Chapter 2

Natalie woke up with a start. She was drenched in sweat, her hair was tousled and unkempt from the tossing and turning that accompanied the dream. After a while, she started adjusting to her settings. She was back in her room. Her sky blue walls glimmered slightly in the darkness. She glanced around before carefully pushing herself out of bed. Once under the shower, she stood, pondering the events of last night. At first she thought she might be haunted by the reoccurring dream but, it seemed surreal. She dried herself off before walking to her closet to get dressed. She glanced at the clock, 6:45 shit, I’m late . Hurling down the stairs she said a quick good morning, grabbed her toast and her lunch money that was waiting for her on the table and ran for the bus. 

Once at school, she turned only when she heard her name being screamed across campus. Natalie! Natalie wait! Natalie Lance holds up, the voice continued. She spun around to see a red-headed female barreling through a sea of people headed straight for her. She stopped just in time and flung her arms around Natalie. “Hi bitch, how you been?” Screamed the red-haired girl struggling to be audible above the sea of people. “Hey Stella, I’m okay but I really need to talk to you” she lowered her voice before continuing. “You remember that dream I told you about last week? It's back. It's like I’m being haunted but I have no idea by what.” Stella looked at her for a moment, confusion in her eyes before she swiftly dragged her to the girl's bathroom. 

Stella pushed open the doors of each cubicle to make sure on was there. Once she had made sure that every single stall was vacant, she turned to Natalie and said, “We’re gonna figure this out okay?”. She whipped out her phone and started googling the dream. She googled dreams and after minutes of scrolling, she found an article about the importance and meaning of certain dreams. Natalie nodded her head but her mind was somewhere else. She was recollecting past events. Betrayal flooded her and she had to fight back her tears. Stella hesitated by a minute noticing the change of expression on her face. “What’s wrong Nat?” She asked after gauging the change in her expression. “Nothing…i’m fine” she replied plastering a smile. Okay, whenever you’re ready to talk about it, I’m here for you…. Her voice trailed off as her train of thought persisted. She desperately tried to put it out of her mind as she headed to class but her thoughts kept running at the back of her mind playing like a broken tape recorder. The moment that haunted her the most is when he raised his hand over her head as she cowered down trying to curl into herself for protection. Never had she seen her father so angry before and she was shaken to her core. 

That day, everything seemed to be a constant reminder of last night so she decided to meet up with Stella and tell her what was going on. She swiftly typed a text saying to meet her at their favorite place in 10 mins. When Stella and Natalie first met, it was in a parka highly likely place for 10-year-olds to be but it was never just sparked to them. There was something extraordinary about this park, it led out into a forest with thickets of trees and wild grass almost the 6 feet high. They had an immediate connection. A few months later, they were neighbours and had become inseparable. What most people didn’t know was that there was clearing right in the middle of the Forrest, it was like a hide-out and they had successfully kept it a secret from everyone. 

As Natalie made her way through the thickets to the opening she hesitated Should I tell her? What is she going to think? What is she going to say? Her thoughts persisted as she made her way to the clearing, every doubt vanished. This was Stella, she had known her forever and they shared everything. When she arrived, Stella was already seated and scrolling thought her phone. "So I started reading this interring article about dreams and how they can affect our reality and I found some really interesting stuff" Stella started as soon as Natalie was within earshot. "Stel waits, there's something I have to tell you, and its not related to the dream." Natalie began pouring her heart out about the events of last night now she was shocked to see her after like that, how the argument between them broke out and how to hurt she was by it. Stella could see the pain in her best friend's eyes and slowly took her hand but something happened. For a brief moment, she could feel all of Natalie's pain. It flowed through her bones like liquid and when she let go, she was shivering and sobbing. Natalie was shocked and she sobbed too. For a moment, they embraced and wept.

Once the moment had passed, after what felt like years, Stella slowly pulled away and looked Natalie straight in the eyes and said "I felt it, Nat. I felt your pain, and it was not like empathy, I could feel it, physically." "What?!" Natalie looked alarmed and what meant to come out in her normal tone was barely a squeak. "That's not possible, is it?" "Honestly Nat I don't know. It felt so...real" There was dead silence as the two girls were lost in thought. It was only broken by the ringing of Natalie's phone "Oh shit, I'm late." Together they got up and walked home in silence. When Natalie got to her door, she waved to Stella across the street and pulled the door behind her. She silently went up to her room and sat in silence, too afraid to fall asleep for she might find herself back there.