I was standing in what seemed to be an open street, completely deserted. I looked around, trying to make sense of my surroundings, but I found nothing familiar. How did I even end up here? I had no idea where I was. Everything felt off. It didn't seem like a normal place.

There weren't any cars or street lights. There was a handful of old, abandoned buildings, the best of which still seemed to be falling apart. The only source of illumination was the moon. The moon... it was surprisingly bright, but I paid no attention to it. I was more concerned with assessing the area.

The structures we're old and had an unsettling feel to them. The blindfolds were down, and it seemed to me that there was no one in them. In fact, there was no sign of life around, not even mice or stray animals. The place was quiet, completely desolate. I noticed the black ash that stained several of the buildings and piles of rubble and smouldering wood, no doubt the remains of what used to be a house. It looked to me like the aftermath of a war.

Tired of standing in a spot, I began to walk around, desperate to find a way out or some hint of humanity. Maybe someone would be able to assist me in getting out, or at the very least, help me make sense of what was going on.

After what felt like hours, I came across a small lake. Tired and in desperate need of water, I ran to it. I had just reached it when I noticed a reflection on the face of the water.

The girl I was staring at looked nothing like who I knew her to be. She had on tight black leather pants and a black hoodie. Underneath it was a plain dark grey top that looked almost black, her hair which was put up in a high ponytail swung against her mid back as I turned to properly inspect the reflection. She had all sorts of weapons attached to her outfit, and they all looked strange, not like your everyday gun or dagger. The only thing that pointed her out as the same person was her face, but there was a strange, almost wild look on it. And it scared me because I was looking at myself in the water except I wasn't really myself.

And then I saw it.

There in the lake was the reflection of the moon. It was a deep crimson red that sent chills down my spine, a blood moon. I finally knew why it was so bright. I was more freaked out by this place. Why was everything so strange? I felt troubled by its sight, like something was about to go terribly wrong.

I turned around hastily only to be met with a scary sight. I had been surrounded by strange, beastly creatures. Most of them looked human, but somehow, I knew they weren't. Then from the crowd stepped out three human like creatures, the one who I supposed was in charge signalled to the others, and they left, leaving just him, the other two he came with and me. I looked at them, noticing the one with blue eyes. His face betrayed no emotions. He looked familiar, yet I couldn't place his face.

After a brief moment of silence, the leader spoke. "Well, my dear, we meet again." He advanced towards me, his pace slow and calculating like that of a predator. For some reason, I couldn't move. I kept staring into his deep green eyes as though I were hypnotized by them. That was his poison to capture me, the prey. In a flash, he was by my side.

"You're just as beautiful as I remember" He continued as his voice reduced to a cold whisper "And now you're all mine" Before I could react, I found myself being lifted away into the darkness. I looked to the one with blue eyes as though he could help me, but he made no move to do so.

And then I screamed.

I woke up screaming like the devil himself was put to get me. Beads of sweat gathered on my face, running down my next and back. As I looked around, the familiarity of the room I was in calmed me down a little. “It was just another dream” I said to myself quietly.

I had been having nightmares more often the past month, and each one was more scary and confusing than the last. I'd never really been normal. Even before my parents died, strange things had been happening to me. I wasn't like the other kids, and I basically never interacted with them in places other than school.

Sometimes, I'd wake up and find myself floating in thin air. Other times, I'd imagine things, and they'd just appear out of nowhere. The most disturbing was my dreams. I found them very peculiar, and sometimes they'd even manifest in real life. Sounds like witchy mojo, right? But lately, they seemed to be getting worse and more suggestive, always pointing to the same thing. At least, that was what I thought because I had no idea what the 'thing' was.

My parents had gotten me a therapist, and it seemed to be working back then, but I still wasn't satisfied, I wasn't getting the closure I wanted. I  wanted to be assured that I was normal and that bad things wouldn't keep happening to me. Something was still wrong with me. They called them hallucinations, but I knew they were more than that.

I silently hoped that my nightmares would remain just that and wouldn't come to haunt me in real life.

The sound of my alarm brought me back to reality, I reached over to my bedside table, and I almost lost my head as I stared at the time. It was already 7:30 am and I'd set my alarm for 6:30 am. How did I sleep through the alarm?! It was the loudest I could get, yet it still couldn't wake me up. At that point, I started to think that I truly did have a 'waking up late for school' problem.

I was supposed to pick Laurel up, and I only had about 10 minutes to get ready and make it to school in 20 minutes, or Laurel would really make me lose my head. “I'm toast” I muttered as I dashed out of bed and into the bathroom. I had my bath in record time, and as soon as I stepped out, my phone rang. The dreaded call had come. I took a deep breath and picked up my phone.

"Hey Laurel, how are you do_"

"Alexandria, do you have any idea what time it is?" she yelled, cutting me off. "I've been trying to reach you all morning. If you're not at my doorstep in 10 minutes, I'm leaving without you!"

I moved the phone away from my ear and closed my eyes as she spoke. She ended the call, and I sighed. She was seriously angry.

I didn't have time to select an outfit, so I just picked out a light blue mini jeans skirt that stopped right above my knees, brown knee high boots, a cream halter top and a brown frock coat. I packed my long hair up in a ponytail and left to see Laurel.

Laurels home was just a few blocks from mine, we lived in those estates where the houses were huge and had identical exteriors. This meant I only had a few more minutes before I would be standing at Laurel's doorstep, especially since I was driving. I looked around, trying to get my mind off the impending doom.

The street was mostly quiet except for the occasional car pulling out of the driveway, and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, which, like the rooftops, were dusted with several layers of snow. The weather forecast had said it would be 6 degrees today, yet I didn't feel that cold. There was no sign of birds or other tiny creatures. Christmas decorations still adorned the streets, and most of the house exteriors, making the cold winter, feel a little more welcoming.

I stopped the car and looked to my right. The mansion before me, like many others, still had Christmas decorations. On the lawn was a statue of Mr and Mrs Santa Claus and to their left, their 7 reindeers, and a sleigh filled with fake gifts. The roof was decorated with Christmas lights, and right in the middle was a statue of holy Mary with a little baby wrapped in her hands.

I got out of the car and moved closer to the house until I stood at the door. I took in a deep breath and braced myself as I pressed the doorbell. In less than a second, Laurel was standing at the door staring at me, her face full of disapproval as she shook her head.

"Listen, Laurel, I know you're mad, but at least hear my side of the story... I bought a new alarm clock, and I decided to try it out today. Turns out it was fake. It didn't wake me up, so don't be mad it totally wasn't my fault."

"Who ever said I was mad."

"Wow, you're not mad...?” I asked, feeling unsure.

"No."

"Oh, thank goodness you're not upset." I sighed, relief washing over me

"I'm not mad. I'm furious." Oh no, I'm dead."You kept me waiting for over an hour while you were doing what? Sleeping, I'm sure, then you come over here to blame your alarm clock. Yet you somehow expect me to be calm, oh no missy, I want an apology, or we won't move from this spot."

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? You know what, sorry, doesn't cut it. How about a hug?” I looked up at Laurel with her arms open, smiling at me like she hadn't just screamed at me. I accepted the hug, relieved that she wasn't really angry

"You should've seen your face. You looked like a kid that had just been caught stealing candy. Am I really that scary?"

"When you're angry, yes."

She laughed again, leading me inside. "Have you had anything to eat?" I shook my head. She left and came back with a bottle of water and a sandwich.

"Come on eat up then we'll leave, we're already late enough as it is all because someone hasn't met an alarm she couldn't sleep through" I eyed her as she called out to her mum.

"Mum, we're leaving now,"

"Okay honey, bye, have a nice day at school, you too, Alexa," Mrs Adam replied from somewhere upstairs.

"Thank you, Mrs Adam." I quickly ate my sandwich, then drank some water, and we were out.

I got into the car and turned on the heater. Laurel took off her coat. It was then I noticed her outfit. She had on a violet dress that went down to her knees on it she wore a small black jacket, silver sandals which matched her earrings and bracelet while her peacoat was a snowy white.

"Wow, Laurel, you look lovely. Are you trying to get Sebastian to fall in love again?" she smiled, blushing slightly.

"Oh please, I don't need to make myself up for Sebastian, but as cheerleader, girlfriend to one of the cutest guys in school and best friend to the school queen, I have a reputation to keep up. I'm not like some people who look inhumanely gorgeous without even trying"

I smiled, some people just never change although Laurel was right about something, even I couldn't deny that I was actually really pretty and with peculiar features; dirty blonde hair from my dad, bright blue eyes from my mum, a slender body, pale skin from my dad and really long hair that reached below my waist. That I think I got from grandma, her hair was the longest I'm the family, apart from mine. Attributes and behavioural characteristics I got from my mum I was definitely as stubborn as I remembered her being.

After 5 minutes, I pulled into the school parking lot. It was filled with cars and a few students still outside. I took out my coat, put it on, and locked the car. Laurel and I hurried down the hall to our lockers, where we got the basic things we needed and moved to our classes. On our way, I noticed that there was quite a number of people still littering the hallways, which was very surprising considering the time. We had almost reached History class when a tall, lean, pale skinned boy stepped in our way. Even I had to admit he looked good today, his hair was brushed out in a cool sloppy manner that still looked good on him, he was wearing a teal sweater, dark jeans, black sneakers and a brown scarf around his neck.

But nothing about him drew me to him like his eyes did. A deep emerald green that looked at me so keenly, it felt they could see into my soul and knew me better than I knew myself. I never felt comfortable when I was around him, especially when he looked at me. My dad had green eyes too, but Sebastian's were... different.

"Sebastian!" Laurel said excitedly. I moved away to allow both of them talk.

"Hey babe, what's up?" he replied as she hugged him.

"I'm doing pleasantly fine, thank you, and I think I can say the same for you considering how dashingly handsome you look."

"Oh baby, are you flirting with me? because if you are, it's totally working. I wish I could have you all to myself, my princess" I felt him momentarily glance at me as he delivered that last line, it was so quick that if I had blinked I would've definitely missed it. I shook my head, trying not to give it much thought.

I was honestly getting uncomfortable. I was a romantic, too. I always thought of love as a beautiful thing that brought joy and pain but managed to survive withstanding all the trials. Laurel's and Sebastian's cheesiness was just too much for me. I did sometimes wish that one day someone would say those things to me and others would be the ones disturbed by our cheesiness.

It was only wish, and i knew all too well that most wishes never came true. This one in particular could never become reality. I knew what could happen if I were to let my guard down and lose what little control i had over my craziness. Even Laurel knew she was taking a major risk by being close to me. That was why I loved her so much. She knew what I was capable of doing, yet she didn't shy away from me like the other kids who knew nothing but just felt I was weird. We were practically sisters, and it was because of her and gram that I still had a reason to wake up each day.

"Uh Laurel, I'll be off to class now," I told her as I walked past them.

"Okay, I'll see you 4th period," she replied, still staring at Sebastian, all googly eyed.

I composed myself as I entered the class. Little did I know the surprise that awaited me.

Our history teacher hadn't arrived yet, and the class was filled with noisy teens. Immediately I entered, I felt a rush of thoughts. Going through them, I finally understood why everyone seemed to be anticipating something. He approached me calmly, and the entire room went silent.

“Hey Alexa. How was your weekend?”

“Fine thanks for asking” I tried to make my way around him, but he followed, blocking my path.

“I just wanted to ask you if you'd like to sit with me during lunch” he dropped the question I'd been expecting. I'd thought it was impossible for the class to become quieter, but now the silence was deafening.

He wasn't asking me me on a date, but it might as well have been one.

Every fibre of my being was telling me to say no and get it over with, yet there was a voice of reason in my head urging me to accept. A voice that had never been there before. I couldn't make an exception for him because I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the class. He knew what he was getting into when he decided to ask me.

Even with all the logic behind why I should say no. My answer was, in contrast to what I wanted, it felt like my mind thought something, but my mouth uttered a completely different thing. It was an answer I couldn't control or take back.

“Yes”

He smiled at me for a brief moment before regaining his 'cool guy look'

“I guess I'll see you then” he walked off to his seat. His friends huddled around him, doing the stuff guys do when their friends get girls, and Adrian had a huge smirk on his face the whole time. The drama was over now, but in the minds of others, I could hear conflicting thoughts... Girls wishing Adrian had asked them boys, wondering why I chose him. Very few were okay with it. Regardless, I didn't care.

All these people see me as is a price, some trophy to take home and then boast to others about. Not one person in the class knew a thing about me, other than what I let them see, not much.

I walked back to my usual seat at the back. I wondered why the teacher still wasn't here, I decided to ask the boy on my right. “Hey do you have any idea where Mr Drew is?”

He looked at me a little startled “Yeah, the principal called for a meeting with all the teachers this morning, but I don't think any of them are back yet” I nodded and thanked him. I pretended not to notice the light blush on his face.

I decided to return to Laurel. As soon as I reached for the door, it came at me, hitting me square in the face. I tripped over my own feet and ended up on the ground.