Aura

A man stood before me in the blanket moonlight with no shadow on the ground. His face obscured by living shade slithering among his features. He spoke without a voice, his plight deaf to my ears. My body was frozen with fear, my feet deep in mud. Trees sprung up around us creating a forest. I could hear heart beats in the distance, men yelling to one another. Animals noisily joined the clamor. All at once the noises overlapped each other like waves in a stirring sea. My eyes focused on the man’s lips still moving rapidly together. The noise around us halted at once and a panicked whisper ghosted my ears. “Jessica.”

My eyes opened wide, alarmed. The beating of my heart rapidly thumped against my ribs and deafened my ears. An unsteady breath left my lips, and visibly swirled in front of me. My feet were bare and red in a rapidly growing slush drift. I was standing at the edge of the woods, a line of trees divided between my college’s football field and the unknown.

Or at least unknown to me. Just passed the tree line was where all the parties were held. Not that I’ve been to one, yet. My first semester at college was coming to an end.

“Crap! My paper!!” My mind raced as fast as my feet did back to the dorm. The woods in my dream long forgotten. The needles and raw pain, muted by the cold temperature.

I raced inside and fled up two flights. My skin pricked at the contrast of warmth on my chilled arms and feet. The only door open was mine and my roommate’s, the faint light from my computer the only illumination in the hallway. I dashed inside the door and fumbled with the mouse on my computer to save once, twice, three times for good measure.

I strained to see the time on my phone as I shut my computer 12:03 a.m. my roommate was asleep at her desk. I still had three hours to study before I would need some sleep.

“One week left.” I whisper to myself.

I tapped my phone to lighten the screen and sent a quick text to my mom. Did I sleep walk as a kid? Send.

I’m sure if I did, she would have had me see doctors until the problem was fixed and then go on about how she would have known better than the professionals. Then for years tell me how I got that bad trait from my no-good, no-show father.

I rolled my eyes at the mental thought, everyone’s got their problems. It never bothered me that I never knew my father, my mother was good enough. She’s my best friend, and the whole reason why I decided to follow in her footsteps and become a nurse.

Of course my good nature came from her; as well as my great instincts, perceptiveness, and likeable personality. On the other side all my flaws are because of my father who disappeared before I was born.

At one time my mother paid for a private investigator to find him, there was no trace. Of course my mother got kicked out when her parents found out she was pregnant. We moved to a small town where she finished her GED and worked her way up to become head nurse at the local hospital.

I always felt a little guilty being the reason my mom didn’t talk with her parents anymore. But I never felt unloved. Every Father’s Day or Grandparent’s day at school she would show up in a costume with a mustache or a gray wig and walker.

Ding. No.

Ding. Why?

Ding. It’s probably stress induced. Your father was stressed a lot you probably got his condition.

Ding. Break is in a few weeks you coming home?

Mom it’s your night off go to bed. Send.

Ding. Coming home?

I sighed looking at my open text books.

G2g study love you. Send.

Ding. Love you flaka.

“Shut that thing off!” A pillow to the back of my head caught me off guard.

I tossed the pillow back but caught a glint of something reflecting out the window. A sickening feeling dropped to my stomach as I approached the window. Across the football field, at the edge of the forest, were two eyes staring towards my dorm.

“What’re you looking at?” Nicki stumbled to my side rubbing her eyes. My finger trembled in the direction of the football field.

“Do you see that?”

Nicki pushed her way front and center. “Um no.” She squinted closer to the window, her hot breathe fogged the area around her nose.

“I think there are eyes looking at our room.” My voice whispered the last few words as if the thing could hear.

My roommate, and best friend, burst into laughter. “Girl it’s probably a few beer cans left over from a party. Let’s go study before you give yourself nightmares.”

I groaned at the mention of studying. “Now that will give me nightmares.”

One last look back and the mysterious glint was gone.