Dreams of Darkness: Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Tabitha was standing in her kitchen, waiting for her dinner to get done in the oven. Taking a bite from the bowl of salad she had in her hand, setting it down; she went to the fridge to grab a Mountain Dew. Staring at the refrigerator door for a second, dazing off. There was artwork she drew in the fourth grade still hanging on the door. It was a drawing of Earth with something hidden in the back, maybe another planet or something. She couldn’t remember drawing it, but for some reason she started thinking about her Astronomy class. The teacher was going on about theories and opinions on there being other worlds with living organisms on them.

“I have a project for you folks to do. This is a big one, so make it count. And for those who chose to sleep in my class will fail!” Mr. Bertsch shouted. Throwing a stress ball designed to look like a baseball at the boy, who sat in the back, slobbering all over his text books. He was using the books for an uncomfortable pillow. It hit him on top of the head, making a thud sound. Ryan didn’t budge. He continued to snore as his dreams took him away to a far off land that only he had control of. Tabitha sat in front of him, she turned toward the boy.

“Ryan, Ryan, wake up. You’re going to get written up,” Tabitha whispered as she shook him awake. He jolted up in his seat, looking at her, then to the teacher. He rubbed his brown eyes, trying to get himself to wake up and get the sleep out.

“Now that everyone is fully awake and have all of your attention I will continue,” he said, clearing his throat before adding, “I want everyone to write a paper on a theory of us possibly having an unknown world of some kind in our galaxy as we speak. I would also like to see a replica of what it would look like. This project is worth five hundred points and due on the last day of school.”

Tabitha shyly raised her hand.

“Yes, Tabitha.”

“Do you want us make it a mythical world or how we would think the other world out there would look like, if there was one?” she asked, feeling her throat become slightly dry. She didn’t like speaking up in class too much.

Mr. Bertsch didn’t look surprised; he glanced over his students. “Good question. And I want you to do both, if that’s what you want it to be or that’s what you think may be out there. Be creative. Use your minds for once this year. Do research if you have too, but I would rather most of it be from your imagination. Come on folks. There are zillions of unknown things in the world. You’ve watched movies about parallel universe and possibility of other life out there. Don’t make this hard, make it fun.” Bertsch was filled with excitement; his nearly bald head was glowing red.

Some students groaned, but most of them were excited about the project, including Tabitha. They never received an assignment like this before. Something they could use their imagination on. Bertsch continued to talk about his theory on there being other worlds until the bell ring.

Tabitha was pulled out of her daze from the smoke detector screaming at her. She hurried to open the stove, grabbing her baked potatoes out with her oven gloved hand. She opened the aluminum foil around it; the steam coming from it warmed her face.

“Monkeys!” she shouted, looking at the burned potato. It almost looked like a hunk of coal sitting there. She threw it in the trash with a grunt. She walked to her room, losing her appetite. Sitting down at her computer, in the search box she typed, another world. Links immediately popped up:

"ANOTHER WORLD - Site official"

"Another World on TV.com"

"A World Hidden Behind Earth.net"

"Discovery of Another World.com"

Only one intrigued her. It was called A World Hidden Behind Earth. She clicked on it. The website took up the screen. It was a very detailed websites, it talked about everything. Simon Colton was the designer of the website she was surfing on. As she read over it, she learned that he believed there was actually a world hidden just behind Earth and no one could see it because no one had the ‘Sight’ to allow them to see it. He believed there was some kind of life on it. Mythical beings such as: angels, demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, faeries, and many others.

“This guy is insane,” she said as she started to close out of the site, but something caught her eye and she stopped herself. There was a picture of a field; it was a very detailed drawing. She clicked on it, filling the whole screen. It took her back to her nightmare. She closed the picture off. Looking all over the website, she began to search for an email or a number she could call. She wanted to know where the guy saw the field at. She found the number. Scribbling it on a sheet of paper that was sitting on the desk next to the computer.

Grabbing her phone from the bed, which she laid on as she dialed the number that was inked on the paper. Waiting. It rung five times.

“Hello, this is Simon Colton.” There was a long pause. Tabitha was about to say something, but then Simon’s excited voice came back. “I’m sorry you didn’t catch me. I’m probably just too busy playing WoW or maybe I was abducted by aliens, wouldn’t that be…?” A beep sound cut off his overexcitement. Tabitha grinned at the voicemail. She hung up and figured she could try again tomorrow or later on.

Putting the phone on the desk; she went downstairs to make sure Dae had food and water. She got to the kitchen, looked in the bowls and saw that she had plenty of food and water. That’s when the doorbell rang. Figuring it was Octavia to talk more about her party, she answered it. It was someone she would have never expected it to be. It was…

“Pete,” Tabitha said dumbfounded. Pete Favors was Hayden’s best friend. Hayden and he had known each other since they were five. But Tabitha never had a conversation with the guy, haven’t even be alone in the same room with him.

“Hey there, sexy lady,” he greeted her with a wicked smile. His light brown hair fell from his head gently grazing his ears.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, standing close to the door.

“Oh, funny you should ask,” he said, walking into the house, passing her by. “May I?”

“Kind of late for that, you’re already in my house,” she said, hesitantly shutting the door.

“Cute.”

“Why are you here?” she asked again, getting a little annoyed.

“Well I was over Hayden’s; of course. And him and Zoey are getting it on in his bedroom, if you know what I mean,” he answered, winking a sea blue eye at her; motioning exactly what he meant with his fingers. “And I get bored easily, so I came over here. I’ve noticed we’ve never had a civilized conversation. I figured I’d make the first move,” he explained, checking out the pictures of her and her family on the wall above the mantle.

“Why now? I’ve known you for about seven years and you’ve never talked to me,” she said more rudely than she intended.

“And I regret that deeply,” he said with a sly grin, walking closer to her. “You’ve become quite the beauty, you know that?”

Tabitha was confused, Pete went after girls who were easy and looked like supermodels. She knew a lot about Pete. She had been to Octavia’s house many times when Hayden and Pete were there. And she heard plenty of stories, wishing she could forget and scrub it out of her brain with a sponge. He liked to talk and he doesn’t care how personal it is. He had talked about almost every girl he had been with, even the girls he hadn’t been with.

“You alright? You’re kind of spacing on me,” he said, standing in front of her, looking into her eyes.

“Sorry, zoned out,” she responded, taking a shy step back realizing how close he was standing in front of her.

“Ha it’s cool,” he said, taking a step toward her. “What’s that smell? You burning something, veggie girl?”

She blushed heavily, realizing the smell of the burnt potato was still lingering in the house. “Oh, uh, yeah. I was making a potato and I sort of zoned out a bit,” she said shyly, she felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. Pete smiled again.

The door flew open behind him. Tabitha knew who it was; there was only one person who would just walk into the house without knocking. Octavia trudged in holding multiple sleeves of cups, noting that they all had different designs on them.

“Hey Tabitha, which cups…?” Octavia asked, trailing off, hearing the thoughts of a male. She looked up, noticing Tabitha wasn’t alone. She glared at Pete.

“You’re disgusting,” Octavia scowled at him, making a face.

He raised an eyebrow at her, showing her his confusion. Pete didn’t know about Octavia’s telepathic ability. Tabitha was as confused as Pete was. She gave Octavia a questioning look and she gave her the ‘I’ll tell you later’ look.

“Pete, why are you here?” she asked. He tucked his hands deep into his jeans, smiling widely at Octavia. Nodding his head toward Tabitha, and answered, “Spending some quality time with her.” He put his arm around her shoulders. Tabitha’s eyes widen, her face feeling warm with shyness. She had never been this close to Pete. He smelled of cigarettes and old spice. Lucky for him, the cologne manifested the scent of the smoke.

Octavia rolled her eyes and said, “Among other things.”

“I have no idea what you mean by that,” Pete replied as Tabitha shyly shrugged him off her. “So I heard you were having a party, O,” he said to her. He grinned widely. “I’m invited, right?” he asked.

“No…” she scowled, letting the venom leak out of her voice. “And neither is my dimwitted brother and his bitch of a girlfriend. Now leave so me and Tab can finish planning.”

“Aww sissy, don’t be a party pooper,” Pete said in a brotherly way. He had always acted like a brother toward her. They argued more like siblings then Hayden and Octavia.

“Shut up and leave.” Octavia rolled her eyes again.

“But—"

“Go!” she shouted, pushing him to the door.

“Okay, I’m leaving,” Pete gave in, still smiling. He opened the door, waving to Tabitha and exiting the house. Octavia shut the door behind him.

Octavia turned her attention back on her friend. “One of the reason I sometimes wish I couldn’t read minds,” she told her, talking about Pete.

“Why?”

“Perverted mind,” she replied, tapping her temple.

“Ah… what a scary place,” Tabitha laughed as she followed Octavia into the kitchen. Dae was on their heels. Tabitha smiled, patting her on the head and went to the cabinet to get the dog a treat. Octavia hopped herself on the counter after laying the cups on the table. Out of her big giant pink purse, she pulled out a clipboard, checking something off on it. It reminded Tabitha of Merlin’s magical bag, she seemed to carry her life in it.

“So which cups do you like best?” Octavia asked, pointing to them with her pink gel pen. Tabitha gave Dae her vegan bacon strips, which she loved them. She walked over to the table and grabbed the sleeves of cups, looking them over.

“Hmm… I like the one with the stars and dark blue background,” she answered, grabbing them and showing them to Octavia. She smiled, checking something off again on her clipboard, probably noting which cups to get.

“What is it with you and the stars?” she asked. Tabitha shrugged.

“I don’t know. Just like them.” She smiled to herself. She felt better when she was underneath the night sky. She couldn’t explain it, but something about the stars and the moon soothed her.