• Chapter 12
    The Game

    Monday morning, seven o’clock. Right on schedule, Ray knocked on my door. I took one last peek in the mirror to make sure I looked the same as I always did and not some brain dead zombie, like I felt. I never realized it was so hard to be almost completely alone for an entire week.
    I opened the door and stepped out. I still wasn’t talking to Ray unless I had to. I didn’t think it was his fault that I was in this situation, but he was the one who lead me into it. He would have to earn my trust back, little by little.
    Ray had my backpack with him. Him and my parents had apparently made a trip to our house and gotten some stuff for Pixie and I. I had my school books, my backpack, cloths, and some other personal items. Pixie had gotten the same but add stuffed toys to the list. The only thing that was sentimental, only to me, was my bead pillow. I finally had a decent nights sleep, last night, after Kimmy brought it to me yesterday afternoon. But it still wasn’t nearly enough to make up for all the missed sleep.
    It was hard to understand why it was so easy to believe Kimmy when she said she was a vampire but so hard to believe m parents. Of course, I didn’t actually believe Kimmy was a vampire, but if there was such a thing as vampires I would imagine they’d be a lot like Kimmy. Where as, my parents seemed lie the last people on earth that would be vampires. I had thought about this topic so much in the last seven days that I was sick of thinking about it.
    I was almost glad to be going back to school. It would help me get my mind off the abnormal things that have happened to me and back into a normal state. I would go along with the lie my parents had told the school, I had caught a cold that could have turned into pneumonia and then I was lucky enough to recover before it did.
    We walked along the corridor, in silence. He knew I was still mad at him. We got into another elevator that I hadn’t seen before and headed down. When the doors opened, Kimmy was there to greet us.
    “Good morning, Mocha. Did you sleep well?” she chirped.
    I could not see how Kimmy, a supposed vampire, could be such a morning person. It was obvious Ray wasn’t, with those dark rings that are always under his eyes if he’s up before noon.
    “Good morning, Kimmy. I did sleep well last night. Thank you for asking,” I responded. The three of us started walking down another hall that lead out into a big, what looked like, sitting room. My parents sat on a couch to our right with Pixie in a chair next to them. They seem to be having a good chat. Pixie stood and ran towards me when she saw me.
    “Mocha, you were supposed to come and see me. I haven’t seen you in a week. I got tired of waiting,” she pouted.
    I had completely forgotten that Pixie was here. I just assumed she would be safe with our parents. She certainly seemed ok.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, “I promise, I’ll come and see you from now on, and you can come visit me, if you want.”
    “Really! In your room?” she exclaimed.
    “Yeah, sure,” I said with a smile.
    “Thank you, Mocha,” she said while throwing her arms around me.
    I wondered why she had asked about coming to my room. She had never had any issues about barging into my room at our house. Why was my room such a big deal here. I mad a mental note to see if this place had a library so I could find more books about the weird symbols. I wanted to know what the star meant and why it was so important. No one seemed to enter my room without an invitation from me. I wanted to know why.
    My parents had stood and walked over to were we stood.
    You guys have a good day at school, now” my mom said, with the same goofy smile she always gave us.
    “Here’s some lunch money,” my dad added in while handing Pixie and I each a five dollar bill.
    We started walking towards the double wide doors, which seemed to be the actual entrance to this place.
    “We’ll see you at dinner,” my mom called, “right, Mocha.” I staggered a little when she called my name. then I just turned my head to look at her and nodded a yes before chasing after Kimmy, who was twenty feet ahead of all of us.
    ----------------------------------------------------- Later That Day
    I had completely forgotten that on Monday’s we had gym. I hated gym. It was my worst subject. It wasn’t that I wasn’t any good at sports, I just had no interest in them. I didn’t like competition. I liked sitting out when I could and when I did have to participate I tried my best not to et mess in anyway. I hated showering after gym was over. All the other girls had nice bodies, where mine wasn’t anything close to nice. I was on the shorter side but I was still skinny, almost lanky. My chest was too small and my hair was abnormally long and it just showed more when it was wet. That’s why I always wore it up.
    Today we were playing my least favorite sport. Dodge ball. We played dodge ball in the inside gym whenever it was raining, and it just happened to be pouring.
    Ray was immediately popular. I knew he would be. He was built well, tall, and athletic. The kind of guy I usually avoided. He was perfect, in the eyes of my classmates.
    He was bound to be one of the first people picked for dodge ball. I was usually one of the last. They boy’s and girl’s gym classes played together for dodge ball but the teams always ended up the same. Most of the boys on one side and the girls on the other. Girls always lost. There wasn’t really even a point to playing once the teams where picked, we already know who would win.
    We were lined up for the picking. The teachers picked two kids to be the leaders for the teams. Kimmy was picked and some boy for the other team. The boy picked first and, of course, picked another boy. Then Kimmy picked me. I joined her with a smile. The picking continued. Ray ended up on the other side. When we were finally split into teams five dodge balls where thrown into the court.
    We were lucky, our side got a hold of three of the five balls. We actually hit two of the other team members. One girl and one of the nerdy boys that was picked last. The third ball was caught so one of our team members were out. The game continued like I knew it would. Soon we had four members left on our team when they had nine. There was no way we could win this.
    It was me, Kimmy, Becky, and Sam. None of us were really good at dodge ball and the other team had all the balls. Ray had played really well.
    They had made a plane where they targeted one person on our team at a time. Sam was their first target. He was out as soon as the first ball was thrown. We ended up with three balls. Kimmy and I always had a plan for this kind of situation too. I would throw a ball at one of them and we both knew that one of the other members on their team would throw a ball at me. Then Kimmy would through a ball at the person throwing the ball. I would just have to manage to dodge the ball.
    I gave her the signal to use that plan and she nodded. I throw my ball and, just like we guessed, one of the other members started to throw a ball at me. Then Kimmy throw her ball as hard as she could at him and it hit. I jumped out of the way at the last second. We gave each other a high five. One down, eight to go.
    We used the same plan to get five more members out. Now it was three against three, a fair game.
    It was me, Kimmy, and Becky against Ray, Jimmy, and Eric. Now the real game began.
    They had been targeting Becky for a long time. Luckily, for us, Becky was good at dodging. The game continued but we had both learned the other teams strategies. Now no one was hitting anyone. The game seemed to drag. I turned to face Kimmy, to see if we could come up with a new plan. When I saw her face though she looked fear stricken. Then she started running towards me.
    “Mocha, look out!”
    I turned just in time to see the ball before Kimmy pushed me out of the way.
    The ball bounced off Kimmy’s leg.
    “Kimmy, are you ok?” I asked while standing up
    “Yeah, I’m fine, but out,” she said kind of disappointed.
    “I’m sorry. I should have been paying more attention,” I said with sad eyes.
    “It’s ok. Just pay attention from now on,” she answered while walking over to the sideline.
    It was just me and Becky now. Becky and I didn’t have a plan. We had only talked on a few occasions to start with. So we just winged it. We got lucky and was able to hit Eric. Then we both targeted Jimmy. We weren’t able to hit him but I caught one of the balls he throw. Now it was two against one. Ray was the last one for the other team.
    We started throwing back and forth. Soon, Ray caught a ball that Becky had thrown. Now it was just him and me.
    We just stared at each other for a minute and then I throw my ball. He dodged, of course. Then he started throwing back. Something wasn’t quite right though. He was making it easy for me to dodge them. I throw my ball harder. He jumped out of the way at the last second. Did he plan to keep me playing for the rest of the period. I wasn’t going to let him do that. I decided that I would throw the ball I had and then stand still so his next ball would hit me.
    I throw my ball hard, but I was off. It wouldn’t touch him. It was too far to his left. I expected him to throw a ball back and this time it would hit. I embraced myself for the impact but it never came. I heard everyone gasp and looked up. Ray had jumped in front of my last ball. It had ended up hitting him on the jaw. The whole room was silent for all of three seconds before everyone who had been on my team started cheering. I was still glued to where I stood until Kimmy tackled me.
    “Mocha, we won! You won for us!” she said with a grin from ear to ear. I was still a bit shocked so I just nodded. Then the rest of my team surrounded me. I heard “Mocha, you did it,” and “Great job, Mocha,” from everyone. I smiled lightly as everyone congratulated me, but the entire time I wondered.
    Why did he let me win?

    Chapter 13
    Tripping

    The rest of the day went on normally. Classes were as boring as I remembered them, the only difference being that I got a weeks worth of overdue homework and took quadruple the amount of notes in each class. I had never written so much in all my life. By the time school was over I couldn’t feel half my fingers. I was not looking forward to all the homework I would have to do tonight.
    I knew Kimmy would help me with the homework from the classes we shared, but that was only two classes. I know, I shared all my classes with Ray now, but I had a feeling that he would need more help then I did. He had just started school today. He hadn’t been there for the first part of the year.
    I started homework immediately when we arrived at the house. I would have to go to dinner at six and I wish I hadn’t agreed to going. I would be up well into the night finishing this homework. I wonder how Ray was doing.
    A hour and a half later, I had managed to finish the math and a good portion of the English. I would have Kimmy help me with science and language after dinner. I put the English aside for awhile and started the only homework I was looking forward to. Art. I pulled out the assignment that I was supposed to start last week. Usually, my art was completed in the classroom, ahead of schedule, but I was so far behind on this assignment that Mr. Rune let me bring it home.
    I knew I would have difficulties with this assignment, even though I zoomed through my assignments most of the time.
    The assignment was to find someone you rely on or truly adore and draw a portrait of them. Then, next week we would take the drawing and sketch it onto a bigger canvas and then paint it.
    I sat there thinking of all the people I knew. With all that’s been happening, I didn’t really rely or adore anyone at the moment. A half a hour later I still hadn’t the slightest idea of who I was going to draw when someone knocked on my door. I stood up and walked to the door and opened it.
    There was Ray. Sketch book in hand and an extremely nervous look on his face.
    “Um…hi, Mocha. I was just wondering if…”
    “You want help with the art assignment, don’t you?” I asked.
    “…yeah… I was never good at drawing to begin with,” he said with a light smile.
    “Then why did you sign up for art?” I asked.
    “Uh… you…ah…I had to,” he said slowly while watching my face. I stared at him for a second before stepping back and waving my hand to give him the ok to come in, a grateful smile spread across his face.
    “Please tell me you, at least, know who you want to draw. I’m not even that far, yet,” I said.
    “Yeah… I kinda… wanted to draw…” he cut off before mumbling something I couldn’t hear.
    “Who?” I asked.
    “Um… mhedufle” he mumbled again.
    “Ray, I can’t help you unless I know who you want to draw,” I told him.
    “Ok, I was just… wondering if… I could draw you,” he said slowly.
    I stared at him for a minute, before I started laughing. By the time I was able to control myself again my eyes where watery and my sides hurt.
    “Nice joke, Ray. Really, who do you want to draw?” I said while wiping away the water from my eyes.
    He just stared back far a second before turning red.
    That’s when I realized he was serious.
    “Oh, no no no no no. Not me,” I started saying before Ray cut in.
    “Please, Mocha. I don’t have anyone else to draw. No one I really care about, anyway,” he begged.
    I stared at him for a minute before giving in.
    “Fine, but I’m not posing or anything,” I told him.
    “That’s fine, I don’t need you to pose. I just wanted your permission,” he said with that light smile. His face still a bit flushed.
    I sat back down at my desk and stared down at the art assignment. Soon after that I heard Ray sketching away. I decided to give up for now and finish my English homework. I set the art assignment to the side and took out my vocab book and started again on the, what seemed like, impossible problems. Forty-five minutes later I finished it. I breathed a sigh of relief and stretched my fingers. My hand hurt, a lot and I still had so much homework to do tonight.
    I had forgotten about Ray until I turned my chair towards him and yelped. I fell backwards off my chair.
    “Oww…” I cried.
    “Mocha, are you alright!?” I heard Ray cry out before his face appeared over mine a look of worry on his face.
    “Yeah, I’m fine,” I said while sitting up right, “ I forgot that you were there. You just surprised me, is all.”
    He held out his hand to help me up. I took it and pulled. I was halfway off the floor when he somehow managed to lose his footing and fell forward.
    “Ah…” I heard his say before falling on me.
    He was pressed against me for all of two seconds before he was on his feet again.
    “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to. Forget that happened, please!” he exclaimed. I could feel my face flush red. I looked up at him and his face was red too. I grabbed the side of the desk and hoisted myself up.
    Now we were standing close to each other. I looked back up at him at the exact same time he looked down at me. That made me blush even harder.
    We stared at each other for a few seconds. His lip quivered as if he wanted to say something, but couldn’t. I took a tiny step toward him. He seemed to get my hint and took the step towards me that closed the gap. We were just close enough to not be touching. I reached out to hug him as he placed his hand on the side of my face. We stepped even closer. I tilted my head up and prepared for the kiss I longed for. He stretched down and was about two inches away from my face. I could feel his cool breath on me and I knew he could feel mine. I was just about to close my eyes and push myself up the last two inches.
    “Mocha! Dinner’s ready!” came Kimmy’s voice through the door. It caught both of us off guard and we flew away from each other. We looked up at one anther again and just blushed.
    Kimmy knocked on the door. “Mocha, I know your in there. Open up,” she whined. I looked back at Ray before stepping towards the door.
    I opened the door slowly, knowing Kimmy would never let me live this situation down. She took one look at me and had a questioning face, until she saw Ray standing behind me in the middle of the room.
    Then she grinned and pushed past me into the room.
    “Am I interrupting something?” she asked with an amused smile on her face. Ray turned even redder then he was and I glared at her.
    “No, your not. Why are you here?” I asked her, hoping to change the subject.
    “I already told you. Dinners ready. Let’s go eat. I’m starved,” she smiled.
    Ray walked past us, to the open door, and waited just outside for us to come out.
    Kimmy glanced over at me and mouthed.
    “Did you guys kiss?”
    I glared and mouthed back, “None of your business.”
    “Ah, no fair,” she whined while following me through the door.
    I walked up to Ray and grabbed his hand before running down the hall, away from Kimmy towards the dinning room. I heard Kimmy yelling at us to wait up but I didn’t listen. I just laughed.

    Chapter 14
    Dinner and Time

    Dinner went smother then I expected. I thought everyone was going to gang up on me and try to make me believe, but no such conversation came up. Dinner was normal. The whole family at the table, with a few additions, Ray, Kimmy, and Kelp (Kimmy’s boyfriend, who apparently lived here too). Elder Rin wasn’t there.
    “Well he pushed me first,” Pixie whined when our mom asked her to explain why she had been sent to the office today at school.
    “He pushed me, so I pushed him back. It’s not my fault he tripped and fell in the mud,” she huffed.
    “Pixie, you can’t push someone down just because they pushed you first. You should have gone and told a teacher and they would have taken care of it,” my dad, Robby, said, looking very tired.
    “But then the other kids will call me “tattle tail,” she whined.
    “Well, I’m telling you, that’s what you should have done,” my dad said in a tone that meant the conversation was over. Pixie dropped the conversation but she still had her pouty face on.
    “So, Mocha, how was your day at school?” my mom, Willa, asked.
    “It was fine. Lots of homework though. Kimmy’s going to help me with some of it after dinner,” I said.
    “Well, isn’t that nice of her. Be sure to say thank you,” Willa said with a smile.
    “I know, mom,” I said.
    Everyone was silent for a minute. No one sure of what to say.
    “Mocha’s helping me with my art assignment,” Ray said. I looked up, wondering what my parents would think about this. Mom seemed pleased enough, like she always did, but I couldn’t tell what dad was thinking. Whenever dad heard about a potential boyfriend before he had flipped but, this time, he didn’t start yelling at me immediately that I was too young to be dating and should be thinking about school instead of boys. Finally he just nodded in agreement.
    “It’s nice that classmates are helping each other. Its shows that they were raised right,” my dad said. I stared at him for a second and then glanced at Ray. He shrugged. My dad approved of Ray? Why? Was he special to them for some reason? Why was Ray an exception to all my dads rules? I pondered that for the rest of dinnertime, only speaking when I was spoken to.
    On the way back to my room, both Ray and Kimmy looked like they were worried about me.
    “What’s wrong, Mocha?” Kimmy asked, “you’ve been spacing out for the last hour.”
    “Yeah, are you alright?” Ray asked.
    “yeah, I’m fine. I just have a lot on my mind right now,” I answered. We had reached my door and I pulled out the key card I had received yesterday. I pushed the card in and the door swung open. I stepped in and expected them to follow. I turned to see them still standing in the doorway.
    “Is there anyway I can get you guy’s to stop doing that?” I asked angrily.
    “No. we have to be invited in. no way around it,” Kimmy chimed.
    “I can’t just say “your invited in always” and that’s the end of it?” I asked.
    …I don’t know,” Kimmy answered, “I’ll ask later and get back to you with an answer, ok?”
    I stared at her for a second before inviting them in. I sat down at my desk and Kimmy pulled up a chair next to me. Ray took the same seat he had last time. He picked up his sketch book off the floor from when he dropped it earlier.
    Kimmy started explaining something about the language homework but for some reason I couldn’t stop staring at Ray. He was concentrating very hard on his drawing. I still couldn’t believe he had asked to draw me. How was I special to him ore them any other person here? I couldn’t figure it out.
    “Mocha, will you please pay attention. I’m not going to explain this again,” Kimmy pouted.
    I jumped at the sound on my name and Ray looked up and caught me staring at him. I looked away quickly and turned my attention to the homework.
    “I’m sorry, Kimmy. I’ll pay attention now, promise,” I said shyly.
    We started the homework finally. I finished the language homework two and a half hours later. I still had science left.
    “I don’t know if my hand can take anymore. It already hurts so much,” I complained.
    “It’s ok, Mocha. Just a little more. Science wasn’t that bad anyway. We watched a video for three of the five day you were gone and didn’t get homework. So it’s only two days worth of work,” Kimmy said, trying to cheer me up.
    I smiled at her and stretched my hand a little before pulling out the last bit of work.
    I looked at it and realized it was mostly review. I know most of this. I started writing in answers and was soon ¾ths of the way finished. Kimmy explained the last quarter of the worksheets quickly and I was doe. I stretched my arms above my head and sighed with relief.
    I glanced at the clock and saw that it was only ten thirty. I had been expecting to be working on homework to one or two in the morning, so it was a pleasant surprise.
    “So, what do we do now?” I asked, looking at Kimmy.
    “I don’t know,” she said while starting to think of what we could do.
    “You could hold still for one more second.”
    We both looked over at Ray. He seemed to be putting the finishing touches on his drawing.
    “Are you already done?” I asked.
    “Almost. Why?” he asked.
    “I though you said you weren’t good at drawing. How did you get finished so fast?” I answered.
    “That… is a secret,” he said while standing up, “I’m done. See ya.”
    “Wait, we can’t see?” Kimmy cried.
    Ray looked back at us. “Only Mocha can see, but not until it’s done.” with that, he walked to the door and left. We both stared after him for a minute before we looked at each other and broke out laughing.

    Chapter 15
    The Truth

    I spent the next week working on my art assignment. I had decided to draw Pixie. She was really the only one who didn’t have a hand in this vampire business. I had finished the sketches on Thursday and was now putting more details into the sketch I choose to draw.
    I had made Pixie pose for several different sketches and then picked my favorite after I had finished them. The one I picked was of Pixie out in the garden, which I had found the other day, in a old Victorian style dress our mom had given her to play dress up in. she was sitting on a bench holding an umbrella above her head. There was a fountain behind her and I had braided her hair nicely and added small flowers into the braids. I had even put a little make up on her. Pixie was glad to o along with all of this because she got to dress up for it.
    I was, now, sitting in the art room thinking of what colors I would put where. I didn’t want to just put the normal colors in, I wanted to make it more interesting then that.
    Mr. Rune had liked all my sketches and had told me to pick the one I liked best. I choose this one because it was the one Pixie liked. I figured I could give Pixie the painting for her upcoming birthday. I would start to re-draw the picture on the canvas tomorrow. I started to pick up my stuff thinking that Ray was getting impatient from waiting for me. I had come back to the art room after school had ended to work on this. Of course, Ray had to follow. I stuffed the rest of the stuff in my bag and then put the sketches back in my art locker.
    “Ok, let’s go,” I said while heading for the door.
    Ray got up from where he was sitting and following after me. It still felt awkward having Ray follow he everywhere I went. I didn’t understand why it had to be him that went with me everywhere, like he was some kind of body guard.
    I had given up on trying to figure out what exactly was going on. There was no point in thinking about it anymore. It just made my head hurt every time I tried. I was going with the flow now, hoping nothing bad happened.
    We were now off school campus, walking down the street in the direction of the mansion. We always let school late because there had been some rumor going around that Ray and I were a couple and we didn’t want it to get any worse if people saw us walking home together.
    We turned the corner on to a quieter street. Not as much traffic passed us and almost no students lived down this way. It was very peaceful.
    “I see your still protecting the enemy, Ray,” said someone from behind us. I was instantly terrorized. I recognized the voice as my own, but I hadn’t spoken a word. I turned to see Pi Berry standing on the sidewalk behind Ray. Ray had already gotten in between myself and her.
    “I’m going to have to take her with me Ray. If I don’t bring her back I’ll get in trouble,” Pi Berry said with a grin.
    “Mocha. Run. Get to the mansion. Now!” Ray said before jumping at Pi Berry. I faltered for a second not sure of what to do but then Ray’s words registered in my head and I took off towards home.
    “Oh, no you don’t!” shouted Pi Berry while jumping over Ray and landing in front of me. I was staring strait into her eyes now and it scared me out of my wits. I just stood there having no where to go. Pi Berry reached out and grabbed my arm and started pulling me along. I snapped back to reality and pulled away from her.
    “Let go!” I yelled, “Let go of me. Now!”
    She looked back at me in surprise. Apparently she hadn’t expected me to fight back. Ray jumped in at that point and grabbed my other arm.
    “Let her go, Pi Berry. She doesn’t want to o with you,” Ray said while tugging me towards him a little bit.
    Then Pi Berry pulled hard on my arm to get me away from Ray.
    “Well, it doesn’t matter if she wants to or not. I have orders to bring her in. We have to destroy her before her vampire side wakes up. If she wakes up, my kind is all doomed. We’ll be smashed by her,” Pi Berry spat back angrily.
    Now I was getting angry. I was not a vampire. I had no plans of changing any time soon. I pushed away from Pi Berry, turned towards her, and swung my hand.
    The palm of my hand made contact with her right cheek. She fell back form the force but didn’t fall. she was in shock over what I had done.
    “I’m not going to change! I’m not a vampire! I’m human! This nonsense started when you two showed up. My life was completely normal before that. Why can’t you all just leave me alone and let me live my life?! I don’t believe any of what your saying! I’m not going to change!!!” I shouted at them. We all stood there for a moment, the only sound was me, catching my breath. I looked from one to the other then stood up strait.
    “Now, you,” I said while pointing at Pi Berry, “go back to clone world or where ever you came from. And you,” I said turning to Ray, “take me home.” I started walking down the street again towards the mansion. Ray faltered to process what I said for a second but was soon on my tail. Pi Berry remained rooted to the sidewalk, slowly lifting her hand to her, now, swollen cheek.

    Chapter 16
    Star Girl

    I ran down the hall, away from the others. I was too afraid to look back to see if they were chasing me, I just kept running. Willing myself to go faster. No matter how far I ran I could still hear them.
    “Get her!”
    “Don’t let her get away!”
    “Destroy her before she destroys us!”
    “Stop her!”
    “Don’t let her escape!”
    There were so many voices surrounding me. The all jumbled together and barely made any sense at all, but I still understood what they all wanted. They wanted me erased from this world. They wanted me dead.
    “What did I do wrong? I don’t want to hurt anyone, so why do you want to kill me?” I shouted back at the voices.
    “You will understand soon enough, but for now we can’t let you awaken. We must destroy you before you change.”
    I had reached the end of the hall and there was no where to go no doors and no direction to turn. I turned back around to watches them approach.
    “Grab her now!”
    “Drag her back!”
    They latched onto me and dragged me down. I resisted them but they were stronger. I felt the darkness start to take me.
    “Let me go. Please, I didn’t do anything to you.”
    “You may have not done anything yet, but you will.”
    “You will.”
    Wham! I fell out of my bed and did a face plant into the night stand.
    “Ouch!!!” I cried out. I reached up to my forehead where the corner had gotten me and felt a warm liquid dripping down.
    “Crap, crap, crap,” I said over and over again while getting up and rushing to the bathroom. I tripped over another table on the way there.
    “Dammit,” I said while biting back the pain. I flipped on the light and looked at myself in the mirror.
    Sure enough, there was a big gash across my forehead with blood trickling down the side of my face and into my left eye. I grabbed some tissue and started to mop up the blood on my face before realizing it had all ready gotten on my cloths. There was going to be some on my bedding too. I just knew there would be. I worked on trying to keep the blood from dripping down more, when I heard a knock on my door.
    I bit my lip and slowly walked out of the bathroom. I didn’t want to trip again.
    “Who is it?” I called when I got closer to the door.
    “It’s Ray. Are you alright. I heard some banding and you yelled something,” he answered.
    “Yeah, I’m fine. Just go away,” I said back, hoping he wouldn’t have to see what I hade done to my head.
    “…Mocha, could you open the door?” Ray responded.
    “…No. I don’t want to,” I said hoping he would give up and go away.
    “Please,” I heard him say in a pleading voice.
    I hesitated before stepping forward and cracking the door open.
    “What?” I asked, preying that he see the blood stained tissue in my hand. He did.
    “What happened?!” he said while pushing the door open and stepping in. I stared at him for a second, realizing he had just come into my room without an invitation. He grabbed my hand and pulled the tissue away from my head.
    “Dear lord. What did you do?!” he asked alarmingly.
    “I…I fell out of bed…and hit…” I stopped after that to stop myself from crying.
    He stared at me or a second before dragging me back to the bathroom. He made me sit down and put the tissue back on my head.
    “Stay here. I’ll be right back,” he said before walking out.
    I sat there quietly waiting. Hoping he would be back soon. The longer I was alone the more my mind wondered back to my nightmare. I was being chased after and voices were saying “destroy her” over and over again, but I couldn’t remember who the voices belonged to or who had been chasing me. I shivered when I remembered the feeling of the darkness dragging me down. I pulled my knees u to my chest in hopes of warming myself up. I had been so cold in the dream and I was even colder awake. It was then I realized that I was covered in a layer of cold sweat. Even my hair was damp. I shivered again. My head started to hurt as my brain finally registered the pain and the gash started the burn.
    I sat there for what seemed like forever, letting the pain sink in and shivering from the cold.
    Finally, Ray returned. Letting himself into my room again, followed by another person I hadn’t meet before.
    “Mocha, this is the house doctor. He lives here with us. He’ll take a look at your head.”
    I looked up and saw a man in his late twenties with deep brown eyes and jet black hair. He was about 6’2 in height and would have been considered handsome if he didn’t look so annoyed. I was assuming that Ray had woken him up.
    “Ok. Let’s have a look,” he said while setting his bag down on the counter. I pulled the tissue away from my forehead. Ray took it from me and through it away before returning to the doctors side.
    The doctor tilted my head up so he could wipe away what was left of the blood.
    “My name is Dr. Nibs. Most people just call me Nibs,” he said while examining the gash. He looked at the gash for several minutes before reaching a verdict.
    “Well, looks like you need stitches. Two or three should do,” he said while pulling some stuff out of his bag.
    I got wide eyed and shivered again. I had never liked needles. My hands even got sweaty when I tried to sew. I was on the verge of freaking out when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I turned to see Ray had come to my side. He also had a blanket over his other arm and draped it around my shoulders.
    “Don’t worry. I’ll be right here the whole time,” he said with a light smile. Then he squatted down next to me to prove he wasn’t going anywhere.
    “Ok. Look up. This will make your forehead numb for awhile and you’ll have to come to my office every few days so I can check up on it,” he said while applying some kind of liquid to my forehead. After a few minutes my fore head began to feel numb, and a few minutes later he was ready to start the stitching. I closed my eyes and waited for him to start. I felt some discomfort when he put the first one in. I jumped a little but that was all. I was still scared and I could feel the tears slip through my eyelids and creep down my cheeks. Then, out of nowhere, I felt someone grab my hand, which had been gripping the seat of my chair. I opened my eyes a little to see that Ray had grabbed my hand. I suddenly didn’t feel so scared, knowing he was there with me. I smiled slightly and squeezed his hand to say thank you.
    I had just started to relax when Dr. Nibs said, “Ok. All done.” he cut the string, tied it off, then put a bandage over the stitches.
    “Don’t touch your forehead and come to my office tomorrow for a new bandage before you leave for school,” he said while packing up his stuff.
    “Thank you, Nibs,” Ray said.
    Dr. Nibs didn’t say anything as he left the bathroom, just grunted. I stood up and walked to the bathroom door.
    “Thank you, Dr. Nibs. I appreciate you coming to my room to take care of me this late at night. Thank you, very much,” I said hoping that he would be less annoyed with the fact that he was woken up because of me.
    He turned back and looked at me when he reached the door. Stared for a second before saying, “Anything, for the Star Girl.”