Here
I see her sitting in the usual spot, smiling and chatting, just like always. I sit down next to her; she smiles and puts her long black hair back into its usual neat pony tail. We spend the rest of lunch chatting about something pointless. The bell rings, everyone starts to move towards the doors. As I’m leaving I turn back to say goodbye, but she’s gone. As I’m looking for her a roar echoes down the hallways and into the lunchroom; I turn to see what happened but there’s nothing.
I see her sitting in her usual spot; instead of a smile she has a rather dazed expression. I sit down next to her and ask what’s wrong.
“Nothing,” she replies
“That’s a lie, pretty obvious something’s wrong so-”
“Nothing‘s wrong okay, just leave me alone!” she yells.
I’m speechless, but before I can think of what to do she says:
“I’m sorry I snapped at you, it’s just… why is this bothering me so much?”
“What’s bothering you?” I ask.
“I had a really strange dream last night” she replies.
“So what? Dreams have never bothered you before; anyway aren’t they just some kind of subconscious problem sorting -- thingy?”
“No, no this one was different it was so—so,” her voice began to falter, “real.”
Now I’m curious. I’ve known her for years and nothing really bothers her, but this dream; I’ve never seen her like this, especially over something so pointless.
"Maybe if you tell me about it you'll feel better" I offer.
“Okay. In my dream I got up and went to school like normal everything was fine until the end of lunch then, and then there was a loud noise and screaming then nothing, just blackness.”
“We all have dreams like that sometimes; it’s probably nothing to worry about.”
“You didn’t let me finish. When I woke up I was like ‘huh, weird’ then I went on with my normal routine. On the bus I saw a guy drop his lunch, but the strange thing is I knew it would happen… I knew because I saw it in my dream.”
“That is a little strange but it could have been coincidence,” I replied, trying to be helpful.
“You still didn’t let me finish. When I went to math class, just like always, we took a test but I knew all the answers, because I had taken the same test in my dream. I knew all of the questions before the test even started. And after math class I came here. How is any of his possible?”
“I honestly don’t know what to say, but if it makes you feel better I don’t think you’re crazy. Dreams are never set in stone, as we try to remember them our mind fills in the details with whatever information’s available”
“I guess that makes sense but, it’s just so weird”
“Wait, did this conversation happen in your dream?” I ask
“No, of course not” she says.
“Then you didn’t see the future, otherwise you would have seen this conversation. A lot of people drop stuff on the bus, and it only felt like you knew the test because you studied so hard.”
She thought about that for a minute then nodded. We sat in silence for the rest of the hour. When the bell rang I said goodbye and got up to leave. The sound rolled across the lunchroom like a wave, someone screamed, then nothing, only blackness.
She isn’t in our usual spot, I look all over the room for her, but she isn’t there, must be sick. Oh well, I’ll bring her the homework later and maybe a card or something. I eat the rest of my lunch in peace, not talking to anyone just sitting and thinking. The bell rings, I get up and walk to the door, suddenly a noise comes down the hall, fire quickly follows, I try to get out of the way, but there’s nothing, just blackness.
I look for her but she isn’t in there, after a quick scan of the lunchroom I see her sitting at a table off in a corner. As I get closer I can tell there’s something odd going on. Her hair is all messy and tangled. I sit down and ask how she’s doing.
“Sorry about the mess”, she says, “I overslept and had to run to get here before lunch.”
Before lunch? That would explain why she wasn’t here this morning, but she’s never missed a day of school in her life.
“Not that it really matters,” she quips, “I got here in time, so do you want to go?”
“Go where?” I reply; more than a little confused.
“Wherever we want, I was thinking Mexico, out of all the places we’ve gone before I always liked Mexico the best. We could completely start over, new names, new life.”
“You’re joking right?… Right?”
“No, I’m completely serious! Come on, if we hurry we can catch a bus and be out of the country in a few hours.”
“Look, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but it’s really not funny.”
“I forgot you can be this way. Oh well, maybe I’ll have better luck next time,” she mumbles as she gets up to leave.
“Wait!” I call after her but its too late, she’s gone. I sit back down and wonder what she was talking about and why she wanted to leave. The bell rang but I don’t hear it, I only hear the crash and screaming, then nothing but the blackness.
She wasn’t in her usual spot. I eventually found her in a far corner of the room.
She looked awful, like someone who hadn’t slept in weeks. I sit down and am about to say something, but she starts talking.
“It’s funny, when I was little the only thing I wanted to do was grow up so I could live.
When it happened for the first time my only thought was ‘it’s not fair, I want to live’ and I did, but, here I am back where I started. It’s so funny, all the time and knowledge in the world, but I’m here. The chance to do anything and everything but here I am. A thousand lifetimes behind me and a thousand more ahead, but I’m here. I’m here. I’m always here, never tomorrow, never yesterday, but here, drawn back like a moth to the flame. People think that they’re in control but they’re wrong, so, so wrong, we’re all just prisoners of fate. No matter what I do, no matter how many times I live and die, I just end up back here, no matter how much I try, everything goes away and I wake up back here. It’s just so funny you could cry. I don’t even know why I’m here. You don’t even know what I’m talking about, so what’s the point?”
She gets up and leaves. I’m too stunned to say anything and by the time I go after her, she’s gone. I’m roaming the halls looking for her when a tremor passes through the hall and a piece of rock falls on me, then nothing, blackness.
I went to go sit down next to her in our usual spot, she smiled at me but it wasn’t her normal happy smile. It was one filled with pain but also with acceptance. I asked her what was wrong.
“Nothing,” she said “at least not anymore.”
We spent the rest of lunch in silence. When the bell rang I got up to leave, but before I could she hugged me and began to cry. A terrible roar filled the lunchroom, I turned to see what it was, but she was holding me too tight,.
“Goodbye,” she whispered.
Then there was nothing.
Light.
Any and all comments/questions are welcome and
Thanks for Reading!
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