The Breath Of His

14. You followed some dog into the forest like some Alice in Wonderland

"Let me get this right," my mother raised her eyebrows trying understand whatever rocket science equivalent she was finding in my explanation before repeating it to cross-check. Rather very crudely whilst sitting on the couch opposite to my rectilinear in the living room. Thankfully, dad was nowhere in the sight. If I recalled correctly, he was supposed to come in early today. My focus was grabbed back by my mother.

"You followed some dog into the forest like some Alice in Wonderland-" I interrupted her in the middle correcting her, "mom, Alice didn't follow a dog, she followed a rabbit."

"I don't care whatever it was that she follows, but you followed a dog into the forest and got lost and in panic ran in random directions and came out looking like that!?!" She literally exclaimed at the end of her statement in shock.

"I thought it was Jackie..." I said in a dejected soft voice and immediately her expression calmed down from incredulous and thunderous to sad and sympathetic one. She kneeled before me holding my hand on the arm rest as she now spoke with a gentle voice, "honey, Jackie passed away in that terrible accident back then. He can't come back."

I hated lying using Jackie's name like this. It hurt me on the inside but then nothing else that I say would be logical or not question my sanity. No matter how absurd it was.

Truth is stranger than fiction. That phrase had come slapping me cold on my face and I couldn't admit it.

With another painful pang in my chest, I replied, "I know..."

"Come here, sweetie," mom pulled me towards her into a hug as she muttered, "please don't ever do that again, honey. You don't know how much of a fright you gave me with that sight of yours."

She kissed my temple before letting go me and saying, "go, get yourself cleaned and we will dress your wounds and have the supper. Alright?"

I nodded and hurried upstairs towards my room.

By the time I had finished cleaning up and my mom dressing all the visible wounds, after I had taken care of the other wounds that is, it was already time for the dinner and I was covered with hello Kitty bandaids.

I hadn't realized how much of a damage my body had taken during the incident until the clean up.

It wasn't an exaggeration when I say my dad was so shocked that he had turned into statue for a good five minutes. That was when I understood why he loved playing freeze or die with the racoons that trespassed into our property.

Everything that happened today was still pretty hard for me to wrap my head around it.

Nevertheless, I was out of trouble, thankfully.

Mom called in a sick for the next day even when I asked multiple times for her not to. There was no need for me to miss anymore of the school than I already had. Given my bandaged knees, she did have a point that I might even need the crutches again to walk through the corridors.

The entire day went slowly. Half the time I was engaged in a one-sided conversation with my mom. And no, I wasn't the that was talking. The other half of the time, I was staring outside the windows into the raging waves.

It was hard to dismiss what I had witnessed the day before. It felt like a nightmare come true.

Those glowing eyes, those elongated fangs, that inhumane speed and attacks. There was no way a human would be capable of doing such things. Whatever they were, they weren't human.

And that was applied to West, Vann and the group surrounding them. There were creatures living among us that were capable of things that no human could muster to imagine...

Atleast, I couldn't...

It took time to digest the facts that my eyes had witnessed. And soon it was time to go back to school, back to the nightmarish type of reality that held the key to what might have had happened to me on my near death experience. Surprisingly, I still wasn't repulsed or traumatic to avoid going to that place. What I was more worried about was that I couldn't find the right dress for the day.

After hours of pondering and looking at my wardrobe, just kidding, it was merely a few minutes, I decided on a yellow button down a line skirt and yellow and white raglan T-shirt with elbow sleeves. That was paired with the white sneakers.

It was a new set of clothing my mother had bought for me after none of my other clothing fit me anymore.

I must say, I found the new collection pretty cute.

Grabbing a quick granola bite downstairs while my mother was yelling after me to sit down and have a proper breakfast but the clock on the wall didn't let me have that luxury. I was going to be late if I didn't leave now.

Shouting over my shoulder back to my mother, "I'm going to be late mom! Will grab something from the cafeteria, love you!" I hurried out of the door to the awaiting car of my father's.

He started driving as soon as I closed the door shut.

"Your mother and I are always so worried about you. You are like an accident magnet. Somehow or the other, you end up getting hurt," dad started shaking his head.

"I know dad, but it's not my fault..." I argued back.

"But it was, this time, wasn't it?" He raised an eyebrow at me as he gave me a glance.

"Just this one," I muttered slumping further into the seat.

"Maybe, we should homeschool you the remaining year," he wondered out loud making my eyes to widen up at the thought of resuming homeschool and saying goodbye to the normal life I was having now.

"No! Please don't! I will be very careful but don't get me to homeschool again. You will not hear about another accident with me, I promise!" I begged, literally begged giving him my best puppy eyes.

He sighed again in resignation, "alright, I don't want you to get into something reckless again. It takes tens of years away from us whenever we see you hurt and almost in the way of harm."

I just nodded not knowing what else to do.

And I hated worrying my parents so much...

Dad stopped the car by the school, allowing me to get out. I gave him a flying kiss and wave before making my way towards the entrence.

What I didn't know was another person waiting for me by the maindoor.

Reed stepped forward with a confused look as he greeted me, "Hi, Snow! What happened to you?"

I looked at my bandaid covered body of mine before looking at him and answering, "slipped down the stairs."

Subconsciously my hand scratching the side of my head.

Reed was taking in all the hello kitty bandaids and my answer, while muttering something like, "oh that's why."

"Excuse me?" I asked unable to follow through.

"Nothing much, get well soon, and then maybe we can hang out as we had discussed."

Before I could fully understand what he was implying at, Reed winked with a smile and headed inside to dope slap his friend Mitch only to get playfully punched in the stomach as he gave another glance in my way.

What hanging out what he saying about?

I was so confused at the moment. Shaking my head to try clearing out the confusion, I made my way inside the school.

It was all of a sudden, the energy in the corridor fluctuated and made it hard for me to breathe.

Automatically, as if on reflex, my head whipped left and right trying to find the source of this apprehension I was feeling all of a sudden.

As if being called out by the source of my anxiety, I turned to look over my shoulder to find the group of seven new hot looking boys climbing up the stairs with bags on their shoulders or in their hands.

And no that wasn't all. What actually made me going into an asthmatic attack was that the two of those boys was none other than the ones who had chased after me just day before yesterday, trying to rip my head off my shoulders. And one of them even had the audacity to smirk and wink at me.