Chapter 3
That night, I dreamt of my first day at school, when I'd sat eating my lunch on the school field.
Sean had just appeared in front of me.
“I wouldn't let her get to you!” He told me this time, making me jump. He hadn't said that the first time I'd met him.
When he looked down at my hand, I already knew that I would see the messy pulp of the orange. But when I looked down at my hand I saw blood. I looked back at Sean in alarm as four people appeared behind him, but these weren't the same people I'd seen in the field. Their heads were all Jessica's. I tried to move away from her enraged face. Her red hair furiously licked like flames around her.
“I warned you!” She screamed. I looked back at Sean for help, but he was Sean no more, he was Jessica.
Seeing the confusion in my face, all the Jessica's started laughing. Scrambling to my feet and leaving everything behind, I ran. All the time their laughter was ringing in my ears.
As I got near the school, the other students were laughing and pointing. My heart was beating fast. I still had blood on my hand, but from where? I saw the back of Kasey-Ray, as she stood talking to her friends. I reached out to touch her and she spun around, making me fall to the floor. This wasn't my sister, it was Jessica, and she was leaning over me, trying to claw at me.
I lay there on the floor, curled up in a ball and screamed.
“Erin?” A voice broke my scream as they shook me “Erin?” They called again.
Slowly I opened my eyes and cried out with relief when I saw my Mum sitting on my bed.
“Oh Mum.” I sobbed.
“Hey, it’s okay, you're safe now.” She soothed. “But we need to sort your head out.”
I quickly jumped up to see blood on my bed. I looked down at the hand I'd held the orange in and saw that was covered in blood too.
“Oh my god, what happened?” I screamed hysterically.
“I think you were having a nightmare and you must have scratched your cut!" She stood up and put her arm around me, as she placed a towel to my head. “Your Dad is just getting dressed; he's going to take you to the hospital. You're going to need stitches!”
I nodded, still crying. My dream had felt so real.
My Mum guided me down the stairs where my Dad was waiting. She helped me put my coat and trainers on as I sat there in a daze. My mind was flashing back and forth between my nightmare and reality. My Mum kissed my cheek and gave me a hug. She looked so worried and tired.
“Come on sweetie, get you in the car.” My Dad soothed. “I'll text when we’re leaving." He leant over and gave my Mum a kiss. She nodded as she kissed her fingers and placed them to my cheek. I thought she was going to cry.
For most of the journey, my Dad and I sat in silence. I sat there with the towel pressed tightly to my head, scared that if I moved it, blood would come pouring out.
“What were you dreaming about?” He finally asked, breaking the silence. He was trying to pretend that he wasn't too bothered what it was about.
“Rats!” I'd been sitting in silence for so long that I was able to come up with the perfect nightmare.
“Rats, eh?” My Dad nodded, not taking his eyes off the road. I wasn't sure if he believed me or not, so I thought I would elaborate, as I knew my Dad feared them as much as I did.
“Yeah, there were lots of them, and they were crawling all over me and trying to eat me.” I saw my Dad shiver and instantly I knew he believed me.
“I think I would have screamed too!” He gave me a nervous laugh. He looked relieved when he saw the turning for the hospital car park.
We didn't have to wait too long to be seen. Unfortunately I did need stitches, which meant that they had to shave off some hair around the cut. Luckily, I had the rest of my hair to cover it.
“Three stitches!” My Dad said. He had decided to phone my Mum, instead of texting. "Yeah, she's fine, just tired. I think she will be asleep before we get home." He laughed. “Ok baby, I'll see you soon. I love you!” Then he blew a kiss and hung up the phone. “Ready?” He turned to look at me and I nodded. I was really tired, but I wasn't going to fall asleep, mainly because I felt I needed to keep my Dad awake so we got home safely. Also, I was too scared to fall asleep, in case I dreamt of her again.
“You ever read Kes before Dad?” he shook his head as he fastened his seat belt.
“No, but I did see the film years ago.”
“Really? Mr Clarke wants us to finish our book by Tuesday, so we can watch the movie.” My Dad laughed. “What's funny?”
“When I was a kid, our English teacher said the same thing.”
“And?” I didn't see why that was funny.
“Well, most of us thought, why bother with the book if we are going the see the movie!" he winked.
“Ah, I see!” I could see his point.
“But, on the downside, he gave us a test on the book!” He laughed again.
“How did you do? Or needn't I ask?” I laughed too.
“Let's say, I didn't get a C or above.” We both laughed as he turned into our street and pulled into the driveway.
“Damn!” I said as I went to get out of the car
“What's wrong sweetie?”
“I left the towel at the hospital.” Dad was laughing again.
“I think you did your Mum a favour,” he winked.
It was dark inside the house, apart from the landing light. We slowly and quietly climbed the stairs, hoping not to wake anyone, but my Mum was already awake, we saw her coming out of my bedroom.
“Hi love!” She smiled. She looked relieved to see me smiling. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired!” I yawned.
“Well, I've changed your bed covers and switched your alarm off. No school for you tomorrow.” I wanted to tap dance when I heard the last bit. “Sleep as long as you want, and I'll try to keep Kasey-Ray quiet.”
Walking into my bedroom, I expected to see a scene from a horror movie, but my room was back to normal, no blood anywhere.
I climbed into bed and looked at my clock, 3:57am. Ouch! I thought. No wonder Mum said no school tomorrow.
I was too tired to fight sleep. When I did fall asleep, I didn't dream. Well I couldn't remember dreaming. I just knew that I felt rested as I slowly opened my eyes and looked at my clock, 11:33am. Wow, I slept half the day away. I lay there for another 30 minutes, not wanting to leave my warm cosy bed, but my bladder felt like it had its own alarm and was screaming at me to go to the bathroom.
No sooner had I finished than my stomach gave a loud rumble. Give me a break, I thought. I just wanted to go back to bed. It rumbled again in reply, making me laugh as I opened the bathroom door and saw my Dad coming out of his bedroom, full dressed in his work clothes.
“What's funny?” He smiled at me.
“My belly is talking to me.” We both laughed as it rumbled again in reply, l then I raised my eyebrow. “You off to work?”
“Yeah, Mr Thomas's boiler has broken and Alan is out on another job.”
Alan Urban was my Dad's boss. He owned Galladale's only plumbing business and he was a one man band until my Dad came along, he had hired my Dad on the spot.
“Okay Dad, I'm just going to go get something to eat.”
“Okay sweetie, I'll see you later!” With that he gave me a quick kiss and rushed out of the house, grabbing his tools that were next to the front door, whilst I headed to the kitchen to raid the cupboards.
I finally settled on a bowl of cereal and sat at the table mindlessly flipping through today's paper whilst eating. After I finished, I took my bowl to the sink and proceeded to look through the junk food cupboard, pulling out a large bag of bacon fries and a bar of chocolate, then turned to the fridge to pull out a bottle of Dr Pepper.
“These will do nicely,” I said out loud, as I headed back to my room to watch a DVD.
After thumbing through my DVD collection, I decided to watch ‘The Goonies.’ had ended up becoming my favourite movie af
ter I had sat and watched it with my Mum when I was younger.
It was nearing the end when I heard Kasey-Ray come home from school. Two sets of feet climbed the stairs as I remembered that she was bringing her friend Claire over.
“My room's through there. I won't be long. I just wanna speak to Erin.” Then I heard a knock on my door. “Can I come in?” She asked as she closed the door behind her and came to sit on my bed, stealing a bacon fry in the process.
“Hey!”
“What?” She replied, trying to look innocent which made me laugh.
“What's up?” I paused my DVD player and turned to look at her. Obviously she had something on her mind.
“I heard something today!”
“Uh-huh," not really understanding what this had to do with me.
“Did you really fall or did that bitch, Jessica, push you?" She just came out with it, causing me to almost choke on a bacon fry.
“Don't tell Mum and Dad, please?” I begged.
“I won't, but I have a good mind to kick her head in.” She was really angry, probably with me too for lying to her. “Why didn't you tell me?” I shrugged, wanting to cry.
For most of the day I'd blocked out what had happened.
“Don't go crying on me,” She stroked the top of the covers where my legs were. “I heard it was because she wants you to stay away from some lad.” All I could do was nod. “Look, don't let her get to you, I've got your back!” She moved closer and gave me a hug. “I promise I won't tell Mum and Dad, just promise me you'll tell me if she does anything again, okay?” I nodded as she stood up. I was supposed to be the big sister looking out for her, not the other way round. “Love you!” She called as she shut the door.
“Love you more!” I shouted after her.