Naomi sighed exhaustively, looked at the duo with somewhat sleepy eyes and yawned. “Time to hit the hay for me… Daren, you know your spot, and I’ll take the floor by the dresser”.
Nora watched as Daren walked over to the couch and planted himself into it. He pulled out a comforter he had brought along and slowly wrapped himself with it before turning to face the couch and backing the girls. Nora smiled as Naomi motioned for her to assist in arranging the sleeping bags on the floor. They got through the act in seconds and Nora headed to turn off the lights, with images of her friends being the last thing her eyes successfully picked in the room.
She snuck into her single sized bed and crawled up underneath her duvet, yawning and stretching off the cranky feeling her joints ached off.
“Goodnight”, she whispered to her friends who were ready to drift off into sleep.
“Goodnight”, Nora replied almost immediately.
They waited for Daren but got nothing immediately, prompting Nora to assume the boy had fallen asleep.
A minute passed and he softly chuckled before muttering, “Goodnight and don’t let the bedbugs bite”.
Nora shook her head, sighed softly, and wondered how she could have trusted him. She smiled to herself and held unto her pillow tightly as the world felt perfect and without worries at that moment in time. Her best friend was nearby, and a crush of hers wasn’t far away either, even while there remained some element of uncertainty on what would come of him.
The world definitely felt calm and peaceful, yet, Nora worried about clamping her eyes shot to fall asleep. The images from her current nightmare continued to linger and race across the fields of her mind. She could swear the crunching effect from her foot stepping on the dead crow was real as can be. She could taste the odd air coursing down her lungs, and she could without doubt, still see the strange figure with lengthy dark hair sitting atop the large rock.
The worrying side to it all, was the feeling that she knew who the person was, or at least, the frame looked oddly familiar to her…
CHAPTER TWO
The world continued to feel softer by the passing second, almost like she lay on a field of dandelions and her head was rested on the softest clouds. She groped tightly unto the head rest, and felt her heart mellow in gladness, as her night continued to stretch along perfectly, or at least it was what she assumed. ‘
Subtle, but warm feel stretched across her face and settled over her upper torso within minutes, and while she turned and tossed, hoping to evade the warmth, it remained unprepared to leave, prompting Nora to yank out her cloud of softness from underneath her head, and cover her face with it. She wanted the night to stretch further or at least, last another hour if possible.
Waking up wasn’t the sole concern, and getting out of bed to begin the day wasn’t the second either. There was a specific element to the day’s running which she wished she could avoid as best as possible. She was scheduled to meet with them, and the meetings never really went well. In fact, the only saving grace about such meetings were the fact they never lasted long.
Yet, today promised to be different; the length at which it might extend remained unknown and it haunted her thoughts just thinking about it.
Flickering sounds from the bulb soon came to their hearing, while the ceiling fan began spinning wildly as though it was out of control. The air grew hot and cold and switched faster than anyone could make sense of, prompting the three figures in the room sit up hurriedly and almost in sync as though they had preplanned it.
Naomi looked frightened to death; her face looked pale, and her lips tightened into a snarl, while Daren maintained his usual cocky look. The howling wind swaying the tree branches outside to their tune, hammered into the window panes, causing them to rattle disturbingly, while worrying sounds like footsteps hammered into the rooftop as well.
“Does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on?” Daren asked with a frown.
Naomi shrugged, as did Nora too. The duo shared a brief look, wondering what answers would come of the bizarre occurrence, before the sudden silence aired, and the odd noises stopped. The clouds outside the room drifted about beautifully as they had done through the howling wind, and the birds chirped on as though the trees had not just been dancing wildly and dangerously to the tune of the wind.
Nora looked out the window and wondered when the birds got back there. She was sure something so odd and baffling would terrify the creatures and cause them to fly away never to return immediately, but they all looked rested and well nested on the branches like nothing happened.
“First, you buy some weird cards online, and now one cannot get a good night sleep in your apartment?’ Daren decided to make a joke of the situation.
Nora scoffed and shook her head. “Very funny, Daren!”
She slept back and turned her pillow on her head, but the soft and tender feel she felt from it had suddenly returned to one of reality.
“Guys, look!” Naomi called out, pointing at the wall clock with a frown.
Nora rubbed her eyes clean of sleep, and yawned as she trailed her friend’s hand towards the south wall bearing the old clock her father had brought back from one of his trip to Iran. Her eyes widened initially while she struggled to reconcile the time to the hour of the day, before hurrying off of her bed to pick up her cellphone from the table.
“That’s odd”, Nora thought to herself while she put on her cellphone and waited for it to boot.
Daren sighed and shook his head.
“What are you two raving about?”
