“Yeah, you do that.” I catch sight of her eyeroll the moment I turn to walk away, but I ignore it. They’re energy vampires, and I have nothing to spare them. Not anymore. I’m hanging by a thread as it is.
It takes me a minute to make it through the packed beach house, between all the sweaty bodies dancing and my sweep for Jackie, but I finally slip out the back door. It’s quieter than expected, with only a few stray smokers hanging out on the deck.
No sign of my best friend.
I frown, pausing at the hedges to check my phone for any missed notifications, but it’s fruitless. It’s not that I fear for Jackie’s safety, necessarily. I know she’s more than capable of handling herself around people with bad intentions. It’s her mental state I worry about; it’s not like her to dip out like this.
Beneath the vibrations of the party inside, I can hear the distant whisper of the ocean waves, beckoning me like a beautiful siren’s call. Ioblige, slipping off my sandals to follow the gentle rhythm down the wooden path winding through the sand dunes.
A moderate ocean breeze, warmed by the mid-May temperatures, whips my long hair around and into my face. Anywhere else, I’d likely be annoyed enough to pull it back. But the touch of chaos in the serenity is simply part of the natural beauty of this place.
The moon is full tonight, giving me just enough light to make it to the open beach.
It doesn’t take me long to spot Jackie’s familiar silhouette, sitting on a towel near the coastline. She’s as still as a statue, lost to the ocean’s call. Judging by the spot left open on the towel, she may already be expecting me.
Without a word, I settle down beside her. Waves roll in and out on the shore, yet the water seems so still in the distance, its darkness melding into the night sky without a horizon. It is the best natural medicine for the troubles of our young, old souls.
“I wish I could stay here forever,” Jackie finally says, her voice unusually soft and somber.
“Yeah. It almost makes you forget everything else for a while and just… exist.”
“Kae.” She sits up, level with me. “You look like complete ass.”
I blink, taken aback. Here I was, thinking she might talk about whatever is bothering her. “Wow, thanks?—”
“Are you ever going to tell me why you’re not graduating on time?”
My lip purses. She’s not going to let this go. “Ihavetold you. Medical reasons. I’m not sleeping well.”
“Yes, but I’ve never known you to get so stressed out that it affects you like this.” Jackie narrows her brown eyes, almost black in this lighting. “What am I missing?”
“I just… I’ve been having bad dreams. That’s all.”
“Why? Did something happen? Do I need to kill someone?”
“No.” I release a heavy sigh. “I don’t know what started it. They came out of nowhere one day and never left me alone. If I do fall asleep, they wake me up after a few hours. And then I can’t gobackto sleep.”
“Well, tell me about them. What are they about? They might have some meaning I can help you figure out.”
I don’t believe in the woo-woo pseudoscience of dream interpretation, but the nature of mine is exactly the problem. They make me question my reality. “It’s going to sound crazy out loud.”
“Kae. I’ve been fucked up in the head ever since I was indiapers. In the decade or so we’ve known each other, I’ve always been the crazy one. You can handle the spotlight for a moment. Now spill.”
Outside of my father and my psychologist, I haven’t told anyone about the nightmares. It takes me a moment to work up the courage. “They’re all about the end of the world. Or, more specifically… Well… They’re all perfect replicas of Revelation. The biblical apocalypse prophecy.”
“What?”
“I know. My psychologist is convinced I’m holding onto some kind of religious trauma, as if I had biblical horror stories force-fed to me when I was a child. But you know me. You know my parents. They took a ‘find religion at your own pace’ approach. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve sat for a church service. There’s no fucking way I memorized a whole book of the Bible.”
“Yeah, no.” She frowns, watching me nervously toy with a loose thread on my shorts. “So what is it? You’re being possessed by an evil spirit?”
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it. “Demons aren’t real.”
“My grandmother has some stories that might change your mind. Shit gets really weird in rural Appalachia.”
“Jackie.” I give her a deadpan stare. I am a woman of science and logic. If this world had spirits, there would be evidence of it somewhere. “Are you forgetting who you’re talking to here?”
“Fine. Surely you’ve tried your beloved medical route, then. What did the doctors say? Can you get a prescription for some sleeping pills?”
