I opened the door, setting my book bag on the floor to the right side of the doorframe. My aunt Seren’s car was seen outside. It wasn’t unusual or anything, just very rare. It meant that she came back to sleep off her hangover and God knows what else was going through her system. It also meant that she wouldn’t want me to bother her. Sighing, I got on my tippy toes as I passed by her door to her bedroom. It was when I heard crying that I stopped in my tracks.
Cautiously, I stopped and listened. It was Seren. She was crying quietly and gradually getting louder. My heart leapt inside my chest. Usually I’d console the person, but it’d be awkward, since I hadn’t spoken to her in so long. We only exchanged the casual glances at each other every once in awhile and the only time I ever asked her for something was for her to write a permission slip so I could get my tattoos. Even then she just sighed and didn’t say a word. It’d been dark and lonely in the house. She bought my old house, maybe to relive her sister’s (my mother’s) memory. As if she never left.
Rowan, G-ddamnit focus. She’s crying and you’re simply standing there listening to her as if it’s your favorite sadistic pastime. Do something! I thought to myself. Making my left hand a fist,I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. All of the lights were off except for just the lamp next to the bed. She was sitting on the bed, hunched over, and her hands on her face. Seren and I looked nothing alike except for our hair. The deep dark auburnish crimson that looked black in most lighting. The very edge of her hair looked almost like dying embers. Silently, I closed the door behind me. She didn’t look up, just began to shake harder and cry louder as it escalated.
“Why?!” She screamed in grief and anguish. Finally, whatever barriers was keeping me from comforting her before were gone. I recognized that tone of voice and that level of grief. It was over AlexSandra, my mom. Most of our family was not very good at showing emotion. None of us cried at the funeral. We didn’t want to believe that my parents were dead, possibly along with my brother, but it didn’t seem like we had a choice. They’d been missing for so long. Not having a funeral seemed like a crime.
About a year and a half later, I found a picture of my family. My father Jonah, my mother AlexSandra, and my brother Arion. My brother and I had my mother’s hair, but my brother was almost a spitting image of my father. Everything else, the skin color, everything, was almost the same. I on the other hand looked like my mother. When I found that picture, I was shocked by the similarity in my mother and I. Then I began to cry and grieve for the family I didn’t remember. I remembered asking the same “Why?!” my aunt was asking right now.
I rushed towards her and held her. She tried to weakly push me away, as anyone in our family would, but I felt her finally give in in my arms. My tears were silent, but I cried with her. I don’t know if it helped that I looked like AlexSandra or not, but I guess Seren acted as if it was like her older sister holding her again. As she wept, the house felt even more lonely. The shadows in the unused rooms became more real, and the silence in between the echos were more prominent.
She collapsed in my arms after about three hours of me stroking her hair and whispering that they were happier now. I smiled faintly and gently moved her body onto the bed. After I’d cried, I’d slept for two days. And that is what Seren would need right now. Her mind would carry her away from her sadness. As I tucked her in, I turned off the lamp and began to leave. When I reached the door and opened it, I whispered the words I hadn’t said in so long and had absolutely no memory of saying before.
“I love you.” And then I was out the door and down the hall towards my room. Not used to showing affection, I suppose that’s what exhausted me. Our family is not friendly, and we almost never smile. Well, my uncle Chris said we always used to smile. Always used to celebrate life and everything. It was almost like every day was a party. But now it was just like one of those old movies where it was grainy,  black and white and silent. When my head hit the dark blue Chinese Oriental dragon throw pillow (it used to be AlexSandra’s) my eyes immediately closed as I began to dream, like I always do. I try to record my dreams whenever I can remember them, hoping some of them have meaning to the past that I don’t remember. Everything went black as the dream began...

My heart was the only thing I heard in my ears. The beat sounded like one of those old Native American drums and it was getting faster, almost matching the pace of my running footfalls. My eyes were searching, but everything was blurred and dark with only a few streetlights. I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears, almost drowning out everything else. My heartbeat doubled as I begin to sprint. Wetness shocks my warm face; it’s the tears falling from my face. I was crying and sprinting and I didn’t know why. My mind was a scrambled mess, bits and pieces coming into view but leaving almost immediately. All I knew was the word that repeated itself  in my mind: “RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN!”
I was scared, I knew that much. My instincts told me that something was chasing me down these dark streets that smelled like cat urine and used condoms. The stench burned my nose and lungs. Eyes burned into my back, right in the middle, making me itch. But I couldn’t focus on that right now. I had to run. There was no way around it. No matter how sore my body was, I had to run. My legs muscles were screaming for me to stop. My lungs were exhausted from dealing with the street stench. Every part of my body wanted to stop, to give in to whatever was chasing me. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
My footsteps faltered from their sprinting pace. In what seemed like slow motion, I fell to the ground, and also, my hope of escape. Whatever was chasing me fell upon me like a predator catching its prey. Just as it began to touch me with it’s cold, wispy hold everything went dark…

I open my eyes, greeted by the rickety ceiling fan. My skin is sweaty, and my long hair is partially plastered to my face. I look at the portable alarm clock : 3:37. I moan and roll over in my bed, my body still sore from the hike before. My albino ferret Drakia jumped onto my bed, licking the sweat off of my face like the protective mother she pretends to be. I snicker and chuckle a little bit.
As I lay there in my bed wide awake, I grab my cellphone and touch the screen: 14 messages from Laurel, and none from anyone else. I laughed to myself. I didn’t have any friends besides Laurel. My shyness (that I’m pretty sure I’d received from the father and mother I’d never known) kept me from many people getting to know me. Mostly I was just the girl in the back of the classroom who studied a lot, spent her time in the library, and never talked to anyone. I wished I was invisible, but since the beginning of the school year, f***boys alike were walking up to me and trying to begin conversations. My face would turn pale pink and I’d quickly leave.
I stroked Drakia’s white back and a feeling of content leaking into my mind, releasing the tension from my chest. That was the first time I’d ever had that dream. I usually remember my dreams, any and all. I suppose it’s just something that was passed down by my parents. My mom used to have the dreams, and my father continued to have dreams all up until he disappeared. Then after that,I had no idea. Maybe he still did.
Realizing that now I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, I picked up Drakia and sat up on the bed, my hair falling partially in front of my face. It was long and dark, refusing to be either curly or straight. It was smack in the middle. Right now it was dripping with sweat. Eww, I thought to myself. It was definitely shower time, middle of the night or not. I looked at my clock again. 3:42. I couldn’t tell if I was exhausted from just looking at it, or the whole experience of waking up from the subconscious workout my brain just recently provided for me.
I got up from the bed and walked over to the bathroom, my footsteps as silent as always. I was almost halfway down the hallway when I felt something cold brush up against me. The feeling was followed by a creak in the hardwood floor behind me. I spun around, my heartbeat quickened once again. For a second everything was silent and just plain cold. I shivered, suddenly spotting an open window in my mom’s drawing room. Sighing with fake relief, I walked over and pushed the old window closed. Taking deep breaths, I continued my way out of the room and back into the hallway. My back shivered again as the same cold touch came across it. I spun around again. It must’ve been a draft, I thought to myself. Despite my thoughts, my footfalls got faster. I was almost right at the door of the bathroom when I heard the creaking again. I didn’t even stop this time. I continued my way and opened the door to the dark room and turned on the light.
I rushed in and slammed the door behind me. Sh**, I thought to myself. I’m going to hear about that tomorrow. Taking a deep breath, I leaned against my hand that was against the door when I heard a scratching at the door. I smiled. It couldn’t be anything else other than Drakia. Gingerly, I opened the door and scooped up the red-eyed white ferret. She licked my hand affectionately, forgiving me for leaving her behind. I stroked her back and she closed her eyes, content. My body finally relaxed, letting go of all the knots in the muscles and my veins. I just felt like an entire knot that had been untied. Sighing, I set down Drakia in the sink so she could enjoy the warm water vapor that would emerge from the shower.
I smiled at her again and began to shed my clothes. I picked her up and placed my t-shirt underneath her so that the coldness of the sink wouldn’t touch her sensitive tummy. Her eyes seemed to smile back at me, and it was not the first time I had felt Drakia’s love of me. Everyone at school didn’t believe that animals could feel, that they had to be trained to show emotion. But to me, animals were the creatures that showed the most affection. I hadn’t trained Drakia to lick my hand. She just did it, all on her own. And I’d had her since she was a baby.
I laughed quietly as I remembered baby Drakia running across the floor when she was younger. Now she simply followed me around everywhere in the house. I always missed her when I left. She was my family, The one I talked to about my problems, even though all she did was blink and look at me.
As I turned on the shower, I looked back at the mirror. It was just my own reflection. But for some reason, I felt as if someone was watching me. And I’m not the one known for paranoia. That would be Laurel. Shaking my head, I forced myself to get into the hot water, shocking my senses as I gasped. Through the see-through shower curtain, I could see Drakia tense to my reaction and then relax. My eyes closed as my skin got used to the hot water running down my naked body. Relishing in the bliss of getting clean, I managed to take my time cleaning myself. All of the sweat fell from my body like the clothes I’d shed before. The sleepy grime from my eyes was washed away. The only challenge I had left was my hair. I scrubbed my scalp and lathered the big ass glob of shampoo into the little devil. Finally, it became soft and clean. I rinsed it, my hair getting the way of my hands all the time.
As I was beginning to put the conditioner in, I thought I heard the door open and close. Frowning, I opened one of my eyes. The door was still closed, as were Drakia’s eyes. Shrugging my shoulders, I went back to conditioning my hair, wrestling it. The same cold touch was on my lower back this time, this time more firm, more possessive. Alarmed, my hand quickly moved to touch the spot where it touched. I was obviously not alone. I heard Drakia begin to hiss as I quickly turned off the shower and step out.
“Rowan,” I hear my name. My eyes scanned the room, before finally having it fall on the mirror. There was my reflection, with my long thick dark hair. My hazel eyes were more green in the faded yellow lighting. My eyes searched themselves in the mirror. I traced every feature in my semi pale skin. My breath caught when I looked into my eyes. The pupils dilated, getting smaller with each passing second. Drakia was still hissing, glaring warningly at the mirror. I searched before finally seeing a dark shadow behind my reflection in the mirror. It continued to stare at me as the shadow creeped forward and grabbed it’s shoulder. I did an intake of breath, but couldn’t look away as the reflection of myself disappeared into the shadow, consumed. Finally my breath escaped from my lips and I screamed a blood curdling scream. The shadow in the mirror acknowledged me, opening its eyes. My eyes.
I began to shake, holding Drakia close to me. My body was frozen. I couldn’t move. I can finally move my entire body. My eyes drift off towards the mirror and I force them to stare at Drakia who is sleeping in my arms. I wrap a towel around me and slowly shuffle out of the bathroom. By now, light was coming in through the windows in the hall. I hugged Drakia closer to my body, careful not to make her uncomfortable or crush her. She nuzzled her face into the nook of my elbow. I smiled slightly, still taken back by what I’d just seen in the bathroom.
“Rowan? Are you awake?” I heard Seren’s voice come from down the hall. It was groggy, but loud, which meant she’d just woken up. I jumped at the sound of her voice, making Drakia squeak in protest. “Are you leaving for school?” I heard the door of her bedroom complain as her footsteps signaled that she was emerging from her room.
“Yeah, I’ll be leaving as soon as I get my stuff together,” I shuffled myself quickly into my room, still wrapped in my towel. The day, as strange as it was, was about to begin.