The Awakening of a Soul Reaper

Chapter 3. The unfolding

"Wakey wakey,...", as Clarice opens her eyes she sees her aunt standing over her with a big smile, "hey sleepy head, are you not going to come and have some breakfast, I made your favorite, pancakes with cream and mixed berries".  Clarice's eyes open wide as she remembers what happened the previous night, she jumps up on her bed into a kneeling position and starts to scan the room from left to right.  Startled by this her aunt jumps away from her and asks her, "what’s wrong; what are you looking for?"

"Last night as I went to bed…” she keeps quiet wondering if she should tell her aunt, no rather not, she might think I’m going crazy she realizes and continue, “I thought I saw a big spider so I was just making sure it didn’t get up on the bed,” Clarice reply smiling embarrassedly.  She gets up from the bed while still looking over the corner where she saw the man.  “Okay get dressed I will see you downstairs,” her aunt says while walking out of her room. 

Was I only dreaming? Clarice thought to herself looking into the mirror while she brush her long brown hair.  But wait the pendant is real but was the figure of the man real and where did the scythe go she thought to herself looking over to where her bed is standing.  Downstairs at the breakfast table, she looks at her aunt wondering if she should ask if she noticed something out of the ordinary, should she?  No just leave it, if something did happen her aunt would have asked her she thought to herself.

 Walking to school she feels different today, is it that she is getting used to the buzzing of the city life, or is it something else?  For the first time, she realized that she hadn't thought about her mom the entire morning, and a deep sense of sadness started to fall over her, and she started to feel the cold again..., people in the city themselves seem cold she thought to herself, in her hometown everyone knew each other and greeted each other while passing by, but this, this feels so impersonal, does anyone ever know... "STOP Watch out!!!" someone yells and Clarise startled jumped back as a bicycle messenger swoops past her, "Are you okay?" the voice asks.  As she turns around she sees James standing there with a shocked expression on his face.  “Y-yes, I think so” she replies while gasping for air, “thank you, I think you just saved my life!” she says thankfully taking his hand in her palm and with her other hand resting on top of both hands.  James starts to blush, smiling and dropping his head, “you want to walk to school together?” he asks.  “Sure!  Why not, I mean you did just save my life” she says smiling.  “Ah it was nothing” he replies with a smirk on his face.

I hope I don't have to say too much, Clarice thinks to herself as the two of them walk off to school.  

Sitting in history class Clarise feels unease, trying to watch a historical movie about a war, but something feels off, the hairs at the back of her neck rising,  it almost feels like someone is watching her again. She tries as unsuspiciously as possible, to look around in the dark auditorium but nothing seems out of place, looking down to the rows below she can see James sitting in the front row, and Willow sitting a couple of chairs to her right, the only two persons she knows in this school.

Something catches her eye, the curtain next to the showing screen, it moved, is someone there? She thought, squinting her eyes she can make out a figure, it looks like someone is peeking between the curtains.

Who can that be? She thought. 

Looking around at the other student she thinks to herself can nobody else see him? Am I the only one?

She looks down at the pendant that she is now clenching in her hand, it's warm. Feeling afraid she slides down in her chair trying to escape the vision. "Nap time is over!  Switch on the lights!" the teacher calls from down in the auditorium, the lights came on almost blinding sharp.  Clarise slides up from her chair looking in the direction where she saw the person in the dark, but there is nothing there. I must have imagined it, she thinks to herself as she starts to put away her books.

Suddenly she feels this ice-cold feeling coming over her as she looks up she sees something, a couple of rows down, there is what looks like a ghost of a person sitting in a chair, she closes her eyes and starts to count to five, at five she opens her eyes it's gone.  Clarise wipes her eyes with her fingers and looks around, oh no what is happening to me, am I going crazy? She thinks for herself.

“Come on slowpoke!  We are going to be late” Willow says moving her hips from side to side.

Once outside they rush down the hallway, “We need to get to the gym!” says Willow.  They go around a corner and Clarise bumps into someone, “Aug, Oh, sorry!” she says looking up she looks into a pair of piercing blue eyes looking down at her. 

“No it’s fine, are you okay?” comes Tyler’s tender voice.  She feels mesmerized by his voice, she steps back one step, “Y-yes, thank you I’m okay” she realizes that she is staring into his eyes, she quickly drops her head and looks over at Willow. 

“We have to get to class!” Willow grabs Clarise’s hand and pulls her past him. 

“What was that?” Willow ask with a shocked expression on her face.

“What do you mean?” replies Clarise.

“The way you two looked at each other, are you sure you don’t know him,” Willow asks.

“Yesterday was the first time I have ever seen him, I promise!  I myself don’t know what happened just now, it was like…,” she pulls her shoulders up “I don’t know!”

During recess, Clarise and Willow sat at the same spot as the previous day, she looked over to see if she can find Tyler between all the other students but he wasn’t there.

“He is very mysterious!” Willow mention out of the blue.

“Who?  What do you mean?” Clarise asks.

“Tyler!  I can see you are looking for him!” she says with a smile, “most girls tried to flirt with him but he never seemed interested, in fact, today is the first time I have ever seen him show some interest to someone else!” replied Willow.

Clarise can’t get his eyes out of her mind, what was that look, that feeling that I got when he looked at me that way? She wonders.  After recess, a couple of boring classes followed and then, finally the last bell of the day rang.