Amber Erin Anderson

Nathan was no longer swirling his spoon in his bowl after seeing how still everything had gotten and how I was also serious. He stared at my wrist that I was facing towards him and raised an eyebrow. "Your birthmark?" He asked, still looking at my wrist. "I mean, yeah, it's a bit strange for a birthmark and it's been always like that. But what about it?"

I swallowed, taking a breath. "Listen, Nathan," I said, licking my lips. "You know how strange things always happen around me? Like, at the orphanage I was the only one who didn't have any identity at all and I just happened to appear out of nowhere in the middle of a night?" I said, taking another breath and releasing it.

Nathan bobbed his head, never once interrupting me. I continued. "And then after coming to the orphanage, I didn't remember a single thing at all and then I always had this dream for like, seven months? You know, that dream where I would always see this white-haired woman looking at me and a boy with mirror eyes and then back in high school, I used to play around with fire?" I looked at him, my eyes big. "Because I thought fire and I had some sort of connection'?" I cringed, remembering the memories.

"And now, another very strange thing has happened with me," I leaned back in my chair, clenching my jaw.

Nathan gestured me with his emerald eyes to continue.

"Look," I leaned back towards the table, showing him my wrist again as I realised how I was shaking my legs. "This is going to sound totally absurd and totally nonsensical but," I licked my lips, nodding at him. "I want you to believe in me because whatever this happened to me, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Amber," Nathan watched me sternly. "What happened?"

I swallowed for the umpteenth time. "My birthmark — it glowed yesterday."

Nathan was quiet.

I was quiet.

Even the air around us turned silent.

Until there was a sudden strong gush of wind which made my windows collide with each other aggressively and make a sound that made both, Nathan and I, flinch. None of us bothered to go and close the windows.

"Glowed?" Nathan asked, laughed while running a hand through his hair. "Is this—" he stood up. "Is this a prank, Amber?"

I huffed out a breath. "No, it's not!"

"What do you mean it glowed? And when did it glow?" He asked me back and then sighed, like it was stupid of him to ask that question. "Amber, I was almost worried about you—"

"It glowed yesterday. At the restaurant when that bald man was firing me. It happened then but I hid it with my other hand," I said, also standing up, almost losing my balance but I grabbed the chair. "It glowed. . . And . . . Specks were coming out of it. I could see dark little specks and they were glowing!" I didn't even realise when I was yelling.

Nathan said nothing. He only let out a breath.

"You don't believe me," I said, stepping away from the chair, from him, as I grabbed my wrist. "You don't believe me," I said again, my eyes twitching.

"Amber, I think you were too scared at the moment and then you created this thing in your head—"

"It was real, dammit!" I said, my headache worsening, my body feeling weak, my throat aching along with my body and I could feel the fever rising. "I also thought it was fake but Nathan, it was real. It really glowed and I have a very bad feeling about this because this is not normal at all. This wasn't suppose to happen. My birthmark was not suppose to glow—"

My head felt like it wanted to explode and my body felt like it wanted to give up but my legs gave up first but Nathan had already rushed towards me, grabbing my arms just in time before I fell to the ground. He held me gently and I pressed my hands in my eyes, unable to think straight.

"Amber," he wrapped my hand around his neck as he walked towards my room along with me limping. "Take rest. I will get the medicine and if you need anything, call me. Don't get up, alright?" I unwrapped my hand from his neck and threw myself on the bed.

"Nathan, it was real. My wrist really glowed," I said, my eyes covered with my forearm.

He heard me and yet, he said nothing. "I will make you soup before I leave. If anything happens, call me ASAP," he was about to leave when I called him again and maybe he faced me, but I wouldn't know because my eyes were closed and covered.

I wanted to call Nathan again, and tell him again. I wanted to tell him again and again — until he finally believed me but I knew he wouldn't.

So, I turned around, facing the other side of my bed. "Take the spare key so I don't have to open the door when you come here. I don't think I'll have the strength to get up." And with that being said, he left for the kitchen while I lay there with my aching body and my heavy heart.

****

My whole day was spent looking for jobs online and applying for them and now that my body no longer ached every time I moved, I decided to make myself walk to the balcony and stay there until Nathan came back.

Standing up, I realised my headache was still there, at the back of my head, always ready to shoot me with its piercing pain whenever I moved my head or my body too much.

I sighed as I wrapped my fingers around the railings of my balcony while looking at the full moon. The moon shone down at everything but for now, I felt like it was shining down at me the most, almost in a mocking manner for always messing up and failing whenever I tried to do something new.

Whatever jobs I got in my life, they didn't last long before I finally messed up but this one, I had a good feeling about this one. I thought I'd make the best out of it. I thought I'd do my best and not mess up like I always did.

But I messed up.

My eyes landed on my right wrist and my birthmark.

Maybe Nathan was right. Maybe this wasn't all real. Maybe I'd created this all in my head.

I was stressed out at the moment and I was scared as well. And I needed a distraction – desperately. So, maybe I created this thing in my head just so I could divert my attention towards something else.

It wasn't real.

It was all in your head.

It wasn't real.

It wasn't re—

Something crackled on my left, almost like embers crinkling and crackling, making me turn around quick, my eyes wide as I saw dark red particles appearing out of nowhere, making my heartbeat quickened.

The crimson particles continued growing, eating up all of my balcony's space and they continued growing in number until a humongous circle had taken its place on my balcony. Red specks swirled around the circled doorway, the inside of it too bright to see anything while I gripped my railings with one hand and another gripping my mouth, stopping it from screaming.

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.

This is real. This is not a hallucination. Get the phone and dial—

My feet suddenly felt like they were glued to the ground and before I knew it, I was starting to tremble when I saw a human, a living creature, coming out of that thing and landing his feet on my balcony.

My headache started getting worse and suddenly, my vision was getting blurry, making me grip the railings with both of my hands.

An ear splitting noise was all I could hear as I saw a guy making his way towards me while I tried my best to walk away from him but I couldn't — my body was too weak, I couldn't think straight, couldn't move my tongue and speak, my head was spinning, my balcony was dizzying, everything was circling and happening so fast I didn't know what to do.

Even with everything that was happening around my body I still caught a glimpse of the guy: his shoulder-length hair so white he almost reminded me of the woman I used to dream about when I was a kid, his eyes so tearful and silver, he looked so much like the boy with mirror eyes, his features softening when he saw me, his cheeks suddenly being bathed by his tears and that was all I could see before I started to lose my balance, my hands leaving the railings, my legs giving up on me.

This must have been another hallucination of mine or maybe it was not, but even with the ringing around my ears, I could hear my front door opening with a creak and I could hear Nathan coming in and saying he brought me new flavours of soup before he dropped everything that was in his hands and rushed towards the balcony, cursing at the scene and yelling my name.

"Amber . . . " Before I could realise that it was the boy with mirror eyes who was calling my name so gently, I had already succumbed to darkness.