*Gasp*
Isa woke up to another nightmare, completely drenched in cold sweat and shaking with fear. Lucky, who had been sleeping on her bed, woke up and looked at her questioningly. He crawled over to her and nuzzled her palms until her breathing eased and trembling seized. Then he went back to bed. He loved Isa a lot, but wasn’t accustomed to waking up this early.
Isa moved to sit at the edge of her bed, rubbing her face tiredly and looking at the alarm clock.
6:30AM
She took out her phone and sent a quick text to Campbell, saying that she won’t be walking to school with her. Campbell was still asleep by this time anyway.
Isa left her bed for the toilet after giving Lucky’s head a good rub, then she did her morning rituals and got dressed. Leaving a short note for Aaron on the kitchen counter, she grabbed two breakfast bars and left for school.
By the time she reached the school gates, the sky had gotten brighter, and she waved a greeting to the security guard, who in turn waved back, surprised. “Isabella White. You’re here pretty early today.”
“Yeah, I just got some unfinished homework I’d like to get to,” she responded with a smile.
“Want to finish up homework, ey? Did you sleep well last night?” He asked incredulously as he unlocked the gates and stepped aside for Isa to walk through.
“Of course I did,” she lied through her teeth. “What’s so strange about getting up very early to finish up your homework at school?”
He chortled. “Just not what I hear from kids your age. Enjoy your day Isabella,” he called as he waved at her and walked away.
“You too, thanks,” she yelled moving into the compound.
As expected, there wasn’t a single student in school, so Isa went into the library to keep herself busy. Settling on a chair, she looked around the library. Empty, quiet and lonely. This dragged her mind to think about her nightmare.
It wasn’t as scary as the last one she had, but that didn’t make it any better. They were constant now. Traveling from the vicinity of her dreams and entering her imaginations. And what could she do? No matter how much she tried to think happy thoughts before bed, the nightmares always seemed to come back.
Would she constantly be tortured in her sleep? Was she to live with them forever?
“I need to get myself in order and keep busy,” she muttered dejectedly.
“What to do…” she drawled, as she looked around the library, focusing on the large volumes of books arranged neatly on their shelves. So she decided to stack books.
Isa took off several books off the shelves and began restacking them slowly, to pass time. At least, till her friends showed up in school.
Fifteen minutes of mindless books stacking had passed with Isa still on the job. She hardly noticed when the school had started getting rowdy with the inflow of students. Or when the librarian came up behind her and bellowed, almost making Isa jump out of her skin.
“What do you think you’re doing?! These books were properly stacked yesterday and now, what have you done?!” The librarian hissed.
Isa’s eyes went wide as her hands flew to her chest in surprise. She didn’t expect her to sneak up on her like that. Isa immediately recalled the incident in the hallway and swallowed painfully.
“I’m asking you a question girl!” She bit out, eyeing Isa with spite from behind her heavy lensed glasses.
“I was doing research so I was looking through a lot of books. But I’m putting them back now, just the way they were yesterday, see?” Isa rushed, as she put a few books on the shelf for good measure. The librarian narrowed her eyes to slits.
“Why were you so early to school?” She asked, suspicion laced in every syllable.
“I…I just wanted to come to school early.” The librarian watched Isa with undisguised doubt. But not finding what she was looking for, she turned away and left.
Isa plopped down on a chair tiredly and thought back to the day she overheard the conversation between the librarian and janitor. She resolved to question the librarian about it. She was scared but it did concern her after all. It had bothered her since that day.
With a shaky breath, Isa walked up to the librarian’s desk and braced herself.
“Excuse me Mrs…Miss…”
She quickly realized that she didn’t know how to address her by anything apart from vulture. The librarian looked up from her computer and glared fiercely at Isa.
“… librarian. Can I please ask you a question?”
“No.”
“I know it is wrong to eavesdrop on people’s conversations but…I overheard you and the janitor and…you talked about me” Isa watched her for any reaction, but she had gone back to her work. “Something about me getting hurt by some evil and people losing their lives…” but the librarian ignored her existence and typed on.
Isa frowned. She was ignoring her on purpose, but Isa wasn’t going to leave without an answer. “I didn’t understand what you were talking about and I still don’t understand. Would you please explain it to me?”
Silence.
“Please I need to know what’s going on and what’s after me.”
Silence.
Isa clenched her fists in anger and she raised her voice, “I think I deserve to know. No, I have the right to know what you or anyone else is talking about me, and from what I heard, there’s something out there seeking to harm me and here I am begging you to tell me what’s going on and you’re just keeping mute?!”
But the librarian acted like there wasn’t a demanding teenage girl in front of her desk.
“Can you tell me?” Isa pleaded gently.
Silence.
“Please?”
Silence
“Please!”
Silence.
She stomped her foot hard on the ground and yelled in frustration, “can you just open your mouth and say something?! I need an explanation and you’re just igno…”
“Shut up!” She hissed viscously.
“Just shut your filthy mouth up!” The glare she threw at Isa made her swallow her words and her tongue.
“You want an explanation young lady? Here’s an explanation. Your stupid little life is in danger as long as you’re in this town, and I won’t be the least surprised if you died, as you are an overly curious, irresponsible, inexperienced and foolish fifteen years old. Yes! Everything you overheard about you is true, but what shall you do? Just wait like a foolish little lamb for the time of your slaughter. You can do nothing. This is evil territory and you are under its wicked control. You can’t do anything.
So my advice is that you forget about everything you heard then and now because you have finally caught the madness poisoning this town. Do you hear me Isabella White? You are a mad girl!”
And just like that, the librarian returned to her work normally, as if she hadn’t given someone the shock of her life.
Isa silently turned away and returned to her seat. She moved like a leaf being blown by the wind and she was very pale. She sat down with a dull thud and gazed into space.
So it was all true…
Everything she’d heard them say was true. Evil was coming, and it was coming for her. Her life was in danger and…she couldn’t do anything about it.
Was it a mistake coming back to Redwood Cove? Did she deliberately write her own death? But she had no idea, and if she did, she wouldn’t have thought of coming back. She would rather stay in the orphanage and endure till she was eighteen.
So what would she do now?
Run away, hide, pretend? If she told anyone about this…who would believe her?
The librarian was probably right. She was mad…
“Isa?” Bailey’s sharp voice interrupted her train of thoughts.
“What are you doing here?” She asked, taking the seat beside Isa. “Woah why are you so pale…and what is this?” Bailey touched Isa’s cheek.
“Tears? Why are you crying Isa? What happened, tell me.”
But Isa was not responding. She stared into space and wondered what was going on. Why was she crying? Was she so scared of what she had realized?
“Hey!” Bailey called, as and shook Isa’s shoulders. “Tell me what happened to you.”
But Isa only stared back at her.
“Isa?” Campbell called out as she hurried towards the two with the rest of the group. “Girl, I’ve been looking for you all ov…”
“What’s wrong?” Dylan asked suddenly, squinting his eyes at Isa’s form.
“O my gosh,” gasped Campbell as she drew closer to Isa, “oh Isa what happened. Why are you so pale and…crying?”
But Isa didn’t reply.
Campbell leaned towards Bailey and inquired, “please tell me what happened to her. Why is she like this?”
“I don’t know,” said Bailey sadly. “She looks like she’s in deep shock and I’ve asked her but she won’t say anything,” she added.
“Come on Isa, tell us what happened” Cole pressed, “something’s wrong.”
“Something’s obviously wrong with you and until you start talking, you’re not getting any help. Unless you’re okay with sitting down there and feeling sorry for yourself,” Ciara stated.
“Ciara!” Campbell scolded.
“She’s right. We’ve noticed that you’re not okay like you pretend to be. Something’s bugging you, and I think it’s about time you tell us what’s really going on.”