I didn't realize I was dreaming at first. I was sitting in the middle of the school gym with Alia, Edward, Jacob, and Teddy. We were having some sort of picnic, but we weren't eating anything. I think it was because we were too busy laughing at some kind of joke. I embraced the warm and relaxing atmosphere.
"Hey guys," Teddy said, standing up. "Have you met my girlfriend?"
I felt my heart pause. "What girlfriend?" I asked.
"This girlfriend." An eerie voice echoed. I knew that voice instantly. I shot up.
"Zhi!" I cried. I turned to my friends. "Guys, it's Zhi! We have to stop her."
No one listened to me, they continued to laugh at a joke that I just realized was never told!
"Freeze," Zhi said, stepping out of the shadows. Then, just like that, my friends froze. It was like time had stopped only for them. I whipped around to Zhi.
"You can't control me!" I hissed. Zhi grinned at me.
"Jack," she mused. "Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack."
"Stop that!" I shouted.
"Don't move." Zhi sang.
I felt my body stiffen. I couldn't move it. How was this possible?! I tried desperately to twist myself away from Zhi as she sauntered towards me.
Suddenly, I was watching this whole situation from a third-person perspective. I saw me standing there, frozen, like the main character of a video game.
"Hold this." Zhi purred. She offered me… my body? An exactor knife. I watched helplessly as my body slowly reached out and took it from her.
"Stop!" I yelled.
My body turned to look at me, and I shuddered. I saw myself with a vacant, emotionless expression. Zhi looked at me too and smirked smugly.
"Don't listen to her!" I yelled at myself.
"Gut yourself like a midday snack, would you?" Zhi said sweetly as she caressed my body's face.
"Stop!"
The knife slowly moved up.
"Don't do it!"
It gently pressed into the skin of my body's neck
"NO!"
I woke with a start – my eyelids popping wide open – and gasped. The dull gray light of an overcast morning replaced the florescent lights of my dream.
Just a dream, I told myself. It was only a dream. I took a deep breath and then jumped again when my alarm went off. I switched it off and rolled out of bed. It was a school day, and I had to get ready.
When I went to wash my face, I felt unnerved looking at myself in the mirror. I could still see my face from the dream. I made a silly expression just to see my face scrunch up. It didn't help much.
It was just a dream, I reminded myself again. No, it was more of a nightmare. I shuddered.
I decided to skip breakfast because I wanted to get out of my house as quickly as possible. It was impossible to avoid my dad in the morning since he insisted on leaving for work after I left for school.
"Hey, Birthday Boy!" He called out to me as I walked by, "I got something for you!" I paused.
Was is September the thirteenth already? Wow, I had completely forgotten that my birthday was coming up.
"Oh, dad!" I gushed, "You didn't have to."
"Don't worry about it!" Charlie grinned. "Here, happy birthday!"
I smiled meekly and accepted my gifts. I opened the small boxed gift first.
"Oh my gosh dad!" I exclaimed. "This is an amazing camera!" I read its features from its box.
"Yes!" Charlie sounded pleased with himself. "I thought you might have fun trying out photography."
"Gotta admit, this is a pretty good incentive," I chuckled. I set it down on the kitchen table and reached from the other gift, but I stopped.
Happy Birthday, Love Mom, it read.
Mom. I had learned recently that my mother and I weren't all human. During summer vacation, I had developed some sort of mind power that only worked around Edward. Apparently, Charlie's heritage was all human, which meant I had inherited my mind powers from my mom. I would need to ask her about it.
"Everything ok, son?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah," I said. Shaking myself out of it, I took the package and ripped it open. Inside was a scrapbook with "Senior" written on the front. I opened it and flipped through the empty pages.
"Oh, I see," I mused slyly, "This is where I put all the photo's I take."
"Yeah!" Charlie beamed.
"It's nice to see you and mom coordinate," I said. "I'll definitely try to put this to good use." I set the camera and the book down and picked up my backpack.
"I'm just going to leave them here for today though," I said. "Bye dad, see you later!"
"Have a good day!" He called after me.
Once I was alone in my car, my dream came back again. I struggled to stay composed. Although we had stopped talking about it, the fact that Zhi had never been caught loomed over us like the blade of a guillotine. I continued to have my silent panic attack until I pulled into the familiar parking lot behind Forks Highschool and spotted Edward and my girlfriend, Alia, chatting in front of his Volvo.
The despair momentarily vanished; comfort taking its place. It made me feel good to know that I could count on them, and they could count on me. I sometimes couldn't believe the good fortune I had to have them as my friends.
Alice, Edward's sister, was standing next to them, involved in the conversation as well.
Edward and Alice weren't' blood-related, but they acted like siblings, and I think they felt like real siblings too. In Forks, the story was that all the Cullen siblings were adopted by Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme; both plainly too young to have teenage children.
Upon hearing the slam of my '53 Chevy truck door, Alice skipped over to me, her pixie face glowing under her spiky black hair.
"Happy birthday, Jack!" She chimed.
"Thank you!" I said back.
"Hey, Handsome." Alia called out, "Don't you want a birthday kiss from your girlfriend?"
I went over to her and picked her up as we kissed.
"Wow," Alice sighed, "You two make such a cute couple." She looked at Alia and winked.
"Get out of my head," Alia said teasingly. Edward looked away.
Edward and Alice were vampires who had the ability to read minds. After fighting Zhi and loosing, however, Edward's mind abilities had been diminished, and they still hadn't returned to full power yet. He probably couldn't hear what Alice was hearing.
Alia put a hand on Edwards's shoulder.
"It's ok," She said, "You ready for the siren?"
He rolled his eyes.
In the wake of Zhi's attack on the school, metal detectors had been installed in the front entrance of the main building. Since Alia and I had bones replaced by metal prostheses, we always set them off. It had been fun last week, but it was very quickly getting old.
"Oh, by the way," Alice said, "You guys are coming over to our place tonight, right?"
"Huh?" I said, "Why?"
"Because," Alia interjected, "Edward and Alice wanted to celebrate… uh… your senior year tonight."
"Huh," I smirked, "It sounds more like a poorly hidden surprise party."
"Oh, no!" Alia gasped, "Are you sure you don't read minds! Act surprised tonight. Ok?"
"I will," I said, laughing.
The four of us were so distracted by our conversation that we were startled by the level nine alarm that triggered when Alia and I crossed the threshold; even though it had been happening for almost two weeks.
"Ugh, it's those seniors again." The security guard muttered as he rushed to turn off the alarm.
It had been agreed upon by the school board that the exams would be skipped, and the students would progress to the next year with the grades they had. So, even though no one had taken the finals, most of my friends and I had passed to our final grade.
"Guess who's in the house!" Alia called.