The Five Dimensions Part 1: Shadow World

Chapter 7

"And you're sure you'll be okay at hockey practice?" The last bell had rung, and they were walking to their lockers. After the talk with the principal, she had decided not to go back to her own class for the remainder of the period, but she had waited outside Nolan's classroom to tell him what had happened.

"Very sure. Jayson is totally planning to kill me... or worse, talk to me," Hailey replied sarcastically.

"Hailey, don't joke. Nolan does have a point; you don't know what to expect with those hockey guys," Taliyah said. Soon she would be spitting out facts and making logical arguments about how she should talk to an adult about this. Taliyah pushed her glasses higher up her nose, which she always did before saying something really smart; Hailey had no need for that at the moment.

"I just don't like that smile that he gave me right when I walked out the door, that's all." Hailey didn't feel like talking about it much more, she would just have to get it over with, and complaining wasn't going to help.

"It's really unfair, though. You've only skipped half a day of school and now you have hours of detention," Nolan said, still looking upset. He tried to put all of his books in his bag at the same time but dropped about half of them on the ground. Taliyah rolled her eyes, but she was smiling when ducked to pick up the books while Nolan held open his bag.

Of course, Nolan was right, but Hailey was used to being treated like this. Any opportunity that the principal got, he used to try and push Hailey towards the image that he liked. Maybe he hoped that Hailey's time around the hockey team would suddenly make her into a miniature Julia.

"Really, you should talk to your dad about this," Taliyah said, with an air as if that was the absolute logical way to go about it.

"Look, guys," Hailey started with a sigh. "I appreciate you looking out for me, but I'm just sitting this one through. That way I'll be done with all of this the quickest."

Nolan and Taliyah looked at each other knowingly. They were fully aware that Hailey wasn't the kind of person to keep pushing back, and it was no use trying to convince her to do something she didn't want to.

"We'll make sure to be there too, then," said Taliyah finally.

"Yeah, we can just do some homework on the bleachers, and you'll have witnesses if they try to jump you or something," added Nolan.

"Sure, guys." Hailey really did appreciate them looking out for her, they were good friends. Together they headed to the school's exit. She tried to convince herself there was nothing to worry about, but she wasn't very successful. Jayson would do something, whatever that was. The only slightly, yet not really, comforting thing Hailey could come up with was that it couldn't be that bad. Right?

§

Hailey was sitting against the wall of her house, watching the little movements of the forest. She was trying to keep her mind occupied, not wanting to think about what awaited her the next day. Occasionally she saw a small animal and as long as she could follow them, she studied their activities. A squirrel was scattering around but raced up a tree as soon as it heard the snap of a branch. There were also some birds hopping from tree to tree and she believed to even have spotted the tail of a bunny but wasn't sure. She could sit like this for ages, often forgetting the time. Usually, her dad joined her at some point, bringing some food, because Hailey tended to forget to eat. But he wasn't home at the moment, and she really wasn't sure how long she had been sitting like that.

All of a sudden, the animals disappeared, the birds weren't even chirping.

Then the dark figure loomed up out of the shadows, explaining why the birds had fallen silent. At first, she didn't move, didn't even breathe, but she realized soon enough that she had to do something. The moment she started towards it, it moved away, and she had to run to stay close. She didn't yell at it, she just followed it as quickly as possible. She ran and ran, still on the figure's heels. She dodged trees and bushes, trying to keep running while her eyes were fixed on the figure.

Hailey could feel her head swimming, it must have been longer than she realized, and she had gotten up way too quickly. But she kept on running, the chance to get to the figure was all she could think about. She jumped over fallen branches and bushes and ducked when she needed to without thinking about it. Suddenly a black spot covered her eyesight. She fell.

"Wait!" she screamed. She could see the figure stop and move towards her, but her eyes closed before she could see his face and she lay unconscious on the cold ground.

§

Hailey's eyes fluttered; trees seemed to pass her. It almost looked like someone was carrying her. She tried to look up to see who it was, but she didn't have enough strength. She could feel his ― definitely his ― hands. They felt muscular around her legs and back. She tried to look at his face, but all she could see was light falling through the trees. Then her eyes closed again.

§

The next thing Hailey saw was her own room. She lay on top of her bed. Leaves and dirt sticking to her clothes, the clothes she'd worn while running after the figure. She had fallen and fainted, then someone had carried her back to her house and had laid her back on her bed. Someone had taken care of her and had been gentle. Someone had protected her.

Had it been the figure?