Spirit

Chapter 7: Stalker
I bolted up right from my bed, sweat dripping down my forehead to my cheeks, and gasping for air. I loosened my grip on my blanket and relaxed. I laid my head back down on my pillow. It was only four in the morning.
I didn’t take long for me to remember what my dream was about. How could I forget the new additions to the pile? It was so weird. Never in my life has a picture been added to a pile, nor has a picture ever changed. The pictures, order, everything was always the same until now.
The new addition was still pictures of her, but there was another person-or whatever I’d call myself-in the picture. She had the same snowy white skin and hair, white clothes, and her eyes were icy blue. Both girls were standing next to each other, shoulders touching. It looked like they were close. Probably sisters.
I wondered what this meant. Was my sister what I was? Is there someone else out there like me? Are these pictures supposed to tell me something? I wanted to cry on account of how confused and frustrated I was.
I fell back asleep and continued the mortifying dream.
“Natalia, wake up,” my mom said. I was happy that she woke me up from the dream.
“What time is it?” I mumbled.
“Your late for school. The bus comes in ten minutes.”
“Oh shoot!” I was fully awake no and I jumped out of bed and grabbed my clothes from my drawer and rushed to the bathroom.
I ran out of the bathroom and ran down the stairs and when I got to the last step, I slipped and fell. I heard my sister laugh from the kitchen. I grabbed a blueberry muffin and stuck it in my mouth. I knew I was missing something but I couldn’t remember what it was.
My mom walked down the stairs and held out my school bag.
“Thanks, mom. Bye, love you,” I mumbled, quickly kissing her on the cheek. I ran out the door and waved my arms in the air, not able to scream to stop the bus because of the muffin in my mouth.
Then the bus gradually came to a stop. I sighed in relief and got onto the bus. I went to go sit down next to Lawren and I took the muffin out of my mouth. Lawren chuckled.
“Want a bite?” I asked.
“No thanks. I’m not so fond of blueberries,” he said and smiled.
“Blueberries and fantastic,” I said smugly and took a bite of my muffin.
“I saw you yesterday,” Lawren said.
“Really?” I asked, trying to remember if I was around Lawren’s store at all. “Where?”
“I had to go home to grab a couple things from my mom’s work room and I saw you walking home. I was going to say hi, but it looked like you weren’t in the mood for talking.”
“What do you mean?”
“The expression on your face. It looked like you saw a… ghost,” he said and chuckled.
“Can we change the subject?” I pleaded.
“Sure, sure.” That’s what I loved about Lawren. Whenever I didn’t want to talk about something, he’d respect my wishes. He wouldn’t try to force it out of me like other people would, he’d wait for me to bring it up or if I don’t want to bring it up at all-which never really happens-he wont bother me about it.
I never stopped thinking about the incident yesterday throughout school. I was always thinking about it and once in a while, I’d get so caught up in it, I wasn’t aware of my surrounding. My teachers even had to keep repeating their questions for me.
Lawren was obviously concerned because he wouldn’t take his eyes off of me. The good thing was that he didn’t ask about it. But I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to. I felt bad for keeping it from him, but if I told him, he’d probably overreact.
School was finally over and Lawren and I started walking home, my hand in his. Abruptly, I felt something pulling on me from behind. It wasn’t a person but a force. A force that was growing stronger. I started to panic.
“Natalia? What’s wrong?” Lawren asked. He hasn’t took his eyes off of me for so long that I think he noticed the panic on my face.
“Can we just walk faster?” I begged and started speed walking. I didn’t have to turn around to know what was behind me, following me. I felt sweat building up on my forehead and the palms of my hands. I took my hand away from Lawren’s so he wouldn’t notice that.
“Natalia, what’s wrong?” he commanded and pulled me by the elbow to stop me. I felt the force growing stronger every second I stood there. I pulled myself free and kept walking.
“Can we not discuss this now?” I asked when he caught up with me. My breathing was heavy like I was running.
“Natalia, I can't be patient right now! You’ve been acting erratic the whole day and I have to know why!” He grabbed my hand and I tried to pull myself free. He was too strong.
“Lawren! Let me go!” I shrieked and panicked as the force increased. It was evident in his eyes that we wouldn’t let me go. I had to tell him if I wanted him to free me. “Lawren, there’s a girl behind you. I saw her yesterday at the grocery store and she was looking for me, Lawren! Now she’s here and she’s coming back for me! We have to go!” I tried to pull my arm free, he still wouldn’t let go.
“Did you call the police? Does your family know?”
“They don’t! I didn’t want to tell anyone!” The force was as strong as it was yesterday in the grocery store. She was getting closer. I felt it. I looked around me to try to find her. She was no where in sight but the force was still there which meant she was close.
“C’mon,” Lawren hissed and we started running. I stumbled a couple of times because he was running too fast and his grip on my hand was strong. The force was slowly lessening which was a good sign. I fumbled with my house key as I tried to unlock my door. Lawren snatched it away from me and opened it within one try.
“Mom! Dad!” I called, my voice cracked and I was out of breath.
“We don’t have time, we need to call the police,” Lawren said and locked the door.
“Natalia?” Jayant called from the kitchen. “What’s wrong?”
“Jayant, there’s someone following me. I saw her yesterday at the grocery store and I saw her today at school. We need to call mom and dad.”
“A stalker?”
I nodded my head and pulled my phone out of my pocket.
“We’ll call mom and dad later, first we need to call the police.” Jayant took the phone from my hands and dialed nine-one-one.
I went to go sit down on account of how tired I was. Lawren came and sat down right next to me. He took my hand and held it tight.
“Everything will be fine,” he whispered and gave my hand a squeeze. His voice sounded all too confident.
I only hoped he was right.