Chapter Three

Jade drew the veils, letting the faint dawn light invade her room. She
opened her windows, feeling the cool breeze stroking her face. Symphonies of
bird chirping completed the picture of a peaceful morning.
The girl groaned softly. It could’ve been a good beginning of the day, if
she had gotten any sleep at all.
She lied back down on her bed. It was 5:17 a.m. Soon, she’d have to get
up for school. Her eyelids felt heavy and her eyes burned from exhaustion. Her
body desperately demanded rest, even if just for a few minutes.
But the feeling of fear was stronger than all of the tiredness. Jade was
keeping herself awake at any means. She hasn’t slept for almost three days.
One week has passed since the first dream in which her whole world has
suffered an apocalyptic turn. She always found nobody there anymore, except
for the black ghost that keeps appearing right before she wakes up. Jade
always freezes in front of him, unable to defend herself. The least she could do
is ask desperately for some answer, but the dark phantom would always avoid
the question and focus on making the girl suffer instead.
The realistic feeling of seeing every corner of the city destroyed and
abandoned, while also experiencing death, in both quick or slow, excruciating
ways, was what made Jade so terrified of falling asleep again, especially
because everything felt very real.
She played another YouTube video on her phone, just to keep herself
awake for another hour. That night, she had not slept at all.
Later, at school, Jade was dragging herself across the school hallways, her
face hanging low from fatigue. Memories of her nightmare made her no
longer pay attention to the students around her, her body moving as if it was
on auto-pilot.
In history class, Jade tried her hardest not to pass out. If staying awake
during Ms. Garcia’s class was already hard enough, then that time it was an
extreme challenge.
Suddenly, something caught her attention at the corner of her eye. She
noticed that Nathan kept sneaking glances in her direction. To her surprise, he
looked concerned, like something was on his mind. When he saw that Jade
caught him looking, he didn’t turn again.
Jade felt a small knot of anxiety in her stomach. What was the matter?
He still hadn’t replied Jade’s text, nor had they talked ever since Jade quit
going at the club last week. What was bothering him? Was it related to her?
Her head full of questions regarding Nathan, she didn’t take notice that
her head lied down on her arms on the desk. Her eyes closed instantly and
before she could fight it, she already fell prey to a deep slumber.

It was as if she was walking through the deepest pit of hell. What used to
be the very welcoming, harmonious and green landscape of the woods was
now replaced by surroundings covered in flames, as if scarlet walls of fire were
blocking every exit of the forest. The giant oak trees that once covered the
uneven, grassy ground with the shade of their leaves were now bare, their
barks black and their branches wrapped by flames, or already in ashes. The
light coming from the sky was blocked by dense smoke, making the once cool,
refreshing air, now hot and suffocating.
Jade could barely breathe. Her lungs were burning from exhaustion and
her body was growing weaker and weaker from inhaling the smoke. She was
running desperately once again, in an unknown direction. She wanted to find
something, anything, that was still in normal shape in this world.
But everything was gone. The cities were ruined, with dead bodies
everywhere. The forests were burning. With any minute passing in which she
wandered, she would get more and more convinced that there was no sign of
anything alive left anymore.
As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, the black ghost is most likely still
going to haunt her dreams.
She suddenly stumbled on a tree root and fell in a big puddle. The water
was boiling. She screamed in pain. Jade scrambled to her feet rashly and kept
on moving, her pace much slower now.
She looked around, something feeling off.
Every single giant oak tree now had the wooden door built in their bark,
just like the first time it appeared in Jade’s visions.
She ran to one of them, but as soon as she put her hand on the old, iron
handle, it would vanish, leaving dark, burning bark in front of her.
 She sprinted to the next door. It vanished just the same. Jade moved on
to the next. Same result. She felt like she was going insane. Jade ended up
running in circles through the burning woods, terror flooding every vein in her
body.
Finally, one door opened, leading to the same dark, never-ending tunnel.
But she did not hesitate. She started running again, as fast as she could, not
caring what might be at the end, as long as she escaped the forest of hell.
To Jade’s surprise, she had to slow down, because the tunnel had
another door at the end of it. Taking a moment to rest, she also had a chance
to think. She didn’t know what to expect on the other side. One thing was
certain though, Jade was sick of seeing doors at that point.
After she caught her breath and opened the door, sunlight made Jade
squint. As soon as her vision adjusted to the blinding shine, she saw that
before her was a plain field, stretching far beyond the horizon endlessly. The
field had no plants or grass on it at all, as if every single life form got wiped
out. She was simply standing on the border between the earth and the sky.
The silence and loneliness felt extremely eerie. Jade felt even more
exposed to danger than before.
As if to confirm her worries, a sudden gunshot exploded from behind and
Jade collapsed. Excruciating pain pulsed through her entire leg, making her cry
and scream. Jade’s face was as white as paper as she recognized the voice that
spoke:
“I haven’t seen you in a while.” The black ghost mocked, pacing around
Jade’s body “Too scared of meeting me?”
Jade whimpered. The mysterious figure lowered himself so that the girl
could see his grotesque smile on his dark, featureless face.
“There’s no point in trying to avoid the truth.” He went on “The world is
changing. Eldor has changed. There’s no point in running away from this.”
“Eldor? Is this what this world is called?”
“You’re supposed to be everyone’s hero. You’re like a saint to these
people. Look at you. So weak and pathetic.”
“What people?” Jade groaned “Everyone is dead.”
“Because you let them die.” He snarled.
Another gunshot. Another deafening scream splitting the air as Jade felt
warm blood trickle from her shoulder.
 “Please leave me alone!” Jade cried as agony engulfed her entire body “I
have no idea what’s going on! I don’t know who you are! I don’t know
anything!”
“Who I am?” he fiddled with the handgun in his hand “I’m not a person.
I’m a manifestation of your own feelings. Hatred. Anger. Disgust. Resentment.
I’m all of your failures. All of the times you’ve let people down.”
Jade tried to move to get up, but the loss of blood has made her body
feel heavy. The wounds made it feel like lightning was striking her constantly.
She flinched in alarm as she felt her hand touched by the ghost. He
opened her fingers and placed the gun in her grasp.
Holding a weapon gave Jade a sudden feeling of power and strength. She
forced herself to stand up and pointed the gun at the dark phantom, her
hands shaking.
He sighed. “You still don’t get it?”
“How was I supposed to have a chance against you?” she spoke through
clenched teeth “When all you did was torture me and kill me from the
beginning?”
“Well, go ahead then.” He opened his arms in surrender “Shoot me.”
Jade drew in a breath and pulled the trigger, the booming sound and
recoil almost throwing her back on the ground.
But when she blinked, instead of the black ghost was Jade’s identical
image, like a clone, standing in front of her, wearing the same clothes, holding
the same gun in her hand, same wounds, plus one in her chest. She was
pointing the weapon at Jade’s head.
“You’re doing this to yourself.” The clone spoke, with a sad, defeated
tone “You’ll never defeat me like this.”
At the next gunshot, Jade woke up with a loud gasp. She was back to
history class. Everyone stared at her questioningly.
“Everything alright, Sands?” Ms. Garcia asked.
Without thinking, Jade nodded “Y- Yes, I’m fine. I- I’m sorry for
disturbing.”
The teacher scowled in doubt, but she moved on with her lesson.
Jade looked at the clock. Fifteen minutes since history class started. So
just a few minutes of sleep were enough to make her experience those
horrors again.
 The girl went through everything she has seen. The mirific giant oak tree
forest, now on fire. The name of that world apparently being Eldor. Getting
faced by a clone of herself and the dark ghost claiming that he’s not a person,
but a manifestation of her negative emotions.
The more she thought about the different things she keeps seeing in her
dreams, the more confused and frustrated she’d get. Nothing made sense.
Most reasonable explanation to all of this would be that she started losing her
mind.
The bell rang. Everyone stood up and headed out, not caring what else
Ms. Garcia had to say. Jade joined them.
Her body felt numb. Her eyes felt heavy. Her oversized jeans and hoodie
were hanging even more on her skinny figure, since the weight loss was
getting visible. Jade didn’t take notice of the handful of students glancing at
her occasionally with curiosity.
The hallway’s lights suddenly went out and the everything went quiet.
The daylight sneaking through the scattered windows was enough for Jade to
see that she was alone.
Her heart started racing. The doors of the classrooms were ripped open
and the windows were shattered. The walls were faintly stained with blood.
She froze, not knowing what’s real or not anymore.
“You really thought losing sleep will help you escape me?” a whisper in
her ear made her start shaking. She turned, recognizing the dark ghost,
standing less than a meter from her.
“Are you really going to let me haunt you forever?” he got closer, putting
a hand gently on Jade’s shoulder, making her flinch “Will you let everything
just consume you?”
Jade snapped. With all the force she could gather in one fist, she
punched the phantom in the face, throwing him off balance.
Jade gasped, surprised by her own distressed reaction, but she couldn’t
let that moment of vulnerability slip away. She landed another hit on his head,
making him fall on his back.
Blood roaring in her ears, she blocked his movement by lying one knee
on his chest and hand, the other leg blocking the other hand.
She kept hitting his head, her satisfaction growing while his struggling
moves waning. She could already feel warm blood on her hands.
 The overwhelming feeling of triumph gave Jade indescribable strength.
The desire to give payback to the suffering that the entity made her go
through was like raging fire in her chest.
His groans of pain fueled Jade’s contentment. She was winning. She was
finally in control of her own world again.
As if from far away, she could hear the echoes of many people yelling:
“Stop it! Stop! You’re killing him!”
That’s exactly what Jade wanted. She would never have to see this
mysterious ghost again.
Suddenly, a heavy force pulled her off him. She collapsed on her side, the
air knocked out of her lungs.
Groaning, Jade opened her eyes. The lights were back. The school looked
like it back to normal. She got up in a sitting position.
“You monster!” a girl next to her let out a choked scream “All he did was
ask you if you were okay!”
Jade frowned in confusion. Everyone on the hallway was standing in a
circle around her. Their faces were masks of shock and horror.
When Jade looked around, she understood why.
“Oh, God.” She muttered to herself in disbelief “Oh, no. No, no, no, no.”
Next to her wasn’t the body of the black entity. It was Nathan, his face
beaten to a pulp. His handsome face, the face Jade admired for years, was
now drenched in blood. The same blood Jade had on her hands.
She couldn’t breathe. Panic was suffocating her. It has been a
hallucination. At that heating moment, she didn’t realize the reason why the
ghost was now suddenly so weak and put up no fight. Because she wasn’t
fighting the ghost at all.
A guy knelt next to Nathan.
“He’s unconscious.” He declared in alarm “Somebody call an
ambulance!”
Everyone was staring at Jade, their expressions full of bewilderment,
disbelief and even anger.
She couldn’t take it anymore. Grabbing her schoolbag, she got up and
sprinted towards the nearest bathroom. Every girl was out, watching the fight,
therefore the room was empty.
 Jade slammed the door of a stall shut and locked herself inside. She
opened the schoolbag with shaking hands. She was dangerous. She couldn’t
be around people anymore, if she couldn’t make out what reality is.
She grabbed three small recipients which contained her medications.
Jade was still in shock. She almost killed Nathan. She almost killed the
boy she has had feelings for, for so long. Even if it was a hallucination and she
wasn’t aware of what she was doing, that’s no excuse for hurting others. What
if he ends up with permanent damage from the injuries? What if the blunt
trauma is enough to kill him? She would never be able to forgive herself.
Some girls started banging on her door, telling her to get out and asking
her questions for why she has done this.
Jade opened the recipients and poured all the dozens of pills in her
mouth and swallowed them with whatever water she had left in her bottle.
That medication is supposed to stop those hallucinations from happening.
Having swallowed all of them, it was a desperate attempt at making them
stop.
She sat down on the toilet, crying in despair, not knowing what
consequence will meet her when the door will open. What will she tell her
parents? How will anyone look at her after this? What if she gets sent to a
mental asylum forever?
The banging on the door stopped and the girls left the bathroom, except
for one. It was quiet.
Jade couldn’t tell how much time has passed. A few minutes? Ten
minutes? Fifteen? But it felt like every second has slowed down. Her head
started to ache terribly and she felt very sick. When she moved her head, it
was as if the entire world was spinning.
“Sands.” Ms. Garcia came in the bathroom “I want you to come with me
to the principal’s office. Now.”
Jade wiped her face with the sleeve of her hoodie and opened the door.
The history teacher, together with two girls she didn’t know, were waiting for
her.
“I will take it from here.” The teacher nodded to the girls and they left.
Jade stood up on shaky legs that were barely able to hold her weight. She
went to the sinks to have something to lean on. When she looked in the
mirror, she saw a face pale as paper, with huge dark circles under her eyes and
an appearance that hasn’t been kept care of at all.
“Why did you do this?” the teacher muttered.
Jade turned to face the teacher but her hand slipped on the wet sink. Her
dizziness made it impossible to regain her balance. Her head landed on the
corner of the sink and the world went black.