Crescent Part Three

Yay! It's here! It's here! The Third Part of Crescent! (BTW: If you haven't read my edits to parts one and two, please do so, because I added some extra information. If you don't read them, this part will make very little sense...) Now, enough talk! I give you... Crescent Part Three!!!

“Where were you?” asked Aunt Kari.

“Grocery shopping,” I replied.

“Really.”

“Yeah, and then this guy from school needed a ride.”

“Ooo! Is he cute?” she joked.

“Kari!”

“Kidding!”

“Anyway, there are groceries in the car.”

“How much can you fit in that tiny thing?”

“Not much,” I said. “Have you eaten?”

“Not yet.”

“Good.”

For dinner, I made my specialty – spaghetti. I felt like celebrating, considering I got through my first day at MHS without much trouble. All through dinner I kept thinking about Isaac.

I sincerely doubt he’s single. No matter what Cassy said, he has to have a girlfriend. He’s so hot… I mean really. And what about the way he

“Did you make any friends?” said Aunt Kari, sipping off her soda.

“Sort of, this girl Cassy helped me find my Spanish class.”

“And what about that boy? What’d you say his name was?”

“Isaac?”

“That’s it!”

“He walked me to my geometry class and talked to me some.”

“So… is he cute?”

“Come on! We already talked about this!”

“Well, is he?”

“I’m not answering that.”

“You like him!”

“No!” I said. “I do not!” I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks.

“You do to!”

“Aunt Kari, please shut-up!”

“Fine!” she said.

After dinner, I flopped down on the couch and opened the newspaper. May as well do something!

“You want to watch TV?” asked Kari.

“Nah. It’s Monday night. There’s nothing good.” I went back to the paper.

“Hand me the funnies,” said Aunt Kari. I pulled out the comics and tossed them across the room to her. “Thanks.”

I looked at the page.

Richmond’s Murder Rate Skyrockets

Richmond? That’s really close.

The article read:

Richmond has been plagued by mass murders in the past six months. This week, the murder rate was at an all time high at twenty seven a month. That’s almost one a day. What is behind these murders? When asked about them, Chief Johnson of Richmond Police said about the murders, “There isn’t much to go on. Who ever this is, they must be very skilled.” Chief Johnson went on to say that there was not much left at the crime scene, just a pile of charred remains.

I stopped there. There was no way I was going to read the rest right before bed. I put away the paper and got out Pride and Prejudice.

Before I knew it, I was dreaming.

“Emma!” my mother cried. “Emma! Where are you?”

I wanted to call out to her, tell her I was alright. I wanted more than anything to shout “I’m right here, Mommy! Right here!” But I couldn’t make the words. I remained huddled up in my little closet.

“Emma! Baby, where are you?” This time her voice was frantic. “Come on! No more hide and seek!”

“Ruthann!” my father called. “Where’s Emma?”

“I don’t know.” She sounded like she was in tears. “George, we can’t leave her here! He’ll get her.”

“I know. You keep looking. I’ll try to stall him.”

“George! No!”

“You find Emma and leave! Go!”

I heard my father’s footsteps descending the stairs

She walked into my room. I heard the ruffling of sheets, the opening of my toy chest, then she said, “Emma, please come out! This is serious. Where are-,”

“Ah, Ruthie. We meet again. Too bad we meet under these circumstances.” said a new, strange voice.

“Ben. Please-,” she pleaded

“I’m afraid it’s too late,” said the stranger.

“No.”

“Ruthie, I’d never hurt you. You know that. Just give me the child.”

“What could you possibly want with her?”

“Ruthann!” my father cried. “Ben, please don’t.”

“Come. Let’s discuss the matter down stairs. Maybe we can come to some sort of agreement.”

“You’ll never get her,” my mother said.

“Hmm… well, we’ll see about that.”

They all walked down the stairs.

There was shouting coming from below me. I curled up tighter and tighter as the shouting grew louder and louder.

“Ben. Please.”

“Ruthie, I’m sorry.”

“No!” my father boomed.

Seconds later came a blood curling scream. It was my mother.

“Ruthann!” cried my father. “Ruthann! No!”

“I’m sorry, Ruthie. You got in my way. Now, George, where’s the child?”

“I don’t know!”

“You too, then? So sorry to end it like this old friend.”

Then there was silence. I emerged from the closet.

“Mommy?” I said as I walked into the hall and made my way to the stairs.

When I woke, I was sweating. The dream played back in my mind. Looking around, I realized that I was still on the couch. Aunt Kari was slumped down in her chair, asleep. The clock read 2:00 A.M.

“Kari?” I whispered. I got up from the couch and walked over to her. “Kari? Wake up!” I shook her arm.

“Mmm…,” she groaned.

“Fine. Stay there.” I went to my room and sat in the dark, waiting for sleep to overcome me. When my alarm went off three hours later, I was still awake.

“Morning!” said Aunt Kari.

“Hm.”

“What’s the matter?”

“This dream.”

“The one with the attack? Are you getting them every night now?” She sounded concerned.

“No,” I said, “this one was different. I think it was right before.”

“Oh, baby.” She came towards me, arms outstretched.

I accepted the embrace and said, “Kari, I’ve never had this dream before. Mom was looking for me. She said we had to leave. But I was hiding in the closet. I don’t know.”

“Baby, it was just a dream.”

“And then there was this guy. Bill… Bret…”

Aunt Kari became stiff. She pulled away. “Ben?” she said. Her face was ghostly pale.

“Yeah, that’s it. Ben.” She sat down at the kitchen table. “Aunt Kari?”

“You better get going,” she said, staring straight ahead, not looking at me.

“Who’s this Ben guy?”

“Emma, just go. You’ll be late for school. We’ll talk later.” She sounded like she was on autopilot

“Fine. But we will talk.”

“Yeah.” She sipped her coffee. She was still staring as I walked out of the kitchen.

I wish I could remember the rest of that dream! All I know is that this Ben, whoever he is, was looking for me, but why? What did I do? I pondered this while I drove to school. And then there’s Kari’s reaction. How did she know Ben? I wish I had more answers! It seems like the more dreams I have, the more questions there are!

“Are you feeling alright?” Cassy asked me at lunch.

“Yeah. No. I don’t know.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not necessarily. It’s nothing. I just had this dream and couldn’t go back to sleep. I’m just tired.”

“Yeah. That’s happened to me. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

I shrugged.

“Anyway, have you heard of Flyleaf?” She went on about how Flyleaf was so much better than Paramour. I was only half listening. I kept thinking about the dream.

“Hey,” said a voice from behind me minutes later.

I turned around to see that it was Isaac. “H-h-hi,” I managed.

“You want to sit with me?”

“S-s-sure.” I looked at Cassy. She gave me a little wink and I blushed. Isaac definitely saw that, I thought

“So…,” I said as I sat down. Isaac sat directly across from me.

“How’s your day so far?”

"Pretty good,” I said. “Despite the fact that I’m freaking tired. I had this dream last night and-,” I stopped. Jesus, Emma! Drop all of your issues on him why don’t you!

“Go on,” he said, his velvet voice suffocating me.

“You really don’t want to hear this.”

“Sure I do! We’re friends right?”

“Yeah, but…” But I’d totally freak you out. I don’t even remember most of it.

He was looking me in the eyes, forcing me to tell. I took a breath. I had to tell him, because he’d given me no other choice.

“Sometimes… sometimes I get these dreams about my parents.”

“What’s so bad about that?”

“They’re about my parents’ death.”

“Oh. Yeah. That does sound bad.”

“You have no idea. And this one, the one I had last night, was so… weird. I’d never had it before,” I said. “I’m sorry, you don’t want to hear this.”

“Would you stop saying that? You need to talk to someone, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know anything about you! I keep talking about my issues.”

“There’s not much to me.” He leaned in close and whispered, “Your ‘issues’ are much more entertaining.”

The bell rang. I rose from my seat and said, “From now on, we’re talking about your issues.”

“If we ever talk again.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

And so ends the third part of Crescent. Watch out for Part Four. Coming very soon!!!!