Faithless

Chapter Two

Thanks to Candice getting distracted, the girls had to finish up pretty fast and get out of the boy’s dorm before curfew hit. They should have had plenty of time to finish their list of tasks and no teacher was going to listen to any excuses as to why they didn't get it done. They got outside and headed back to the girl’s dorm with just ten minutes to spare. On the walk back Jasmina was still mulling over the conversation with the stranger before. She didn’t even know why it bothered her so much. The chances were he heard Candice say her name or something; that was a completely plausible explanation. Yet there she was, obsessing over this mysterious man.

Once they reached the girls' dorm, Jasmina sighed in relief. The last thing they wanted was to have detention this weekend for breaking the curfew. Some people were still downstairs in the sitting area to the left of the dorm, chatting as the pair entered. There was a door on the right that led to a huge kitchen/dining area, which was mostly used on weekends for breakfast and lunch, while the main canteen was used on weekdays and at dinner on the weekends. The dining area was mostly used for doing homework and snacking. Jasmina spotted a few people inside, but she didn't pay them any attention as they headed for the spiral stairs at the end of the hallway. Their room was on the first floor, the first one on the left after the stairs. Jasmina all but ran inside and collapsed on the bed with a sigh. She felt so tired she could hardly even move. Candice sat down and grabbed a magazine from under her bed. Her addiction to 'Closer' was almost worrying.

"Do you ever read anything else?" Jasmina sighed.

"Just because you're a bookworm," Candice smirked. Jasmina smiled lightly, shaking her head. "You should lighten up on some of those books. You were moaning in your sleep again last night."

"I was?"

"Yeah. it freaked me out. I was going to wake you up but then you settled down. I figured it was best to let you just sort through it in your mind I guess." She shrugged. Jasmina didn't say anything else about the matter. Instead, she got up and sat at the desk, then started drawing. Jasmina never knew what it was she was actually drawing, she just knew what strokes she wanted to make. Jasmina had grown in the habit of drawing the things she dreamed of while she was in the hospital.

Candice had put a few of Jasmina's past drawings up on the wall, assuming she had just drawn them because she thought they would look nice. Some of them were of unusual and distinctive buildings, while others were of rural areas, none of which Jasmina had ever been to before, yet her memory of them was so vivid she could describe every nook and cranny of them. Jasmina sighed as her hands kept moving over the paper in front of her. She hated that she could remember her dreams so well. She hated that even when she was awake, she would still dream up such horrible events. Jasmina lost count of the amount of times she had talked Candice in and out of doing things, based on a nightmare she had the night before.

Jasmina finished her drawing and looked at her newest creation. She hadn't bothered with a background, just a person. A man. It was only his face that was looking up at her from the page. He had warm, inviting green eyes and dark chocolate brown hair that was slightly swept to the right. She could just see a small birthmark underneath his fringe which she thought he had styled there on purpose to keep the mark hidden. His cheekbones were well-defined and his nose was perfectly shaped, complimenting his face.

"Why on Earth do I keep dreaming of you? Mr. Tall, dark and handsome." Jasmina sighed, shaking her head.

"What was that?" Candice asked, looking up from her magazine.

"Nothing. Just mumbling to myself." Jasmina replied, folding the drawing and placing it in her nightstand, out of sight, out of mind, or at least she wished.

Jasmina woke up to a loud bang right outside the door. She'd fallen asleep at the desk, which kind of made her feel disappointed. Whenever she had done that in the past, Candice had woken her up and helped her over to the bed. Jasmina was still in the clothes from yesterday with her blue jumper, covered in dusty marks at the sleeves from her drawings. She looked down at the paper and saw a half finished campsite. Jasmina turned around but Candice wasn't there and she noticed both their clocks had stopped on twelve in the morning. She walked outside their room in search of her best friend. It wasn't like Candice to just wander off. She walked out of the girls dorm and looked around. The sun was already up and there were people everywhere, meaning Jasmina had overslept.

She started to feel him, before she actually saw him. It was like all the hairs on her arms seemed to just stand on edge. She could feel his eyes looking over her, as if it was his hands physically touching her. Analysing her. She stood, frozen in place for what felt like an eternity while she weighed up her options. It was no good trying to hide now, he had already found her, he always did. With little other choice, Jasmina turned around and faced him. The nameless man from her drawings. The one that had been haunting her dreams for days now, maybe even weeks. They never spoke, or even got closer than they were right now. He would just smile knowingly at Jasmina. It was the kind of smile that would just stick in your mind forever, for all the wrong reasons.

She had already tried running away, but that never worked. Instead Jasmina decided to try and be brave and to walk closer towards him. His smile just grew, which scared her, but at the same time she felt a strange calm feeling as well. She got about halfway when his facial expression changed. He was no longer looking at Jasmina, he was looking at someone behind her. Jasmina turned round and saw another man standing right behind her, barely two feet away.

He looked almost identical to the first man, but this one had piercing blue eyes, rather than the warm green that had been haunting her. His hair was a golden brown, bleached that way by the sun and he had full red lips which he bit ever so slightly when he looked Jasmina up and down. He smiled seductively, moving just a little bit closer. He was about to touch her arm when Jasmina backed away, coming back to her senses. Jasmina glanced behind herself, to see the first man just looking at the floor in defeat.

Jasmina didn't understand what she was meant to do. She just stood there, torn in two. The second man kept advancing closer, causing Jasmina to back away; she wouldn't let him anywhere near her until she fully understood what was going on. Jasmina backed away too fast and lost her footing, only she never met the ground. The world around her was crumbling away at the seams. She tried to twist, mid-air. If this was how she was going to die, then she wanted to at least see it coming. The ground was getting closer and closer, her heart rate was growing, while her lungs were constricting. Jasmina used whatever energy she had left and screamed her heart out.

"Jasmina!" Candice yelled, practically lifting her up and throwing her back on to the bed. Jasmina sprung up, sweating and panting like an athlete at the end of a marathon.

"What the..." She murmured looking around. "How... How did I get here?" Jasmina asked, whispering. She couldn't raise her voice any higher than that, even if she tried. Her throat was too sore and dry. The more she came around the more she realised she must have been screaming for longer than she first thought.

"You're in your room, it's okay. You were having another one of your nightmares. I left to go to the bathroom and when I came back you were freaking out! Limbs were flying everywhere! I'd been trying to wake you up for the past ten minutes! What the hell were you dreaming?" Candice asked. She was babbling a little, which was an obvious sign she was nervous.

"Did I scream?”

"Yeah. The door was shut and everyone's so busy getting ready, I'm sure no one noticed anything too much." She sighed, sitting back down next to Jasmina. "Are you going to tell me what you were dreaming?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Jasmina just mumbled.

"There's a lot of things you never want to talk about." Candice grumbled. Jasmina did her very best to ignore her last comment. Instead she pulled the covers away and ran her hands through her now damp hair. She could feel the sweat making her clothes stick to her skin.

"One day I'm going to tell you everything. Start to finish. But for today I need you to not tell anyone about this. Especially not a teacher or anything. Please." Jasmina begged.

"Of course, but be warned, I'm going to hold you to that first part." Candice smirked. Jasmina just smiled lightly and dragged herself out of bed. She grabbed a towel and her other toiletries and headed for the shower cubicles. She normally got up early to avoid everyone else, but today she had definitely overslept.

She was as quick as possible, but still ended up walking into the canteen halfway through breakfast with slightly damp hair, which she had to painfully pull back into a ponytail. Candice had gone on without her, so Jasmina jogged over to the canteen in hopes she would at least get there in time to grab something to eat before the day began. Jasmina found Candice at the back of the canteen with Logan, who was reading something on his phone, more likely a book than a text message. He mumbled a hi to Jasmina, without actually looking up. Candice and Jasmina exchanged a look between themselves, then back to Logan, kicking him under the table simultaneously. He yelped, jumping up and hitting the table with his knee.

"What the hell!" He glared at Candice.

"Hey! It wasn't just me!" She defended, glaring back.

"Jasmina! You too? I expect it from her... But you?" Logan said, faking hurt. He clutched his cheats, falling back into his seat. Jasmina just laughed.

"You're a real drama Queen you know." Jasmina smirked. Logan snapped out of it immediately, sitting upright in his seat like nothing happened. Logan and Candice had been friends long before Jasmina had come to their school, but Jasmina often questioned how it could be possible. They bickered constantly and had less in common with each other than Jasmina did with Candice. Logan didn't like to talk about his family because they were always hard on him. Pushing him to take part in their family business. When Logan refused they had sent him to boarding school to give him time to think and give them space to carry on without Logan being in the way.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean." He pouted, then carried on eating, putting his phone in his pocket. Jasmina ate too, as fast as she could without looking like some kind of rabid animal. She was in a hurry to just eat breakfast then go to class. She hated turning up to breakfast late, let alone classes. There was nothing worse in her mind, than walking into a packed out room last.

Candice and Jasmina both had math together first. They sat together and spent most of the time either talking, staring at the wall, or trying to find the answers at the back of the book, without the teacher seeing… As if you never tried to do the same thing before.

“Candice, Jasmina, if you actually paid attention to how you workout the problem you wouldn’t need to keep trying to flick to the back when you think I’m not looking.” Mr. Rogers muttered, raising an eyebrow. The girls both looked away guiltily.

“Yes sir.” They said in union. They gave up with the back of the book and actually tried to solve the questions on their own. Jasmina got it eventually but Candice mostly asked for Jasmina to talk her through it and just wrote whatever she said. Math was not a strong point for either of them.

When the bell rang they all but ran out the room, away from their teacher’s frightful glare. Logan was waiting outside for Jasmina as they both had history together next, while Candice headed in the other direction.

“How was math?” Logan asked, catching the door for her.

“Same old, same old. Triangles, squares, boredom.” Jasmina shrugged. “What about you? English right?”

“Yeah. Read the same old stories, made up some hidden meanings, the usual.” Logan smirked. He liked English really, he was just determined to look as though he hated everything, including life itself.

“Well you can speak it, write and read it, what more do you need?” Jasmina sighed, grinning.

“Exactly.” Logan agreed, nodding. “We have a cover teacher next I think.”

“Really? So no work then?”

“What else happens with a cover teacher?” Logan shrugged. Jasmina just smiled as they reached their block. The pair got to class first so took their seats at the back. The teacher had just finished writing his name on the board; Mr, Black. and was talking in a hushed tone with someone. Jasmina didn’t really look up until she was settled in her seat. When she did she was surprised to see that the man who had been talking with their cover teacher was staring right at her.

But it wasn’t just that which made her jaw drop. She recognised his warm, inviting green eyes and dark chocolate brown hair that was slightly swept to the right. Just about seeing the small birthmark underneath his fringe. His cheekbones were well-defined and his nose was perfectly shaped, complimenting his face. Just like in her nightmares. Jasmina looked away, towards Logan, trying to ignore the man’s gaze. Tall, dark and handsome.

“What’s up with you?” Logan asked, frowning. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It’s nothing.” Jasmina lied. This was going to be a long lesson.