The chair was hard and uncomfortable beneath her, the oak desk she sat at was covered in random doodles by students who shared her seat. The teacher pacing the blackboard in front of the class seemed like a distant blur, features undefined, and his words nothing but a faint droning sound to her ears.

"Zoe, I'll give you a ride to the party tonight."
She turned toward the voice, and her lips curled into a smile as she met the warm gaze evenly.
"I wouldn't say no to that."
Her smile was met with his. She felt her heart skip a beat in her chest, her cheeks blushing red.
"I'm glad to hear it." Kyle said lightly. He looked away when Bruce and another guy on the football team noisily settled into their own seats, and they broke into a loud discussion of the upcoming match in a couple of weeks.
"Zoe, you should wear white to the party." Zoe turned her head, smile still plastered to her face, to look at Tanya.

"White?" Zoe repeated.
"Yes. That way, when we contact the ghosts in the Willis house," Tanya dropped her voice to a whisper, casting nervous glances at Kyle's back. "They won't hurt us or feel threatened, because white is the colour of innocence and purity."
"Right." Zoe said. This girl doesn't know what she's talking about, she thought.

"I couldn't agree more."
Zoe froze momentarily at the unfamiliar voice. She glanced at Tanya, who had turned her back and was now leaning over toward Haley. Part of Zoe didn't want to look who the source of the voice was, because the voice itself unnerved her with its beauty. Like a gentle breeze dancing through wet and withered leaves. There was an elemental tone in the deep voice, one that shouldn't be there because it wasn't normal. It wasn't human. Yet, she slowly turned toward it.

A guy was sitting on his haunches right beside her desk. He was wearing snake-skin boots – the skin of an adder or some other poisonous snake, she thought – with black jeans, a matching shirt and an unzipped caramel-coloured leather jacket. His hair was a cascade of curls down to the nape of his neck, the colour a beautiful and unusual mix of hot ginger and pure blonde. His skin looked like it had been soaked in gold, smooth and warm and soft. It was his face, however, that made her stare. His eyebrows were heavy and light of colour, his wide-set eyes like opaque pools fixed upon her. His nose was long, flat, straight, and his lips supple, inviting, a soft rosy colour. His jaw line was as strong and masculine as his forehead, and Zoe wondered whether he was rather one of the teachers instead of a student. But the smile he gave her melted his startling and flawless features, and transformed him into more of a boy than a man.

"Ghosts don't care if you're dressed in the highest fashion or if you're in the nude. But you already know that, don't you, Zoe?" His voice was almost lyrical. Zoe stared at him for another moment, mesmerised, then she straightened up and glanced around the classroom.
"I'm dreaming." She said, struck with wonder and confusion.
"Perhaps."
"I am. People like you don't exist. You're not real." Zoe's voice lost its strength as she was pulled back into the fathomless black eyes. "No person can look like you."
His boyish smile broadened across his features. It didn't reach his eyes, Zoe realized. They were just black; like glossy opaque stones. They were hollow, with no emotion in them and nothing behind them. At least nothing human.

"Perhaps you're right. But then people like you aren't real either. People can't really see the dead, or the angels, or the gods," the voice took on another note, and Zoe thought he was secretly laughing at her, " or the devils. But you can, can't you, Zorada?"
"I..." Zoe felt herself go rigid, frozen in place by that startling gaze.
"People need eight hours of sleep at night. Some can survive on as little as four, though they often turn into the most fickle of moods or they become dazed, like they are under the influence of some drug. But not you, Zoe – you can go for weeks, for months, without any sleep. Sleep is but an option for you, Zoe, your body doesn't need it like everybody else's does."
"Stop it," Zoe frowned, willing down the hot tears stinging her eyes. If only she could move...

"Humans can't function without light. That is why they sleep at night. That is why they need fire or electricity when they wander through the dark. Humans were created to live in the light, but not you, Zoe. You live in the day because you think you have to conform to everyone's expectations..."
"Shut up!" Zoe snapped, though her voice came out a feeble whisper.
"...When the truth is quite simple. You don't belong in the light. You don't belong in a school where your every worry revolves around fitting in with humans. You don't belong in that house with those people who call themselves your parents." Amusement stretched across his features. "You don't..."

"Go away!" The sharp coldness of her voice surprised Zoe, but she hid her emotion and glared at the strange guy next to her. It shut him up, at least, but he remained immobile. He stared back at her.
"Who are you?" Zoe asked, confused as to what else to do or say. It was clear he wasn't going to go anywhere, and Zoe didn't trust the circumstances to try walk away from him. This was no ordinary dream, she knew that much.

"You can call me Umbra, if you must call me by any name." There was a chill in his voice.
"Umbra." Zoe repeated, and found the strength and courage to scoot her chair away from him.
"You mean as in Umbra? As in a shadow?" She felt her heartbeat accelerate, the adrenaline of terror pumping through her veins.
"Yes." He smiled at her cunningly. "You needn't fear me, Zoe. I am not here to hurt you. I am here but to serve you as you wish."
"What are you... you're that shadow, aren't you? The shadow in my room, the one that isn't afraid of the lights..." She was going to start hyperventilating, Zoe could feel herself losing control.

He gave her a slight nod in response. "I came because you called on me."
"I didn't call on you!" Zoe cried, and she found her legs and the strength to stumble away from him as he too rose to his feet.
"You did. You did. You have questions. I have the answers, Zoe. You want them, you have asked for them. I can give them to you, but they come at a price."
"Wh...no. No. Get out of my head! Get out!"

Her desperate shout woke her from her slumber. Zoe sat up on her bed even as the last word escaped her lips. She swung her legs over the side of the bed where a pool of morning light was gathering through her window. She grabbed the first pair of pants her hands fell on, glimpsing the tall lingering shadow in the corner of her room as it curled up into a ball and thinned into the air like a puff of smoke. Zoe pulled on her clothes, glaring at the spot.

"Zoe! Zoe, are you all right?" Her mother's voice called worriedly from down the hallway.
"Oh, I'm just fine!" Zoe called back, her terror having turned into anger in the midst of her dressing.
She stormed to the front door and crouched down to pull on her shoes.
"What were you shouting for?" her mother asked.

Zoe didn't look up at her. "Nothing. I'm late." She lied coldly.
"For school? I can take you if you give me a minute to dress..." Mrs Rudolfse said, confused.
"Don't bother." Zoe straightened up.
"Zoe, you can't walk all the way to..."
"Watch me." Zoe shot over her shoulder heatedly. Her mother's response was cut off by the front door slamming shut with a loud bang behind Zoe.
She stalked through the thick forest in her backyard, refusing to think, or feel, obsessed to forget everything and everyone. And she did, she succeeded until her mind was blank and all she felt was a dull numbness the anger had left behind.

Her pace finally slowed as she regained control of herself and she could think clearly. Maybe she ought to tell her mother about the dream, and the shadows. But then she'd been so nasty to her mother that morning. Zoe felt guilt sink its claws into her. Her mother hadn't done anything wrong, she didn't deserve to be the victim of Zoe's bad temper. Besides, it was stupid to even think of telling her mother about the dream and the strange boy, because her mother would want to know what happened in the dream. Zoe didn't want to tell her the truth, because everything the boy had said was true. She didn't belong anywhere, not even with her own flesh and blood.
And the truth hurt.

Maybe she could do some research into the shadows herself, do some reading about dreams and their meanings. She could go to the library and see if they had anything on the subject, or better yet she could ask Kyle or Haley if they knew where she would find information on it. At the thought of Kyle, with his welcoming warmth, Zoe halted in her tracks. School.

She looked around, eyes going wide as reality hit home. She turned a small circle, staring up at the high trees surrounding her, and then kicked at the damp shrubbery at her feet as her temper reared up again. She was going to be late for school, if she even got there at all today because she was completely lost.
"Wonderful. Just wonderful, Zoe. What a bright spark you are." She chided herself.
"The main road is about a thirty minute walk to the west." A voice said, and Zoe screamed.
She spun toward the source, heart beating up her throat.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." It was a boy, a junior by the look of him. He was wearing khaki shorts smudged with dirt, a dark blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and worn-out hiking boots on his feet. His hair was a pretty golden blonde, and his eyes were a beautiful deep blue. He was gorgeous, Zoe noted in the back of her mind as the adrenaline simmered down, but not in an inhuman way.

He was taller than she was, and without a doubt stronger with those broad shoulders and muscular build. Zoe took a weary step away from him.
"If you want to get to town, though, it's a ten minute hike downhill. That way." He indicated briefly with his hand to the left.
Zoe looked in the direction uncertainly, and took another step back when he slid his hands into his pockets.
"Okay. Thanks." She said curtly.
"I could go with you, if you like. I'm headed that way myself." He looked as uncertain about her as she was of him. "We've run out of water back at the camp, and the streams here aren't purified, so..."
"Oh, okay."

They looked at each other, both unnerved at the other's presence. They started the easy hike together, glancing at one another cautiously as they went along. It wasn't until they were on even ground and Zoe could see the busy streets of the town up ahead, that she spoke to him again.

"Thanks for, well..." Zoe said uneasily.
"Yeah, sure. No problem." The boy answered , his tone measuring hers.
They've reached the street. They stopped, looking each other up and down.
"I guess I'll see you around." The boy said, backing away from her casually.
"Ah, yeah. Bye." Zoe held her hand up in a brief wave, and turned in the direction of school.
She restrained herself from looking over her shoulder to see which way the boy went.