Written by: Paige W.
Tomorrow
After the 21st unlucky day, I’m trying to imagine what horrors lie before me. The only thing I can do is go to sleep and hope for the best for tomorrow. A cold gust of wind sweeps through my bedroom as I tuck myself in. The wind howls even after I close the window. This makes it impossible to sleep, though I still drift off anyway. After some time, I wake up to my alarm at 7. I stumble out of bed, and make my way down the stairs. When I get to the table, I see only 3 sets of silverware and plates. Wait, that isn’t right, I think to myself. My mom and dad are seated across from each other, talking about work. “Where’s Emily’s spot,” I interrupt. “Who’s Emily?” My mom and dad ask in unison. “You know, my four year old sister, your daughter,” I reply. “She must be really tired, you don’t have a sister Lillian,” My mother says. At this point, they must think I’m out of my mind.
My father drives me to school, and I’m still trying to sort everything out. “So I have an older brother named Logan, who’s in college. And no sister. I go to a private school in New Jersey over the summer, and I play professional soccer?” I ask uncertain. “Yes, that’s all correct,” My father says, his hands turning white from gripping the wheel. I still don’t know how all of this happened, but I guess I have to deal with it for now, until I can find Mel. We pull up to school, and I wave goodbye to my dad, shoulder my backpack, and trudge into the school building. Not much could have changed at school, right? Wrong, everything is different.
“Melanie,” I shout as I find her in the crowd. “Why are you talking to me, Lillian?” She asks, clearly disgusted. My face falls. “Aren’t we best friends?” “You’re dreaming, poor thing,” Melanie says snidely. Great, things can only get worse from here. Going into Mr. Burmu’s classroom, I hear my classmates snickering which means Melanie must have spread word of my “memory loss.” I slump into a random seat in the back of the classroom and try not to be called on to answer any questions. Instead, I think about what’s happening. This has to be some kind of prank, I think. Yes that’s it, Emily must have been hiding, my father just lying about a brother and private school, and Mel is just acting. Her acting skills are good, but she got me this time. I confront Mel after a long and boring math class with Mrs. Herman. “I know this is all some prank, Mel, just give up already.” She promptly ignores me. The rest of the school day I try to think of what I would have done to anger Mel.
My father comes to pick me up, but there’s someone else in the car. It was a boy, he was tall with straight black hair like me. And his eyes were piercing blue, just like my mother’s. Then it hit me, this was Logan, my “brother.” He looked like my brother, but I still couldn’t be sure. “Remember that pet goldfish I had in second grade, the one I thought was drowning so I gave it air?” I ask, testing him. “I’m pretty sure you mean pet beta fish, and you accidently drowned it in the toilet, thinking that you were setting it free,” He corrects me. How does he know that? Only my family knows that! I sit in silence the rest of the ride. Logan hops out of the car and heads inside to “his” room to play video games, typical boy. I race up to my computer and begin surfing the web for answers. I found nothing. Then some random number emails me:
From: Unknown759383674
To: Lillian Sika
If you wish to find answers, go to the Waner at dusk.
Most of the time, this type of thing would scare me. But I needed answers. The Waner is an abandoned hospital building at the edge of town. If I wanted to get there by dusk, I had to leave at 6pm to make the bus ride there. As 5 o’clock rolled around, I started to get anxious. What if my parents wouldn’t let me out of the house. An hour later, I snuck out of the house, and hopped on the nearest bus. When I told the driver where I was going, he simply nodded. The Waner loomed in front of me, the shadows dancing in the setting sun. I walked around, clicking on my flashlight. Finally I got up the nerve to ask, “Who’s there?”
I was greeted by a bone chilling scream. Before I could follow the sound, a desperate cry rang out, again and again. “Wake up, WAKE UP.” I was jolted awake, and immediately felt dizzy. Why is the light so bright? Before I could sit up, faces clouded my vision. My mom, dad, and . . . Emily!?? They all looked concerned. “Emily?” I croaked. “What happened,” I ask, looking at each of my parents in turn. “Well,” My mom started. “You fell at school and had a major concussion.” “You were knocked unconscious for 3 days,” My father finished. “That explains the dreams,” I murmur. “What day is it?” “The 20th,” Emily replies. “It was all a dream,” I whisper. “It was all a dream!” “The medications do that sometimes,” a doctor said. “Wow I had the weirdest dream about the 20th, 21st, and 22nd,” I said. . . . . . .
