CHAPTER 02

WEIRD DREAMS AND MASSIVE HEADACHES


"RUN ROSE, RUN..!"

Huh…? Wait, who is talking…?

"ROSE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING..? RUN..! DON'T LOOK BACK..!"

This voice… I think I know it... But from where…?This warmth in my hand…


"Rose..! ROSE..! Wake up! You're going to be late!"

Rose opened her eyes, waiting for them to focus on something, and when they did she saw that she was almost thirty minutes behind schedule, and if she didn't hurry, she would be thirty minutes late for work. Again. She kicked her covers, grabbed anything from her wardrobe, starting to see a pattern in her way of choosing her clothes, rushed out of the room, grabbed a slice of bread with something on top of it, shouted a 'Hi' to everyone and went towards the front door, just to realize that her keys were not in her pocket.

"Muuum, have you seen my keys?"

Before she could even get a response she busted into her room, tossing all of her used clothes into the air, searching the pockets for the keys, and when she couldn't find them anywhere, she started to open her nightstand's drawers, pushing around pens, pieces of paper, one of those old blue and red 3D paper glasses, hair clips, but no keys. She shut the drawer close angrily, only to find her keys on top of her alarm clock.

"Found them! I'm leaving now…"

Completely frustrated, she picked the keys, walked towards the front door again, and ran outside, bolting down the stairs, only to see her bus leave the bus stop.

Bloody hell! Now I'm really going to be late for work…

She decided to walk slowly to the bus stop, since the next bus would take at least 15 minutes to arrive. At the precise moment that she arrived there, her mobile ranged.

Instinctively she thought it was Mickey, but it was her phone company telling her about her cell phone bill, but that brought the blue tie back to her thoughts.

The tie has to be Mickey's. Who else's would it be?

She was about to call him when the next bus arrived so much earlier than usual, which lead her to believe that finally her luck was starting to change. She got on, used her Oyster Card just as she'd done the day before, and, for her surprise, it said it didn't have any more credit in it. She reached for her wallet, but only had large bills, and the bus driver wouldn't accept them, so she was forced to get off the bus. She glanced at her watch and realized that even if she managed to find some change, and take the next bus, she'd be at least 40 minutes late for work now. So she started to walk back home, in defeat.

So this is my life now… Defeated by lack of change, and a shitty alarm clock… I wonder why it didn't ring… Anyway, back in the days I would find a way to…What am I even thinking about?! Back in the days?! Which days?!

That was the first time the headache came. First softly, like the ones that you have when you're reading for too long, but then, it became stronger. So strong that she had to stop, shut her eyes firmly and lean on a wall so she wouldn't fell on the floor. She started to press her temples firmly, trying to make it go away. And in the midst of her thoughts between trying to understand where that came from, and praying that it'd go away, it stopped. Just as suddenly as it had started. She stayed there, leaning against the wall for a few more minutes, trying to catch her breath. Apparently it was a good thing that she didn't make it to work today. If that headache had happened in the shop, she would have felt incredibly stupid and a little bit embarrassed, and everyone would probably try to help her. And even at home right now, her parents would just worry and try to give her pills, but all she wanted right now was to be left alone. Many people say that most headaches are caused only by stress, and maybe that was it! I mean, the alarm clock didn't ring, she lost her keys, she missed the first bus, and didn't have change for the second, and now, because of all of that she was extremely late for work. Who wouldn't be stressed in a situation like this? After some time, she started walking again, almost getting hit by two kids wearing costumes. The first kid, a little girl was dressed with nothing more than a red cape over her clothes so Rose didn't quite get what she was supposed to be. The second kid made it clearer, it was a little boy, with a furry mask which had long ears, big eyes and long white teeth. It was obvious they were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

Right… Halloween is just around the corner… I almost forgot about it. Maybe I should buy some pumpkins so we can make jack-o'-lanterns this year. That would be fun…

Therefore, Rose changed her path, and made it to a market nearby. Just as she arrived, she saw the most beautiful pumpkins she had ever seen in her entire life. Five of the most big, orange, shining gorgeous lettuce just standing there, looking at her, asking to be bought. And so she bought them, all five of them, and asked to a delivery boy to help her take them to her mum's apartment.

When she opened the door, her mum was on the phone, as usual, and her dad had left for work, and Rose wasn't surprised when Jackie started to shoot question after question at her trying to understand why she wasn't at work, and what happened. Rose just ignored her and led the delivery boy to the kitchen, where he left all the pumpkins. After that, she followed him back to the front door, gave him a tip because now she had small change from the pumpkin purchase, and it was only after she closed the door that she answered to her mum's persistent questions.

"What happened? Why aren't you at work? Is everything okay? You were mugged weren't you? I knew this was going to happen. I mean, look at this neighborhood! It's all so dangerous. If only we could afford to get out of here, then you wouldn't have been mugged. What did he take? Or was it a gang? I bet it was a gang. So many gangs out there nowadays. Did they hurt you?"

The Tylers didn't always live in the Powell State. They used to live in this huge mansion with tons of employees that cared to their every need. But suddenly the amount of money they had to spend so they could get by increased amazingly. It was almost as if they had two extra mouths to feed, and putting that together with Jackie's buying habits, what Peter earned was not enough anymore. So, they were forced to go back to the Powell State, back to their old flat.

"MUM. I'm fine, I wasn't mugged. I just missed the bus, and didn't have change for the other one. And speaking of which, do you think you could recharge my Oyster Card? It says it ran out of credit."

"Well, if you are fine, then why don't you go? And by the way, what's with all these pumpkins?"

"I have a little headache right now. And I bought them because of Halloween, you know."

"I know it's for Halloween, but why did you buy five of them? Mickey is still away, and even if he comes back before Halloween, we are only for. We always where only four. And here, take this pills, it should ease your headache."

"I don't know… I just saw them and bought five… and I don't need any pills, I'll just go to bed for a while to see if it passes…"

"Okay then sweety, I'll try to make pumpkin pie with the extra two. Do you want me to wake you?"

"No, just… let me sleep… and if Molly from the shop calls, just tell her that I was feeling sick, don't need to tell her everything that happened today…"

"Fine, I won't…"

Rose went to her room, closed the curtains and just fell on the bed, with clothes and shoes still on. Her headache that had disappeared when she saw the pumpkins came back, even stronger now, so she just buried her face in her pillows, trying not to think about anything, but the pain wouldn't go away and before she could even realize, the sun went down and came back up, without her even closing her eyes.