It was dark and cold. 

So cold my finger tips were numb by my sides and feet felt frozen to my socks.

My footsteps echoed in the dark hallway, the sound bouncing down the the length of the darkened passage and back to my ears. I was walking, my feet moving without my consent until the recollection hit me that I had no clue where I was or knowledge of how I got here. 

With my feet now at a standstill I glanced a look behind me. The same darkened corridor met my eyes with the same blue hue lingering around the edges.

I wanted to freak out, but something inside propelled me to move onwards, like a magnet pulling my body down the corridor. I again wanted to have a meltdown but once more something about this place made me feel calm and relaxed, like I was meant to be here. In a way it was comforting, so going off this relaxing hunch, I allowed my feet to lead me onwards.

I walked for a while, maybe five minutes until they came across two large doors. They took up the entire space on the wall, their wooden frames painting in the same blue that coated to walls and floors, except with silver embellishments and details. With the pessimistic side of my brain muted for the time being, I slowly opened them with a grunt, the hinges creaking with what I could only assume years of neglect.

Inside, was revealed to be a large blue room. Nothing remotely of interest caught my eye, but I still took the plunge and ventured deeper, the large doors closing after me with a loud bang. Ignoring the sound, I stepped into the center, a small almost unnoticeable symbol carved into the floor. My eyes traced the edges until my fingers got fidgety and I crouched to get closer. 

With a spared glance back to the doors, my fingers brushed over the symbol, but upon contact, the room trembled. The blue hue increased around the edges of my eyes as did the lights, except the light was coming from me, starting at the tips of my fingers edging all the way to the center of my body. I shivered with pleasure, the feeling being alike nothing I'd ever felt before.

I wanted to laugh, but instead my eyes were drawn to a new sound: A deep pitched buzz fizzing around with no apparent origin point. Spinning in a circle, my eyes glazed over every inch on the room, only stopping the search when a beam a bright blue shot out from behind me, grazing past my left ear so close the ringing remained long after the beam had vanished.

Only, as soon as the first beam disappeared, another four sprung to life from elsewhere, each missing my body by millimeters every time. Now with a new fear to concentrate on, I froze, the fear of getting hit by one of those... lightning bolts causing my body to stiffen up.

As the buzzing sound increased, so did the amount of bolts filling the room. I whimpered, my eye catching one of the beams ricocheted of the far side of the room and head straight for me. With no time to react, I could only watch as the bolt flew towards me, piercing through my body with alarming speed and pain. I screamed in agony, the pain almost unbearable until-

"Jay? Jay! Wake up. Oh, Ed dear, Jays having nightmare again."

I woke with a start, a fresh cold layer of sweat dusting my forehead. A gulp of oxygen was forced down my body as my eyes met my mother's worried ones. "Mom?" I breathed.

She smiled sympathetically and raised an hand to rest on my cheek, "Oh dear," She sighed, "You okay, son?" Edna asked, her thumb brushing across my undereye where undoubtedly tear residue lay. 

With a nod of my head, I reached over to my nightstand, my hand wrapping around a glass of water and gulping it down in one. 

"What was it about this time?" My father asked from the doorway to my room, he walked quickly over to me and placed a hand on mom's shoulder giving it a comforting squeeze.

I blinked deeply, allowing the memories of the pain flood through my mind before quickly pushing it out with a shake of my head, "I... I can't remember." I mumbled raising my right hand rub at my eye. It was a rarity that I ever lied to my parents, but the last time I told them about this recurring dream they overreacted in the most parent way possible. Two therapy session a week for two months and a major cut back in my screen time - that wasn't something I would like to relive again.

Going even a day without my videogames is tough enough.

I caught my parents sharing a concerned look but chose to ignore the hidden words they seemed to communicate within it.

Instead I focused my attention towards my Starfarer clock sat on top of my nightstand. The large numbers reading 06:37 in dark blue lights. Realistically, I didn't need to get up for another twenty minutes, but I had no desire to end up back in that cursed corridor, and besides, with the extra time I could devote it to tinkering with my inventions, I had been meaning to sort out the wiring of my automatic car-washing robot. 

I pulled my bedding free from its tangled mess around my legs and stood to my feet, both my parents watching me intently as I moved over to grab some clothes for the day. Then I reached for my towel and sent them a small, hopefully reassuring, smile, "I'm just going to go shower." I announced, hoping they'd also brush pass the issue of my nightmare and carry on with their days.

My father nodded and with a hand on my mothers back, he guided her out of my room, shutting the door with a small thumbs up.

With them out the room, my shoulders slumped and smile dropped. I sat back on the bed, head dropping into my hands I once again relived the events of my dream. Again, this nightmare was something I had been experiencing for the past two years now, and with no apparent sigh of it stopping anytime soon, I had sadly just learnt to live with it.

As a minute passed with me in deep thought, I finally shook myself free from my mind and headed towards to shower. With the cold water pushing the dream more from my mind, I was able to relax. After quickly drying off and pulling on my clothes, I grabbed my brush to tame my wild bed hair and then brush my teeth. 

Once satisfied with the days look, strolled into the kitchen. My parents weren't present so I assumed they too were outside doing their daily upkeep chores of the junkyard. Riffling through the sparse cupboards, I pulled out some bread and slotted it into the toaster, before jogging outside into the morning sun. 

I love inventing, it's just a way of calming me from all the stress of school, as well as the school bully: Morro. I secretly love living on a junk yard because I can spend all day building machines and creating new way to improve mine and my parents life. But whenever one of my friends or family come over I always pretend to hate it here. I don't know why, I guess it can be a bit embarrassing since most of my friends live in sophisticated townhouses, where as here I am, living in a run down caravan.

I heard my toast pop up and I placed the wrench down I'd picked up a little earlier and made a mental note to finish fixing the car engine when I got home from school.

After I finished my toast I went to pack my bag. Thankfully, I had the foresight to pack it the day before as I had got a little carried away with my tinkering and now was behind schedule to arrive on time for school. I grabbed my bike from the small shed around the back of the caravan, kissed both parents goodbye and headed off into the dessert.

The ride if painfully long, but when the gates of my school finally came into view, I hoped off my bike and walked it into one of the bike posts and secured it with a lock. 

My hands adjusted the straps of my bag as I scanned the green patch of grass in front of the school to pinpoint where my friends where. I immediately spotted them in the usual meeting stop and started to dodge my way between other students to get to them.

I'd only walked a few paces before my attention was pulled elsewhere. A girl, one I had never seen before, stepped out of a car, her big blue eyes instantly drawing mine away from where I was walking. My steps halted, the whiplash I received by my abrupt stop enough to sent ripples of pain up my legs. With my mouth embarrassingly hung agape I watched as she hoisted her bag over her shoulder, her knee high red dress blew slightly in the wind, as did her short black hair. She mumbled something behind her, an older looking boy with dark brown spiky hair and a red hoodie following her out the car, a bored, almost irritable expression on his face.  

I immediately assumed they must be new - no way would I forget a face like hers.

It's only when I felt someone push me from behind did I lost track of what I was thinking and fell to the ground. Unfortunately, to make my situation worse, all my books went everywhere and my homework, that I spent all weekend on, flew away in loose pieces of paper. 

I didn't need to look up to know everyone was laughing at me.

"Didn't your mommy ever tell you not to play on the ground, dipshit?" A harsh voice called from behind me. His words weren't new, they'd been spoken in my face multiple times over my high school career.

I turned to glance behind me, my eyes meeting with Morro who cackled with his unruly group of friends. His usual attire of a dark green tank top and ripped jeans a very unwelcome sight this early on a school day.

"What is your problem?" I asked, trying my hardest to keep my voice firm and confident.

Morro scoffed "Ohh, look at you, finally standing up for yourself? Cute." He said laughing even harder. His friends followed suit, as did all my other peers. Stupid herd mentality. "Well, if your so confident, come on then... Stand up."

His taunt was unforgiving. I knew he was just being a bully, but the overwhelming need to prove myself was too much to ignore. My fists clenched, however, as I went to stand, Morro's large shoe placed itself on my back, forcing me down once more.

"Pathetic..." He mumbled, holding me in place for another few seconds before walking off with his friends. 

I rolled onto my back, the cool tarmac flooring a nice feeling against the hot embarrassment that flared at the looks and giggles the surrounding students gave me. No one offered me a hand, not that I expected any different. Whenever anyone gets picked on by Morro, its an unspoken rule not to intervene lest they want to be the next target.

I just lay there, not really sure of what to do with myself. I was too far away to shout for backup from my friends, but too frozen in place to start to pick up my discarded belongings. Thankfully the warning bell rung and everyone headed for their homerooms. Talk about being saved by the bell. Yet I'm with everyone gone, I still couldn't bring myself to get up. I didn't want to for that matter. I just wanted to stay there forever and die of hyperthermia or something. Wishful thinking in the summer, I know.

A few minutes passed, and I heard footsteps coming towards me. They were quiet at first, but got louder the closer the person got. I couldn't be bothered to raise my head from the floor to see who it was. In all honesty, I could already take a good guess as to who it was. Our head principle, Sensei Wu, was many things, but allowing tardiness was not something he took kindly to. No doubt I would be walking away from this encounter with a detention slip and even more bruised ego. 

My curiosity peaked however as the approaching person made no sound, no announcement of their presence like Sensei Wu would normally do. My eyes opened when I hear the rustle of paper and thump of books as my belongings began to be picked up from the floor. 

It's only when this person started speaking I knew it wasn't who I thought.

"Um... Are you okay?" Said a feminine voice. That was enough for my to raise my head, my blue eyes meeting the large ones of the same girl I was ogling at earlier. The same feelings of astonishment breezed over me and I felt my words leave my body entirely. The girl crouched to my side, my scattered belongings clutched in a messy pile in her arms. 

"Um.. Y-yeah um..." I stammered, wanting to slap myself for sounding so lame.

The girl didn't seem fazed by it and just smiled. "Sorry for not stepping in earlier, God I hate bullies. I'm Nya by the way," she smiled as she extended her hand. I took it and she pulled my up to a standing position.

"Uhh, J-Jay," I mentally cringed at my own voice. Of all the times to be cool, NOW was the time.

"Well, hi Jay," Nya grinned, holding out the pile of books and paper, "Here's your stuff. I'm not sure if that's everything, but it's most of it." 

"Um... Th-Thanks, you didn't have to do that," I mumbled, smiling back at her more timidly.

Nya shrugged, "Of course I did, it's like I said, I just hate people who feel like they can just push others around, you know in my old school I found that standing up to the bully ready helps," She winked, making my heart flutter.

"Thanks for the advise, but no one stands up to Morro" I sighed, shoulders slumping at the depressing thought.

"Well maybe you sh-" She was cut short by someone calling her name.

"Nya! Sis? Where are you?" Both our head whipped to the entrance of the school, where the voice had come from.

"Kai, I'm over here!" she shouted back as the boy with spiky brown hair - Kai - came running out of the school. He stopped in front of Nya, almost blocking me off whilst giving her a irritated look.

"Where did you go? The principal wanted to speak with us before we went to our first lesson?" He said giving me an odd side eye as well. 

Nya sighed, folding her arms and moving to stand next to me, a light hand placed on my shoulder. The contact stiffening up my body. "I was just helping-." She went to say but was cut off.

"Nya," Kai sighed, "We can't be late, come on."

Nya scoffed, "Since when were you afraid of being late" She raised a questioning eyebrow and poking him in the chest. "And anyway, I was just making a new friend, speaking of, Kai this is Jay, Jay this is Kai, my older brother."

"Hi," He grumbled not looking away from his sister as he reached for her arm, "Come on, lets go."

"Hi," I replied, feeling a little awkward. 

Nya struggled a bit in his grasp before giving up and letting her brother lead her towards the school. She looked behind her, meeting my eye "It was nice meeting you Jay." She called before being dragged into the school building and disappearing from my sight. 

I smiled to myself, "Wow," I breathed as my arms went weak. Unfortunately that meant all my previously collected books and papers fell free from my clutches onto the floor once more.

Alright, my first proper chapter, please tell me what you think because I have no clue, um thanks for reading!

——#EDIT#——

EDITED DATE : WEDNESDAY 8TH AUGUST 2018

edit 18/12/23