The Life Of A Teen-Aged Mess #2

Nicole's Forest of Dreams

My life is pretty simple. I go to Good Will middle. I'm in eighth grade. I have a best friend, and had a boyfriend. So yeah my life is perfect, right? WRONG!!!!! My name is Nicole Blake I'm 14 years old and my life is a MESS!!! 

“Nicole. Nicole!” Someone screams my name but I can’t see anyone. 

“Hello? Who’s there? What’s wrong?” I start running toward the person.
“Over here.” I still see nothing, but the scene is changing. I’m outside in the forest behind the house. I’m at my dad’s grave site. I thought it was a girl calling my name why am I here? “Dad, is that you?” Well of course it’s not; my dad had a guy voice.

“No I’m not your father, child.” A lady appears behind the grave. She is tall with long blond hair that blows in the none-existent wind. She seems to glow, and she has little lights flying around her. Her eyes are not one color they are like a rainbow. “I was a close friend of his though. I’m sure you have a lot of questions and in time I promise I will answer them. Right now you are dreaming, but I am entirely real.” She goes around the grave coming closer to me. She waves her hand at one of the trees surrounding us. The lowest branch comes down and grows bigger. The lady walks toward it and sits down. “Sit. Nicole, I will be visiting you a lot more often now that you are of age.”
“What do you mean ‘of age’?”
“You and your father are both very… special. Now is not the time to explain that. Right now I’m telling you who I am. My name is Jasmine. I am your Guardian.”
“Guardian? Like a guardian angel?”
“Almost like that, just guardians protect. Guardian angels just give advice or help you make choices. I’m here to keep you alive and safe from… danger. I talk to you through your dreams. The Angels speak through your instincts and your senses.”
“What kind of dangers?”
“That question will be answered with time. Now I must go, you are needed elsewhere.”
She starts to fade and I start to hear another voice. “Wait I’m not done I still have questions!”
“Nicole. Nicole honey wake up.”
“Jasmine, I’m not done!” I start to see the scene fading. “Bye, dad, I’ll visit you later. Ok?” my vision goes white for a second and then I’m looking at my mother. “Mom, wants wrong you look worried.”
“You screamed for your father and you were crying. I thought you were having an episode.” She starts crying and hugs me. When my dad died I started having ‘episodes’ that’s how the doctors put it nicely. I would cry and scream and kick anyone who got close and sometimes if I were alone I would talk to myself. It was my friends who got me to stop cutting myself. I had a lot of support they helped me get out of the episodes. They are terrifying! I haven’t had a serious one since I was 10, but I guess they can still happen.
“It’s ok, mom. I’m ok just a bad dream, that’s all.”
“Ok, do you want to sleep with me?” I nod because I know that it’ll make her feel better if I’m with her. She tucks me in and then gets in on the other side. I close my eyes and barely manage to get the sleep I need.

When I wake, my mom is already up. Like usual, because she always makes me breakfast. I get up and go downstairs. It’s a Saturday so I don’t have to do anything. I sit down at the dinner table and turn the TV on and watch the news. My mom sits next to me and puts my food in front of me. “Can you believe this.” a little girl was hit by a car. The guy driving the car supposedly escaped from prison. The girl couldn’t have been more than eight. The man didn’t even stop to see if she was ok. I guess you can only expect so much from a murderer. “It’s horrible.”
“Yeah it is. I hope her parents are ok.” I honestly do know how it feels to lose and then feel lost. I finish my breakfast and change into jeans and a t-shirt. I go out the back door and through the back gate. I go into the path that leads to the forest, but as far as I know I’m the only one that goes into the forest. It’s still a little cold out but it’s starting to get warmer. It takes a little while to get to the grave and I know the path pretty well, so I usually let my thoughts take over.

For some reason my mind took me on the wrong path and I have no Idea where I am. I can’t see the path and I must have been walking for a while. By the looks of the sky, it’s almost noon. I reach into my pocket for my phone and realized I didn’t bring it. I start to feel myself panic and try to calm myself down. Out of the corner of my eye I see something move. I turn but nothing is there, so I guess it was just a bunny. I hear I branch crack to my right and turn to look….nothing. I know now I’m just being paranoid. I can feel my heart start to beat faster. My breaths become louder. I try to become as silent as possible so I can hear what’s around me. I close my eyes and focus on my breathing. Then I open my eyes. I’ve controlled my breathing enough now that it is almost silent. I hear someone step behind me and slowly turn to see a boy holding a loaded bow. I hear another step. A girl steps out from behind a tree; bow and arrow ready. I put my hands up to show them that I’m unarmed and I notice my hands are shaking.

“Who are you?” says the girl. She’s pretty; seems older than me, maybe. She has dark brown hair and hazel eyes just like mine they wear similar outfits just she is showing more skin. They look like they are Indian warriors my grandma used to tell me about. “I asked you a question.”
“My name is Nicole. I don’t want any trouble I just got lost.”
“Maybe we should help her.” The boy puts his bow down and looks at the girl. Now that I can see his face I can tell that they are probably brother and sister. He has lighter hair then she does and he looks more my age. Other than that they are identical.

“We don’t help outsiders, Joseph.”
“She could die out here on her own. How do you think Jasmine would react if she found out it was your fault she died, Eve.”
“Wait who’s Jasmine?” This might be my one chance if she was actually real.
“That is none of your concern.”
“Actually….”
“Wasn’t Jasmine talking to someone by the name of Nicole?”
“Joseph that is just a coincidence it’s not her.” She looks me up and down like she is studying me. “I don’t believe even for a second that Jasmine would talk to an outsider.”
“Eve listen carefully. Wasn’t Dylan’s wife and DAUGHTER outsiders?”
“My dad’s name is Dylan. That’s why I’m here I came to say hi and got lost in my thoughts; can’t you just help me get to his grave, I can get home from there.”
“No!” Shouts Eve and she walks away. She screamed so loud it made me jump.
“Eve. Come back!” he turns to me. “ Sorry about that I’ll take you to the grave. Follow me.” I walk behind him silently for a while. Then I trip over something and fall on my hands and knees. They quickly start to bleed. They don’t hurt much but they are really red. I feel a sharp pain go up my leg but don’t turn to look at it. Joseph starts to walk towards me. I try to stand but my foot is stuck. Now I turn to look at it. Great!

“Are you ok?” he asks crouching next to me.
“I’m fine but my foot is stuck.” He puts his bow down and looks at my foot. Its stuck in a hole in the ground. “Can you help me?”
“I...I don’t know.” He looks confused. He takes my hands and his touch sends a shiver up my spine. “That looks bad, does it hurt?”
“No.” He reaches into his belt and pulls out a water canteen unscrews it and then looks at me.
“This is gonna sting.” I nod and he pours some water on it. As the stinging sets in I tense and take a deep breath. “Sorry, had to clean it. Let’s get you out of here.” He screws it up puts it down and crawls to my foot. When he put his hand on my foot something like a scream comes out of my mouth. He barely touched me; something is definitely broken. He looks at me with a frown on his face. He pulls my pant leg up so he can see my ankle. He stares intently at my ankle. I don’t want to look. “It’s broken. When we get you out, I'll have to carry you.”
“What makes you so sure you can do it all by yourself?”

“Well you got it in, how hard will it to be to get it back out.” He looks at me and then my foot. He stands up and looks down at me. “If we can get you to stand up you could just lift your foot out.” I nod. “This is going to hurt, Nicole.” I nod again and take his outstretched hand. I wince and what sounds like a mix between a cry and a scream. When I’m on my foot I fall into his shoulder muffling my screams and cries. I feel him tense as I lean on him and he supports me. If it weren’t for him I would fall over. “You ready to pull out your leg?” I nod he puts his hand on my leg to help me pull it out. It doesn’t hurt as much as it did to stand up, but I still scream into his chest. When my foot is on the ground he wraps his arms around me and gives me a hug. “I know, I’m sorry.” We are quiet for a minute and eventually my crying stops, and I’m just breathing heavily. I start to relax and he picks me up. I wrap my arms around his neck. I put my head on his shoulder and close my eyes still breathing hard...

The third installment of Nicole's brilliant short stories can be found here. 

Missed 'The Life of a Teen-aged Mess #1'?? Read it here.

 

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