Burn Before Reading by Sara Wolf

Author:Sara Wolf [Wolf, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: high school, coming-of-age, Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary Romance
Published: 2017-05-17T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 13

WOLF

I don’t dream. I nightmare.

If my sleep ever gets interrupted by a dream, it’s always a bad one. The kind that leaves you soaked in sweat and gasping for air, wide awake at two in the morning. I dream about wandering into a massive crowd and the people ripping me apart, limb by limb. I dream about diving into the ocean, the shadow of a huge shark just behind me, sharp teeth on my back. I dream about things hunting me, killing me, eating me alive.

So I don’t like sleeping very much. Or at all. I force myself to get five hours, but some nights are impossible. Some nights, all I have are my rings, and the moonlight, and the sinking, awful feeling that I’m never going to be able to escape whatever’s hunting me. Sometimes, the dreams feature Mark. Mark watching as I’m torn apart. Mark laughing as I’m shredded to nothing more than skin. Mark, holding the torch to my dry pile of wood, watching me go up in flames.

Tonight, though, is a different night.

The nightmare takes place in school, for once. I’m walking down a long, impossible hallway, and Mark is at the end of it. Everything is eerily quiet, his face all smiles. I walk towards him, knowing I have to, knowing I can’t escape him even if I try. And as I’m walking to him, Beatrix comes between us. She’s telling me to stop, begging me to. And then Mark transforms into a beast, a monster, something huge and dark that lunges for her and bites her head clean off, blood and bone crunching, and I’ve lost her – my insides freeze over – I’ve lost the only girl who’s ever made my heart jump, the only girl who argues with me, pushes back against me instead of giving in, the only girl who held me without question, accepting my fear without judgement or laughter –

The only girl I’ve ever wanted.

The only girl who will never want me.

And then there’s fire – fire everywhere, the scent of gasoline and blood fresh in my nose, and I’m upside down, the dirt in my hair, and Mom won’t move, I keep calling her name but she won’t move, or say anything, and the blood pool beneath her keeps getting bigger, and bigger -

I bolt awake, sweat cooling on my clammy skin. The moon outside is full and ripe, but the light it gives off feels cold and uncaring. I throw my blankets off and pull on a shirt, desperate to get away from my bed and my scraps of the nightmare still hanging there.

This new house is too quiet, too big and empty at night. Even in the day it echoes, my footsteps louder than I’d like. The paintings on the wall are just impartial snapshots of oil and watercolor, not a single family photo there to greet me.

I wander down to the kitchen and open the fridge, rummaging around for a soda.

“You’re up late.”

The voice is undoubtedly Dad’s.

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