The Face of a Killer

I jumped awake as Jane shouted for probably the third time that it was time to get up.

I had that same dream every night lately it seemed.

"Ugh..." I groaned as I shifted onto my back and ran my sweaty, shaking hands over my sweaty, pale face over my dull, tired, black eyes into my shaggy, sweat soaked, black hair.

"Cody! For the last time! Get up!" Jane called through the door while pounding on it several times.

"I'm up, I'm up!" I called back. Anything to get the noise to stop.

I heard her bare feet pad down the hallway to wake Emilie up. Good. Emilie slept like a rock. That meant I could get a shower in before she stole the bathroom for the remainder of the thirty minutes that we had to get ready for school.

I groggily tossed the covers off of myself and proceeded to rummage about the room in search of some clean cloths. I eventually came out of the closet with white skinny jeans, and a white AFI shirt. I snatched some clean boxers from a drawer and slipped into the bathroom just as Emilie was emerging from her room.

I shut and locked the door quickly and put my ear to the door.

"Dammit Cody! I need in there!" she screeched from the hallway.

"First come, first served Sweetling." I called after her. I heard her huff and stomp back to her room.

I snickered to myself quietly. She was so fun to mess with.

I set my array of white onto the seat of the toilet and turned the water on hot. For a minute I lost myself and only stared at the water coming out of the faucet. Then something in the back of my head reminded me that I was on a strict time limit.

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts a bit I quickly stripped of my sweaty pajamas pants and old t-shirt and stepped into the near burning hot fall of water.

The sting helped to jar me awake a bit more and I finished my shower without incident.

I toweled my hair vigorously afterward, decided it was a lost cause, and reluctantly put on my new cloths. Looked like today I was just going to school with a wet head. Thankfully, we live in Arizona, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

I stepped out of the bathroom and literally ran into Emilie who had been standing just outside the door, make up box in hand, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Finally. Move it Cody." she scowled while shoving past me and slamming the door behind her. Lovely, no?

I frowned at the door a moment before crossing the hall back into my own room.

Emilie and I weren't really related. We were foster kids to the same foster parents. We had been for about five years now. I never quite got why Jane and Drew didn't just adopt us both already. Or at least Emilie. They had had her since she was eight. We were both now sixteen.

I had only come to live with them five years ago. At the time we all lived in a small apartment. Certainly not suitable for parents who had just decided to foster two children who really didn't care for each other that much. Nonetheless we stayed there for five years due to a bit of a tightness in money. We only just moved to this new town which was a few hours away from our previous home.

It wasn't big, but wasn't tiny either. It was "cozy" as Jane liked to put it. I wasn't crazy about the place but I had to admit that the new, bigger house was definitely a plus.

I crossed over to the window in my new bedroom and looked outside toward the desert. It was very pretty at this time of morning. The sun just now making the sand glow a pretty golden color.

I let a small smile grace my lips a moment before dropping it once again and beginning the hunt for some decent shoes. Today was our first day at our new school. What fun...

I finally found my favorite all black converse with white laces hidden under my bed. How they got there I choose not to question. As I plopped myself on the bed though and began to pull them on I couldn't help my mind wandering back to that dream... No... That memory...

I could feel my hands start to shake again as the images returned to me. No matter how many times I remembered, they always had the same effect.

I could feel my body start to break out in a cold sweat and my shaking hands couldn't seem to remember how to tie the laces on my shoes.

My breathing was beginning to get heavier and my vision blurry until the honk of the school bus's horn startled me out of the abyss.

I jumped a bit and it took me half a second to remember what I was doing. Then I quickly tied both my shoes, slung my black back pack over my scrawny shoulder, and bolted down the stairs. Emilie was standing in the doorway, pink button up shirt, yellow mini skirt, curly blond hair and all. I saw her motioning to the bus driver to wait.

I tapped her shoulder and gasped out a "thank you" as we started toward the bus.

"Yeah don't expect it again." she replied just before stepping up into the vehicle that would take us to the place where the government told us to sit down and learn.

"Wasn't planning on it..." I muttered to myself, hesitating, then taking that first step into what I liked to call my own personal hell on Earth.