AWAKENING
Daylight
had long since given up its hold on the small town of Edwardsville,
Illinois. With the sun’s departure,
darkness crept into the town like black fog, shrouding
buildings and trees in a hushed gloom.
People instinctively withdrew into their homes,
fleeing from a perception of danger they would never be able to put into words
or understand. Only a few brave souls remain outside, out of ignorance or
necessity.
A lonely diner stands in bright contrast to the night
around it, florescent lights illuminate the inside, flooding through huge
windows in a feeble attempt to push the shadows back.
Inside a solitary figure is hastily moving from table
to table, nervously cleaning. The sturdy middle-aged waitress stops to stare
out the windows, trying to find in the shadowy depths the cause of her unease.
The feeling of being watched has been sending shivers up and down her spine all
night.
After locking up, she hastily starts to cross the few
feet of black asphalt separating her from the safety of her car. Her unease of
earlier is rapidly escalating into panic, driving her to quicken her pace. She
stumbles a few times, never slowing down, as she searches for elusive car keys
in a too big handbag. In desperation, she shakes the bag and sighs in relief as
the soft jingle of keys betray its hiding place under a notebook.
Reaching her car, she pulls the keys free, and while fidgeting with them in the lock she absent-mindedly stares at the streetlights
dimly flickering in the distance. Giggling softly under her breath, she scolds
herself for getting all worked up for nothing.
In that brief moment between seconds, Mavis Martins
dies without ever seeing her killer, without even the briefest of changes to
ponder on regrets or reflect on a life not lived to its fullest—but at least
her weak heart spares her a slow and tortured death.
Miles away in a slightly too neat room for a teenager,
a young man who has been sleeping up to now, wakes with a jerk. Confusion fills
his mind as he sits up in his bed. Why am
I awake? He groans, his eyes sweeping over the room, pausing on his desk
and the door to his room, still closed.
I was not having a nightmare… He frowns, dragging his fingers through his
hair. I do not remember dreaming at all. Maybe a noise could have… He closes his eyes, listening for any sound from in- or outside the
house that could have woken him but receives no explanation from the slumbering
world around him.
With a sigh, he falls back and closes his eyes. He yawns before snuggling into his cushion.
After a few minutes, his
eyes snap open and he scowls in irritation. Oh, come on! It’s only… He reaches over to his wristwatch lying on the side table. It
is only twenty minutes past one. I want to…need to go back to sleep!
For a while, he unsuccessfully tries to fight his way
back to sleep before gracefully accepting defeat. Oh, who am I kidding?
I am never going to get back to sleep tonight. I could read a little... He leans over and after snapping the light
on again, he smiles while opening the novel he has been reading now for a
couple of days. I wonder when Bella will finally realize that Edward is a
vampire, besides reading Twilight in secret is about my only option. If any of
the guys see me reading a love story—I will never hear the end of it!
