Chapter Text
8/01/2010, Sylacauga, Alabama, "the marble city".
Jane Richardson was lying on her bed, absentmindedly playing with the bed curtains with her feet as she texted on her phone. Her friend, Nina, was sitting on a rug on the floor, also texting. They were texting each other despite being only a few feet away, may only God know why.
" do u think there will b any cute freshmen? "
Nina sent. Of course the boy-crazy girl would ask that.
"arent u a bit too old to b saying that" Jane responded, mostly only joking.
" ok well some freshmen come in at like 15"
"super senior during middleschool aint no way"
"LMAO"
And Jane knew Nina meant it, as she heard the girl giggling on the floor.
They were about to get bored of texting and actually start talking to each other when suddenly they heard the door open. The two girls looked up at the source of the noise. It was Jane's dad, Bruce Richardson, who was also conveniently the principal of the high school they attended.
"Your mom is here for you, Nina."
Nina groaned and kicked her feet playfully, rolling her eyes.
Can't we have a sleepover? I can't sleep alone... I'm scared of the dark! "
Jane giggled in her bed, sitting up to peek down at Nina.
"What? Can't you sleep without me? Are you gonna have nightmares? " she mocked
"Hey! I'd sleep better without your snoring! All my dreams are poetic and prophetic! "
"What's prophetic about kissing Kurt Cobain? "
"I'm having surgery next month. Maybe I'll die and go to heaven."
Nina quickly stood up and put her sandals on, then turned back to wave goodbye at Jane.
"If I can't sleep I'll curse you to insomnia too."
Jane held back a laugh while throwing a hair tie at Nina.
"I hope you sleep like an angel then."
They both laughed before Nina turned and left the room, running downstairs to her mother's car.
Jane watched through her window, sighing as she saw Nina enter her mother's car, heading back home. They would see each other the next day, of course, and hopefully all day since they would have the same classes, but it still wasn't the same.
Jane settled into bed, staring up at the ceiling. Summer was over. She didn't want to go back to school. She kept worrying about her friends, her classes, and her future. Before long and without realizing it, Jane had closed her eyes and fallen asleep, thankfully not (yet) cursed with insomnia.
ㆍ ━━━❤︎━━━ㆍ
Jane opened her eyes to what seemed to be an empty, white void. As she sat up and looked around, she noticed the rotten trees standing at attention around her, towering over her like an audience.
It was extremely odd. And creepy. Jane slowly stood up with some difficulty, as her head was pounding and she felt dizzy.
The ground was full of dead leaves, and there was a fog so thick that anything past a few feet was practically invisible.
"Hello? " Jane called out hesitantly. Nobody answered.
Despite her uneasiness, the girl walked deeper into the forest, hoping to find something to give her a clue as to where she was. But the longer she walked, the darker the fog became, until everything was pitch black.
Panic started to set in. Jane looked around wildly, looking for anything, anything at all to give her a sense of direction, but found only darkness.
"Hello?! Is anybody there?" She called out again, but it seemed that the fog drowned out her cries.
Jane backed into a tree, sat down, then set her forehead on her knees, and started to cry. She was scared and confused. What the heck was happening?
Suddenly, a breeze carried a whisper through her head. It was unintelligible, but Jane still somehow managed to make out the words "come find me".
Jane looked up and around to where the noise had come from. The wind started picking up, carrying the fog away, and revealing a forest suddenly more alive and thick than the one Jane had woken up in.
She jumped up, somewhat relieved but even more confused than before. And without knowing it, she began walking to the source of the wind.
It became stronger. Unbearable even. She had to close her eyes to continue, not stopping even when tripping over tree roots or rocks.
"Come find me."
She opened her eyes again and fell forward. Suddenly, Jane was in her backyard, staring from afar at the forest that bordered her community. A tall humanoid figure wearing a suit stood just behind the trees, and despite having no face, it seemed to be staring back at her.
"Come find me." it repeated, and suddenly, everything went dark.
ㆍ ━━━❤︎━━━ㆍ
Jane woke up in a cold sweat. What the fuck? What a weird dream. She turned to take her phone from the bedside drawer and looked at the time. 6:34. Exactly one minute before her alarm went off. Great.
She was about to dismiss the dream as just a stress-induced nightmare when she suddenly got a text from Nina, which read:
"OMG you will NOT believe the dream I had. I'll talk to you about it during school!! "