Her eyes focused on the surroundings that lay stretched out in front of her. Full of pine trees, broken branches and an eerie silence. A chill breeze swept past the back of her neck making her nerves stand on end.
"Where am I?" she wondered.
The skin on her arms were of a pale reflection, like a mirror ghost. There was no way to describe what was going to happen to her. She was in a woods but which woods? The contradicting thoughts raced back and forth through her brain. Her heart pounded as she took one small step forward... and crunched a huge twig under her foot making the noise echo around the trees.
"Damn it," she swore under her breath, "I'm not alone here I don't think but I don't want to be found."
Mist started to form straight ahead of her in the distance, the chills started to run up and down the girl's spine as if to warn her that something bad was going to happen. There was no time to hide, whatever it was going to be, there was no time left.
Her eyes blinked and blinked again at the person that appeared in the mist opposite her, "Darcy?"
Darcy, another teen girl that this girl had called her best friend for many years stepped forward towards her. Written on her face was an ugly snarl which posed threat to the girl, "What do we have here then?"
"It's me!" protested the girl who by now was scared out of her wits, "You know, the girl whose been your best friend for many years!"
"Best friend? Pah! You're not my best friend, I wouldn't have someone as ugly as you for one." remarked Darcy as she started to walk in a circle around the girl.
"There has to be some mistake Darcy, don't you remember the time that we sat down at that picnic table and talked about surviving through school?" asked the girl as she slowly tried to fix her gaze onto Darcy.
"I'm not the mistake, you are. And for that." paused Darcy with a hint of aggression in her voice, "I've been sent to deal with you once and for all."
The girl stepped back a few steps as from nowhere, Darcy unleashed a huge spiked club that was obviously her main weapon. There was nothing she could do, fighting Darcy would be a mistake since she had no means of protection and defence.
"Goodbye freak." scoffed Darcy as she raised the club over the girl's head.
In a last minute desperation, the girl sank to her knees and screamed as loud as her throat and lungs would let her. Then, after what felt like hours, there was no sign of light. The girl was dead.
Tara sat bolt upright in a desperate frenzy, her eyes frantically took in the surroundings of her... dark bedroom. Her hands in a sweat, she pulled back the covers and stood up to look in the long mirror by her door, just in case there was a strike to the head but to her relief, her long brown hair had no signs of blood nor any trauma to it.
"What's the time?" she thought quietly to herself as she tiptoed across the room to look at the clock, "3:15am."
Only another three hours till she actually needed to get up for class. Tara sighed quietly with frustration, her face flushed red from the sweat and shock of the dream.
"Just another nightmare." she frowned as she sat on the edge of her bed fiddling with the tips of her hair. It hadn't been the first major nightmare she had experienced and most likely, it wouldn't be the last either.
Her phone situated on the side of her desk flashed on with a text message causing a bright light to reflect off the bedroom ceiling. Tara jumped up and examined the phone.
"Your bill will be sent to you directly from 17/10/15."
It was only the phone company changing her mum as they always did monthly for Tara's phone. They always texted her at odd times.
"Let's go online and see if anyone is up at this hour." whispered Tara in the darkness as she logged online to check her messages. Sure enough, the only person online was her boyfriend Robert who she had been dating for half a year now.
Robert wasn't the class clown or the bad boy or the sport kid, he was just Robert. His own person. And that was what Tara loved about him the most, he did his own thing which made him stand out amongst the crowd.
"Robert, it happened." typed Tara into the message box and pressed send with her heart pounding. Within seconds, Robert typed up a response, "What happened baby?"
Tara took a breath and typed, "Darcy tried to kill me."
There was a small pause after she pressed send before Robert finally replied back, "I'm coming to see you, right here, right now."
At 3:30 in the morning, Robert would try to come over. What would her parents think about that if they saw him?
"Be careful OK. I know that you only live 10 minutes away but I don't want you to get caught or injured." replied Tara as she switched her desk lamp on.
"I know baby, I'll be alright." reassured Robert as Tara kissed the phone screen with joy. Never in her life had she met such a kind, considerate boy.
Slowly, she got dressed into all dark clothing just to make sure that no-one spotted her leaving the house. The main way to get out would be to climb out of the lounge window and leave it unlocked so she could climb back in again. From across the corridor, Tara could hear her parents snore loudly but even though they were both asleep, they could still wake up if Tara made too much noise.
Navigating the stairs was one thing, getting out of the window was another story altogether. Even though Tara was sixteen, her height wasn't exactly tall. Her limbs stretched as far as they could go without causing discomfort. The weather was a clear sky but had chill in the air. The roads surrounding Tara's house was silent.
"Made it." she whispered and congratulated after the successful attempt out of the window. Feeling sneaky like a spy, she turned the corner towards a set of lights further down which during all the madness of the great escape, Robert would meet her. It didn't take her long to reach the set of lights and warmth of her boyfriend's embrace.631Please respect copyright.PENANABS84Pi3F3W
"I'm here baby, no-one's gonna hurt you." he whispered into the side of her ear as they locked into a cuddle. 631Please respect copyright.PENANATL9pqcztxz
Tara's eyes met his, "And that is why I love you, my protector."631Please respect copyright.PENANAhemb6PUeWW
Both of them quietly walked to some playing fields and ducked down out of sight behind a thick, leafy bush to keep the chill away from their watering eyes.631Please respect copyright.PENANAUW1DefBnDk
"It was Darcy this time?" questioned Robert, "I'm really surprised."631Please respect copyright.PENANA0FhX71IFB9
"What do you think she has against me? Like secretly?" whispered back Tara as she brushed a cold tear from her eye.631Please respect copyright.PENANAQ9PpEdjD4O
"Dreams are like that, nightmares make you question the real identity and truth behind people, I know that for a fact." said Robert as he gently brushed his hand over the side of his forehead to keep hair from flopping in front of his face, "My story probably won't be that believable but it's about you and I."631Please respect copyright.PENANApYldkqGrHn
"Us?" questioned Tara as she sat closer towards Robert, "What did I do?"631Please respect copyright.PENANAsCsBC1tKqr
Her boyfriend let out a chuckle that for a split second, showcased his straight perfectly cleaned teeth, "Before we started dating but after I met you. I had a dream and both of us were in it. It was at a party and I was trying to summon up the courage to ask you out. When I did, you said that you didn't want to date someone fluffy. I had no idea what you meant by that until I walked away and people started giggling that something was up. I looked into the reflection of this swimming pool water and saw fur was plastered all over my body."
Tara burst out laughing, "Robert! You tease."
"I can assure fair lady that I'm not teasing you. What I really experienced in that dream did happen, I do admit though after that dream, I started shaving more often." he smirked.
"Even though that was a funny dream, I still don't know why I'm having these bad dreams. Me and Darcy are practically sisters." wailed Tara as she folded her arms across her chest.
"Well, like I mentioned, dreams sometimes give false impressions out but do keep an eye out, just in case she is up to something." advised Robert as he looked passionately at his girlfriend.
"My love," she said as she kissed him, "I'm happy to have you."
As the night sky started to lighten up, Tara walked back towards her house but before climbing through the window, she squeezed Robert's hand, "I'll see you in school later."
"Of course, see you soon." he replied with a smile as he watched her climb inside to her home. Together, they would come down to the bottom of this mystery, even if it did mean following Darcy around like a guard dog.
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