Double Life: Nightmares

It was a quiet night, the moon in the sky looked like some kind of wicked white smile in the blackness of the night. Everything was silent but if you were quiet and still the night slowly turned to life, the tree leaves slowly moving, the singing of the small insects, a firefly in the distance, the sound of an owl pouncing a mouse somewhere in the woods and then a not common sound to hear after a couple hours past midnight, steps braking the night sounds, uncertain and careful steps.

“Aren´t you afraid of darkness, Josh?” the silhouette sat on top of the thick stone wall asked still looking to the wicked white smile moon. The boy shook his head

“No, Nic” his steps are not uncertain anymore now he knows where he is going, he´s gotten to where he was going.

“And why is that? Monsters come out in the dark, you know”

“I have never seen any”

“No? Maybe you just don´t want to see” the girl raised her head up to the sky and there was a very, very quiet sigh. This was a joke or maybe not.

“I´ll let you know when I see one” the boy said sitting at the base of the stone wall and this time the girl dropped her head till her chin touched her chest and there was a sound like a chuckle but less than that.

She had wanted to run, to hide from the boy’s eyes but she had told herself that she was not going to risk falling on the pointy rocks over the river below, of course that she could´ve just ran and hide in the shadows but she told herself that he was going to listen or even see her. She could´ve run and jumped out the school grounds but why to exert herself when her wounds were not completely healed?

“I couldn´t sleep” the boy said breaking the silence, he was not a fan of silence. She hummed, silence didn´t make her confortable but it was natural for her.

“Why are you out tonight?” he inquired, wincing a little, he knew she was a very private person but she had been like someone else this afternoon, had he have something to do with that?

“The moon is like a wicked smile tonight”

“You came out to see the moon?” tonight it seemed that she was in the mood to answer questions or at least it seemed to make her talk and if that´s what took, he was going to ask as many questions as necessary, his motives unknown even to him.

“Nightmares”

“Sorry…. But it wasn´t real, it´s ok now” he tried to comfort her but she knew better, nightmares are real at times, they´re the monsters that chase monsters when they´re most vulnerable, but of course, they´re not real for people under the light. This boy couldn´t see how dark it really was. There was no response but none was expected.

“It was fun today” he attempted conversation again

“Yes” Nic´s voice barely above a whisper

“Are you going out tomorrow?” Josh asked after a few minutes

“Nope.” The girl was starting to talk lighter now, more relaxed perhaps

“Why not?”  the boy asked looking up to where the girl was still seated. Now that he had been out for a while his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he saw that she was wearing the same outfit that in the afternoon except that her hands were bare.

“Got to catch up in your notes and assignments”

“I can help you with that” he offered, the girl was still looking to the moon, her back to him.

“Don´t worry. It´s ok. You should go out to town tomorrow” she turned her head and looked down to him with a small smile.

“I don´t really have no one to go with”  he was a people´s person but the kids there seemed to take it bad that he was friendly with her.

“Yes, you do, you were born with someone to do stuff” there was a smile in her tone, he couldn´t see her face anymore though, she had gone back to look at the blackness of the night

“Aaron´s much more friendly and he´s always included me in his group but his friends have never really been my friends”

“If you stay here, or wander around at midnight, you won´t make friends”

“You wander around at midnight” he replied not wanting to address the matter

“Exactly my point, Josh”

“Do you often come out at night?”

“Do you?”

“No, not really, it´s cold out here”

“It´s cold at this time” she said and let a scarf fall on his lap. He looked up but she was already looking to the sky again.

“Thanks” he wrapped the black wool scarf on his neck. She hummed again.

“So, do you come out a lot?” he inquired again.

“Sometimes”

“When you have nightmares”

“Sometimes”

“Do you often get nightmares? And don´t say sometimes” it had already annoyed him. She smirked but he couldn´t see it.

“I guess”

“Is it the same?” he wondered why he asked that

“Not always”

“What was your nightmare about?”

“I was scared” she didn´t feel like lying.

“I´m sorry”

“It´s ok, I´m not scared now”

“Not even of the darkness?”  He joked. She chuckled. He looked up again and noticed she was putting her gloves on. “No, don´t” he said and she looked down, they locked gazes. “I´ll stay here and you´re there, you don´t have to…” he trailed off and she tilted her head still staring at him.

“It´s cold out here” she repeated his words, a lie; she was not cold at all.

“Oh” he said as she jumped a few steps away from where he was.

“Walking will make you feel warm…and will probably make you feel sleepy too” she said starting to walk along the wall. He blinked and hurried to get up

“Why don´t you like being called Nicky?” he was a couple of steps behind her. She stopped and stood very still then she turned to see him, her expression unreadable. “I…” he started

“Bad memories” she said with a heavy sigh. He sighed too, relieved, he thought she had made her mad. They both walked slowly.

“I´m sorry about that”

“It´s ok”

“Are you better by now –he asked hesitant- your eh your wounds?” Josh had asked but she hadn’t really answered that first day she came back.

“Yeah, pretty much everything healed”

They kept walking in silence.

“Wanna ask something else?” Nichole inquired and he was glad “I don´t bite, usually” she joked. He smiled.

“Eh…your doctor seems very nice”

“She seems, yeah” she snorted

“Isn´t she?” hi knitted his eyebrows, she looked up the sky

“Most people that are associated with me only seem nice” she looked at him gauging his reaction. He opened his mouth to talk but didn´t say a word. “Except you and Mii of course” she smiled “which is why any of you should spend more than the necessary time around me”

“Don´t say that”

“You should go back” she said looking ahead to a building, his building

“Are you staying out here?”

“No, I´m going back too”

“Ok”

“Good night, Josh” her voice was light and calm

“Good night, Nic”

That night he had the dream of a little girl with big brown eyes, dark hair and pink cheeks that looked at him through a thick wall of glass. Was she about to cry? The lights faltered a little and it was dark for a second and when there was light again instead of the little girl with pink cheeks there was Nichole at the other side of the glass. He got up and do did she, they touched their hand to the window pane, he looked at their hands that seemed to touch each other but not really, there was the glass in between, then he looked at Nichole and was shocked to see the same brown eyes, she looked away when the lights faltered again and after that there was again the little girl, she was being taken away. “Come on, Nicky, time to go” someone called the little girl. He got up, for some reason he was covered in sweat, he turned on his bedside lamp and looked out the window, the day light was taking over the night. His alarm clock read 5:15.


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this one´s short but woohooo for post 400!! -.--not the 400th published post but still...