Sawyer

I dream of a girl with fiery red hair and stunning brown eyes. She's like no one I've ever seen, strong and stubborn and beautiful and simply...amazing. Her eyes pierce me as if daring me to speak out against her. They challenge me. They see right through me.

They beg me for help.

I bolt up from my bed, sweating intensely. Deja vu hits me hard and my mind begins spinning wildly. I look around me, trying to get my bearings and confusion only mixes with my Deja vu as I realize that I'm in my room.

Light leaks through my bedroom window, making my room seem even more of a wreck than what it really is with my sports gear littering my floor. Papers are strewn haphazardly over my desk. My laundry hamper is filled to the brim with dirty clothes and dangerously close to tipping over and my closet door is hanging wide open for all to see.

"What the hell happened?" I asked myself, lifting my hands to my eyes and leaning my head back. The headache I'd acquired from this morning is still with me and only seems to be growing worse.

"You saw me and completely flipped out." My hands fall away from my eyes and I look at the end of my bed where Alyssan Bogard sits, nonchalantly flipping through one of my sports magazines. "You're taste in magazines suck, Mr. Garrison. I really don't understand how people can read this crap." She tosses the magazine to the side and looks up at me. I know I must look ridiculous, my mouth hanging open in silent question and my eyes as wide as a curious childs. It's only confirmed when she smiles.

An image of her with the same mocking smile in the nurses office comes to mind, then, and I can feel myself begin to lose control even more.

"Calm down, I don't need you passing out on me again." Alyssan stands up from my bed and walks toward me as confident and stuck up as she appeared in my dream. When she's directly beside me she bends down until her eyes are level with mine. "Now, Mr. Garrison, we wouldn't want you catching flies anytime soon, so how about you be a good boy and close that gaping mouth, hmm?" She asked and smiles with all the innocence of an angel, only, I can see her underlying devil as she reaches out and, using her index finger, closes my mouth. "That's much better."

I blink once, twice, three, even four times wondering if I'm just hallucinating, but each time my eyes open she's still there, looking straight into my eyes. Watching me.

"How-why-what the hell is going on?!" I yelled as I toss my covers off of me and scramble to get out of my bed. Unluckily for me, my foot gets caught in my comforter and I find myself on a floor once more today.

"My, you're very clumsy Mr. Garrison." Alyssan said, laughter in her voice as she crouches down to my level. She covers her mouth as if to hide her smile. Before I can say anything I hear footsteps hurrying up the stairs and then my room door is being tossed open. I have to look around Alyssan to see who it is.

"Lynn!"

"Sawyer! What are you doing up here?!" My step-mother yelled, clearly upset with me. Her hawk eyes take in the scene laid out before her, me on the floor and tangled up in my blanket, my bed a mess, and Alyssan leaning over me. Only, her eyes skim over Alyssan, as if she's not even there.

I look at Alyssan and she doesn't seem the least bit concerned with the fact that my step-mother is in the room with us. She simply goes about inspecting her nails, a yawn escaping past her lips as if she's grown bored with this entire situation.

"Would you like to explain why you're on the floor?" My step-mothers voice brings me back to reality and I snap my eyes back to her. I untangle myself from the covers and stand up.

"I-" My eyes flicker to Alyssan who's still crouched down. "I had a nightmare and I guess I just kind of fell out of bed." Lynn raises a questioning eyebrow and it's clear that she's debating whether to believe my lie or not. If she doesn't I'm not really sure what else I could say.

Sorry, but my feet got tangled in my covers when I tried to get out of bed too fast to get away from the girl who went missing three months ago and no one else seems to be able to see. Yeah, that'll go over real well.

After another second of silence Lynn seems to let it go. She crosses her arms over her chest and asks,

"How are you feeling? The school called me to pick you up earlier saying that you passed out." The images of being in the nurses office, seeing Alyssan again, and finding out that the nurse can't see her all come rushing back to me.

"Oh, uh, yeah I-I did. I'm not sure what happened." Alyssan chuckles and movement to the right of me has me looking at her. I watch as she stands up, my eyes drawn to her unnaturally pale legs.

They're so long. Like a models.

"I''m pretty sure you do know what happened Mr. Garrison." Alyssan walks over to Lynn and stops beside her. "It's not good to lie to mommy dearest."

"Sawyer, what are you looking at?" Lynn asked, but I'm too focused on Alyssan to respond. She turns around so she's facing me and I can see an evil gleam in her eyes.

"What are you doing?" I asked under my breath and I just about lose it when she lifts her hand and shoves it directly through Lynn's head. "Wait!" I leap forward and Lynn stumbles backward in surprise and fear, making Alyssan's hand come through her face. I don't know what's more disturbing, seeing that or seeing a missing girls hand being shoved through my step-mothers head without her even batting an eye.

"Sawyer! What's wrong with you?!" Lynn asked, her hands up in a defensive position. I blink twice, completely silent as I try to process what I just witnessed.

"Oh, come now Mr. Garrison, I thought we discussed this whole mouth matter. You really should keep it closed." Alyssan walks forward and, once again, closes my gaping mouth with her index finger. She smiles slyly as she says, "It's not proper etiquette to go around like that. It's quite rude, actually."

"Wha-so is-" She lifts her finger to my lips then, silencing me.

"Don't forget, we wouldn't want any misunderstandings. At least, not right now." I look back towards my step-mother who's watching me with wide and confused eyes. I lift my hands and rub my eyes.

What the hell is going on?

I scream in my mind. I lower my hands and look at Lynn and then at Alyssan who's just smiling off to the side, leaning against my desk, seemingly enjoying the fact that I'm stressing over losing my freaking mind.

Okay, okay...Sawyer, just take a deep breath, then figure out what's going on.

I do just that. I take a slow, deep breath in and wait five seconds before releasing it. I look to Lynn and say,

"Sorry, I'm just not feeling very well today. I didn't sleep too well last night and this morning I woke up with a headache. I think the lack of sleep just got to me today, especially with the stress of the homecoming game coming up this weekend." Lynn is quiet for a long minute. I feel myself relax slightly, though, when I watch as she slowly drops her hands back to her sides. The fear and confusion also seem to drift from her features some.

"That's...that's what I figured was wrong." She straightens out her shirt and I'm suddenly staring at the woman who harasses me about my grades and sports. "Sawyer, please make sure you're sleeping, eating, and focusing properly. You're father does not need these distractions. Especially with everything that's going on right now." I bite down hard on the inside of my cheek to stop myself from saying something I'll regret. Once I'm sure I have myself under control I smile and nod.

"Yeah, I understand. Won't happen again." Lynn nods and reaches for my door handle. She gives me one more uncertain look before closing it completely.

I listen to her footfalls and don't move or speak until I know she's far enough away from my room that she won't hear me. Then, I whirl around and face Alyssan Bogard.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing following me around?!" I hissed, my anger and annoyance level breaking new grounds. Alyssan looks at me like I'm the most uninteresting person in the world.

"I'm pretty sure we both know that you already know who I am, Mr. Garrison, so please, save us all some time and actually ask relevant questions."

"That is a relevant question!"

"Fine. Ask intelligent questions." I find myself biting my tongue, trying not to go off the deep end with this girl. At this point, I'm just about passed the freaked out and seriously confused phase of whatever it is that's going on.

Alright, I'm still seriously confused, but only mildly freaked out.

I lift my hand to my head and sigh.

"Alright, for starters, stop calling me Mr. Garrison. That's the chief of the police department, not me." Alyssan lifts an eyebrow, but only smiles. She leans forward uncomfortably close to me and says,

"Alright Sawyer, how about you do both of us a favor and actually use those brains of yours to figure out what's going on rather than ask me a million and one questions because, trust me, I'm not in the mood to answer them." Chills run along my skin at the way she speaks my name and my brows knit together in confusion at that. Alyssan doesn't elaborate anymore. She just leans back against my desk once more.

"You're Alyssan Bogard."

"Ding, ding, ding. Righto Sawyer. See? I knew there was a reason you and I were always neck to neck for top spot at school." I roll my eyes at that and cross my arms over my chest.

"You went missing three months ago."

"Right again, though that's pretty simple to figure out. I mean, what? The whole town knows that. I'm not impressed...yet."

"You're suddenly back and harassing me for some reason." Her brown eyes cut to mine and all humor and joking is gone from them.

"I've always been back, it's just that no one has noticed. Until now, that is."

"No one's noticed?" I suck in a sharp breath, then.

No one's noticed.

My classmates didn't see her outside. Mr. Beckley didn't bat an eye when he passed her on the schools front lawn. The nurse, she said we were alone.

Lynn didn't even flinch when she stood right next to her.

"No one's noticed until now." I gasp and I can feel my eyes widening once more as my fear and confusion spike. "You're dead." Alyssan smiles, except this one is sad and she looks at me with the pleading eyes from my dream as she says,

"Right again, Mr. Garrison, right again."