Chapter 1
“Ahh!” She screamed.
The walls were made up of stone and the floor was also. The wind was cold, but it didn’t bother her.
There was a girl on the floor. She was wearing a filthy white dress and her head was bent. Her hands were shackled in chains that were attached to the wall. Her hair was a soft blond colour and there was water on the floor below her face. She looked up. Her face was smooth as glass, not a wrinkle or a freckle. Her eyes were a vibrant blue, but sunken in, and her face thin. There were long tear tracks and eyes gave away new tears.
“Please... Please....” She whispered, her voice cracked and breaking.
“Tell me!” Said a woman’s voice. It was cold and unemotional except for anger.
“I don’t know. Please, I don’t know,” said the girl again, begging with her eyes as they gave away new tears. Her head dropped again.
She looked up again, rather abruptly, and said-
“Caitlyn! Caity wakes up. We have school!” Yelled someone.
Nat.
I woke up groggily and saw my twin sister looking down at me annoyed.
“You were up till one o’clock reading a book again? Weren’t you?” She asked.
“So, what if I was?” I snapped, now awake.
“I’m going to tell dad.” She said crossing her arms.
“No, you won’t. Or else I will tell dad that you cheated on last week’s biology test,” I said flatly.
“Oh- n-no, no, I-I wasn’t!” She said outraged.
“Oh, yes you did, sister, I saw the chit,” I said, pushing my sister aside and going inside the bathroom.
“Caitlyn, earth to Caitlyn,” Said, someone. I looked around and saw a skinny boy with emerald green eyes and straight brown hair that fell on it, grinning at me.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Hey, what’s bothering you?” His grin was replaced by a worried look
“It’s the dream....” I trailed off.
“What dream?” He asked frowning.
“Oh, about the- never mind. It’s nothing,” I said, not wanting to get him worried. It was probably just a nightmare. But nightmares don’t happen every night, the same thing, chided a small part of my brain. I told it to shut up.
“Caitlyn, is something bothering you?” He asked softly.
“Oh no, it’s just that- I read a book about ghosts and stuff and I’ve been getting dreams about it. So yeah,” I said lying smoothly.
Jeremy and I walked silently for a few minutes and I let my mind drift off to anywhere but the dream.
Jeremy and I had been friends since childhood and Nat, Jeremy, and I used to play together. Nat now usually hung out with her other friends who thought that I was a creep, but well I am. With that Jeremy and I became best friends, although he did have other friends, he usually stuck with me. We told each other every secret of ours but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I’d been having the same nightmare for a week.
“So,” I said startling him. “About the math problems Smith gave us, you going to help me?”
“Mr Smith Caitlyn and no, I am not helping you with algebra. Do it on your own,”
“I hate you,” I said emotionlessly.
“No, you’re going to be thankful that I made you do the math problems on your own, and with that, you’d probably pass the exam,” he said exasperated.
“Yeah well, I got good marks last term!” I protested.
“28?! That’s good marks?!” Said Jeremy, horrified.
“At least it’s not 19! We just have math and English left, cut me some slack!” I argued.
“Well, your English is good, Grammar and Literature both...” He said thoughtfully.
“Tomorrow, we have math, then Grammar and then Literature, and then one day of school and holidays!” I spoke. Jeremy laughed.
“Okay anyways, I gotta go home for some so-called ‘Last-minute revision’ by Natasha Rey,” He looked impressed.
“Oh, so Natasha Rey does study?” He asked his eyebrows raised and his smile gone, replaced by a look of pure curiosity.
“Duh, how do you think she gets so good marks without studying?” I asked, but did not wait for the answer. “Okay, I gotta go now,” I said and ran towards one of my favourite shortcuts that led to the outskirts of the town, from between the Chinese and Italian food joints.
I ran between the garbage bins, my nose sealed with one hand, and climbed the small wall and emerged on the other. I walked straight for a few minutes and I could see on my right, a church with a graveyard laid behind it, and a few houses apart from the whole thing with a few children playing in the playground. On my left, there was nothing but a trail that led to the broken mansions of the founders of this town and trees that blocked the sunlight.
I had one of those trees in my mind. I walked on the path covered with moss and reached my ‘Invisible Tree’. It was huge and high and sort of like my hideout from everything else. I came here every afternoon to read, study, and all sorts. No one knew about this place, few people even thought that it was haunted (I had fuelled that story amazingly), like anything so beautiful would be haunted.
Up in the tree, there was a huge branch with a wide flat area which was quite big. It was invisible from the outside and everything was seen from the inside. Anybody who looked at it from the outside with seeing nothing but leaves and branches.
I grasped a part of the trunk and started to climb silently like an expert (which I was) and moved on. By the time I was about to reach the landing, I froze. I could sense somebody already there and without making another noise I climbed from the back and saw a boy sitting there and reading. He wore clothes like me- which no one ever did in this sunshine and rainbows town- in jeans, a black t-shirt and jacket, and sneakers. He seemed so engrossed in his book that he never noticed me until I was in sight. Suddenly, he moved so fast, that I could not see him for a second, and he was in front of me, his one hand on my throat and the other grasping my hands above my head. I froze.
“Who are you?” He asked.
“Caitlyn!” I gasped my name as he loosened his grip a little, which was enough for me. I pushed my elbow on his gut and staggered free.
Before he could do anything, I yelled, “Stop! Or I’ll call the cops!” I warned pulling out my cell phone with shaking hands and trying to sound brave which I wasn’t.
“Human, you are a human,” he said standing up and clutching his gut. “How do you know how to fight like this?” He asked, his eyes narrowing.
“W-what do you mean and what are you saying?!” I snapped. Or, well, trying to.
“I could ask you the same thing, Caitlyn, right?” He asked. I watched him as he settled down, trying to remember if I had ever seen him or not.
“Can I help you?” He said not looking up from his- no my book.
“You did not tell me your name,” I said ignoring his comment.
“No need for you to know,” he said keeping his book aside and looking at me, with a smirk on his face.
“Really? Because that’s my book you are reading,” I pointed out.
“You know, I’m not allowed to talk to your kind,” he said suddenly, ignoring what I had just spoken before.
“Excuse me?” I asked, my eyebrows flashing high as I gave him a scowl.
“It’s bad manners to judge people,” he said flatly and I scoffed.
“Yeah-” I began but was cut off by another voice calling my name.
“No way!” I groaned the moment I recognised whom that voice belonged to and started to climb down.
As I reached down, I saw a brown-haired boy and a blonde girl staring expectantly at me. By the time I reached down and the boy-who-would-not-tell-me-his-name emerged from behind me, the blonde’s eyes widened and the brown-haired just frowned.
“What are you two doing here? And how do you know about this place? Explain!” I raged. Surprised that they knew my hiding spot and angry that they didn’t tell me.
“Well, what can I say,” Said, the blonde, rolling her eyes. ’Once upon a time, a girl named Caitlyn Rey headed to the forest and her concerned sister and a best friend followed her. They came to an ancient tree where Caitlyn sat reading one of her many books. They then concluded that Caitlyn was unharmed and made their way back home and lived happily ever after. The end,” She, said dramatically and in one breath. The-boy-who-was-apparently-not-allowed-to-talk-to-my-kind chuckled.
“That’s funny,” he said as Jeremy tried to suppress his chuckle but failed. But I did not find it funny, I was now angrier at them.
“You followed me?! Why?” I asked irritated with all of them.
“Cut the dramatics sister. Dad’s asking for you and I’ve also heard that you were going to go to ‘Natasha Rey’s last-minute revision’,” she said with air quotes. I was a bit surprised at her saying that dad was calling for me, but didn’t say anything.
“If we were in any other situation, I’d feel inclined to say ‘sorry,’ but no, I’m not sorry now,” I spoke.
“And who’s he, your boyfriend?” Asked Nat pointing to the the-boy-who’s-a-total-arrogant-jerk.
“Yeah, he’s, my boyfriend,” I said sarcastically.
“E-excuse me?” He stuttered looking surprised, well showing any emotion other than the fact that he’s a total asshole.
“Really?” Said Nat as if she thought I wasn’t kidding. I rolled my eyes at her.
“No, you dimwit,” I said rolling my eyes.
“Ask for you? No, I didn’t,” Said dad, surprisingly in the kitchen looking clean.
“But...” I said looking at Natasha and Jeremy.
“I- did I say dad, no I-I meant damn, it’s my nickname. People call me damn,” said Jeremy. And I raised my eyebrows. “It-it’s true,” said Jeremy shrugging and looking at Nat.
“Hey damn,” said Nat rolling her eyes again. “Now, would you kindly come up with us, we have a lot to talk about,” she said and without waiting for us, went upstairs to our bedroom.
As soon as we were inside -Nat first and Jeremy slowly following behind me- he turned and locked the door.
“What the-?” I began but Nat cut me across with a look.
“Caity, don’t panic or get angry at us, we are just concerned about you,” said Nat slowly but I just stared at her, confused. She sighed. “Caitlyn, has anyone been bullying you or telling you bad stuff?” She asked softly.
I was slightly astounded by her question because she usually never asks me about such things.
“No,” I said. “Nobody teases me and you know that,”
“Then why do you scream at night?” She blurted out. I was so taken aback, that I literally took a step back.
“W-what do you mean?” I asked.
“Yes, yes you do- you scream- you scream in your pillow. You scream for like just a second, and then it just- stops. It happened for two nights in a row, the third night I stayed up and saw the time. It was exactly 03:37. And it's horrifying,” she said and shuddered with her eyes closed.
I sighed. “Fine,” I said throwing my hands up and sitting down at the edge of my bed. “I’ve been having nightmares- I don’t know why, of a woman in chains and somebody torturing her, for three days, I don’t know why. And the weird part is, she looked like you,” I said frowning. I looked up at Nat, she had a strange expression on her face, and then her eyes grew wide, an expression of recognition on her face.
“No, no it can’t be!” She muttered to herself but it was quiet that everyone heard it.
“Can’t be what?” Said Jeremy voicing the question we all had in mind.
“Don’t you get it, oh Caity, you’re describing mom,” Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Mom? I’ve been dreaming about mom?” I said shocked. “And she is getting tortured in my dream,” I scoffed softly and that turned to mirthless laughter.
For a few minutes, everyone was silent, even I stopped laughing, the reality of it hung in the air. Jeremy came down and sat quietly beside me and laid a hand on my back and I leaned into it.
“Oh no,” said Jeremy suddenly.
“What?” Nat and I said together and then looked at each other. We were as different as we could be and we rarely had that twin thing.
“I’m going to have to crash at your house,” He spoke.
“Why?” Asked Nat suspiciously.
“My parents are going to visit my grandparents back home and since Leo and I have school, they left us,” He explained.
“Leo is going to crash at our place?” Yelped Nat.
“Uh, no. You see Leo is staying with Aaron, his best friend and so I’m staying with mine. And don’t worry, I’ll be taking the couch. You guys have a huge couch,” he said sarcastically.
“Okay then. Go,” I spoke.
“Go where?” He asked, confused.
“Your stuff Jeremy. Duh,” I spoke.
“Oh. Yeah, right,” he said and ran outside the door.
“Idiot boy,” Muttered Nat.
I looked at her for a moment as she did to me. Then we both burst out laughing. Forgetting the tension from before.
