Nightmare
Monday was strange. I'd managed two nights in a row without nightmares. I was adoring my good luck when I noticed the powdery snow falling from the sky.
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
I drove to school carefully. The weather report said the snow wouldn't stick, but the threat of ice on the roads made me nervous. The truck held steady the entire drive.
English went fine. Mike walked me to and from class, dutiful as ever. He supplied conversation that could be answered with one single word.
"How was your weekend?"
"Fine."
"You working this Saturday?"
"Yeah."
Calculus was nerve-wracking. Jessica didn't seem pleased with my motorcycle stunt, but she hadn't written me off completely. She at least tolerated me enough to talk about the rest of her weekend.
I noticed how several of my teachers seemed surprised when I raised my hand to answer a question. As if I was a new student that had snuck in, one they'd never seen before.
How bad off was I for the past four months?
I already knew the answer to that.
At lunch, I didn't recognize several of the faces at the table. Surely it wasn't their first day sitting with us. I tried to listen in and figure out who was who, and gave up.
Besides the new faces, several of the old ones had changed. Lauren had chopped off her platinum blonde hair into a pixie-cut that made me miss Alice. Angela had grown out her bangs. Jessica, thankfully, was at least the same. Maybe her highlights were darker.
"Ben has the stomach flu," Angela was saying. "We went to have a picnic and we stopped at a gas station, he used the bathroom and there was someone sick inside. So that's probably where he caught it. We're hoping it's just a day bug, but we canceled it anyway."
"Did he get sick during the drive?" Jessica asked while examining her nails. She didn't seem to be entirely devoted to the conversation.
"No, we saw a freaking bear while we were driving."
"Tyler swears he saw it last week," Lauren said with an eye roll.
"It was huge."
"Bears don't come so close to town," Lauren pointed out.
"We had a hunter see it."
Several sets of eyes turned to look at me. Mike even paused his conversation with Tyler to turn. Angela had a smile forming on her face.
"Apparently a lot of people have been seeing it in the woods." The watching eyes was annoying. "Right, Mike?"
"They're exaggerating, just like Angela," Lauren said. There was a curl in her lip that I didn't appreciate.
"No, she's right. We've been hearing all about it at work," Mike agreed. "They're saying it was a giant black bear."
Angela smiled triumphantly and looked at me. "What did you do this weekend, Bella?"
"Well I spent most of my weekend at La Push. But Jessica and I went to the movies on Friday."
Mike leaned in closer, now abandoning his conversation with Tyler entirely. "What movie did you see?"
"That new zombie one. Bella looked sick the entire time." Jessica said it with grin. "It was pretty gross. I almost couldn't eat after."
The conversation went on. I kept mostly to myself, but Angela made sure to stay back after for a minute as we headed back to class.
"I'm glad you're back. I missed you." She added quietly, "Are you better?"
I thought about it and nodded. "Working on it."
Mike worked me at Newton's that night. By the time my four hour shift ended, I was ready to stick a screwdriver into my ear drum. I regretted saying a word at lunch. He just wouldn't be quiet.
Questions. Constant questions. He seemed so eager that I almost felt bad at my annoyance.
Almost.
I had never been so happy to go home. Charlie wanted to celebrate my return to the living; he cooked dinner. Steaks with baked potatoes. I ate my whole plate before doing my nightly routine and heading to bed.
Three nights in a row was too much to ask for.
The nightmares started again. Alone, screaming as a stumbled through the woods. Splinters jammed into my limbs as I feel, the rocks bruising my flesh. Dirt and moss under my fingernails and a tried to get back up over and over. I yelled for help, begged for anyone. But I was alone.
I woke up at two in the morning, covered in sweat and shaking. The searing pain in my chest was back. I gasped for air and waited for it to finally recede.
Slowly, dutifully, I cracked my bedroom window open. The cold air from outside creeper inside, the silent invader. I crawled back into bed and stared at the tiny gap in the window until I finally shivered myself back to sleep.