Chapter 12: Painful Truth
I then found myself looking rather frantically around. What the count did to me felt almost too good and I missed his touch already. I hoped that he would come to me in my next dream again and laid down again. Right at that moment I noticed my bra hanging loosely around my shoulders and upper body. That made me sit up once more to fix everything. I found my black shirt beside my bed, although I couldn´t remember taking it off myself and throwing around. I wasn´t a sleepwalker or something.
As I bent down to pick the shirt up my hair fell into my face. I nearly fell off the bed from what I saw there. Before I was able to restrain myself I let out a scream that probably everyone in the building must have heard.
The door was flung open and Marianne stood in the doorway. "Rachel, what-... oh, my god!", she exclaimed. I reached up and took a strand of my hair into my hands to look at it. The black color of my hair was gone and only my naturally blond hair was there. Running into my bathroom I looked into the mirror. I gasped at my reflection. This wasn´t me anymore. It just couldn´t be me.
"What have you done? ... I mean, I was only out for a few minutes while you slept and your hair was...black?", Marianne started to question herself. A thing she hadn´t done in years because I had always believed she knew everything.
"I don´t know", I stammered. "It´s just I... I... I didn´t do anything to get the color out. But you believe me, don´t you? I´m not crazy?"
Marianne just shrugged. And she looked just as hopeless as I did. Without hesitating any further I opened the cupboard behind the mirror and took out a pair of scissors. In my opinion it was better to have short hair than this color. I lifted the scissors to my hair but couldn´t go any further because Marianne held me at my wrist. "If you cut your hair yourself you make everything worse! I know you hate short hair!"
Without thinking about possible injuries I tried to struggle out of her grip. The scissors got dangerously close to both our faces. She was now flexing my arm on my back to get the instrument out of my hands. I hissed at the pain as I cut myself in the back and then let go of it.
The pair of scissors landed on the floor with a clirring sound and was the only noise for some moments. I reached the wound with my fingertips to find it wasn´t bleeding. "You´re lucky. It´s only a bit red there", Marianne said.
"Thanks!", I said sarcastically, but finally coming to my senses and regretting my actions.
Normally Marianne would have said something but she just seemed to stare at my back. "What?", I asked suspicously. Before I could stop her she lifted my shirt up at the bottom and eyed my skin even closer. "First the blond hair and now I have if possible a sunburn?"; I joked but she stayed serious. I rolled my eyes. "Hello! Earth to Marianne, what is so special at my back?"
"You have cuts and scratches all over your back! That is special! ...What ...happened while you slept?"
This was ridiculous! I couldn´t possibly have all the scratches from my dream in reality. I turned my back towards the mirror and saw that it was true. There were tiny scratches from Dracula´s fangs and one deeper cut from the knife. That couldn´t be coincidence, it had to be true.
"I wasn´t far away when you screamed but before that I´ve been visiting Nataly. She gave me a letter for you." Marianne handed the letter she had just spoken of to me before continuing: "Our next lesson will start in a couple minutes. It´s History again and gives you the chance to read Nataly´s letter."
Of course! This school was focused on languages and History. I somehow looked forward to the face of the others when they see my blond hair. I went back into our room and put on some not-black clothes on purpose. I picked white shoes with a fitting long skirt. For the top I decided for a white shirt with red roses on it. It felt surprisingly good to be in such clothes again and I felt pretty somehow.
As Marianne and I walked to our classroom we kept talking about everything that had happened during the last hours. She promised me to do some research on paranormal incidents to find out more. But we also talked about the text we had to write for the lesson. It surprised me even more than her that I had actually written it. I had tried to combine my opinion with some arguments and Mr. Vankovic´s opinion to not give him the chance to complain about anything. As we entered the classroom all the heads of the girls focused on me.
I couldn´t hide my smile but still tried to ignore all the staring and went to my seat. Right as the staring started to become really annoying Mr. Vankovic entered the room and started his lesson: "At first you bring your essays to my desk. Then you´ll work in groups of two. You can decide for the topic yourself and have to work out a presentation. Your partner´s name is written on the board for you to read."
I decided to wait until the majority of the class was back on their seats. But Kate was faster and walked over to me. "If you want I can bring your essay to him. We´re partners!"