Page 1 of Gemini
CHAPTER ONE
The whimpering cry, which started as a high-pitched scream in my dreams, broke past my lips as my body shook and my eyes fluttered open. I rolled to my side, letting the cry out like vomit over the bed before taking a small gasp of air.
The nightmare was fading away as I blinked back sleep and tears.
My cry turned into a groan as sweeps of black hair fell across my face, hiding it from gray light coming through the window shade. I swiped my hair away and felt the damp of sweat on my forehead. My night shorts and T-shirt were damp too. I threw the sheet off me and shivered as a chill ran through me.
“Fuck.”
The word came out in a shaky breath. I groaned again and laid back.
The nightmare was gone but the memories still lingered.
I tried to shut them away but it was no use. I saw the room again—the couch to one side, the computer station to the back. The woman, Andrea—the one who tried to protect us—on the ground face down, her hair dyed with blood. Eve being pulled away. And Leslie…
I smacked the side of my head with my palm as if I could knock the memory out. “Stop it, stop it, stop it.”
It had been weeks since I had this particular nightmare. It used to be once a week a few months ago. Even more before that.
I took a deep breath and dropped my hand over to the other side of the bed, feeling the empty space. I glanced over, my heart sinking. My eyes drifted over to the drawer, to a set of picture frames on top. There was one of me and my siblings at a new year’s party. Another of me and Jamie at the beach. The last was of me and Marcus at his first football game of the season.
My throat tightened as I glanced away. I sat and slid my feet off the bed. Clutching the bedsheet, I bowed my head, letting my hair fall into my face again.
Marcus had only been gone a few weeks so of course I still missed him. It was just knowing he was gone all summer—and that we were taking a break—that made it hard.
It had been my decision. I hadn’t been myself. Not since the fall. When everything happened and the nightmare had been real. When Eve, my best friend, had gone away and I was left alone to deal with the aftermath.
I didn’t resent her. I wanted her to be happy. And hoped she was.
But things had been…difficult. I’d closed myself off. And I started neglecting those around me including Marcus, who I’d only been dating for a few months but had been friends with for longer.
He didn’t deserve that. So after graduation, I told him. The look on his face was enough to make me want to find a corner to hide in, but he took it better than others. No fighting, just acceptance. He went off on a summer Eurotrip with some classmates a week later.
And now, sitting alone in my apartment in the city, I was starting to regret it.
Dread creeped into my chest, like a little monster burrowing into me. It was too quiet.
I picked up my phone on the nightstand. Six am. A couple hours before work.
There was a text from Jamie, and some notifications on the socials. My sister didn’t answer my text again. Nothing new.
A news headline popped onto my feed.
The D-eadly Takeover: Leaders of new gang cause chaos in Detroit.
I dropped my phone on the bed and sat there for a moment, staring at the wall.
The memories came creeping back. Crying, alone, in the dark…
With a deep breath, I set my feet flat on the rug beside my bed. I stretched my calves one way, then the other before grabbing each leg brace I’d left on the ground at my feet. I strapped on the left side, clipping it down from lower thigh to my ankle, adjusting the dial. Then I slipped on the right, which only covered knee to calf. Then I moved and bent my legs, rising carefully.
One step, then another. Slow and steady.
Eight months now since the accident. Four months out of that fucking chair. Walking at graduation was the one goal I had after everything, and I made it. Yay me.
I went to the window and opened the shade. I could see the haze of the city off in the distance as the sky slowly started to brighten. Below was an alley way with a dumpster.
That sinking feeling again. I missed my friends and even my roommates. I missed the house that felt like mine even if it wasn’t. Missed decorating and organizing events.
