â Alice Moreno â
Time stopped. It always stopped. It was clear to Alice that her mindless dreaming would soon evolve into something more. Something new. Something serious. Something strange. At least, that's what she yearned for. The countless minutes of walking along the numerous sidewalks of Portland had created a map of what was where and who was where in Alice's mind; therefore, creating a world of obsolete nothingness. Portland was empty, and Alice couldn't simply take it anymore.
She could never take it.
That's why Alice escaped to her dreams. Since Portland was nothingness, why would she bother to spend efforts of communication and fake smiling to please people? Hadn't she already done that enough? No. You could never do something too much in Portland. She hated answering questions she already knew the answer to. That was another thing about Portland, you never ran out of answers, but you had too many questions. But in dreams, life was your voyage. You could spend countless hours drifting into the ocean, feeling the salt of the waves brush across your delicate skin. You could ignore the familiar faces of people you grew to dislike. You could sing without others staring at you, judging every crack and flaw in your voice. Why couldn't the world be a dream? Well, Alice knew she didn't have control over the world. That was another question she knew the answer to.
But she wish she didn't.
Alice sometimes didn't even have control over her own dreams. They turned into violent nightmares, plucking out each fear that had been tightly locked inside of her secretive heart. Alice despised nightmares. It was too bad she had them often. She had grown to lose control night after night, and it was starting to frighten her.
"Alice!"
She was breathing heavily, tumbling through a hole of mirrors. Countless mirrors. Each reflection was something different. She saw her face, but in the form of something new. Some images locked her gaze to glimpse upon her face covered in dirt, water, or even surrounded by butterflies. She wanted to fly away, escape the treacherous mirrors and wake up. But then again, reality was truly horrid too. A flash of auburn caught her gaze.
Her fingernails clawed at dirt surrounding the interior of the hole. Everywhere she turned she saw her reflection, staring back at her with piercing blue eyes, muttering something she couldn't hear or make out. Goosebumps rose across her skin as her body flailed against the air rushing upward as she raced downward, falling farther and farther into the depths of the darkness.
"Alice!"
She heard her name once more. It was a boy's voice, calling out to her in distress. Were they falling, too?
"Where are you?" Her voice cracked against the arid tone in her throat. She felt faint, as if her body was weakening. She wanted to scream at the frustration of her finding the boy. He could help her.
He could save her.
She closed her eyes, blocking out the horrifying reflections. Her hands flew out from underneath herself, trying to grasp what might be another person.
"Alice, we don't have much time!" She heard him say fretfully. Only his voice pushed away the thoughts of terror in her soul. She wanted to be in his arms, protected from the antique mirrors that haunted her mind. She wanted him, she needed him, but she didn't even know who the hell he was. Her fingertips stretched outward into the darkness for a chance to feel warmth. She met his fingertips, not even glimpsing for a peak of his face. She was too scared to open her eyes.
A sense of heat spread throughout her fingertips, jolting her back from his entwined fingers. Her eyes squinted, barley seeing the view of golden sparks.
One minute he was there, and the next, he was gone.
________
"Alice Moreno, get up! You aren't going to be late on your first day if school!"
She could hear her father's voice calling her from downstairs.
She sat up with a jolt, throwing the covers off of herself in fear that they might suffocate her. Her breathing was rigid while she tried to grasp what was now the clean atmosphere. She closed her eyes, feeling her fingernails did into her sweaty palms. Alice felt like crying for once. Well, she always felt like crying, but she had learned to hide it over the years. Crying could not be tolerated now.
She had lost him once more. She always lost him in the dreams, and she always felt like it depended on her life to save his own. She thrust her head forward, locking it between her shivering knees
"It was just a dream." Her words were interrupted by the choppiness of her breathing. She tried breathing slower to help ease her nerves. All she felt was loss. Just pure suffering.Stricken suffering.
She wanted her fingers to be in his. She felt was so stupid for letting him go. In frustration, she gripped her pillow, throwing it at the shelf in front of her, knocking over a few items.
Nightmares. What an awful thing they were. She had been having the dream for weeks now, each one becoming more and more vivid over the course of the past nights. She was too scared to even close her eyes in fear of the ever growing darkness.
"Alice! Everything okay up there?" She could hear her father begin to make his way upstairs.
"Yeah!" She inhaled. "Everything is in tip-top shape!" She ran to the the doorway, carefully shutting the door to make sure her dad wouldn't hear anymore pillow throwing incidents.
She breathed in heavily, quickly brushing away the pointless thoughts of her dreams. An aching weight grew inside of her chest, trying to pull her towards focusing on the boy who had slipped from her grasp. He had just barley slipped away. Her fingertips met the pale blue wall, feeling the cracked paint. She had other things to tend to.
She stood up, rubbing her hands against her face to take care of the unnecessary thoughts, though she knew it was a futile attempt as a distraction. She made her way towards the shower, readying herself for school. But she couldn't get him out of her head, and she couldn't explain why. Was she falling for someone who didn't even walk the Earth? No, more like falling in a hole of endless mirrors.
"Alice, I'm going out of town for a couple of days." Her father took a sip of his coffee. The scent of bacon curled throughout the air, and her mind began to twist in a new direction. Her father was always gone. It was probably a company trip- again.
She scurried across the kitchen floor, practically sliding in her socks to reach the fridge. She didn't feel like talking, especially about business.
"Sleep okay?" Her dad's eyes traced her movements across the kitchen. His bald head reflected off of the kitchen lights, "You look a little tired." He positioned his glasses on the tip of his nose, turning back to an article about Portland's recent high school football winnings against an opposing county. That's all he ever thought about: football. He never had time for her.
"Yeah," Her eyes scanned the refrigerator, looking for the milk. "Had a couple of nightmares." She took the milk and closed the fridge. Where were the Brand Flakes?
"Nightmares?" She heard her dad flip to another section of the paper. "What kinda' nightmares?" He looked up, eyebrows raised.
Alice turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Just plain old nightmares, dad." She unscrewed the milk lid.
"Like, monsters and stuff in your dreams?" He cleared his throat.
"No, dad." She poured the milk in a glass. "No monsters."
"Then what was it?"
"A boy."
"Doin' what?"
"Nothing." She closed the milk, walking back towards the direction of her bacon. The mirrors entered her mind again.
Her dad chuckled. "A boy?" He uncrossed his legs. "I don't know what's gotten into you." He grunted, studying the words on the paper even harder. "You've never really talked about boys before."
"Don't worry about it." She scratched the back of her neck, taking a seat across from him. The fumes of bacon entered her nostrils.
"Have a good day, okay? I'm gonna' get ready for work." He stood up from his chair, passing Alice the paper across the table as if she wanted to read it. He nodded towards the picture in the center of the paper. "High hopes for the football season this year!"
"Like always, dad." She let out a sigh, looking out of the kitchen window. It was about to rain.
"I'm off-"
"Like always, dad." She suddenly wasn't hungry. She pictured the boy from the dream again. His eyes danced across her vision. Where would she see him tonight? Even if it was a nightmare, it was still an escape. She was starting to like that.
Her dad let out a sharp sigh, turning to walk up the staircase.
________
Alice's sneakers were drenched. Her socks pressed against the damp insoles, causing water to squeeze between her toes. Her footsteps squeaked against the newly swept floors of Portland High, or also referred to as, Hell. Pure Hell.
Familiar faces lined Alice's vision. Danny, the soon-to-be quarterback of the Portland County Falcons, gave her a swift wink. She rolled her eyes, turning to observe Janice Harbrooke, the all-American queen bee, complain about her frizzy hair. She mentally blocked the images out of her mind, focusing on her dripping sweatshirt. Despite the drawbacks of riding a bicycle to school, she enjoyed the rain, even after its annoying outcome. Rain was one of the few pleasant things in Portland.
"Let's get to class, people!"
It was her second year. If only it was the last. She dreamed of leaving Portland, as did the rest of the population, but, for now, she was stuck in the hallway of Hell. She entered Ms. Jaren's history class, looking at the few empty seats. Everyone was bustling with excitement, rushing to claim seats, or whispering.
Whispering?
She walked back to the corner, setting her navy book bag beside the plastic chair. She curled her soaking hair behind her ear, taking a seat. Why was everyone whispering?
"I heard that one boy was cute..."
"Cute? How can a freak be cute?"
Alice turned to hear Janice and Carla, her petite sidekick in crime, gossip about someone. Who was it his time? Maybe a helpless kid?
"Class, listen up!" Ms. Jansen cleared her throat, positioning her glasses. "It's a new year and a new day!"
Boy, this lady was a trip.
A silence fell over the class as everyone took their seats. "Sophomore year is exciting, isn't it?" Ms. Jaren proclaimed.
There was no reply. You could practically hear a pin drop.
"Well," Her face fell. "Here is some exciting news!" A smile crept across her face again "We have some new students entering Portland High!"
New students? Alice could feel the tension raise in the room.
Shit. New students. Alice almost said a silent prayer in fear that her fellow students would jump to conclusions.
"Please welcome, Zachariah, Beck, and Catalina Curwen."
Alice's eyes widened. Curwen? They were related to Marvin Curwen? The strange man who confined himself to solitary on the shore of Lake Otshire? Well, this was a change of plans.
Marvin Curwen? Did she hear that right?
A flash of auburn caught her gaze. They were siblings, all standing tall in their own unique way. Cold air rushed through the room and everyone was silent. Goosebumps crawled across Alice's skin as her body stiffened. She felt faint, as if she had known one of them. Her eyes met the siblings', staring into them with intense interest. A flash of auburn? She bit her lip, a nervous habit.
Maybe things were changing...