sleep. That really was not a good idea. Tomorrow I would be tired and grumpy as always but I would not be able to complain since it was my fault I had stayed up all night finding little pathetic things to do like unplug computers. Yeah what a life I lead…..
I pushed away from the desk and steadily walked over to my door where I had dumped my bag from yesterday when I had gone out to the shops to get milk. Wow that sounded exciting. No really that was not meant to be sarcastic. For a change…….
I pulled out my mobile and scrolled down the menu until I found the icon for pictures. I had 579 pictures stored on my phone more on my old phone something like 987 maybe. Well looking through them might take a while. Something to fill up my time.
As I scrolled down looking at picture after picture I came across one of me my Mum and Dad. I stopped at this one for several minutes wondering how one minute we could look so happy as a family. Like we would be that way for ever and then the next the whole thing turned on its head. With my Dad killing himself and my Mum becoming even more controlling and moody than before. I could not blame her for this I could not even bring myself to blame my Dad for this. I could not work it out. How could he kill himself there MUST be a reason! Something, anything! I could not think of a thing.
I moved from that picture and onto one of Sophie and Kat outside the collage with their coats over their heads hiding from the pouring rain.
I could not even remember taking this picture. My brain was all fuzzy from lack of sleep. I found myself on my bed laying down and closing my eyes before I could even think about making the command for my legs to move.
My phone was on the side table and my head was on the pillow with the warm covers over me. Soon but not soon enough sleep would take me and I would once again be at the mercies of Cody and whatever dream he felt like planting in my head this time.

Walking round and around. Waiting for something that would show us the right way to turn. Waiting. Shuffling from side to side. Picking up our pace. Take a turn left then right. More waiting. We stop for a rest then pick up speed. We must get there before dark!
Our one aim was to stay alive every feeling every physical need could wait. Spirits were low and many of us were insane with hunger. We had drifted far from our last resting place and many of us were falling to the ground unable to carry on. Light was slowly drifting down on the west side of the trees to our left. Night was approaching quickly. We have to make it!
Drops of cold water began to fall. Making the journey just that much more miserable. More of my friends started to slow. This march was taking its toll on us all.
I broke away from the group and over to a steep slope. Something was driving me in this direction. Something was different in the atmosphere. Danger was approaching. Changing rout again so that I was following the others but a couple of feet of to the right in the trees. Unseen. The point of this exercise was known but I went with it anyway. We all needed to get out of these trees and safe before sun fall.
The sound of heavy foot falls behind me made me freeze. Too late. The shifters were here. Soon enough we would be surrounded. Trapped and scared to where to turn. Helpless like the animals they were.
I shuffled backwards away from the group. If I could help it I would not allow the others to get hurt. If I moved away maybe they would follow me. I could not even bear to think of all theses helpless children and adults that were traveling with me torn limb from limb. The image that shot back at me was not one I would have liked to have seen at the very same moment I felt the heavy breathing on a shifter right by my neck. I froze unable to move. Even the tiniest bit.
I held my breath hoping the- the whatever it was would just run back to where ever it had come from. More footsteps. Crowding around. Coming in for the kill. My years were done.
The fear the at pulsed through my body was not the last thing I would have wished myself to have felt before the wild teeth started to rip me apart. My small little body discarded on the ground. Only a distant memory. Fading, fading away.
Was this death? It felt the same. Was I speared?
In opened my eyes just that little bit. Nothing the space around me was empty. Filled with trees. Trees and more trees. I had been speared!
I listened out for the sound of my group as they walked away. Had they been speared too?
I ran after them narrowly missing trees I hadn’t seen until the last second and stumbling on sticks and stones in my way. I have to reach them. Warn them. So close no!
Scream after scream reached my ears. Shivers of danger rang through my body as I stopped suddenly. Glancing round me wildly. This cannot be so!
NO!

I sat bolt upright in my bed as my alarm went off. The adrenaline of the forest was still with me. Sweat on my forehead was becoming apparent. Deep breaths. Just a dream I told myself. Just a dream! I lay back down and closed my eyes still breathing softly to calm myself. I groaned as the alarm reached its high pitched climax and then suddenly went off the same as every morning.
One week left of freedom and soon I would be back learning. Learning about stuff that would be completely unimportant if Cody won his little game of ‘so many different ways of killing Rose which one should I choose?’ oh what fun!
I blinked back sleep and slowly pulled myself up so I was sitting with my back against my bed. no I could not think that way yes there was a real chance that my education was just going to be a waste but there was also a big chance that it would not. I could really become the thing I wanted. To be able to run my own life for a change. Just get away from it all. All the memoirs I would have gladly forgotten. All the fake dreams that were now frusting themselves into my head while I slept.
Well Cody if your aim was to scare me to death then well its working. After all I could just hide out here until he killed me. After all what was the point of going out and making everything worse.
I lay back down at this thought and closed my eyes waiting for the next stupid dream to pop up. I still had the feeling of the forest under my feet so maybe I would be placed back in that one with the fear of the ‘shifters’ right……
Instead of sleep came memories the exact memories I had just seconds ago been wishing I could forget.
Well that takes that choice straight away. I quickly lifted my head off the pillow and sat up again. I pulled my legs which felt way to much like dead weights well more than usual.
I shuffled over to my wardrobe and pulled out underwear and a dress that went done to about my knees. The dress itself had been a gift from my Gran last year when she had come back from her trip to France. It was a sky blue with a high neck that had the picture of a purple flower going down its side. I wasn’t part of my usual style but I loved it all the same.
A couple of minutes later I was dressed and in the front of the mirror attempting to tame my hair. I had just had a shower the other night so my hair was really not in the mood to cooperate with me. I gave up pretty quick and headed back to