Melissa groaned and turned in the bed. Lola was wide awake. She sat with a cup of coffee in her hands and thought about her dream. It was one of the memories she hoped to be buried, but for some reason, they continued pushing their way up to the surface whenever she slept.
That was the night that everything changed, but something else was familiar about it, something that correlated to her life right now. Still, she couldn't put her finger on what it was and didn't want to pry too much into the past.
"You're up?" Melissa groaned.
Lola handed her the other cup of coffee and smiled.
"I am. How'd you sleep?" Lola asked.
"Not sure, I had a weird dream again," she said.
"Was it the same dream?" Lola asked as she turned and looked at her friend. Her curiosity rose and was visible in her appearance.
"Kind of, but this time..." Melissa stopped and yawned. She drank from the coffee and rubbed her eyes to wake up. "This time, it felt more painful, and his eyes, there was something about his eyes." She tilted her head, her mind drifting off to the memory of her dream, and her eyes fixated on the bed.
"Whose eyes?" Lola asked and hoped she didn't sound too eager.
"The guy that was with you, but he wasn't with you. I think he was holding you or something. Whatever. It was weird as fuck, but it's over now." She smiled.
"Right, it's over," Lola said, smiling to hide her fear.
Was it really over? Or had it only just begun?
Melissa drank her coffee and jumped in the shower. They had three bathrooms-one on the second floor, one on the first floor, and a smaller one here in the basement where the TV salon was.
Melissa hated using the one in the basement, but she was also too lazy to walk up the stairs to the one she usually used.
Lola started folding the blankets and putting away the snacks on the table. She wiped away the crumbs and thought she'd run the floor over with the vacuum later. Just as she was about to stack the pillows she was holding, she heard a gut-wrenching scream and dropped everything in her hands. She ran out of the room and into the bathroom, where Melissa was pressed up against the wall with her hand clasping around her neck.
From between Melissa's fingers, Lola could see the red liquid starting to seep out and ran over to her.
"What the hell happened?!" she asked in shock and tried removing Melissa's hand to see where the wound was, but her hand was clasping it too tightly. "Move your hand, let me see," Lola said calmly, even though she was freaking out.
"No, it hurts. It hurts so much," she said through clenched teeth.
Eventually, Lola was able to move her hand a couple of inches down her chest, and she saw what was hiding beneath. She was the origin of the blood.
"Oh my god," she breathed, and her eyes flickered as the tears began to pool up.
"What is it?!" Melissa asked.
Lola stepped back. Her eyes reached Melissa's. As they locked, and they both saw the fear that was surfacing, Melissa ran over to the mirror and looked at the neck.
"What the fuck?" she asked and touched the two puncture marks with her fingers but immediately jerked her hand away because of the sting.
"What-" She turned around. Lola was pressed against the wall, staring petrified at her friend.
"Why didn't we see them before?" Lola asked through an exhale.
"I don't know, I didn't feel them either. And just now, when I showered and the water washed down my neck, it started to throb, and then the pain just got worse. It felt like something was clawing into my neck," she said and shivered.
"But it's better now?" Lola asked.
Melissa nodded and shrugged her shoulders.
"As if it never happened," she said, sounding as confused as she looked.
"Melissa, honey, are you ready?" her mother screamed from upstairs.
"For what?" she countered and looked through the open door, praying her mother wouldn't come down. Melissa wrapped a towel around herself and started wiping away the blood.
Her mother's dramatic sigh was audible all the way down to the basement. "Your cousin's birthday, I told you it was today! Come on, we have to leave so we're not late!" A door closed, and her mother most likely went into her bedroom.
"Shit, I completely forgot," Melissa said and started panicking.
"Hey, calm down." Lola grabbed her hands and held her still. "Apply some makeup over it, and if it doesn't cover it up completely, then just a scar around your neck. You have like a million of them, so your parents won't question it," Lola joked to lighten the mood.
"Come with me," Melissa begged. As Lola shook her head, Melissa squeezed her hands and nodded quickly. "Please, I won't be as nervous if you're there," she said.
"I can't. I have some things I need to do, and then I work the night shift. Come by the cafe when you're done, and we'll meet there. Everything will be fine, I promise," she said and gave Melissa a big hug that warmed her soul.
Despite hoping she wouldn't have to leave alone, Melissa got ready, covered the wound with foundation, and put a silk scarf around her neck.
She looked in her closet and laughed. Lola hadn't been wrong about the million scarfs. It used to be the only thing Melissa asked for during birthdays and Christmas.
Lola walked home. Melissa's parents offered to drive her, but she needed the walk to cleanse her mind and to think.
Everything felt too connected to be a coincidence. There was a reason they couldn't remember anything that happened that night and why Melissa was having those dreams. And the wound on her neck-it looked like two puncture marks with bruises and red teeth marks around them.
The sky was clear, a beautiful shade of blue resting over the cotton-white clouds. The sun radiated a heat that touched Lola's skin as soothingly as a warm shower, easing the aches of bruised bones. The sun was healing, she had been told by her mother when she was little. After a fight with her cousins, her mother would take her outside to bask in the sun, and it would heal the pain.
However, she realized many years later that her mother's loving touch on her arm or her stroking her hair eased the pain as much as the sun's rays. She stood outside the apartment complex, staring at the sun with closed eyes.
"One more minute," she said to herself and fell back against the brick wall in utter relaxation.
She turned her head down, blinked to regain her sight, and then entered the building where darkness was the main objective.
She walked up the stairs and put the key into the door. Just as she was about to slam it as usual, the door slid open. That shouldn't have happened, she thought. She never turned the key.
Lola took slow steps while her heart pounded so hard that she could hear it ringing in her ears.
"Hello?" she asked with a shaky voice. A harsh wind blew in over the room and slammed the door shut behind her. Lola jumped and screamed. She looked around. No window was open, and she took slow, small steps into the apartment.
"Is someone here?" she asked with a trembling cry in her voice.
The curtains were drawn. No light was seeping through, and as she reached for the switch to turn on the lamp, her hand trembled in fear. She flicked the switch, and the light turned on.
"Hi, Lola."
She gasped and fell back against the wall. Jax sat on the couch, his arms leaning on his knees. Light bounced against the sharp surface of the knife he was twirling in his hands.