Chapter 1
TABSara snapped awake up in a cold sweat, bolting upright as she gasped for breath. The nightmares were back again, and stronger than ever been before. Now they seemed real, plausible, and even more horrifying than before. They were always full of dark mazes, torture, screams, blood, and that smell. That horrid smell… Just thinking about it made her sick. Sara got out of bed, managing not to trip in the blanket wrapped around her legs. She shakily crossed her room to her deck to light incense to get the smell out of her head.
TABShe knew she would end up like the girl in the corner of her dream. She was maimed and beaten beyond recognition, yet familiar. She was shackled to the wall with a blood-slicked manacle and dried blood splattered the walls, stained the stone floor and filled the cracks between the stones. She didn’t want to think of what had been done to put the girl in that state; she knew it was horrible and painful.
TAB“You are such a wimp.”
TABThere it was again, that voice. It haunted her, never leaving her alone and always offering snide remarks. None of the remarks were ever useful, either, only criticizing.
TAB“I’m hearing voices in my head. There is something wrong with that…” Sara sighed, falling back on her bed. She glared at the ceiling as if it were its fault she had the nightmares and the voice. “What am I supposed to do? I need to talk to someone, but a my parents would send me to a shrink who’d send me to an asylum. Xander and Tori, duh.” Sara rolled over onto her side to look at her clock, moaning at the time. Three in the morning. “I can’t call them now. They don’t like me that much, and Xander tried to strangle me the last time I called him before the sun was up,” She sighed, partially from her thoughts but also because she was talking to herself. Again. She really needed to stop that.
TABBut first she had to get her mind off the nightmare. The lack of smell from it was helping, but still. She needed to get her mind off what was once that girl’s face.
TAB“Might as well start planning, Tori’s been bugging me ‘bout it for weeks… It’s still a month away, and I guess she thinks this is a big deal cause I never got my sweet sixteen. Two years later isn’t that big of a difference,” Sara murmured, pulling herself up and sitting in a chair after finding a notebook and pen.
TAB“To do,” She wrote. “Invitations, find a cake/candles, caterer, place to hold it, theme, dress code, DJ,” She listed. The list slowly grew longer and she flipped the page over, continuing her list and musings.
TABWhen she finally looked at the clock she saw that she had been writing for two hours. “At least we don’t have school…” she laughed. “After that dream, and I’m worried about school. I’m so screwed up…”
TAB“It’s not that horrible, and why would you care about school?” the voice dryly interjected.
TAB“Stop it, go away!” Sara muttered harshly, entertaining thoughts of what she could do to the voice, if it were tangible. Her door burst open and there stood-
TAB-Caroline, her four-year-old sister. “You’re really loud and I’m hungry,” The child complained while pouting. “I want ice cream.”
TAB“You can’t have ice cream at five in the morning. Why are you even up?” Sara asked, keeping the annoyance out of her voice.
TAB“Cause you’re loud.”
TAB“So’re you.”
TAB“Nu-uh.”
TAB“Yuh-huh.”
TAB“You’re a meany-head,” The toddler pouted, sniffing before running off again to pester their mom.
TABSara sighed and started to write again before something small and furry bolted into the room and pounced on her.
TAB“Get off stupid,” Sara wasn’t exactly in the mood to play with her wolf puppy Zante. The pup only wanted to play and craned her neck up to lick Sara’s face. “You’re not supposed to be so cute…” Sara muttered before pushing Zante down and petting her, holding her down with one hand so she wouldn’t jump up and lick her face.
TAB“Zante…” Sara murmured, swaying as a haze came over her mind. Everything seemed blurred and unreal, before everything went black.
TABWhen she woke up seconds later it wasn’t Sara in control, it was Saro, her alter ego.
TABThe voice in her head.
