Chapter Three

“Raina!” I was running through the forest barefoot, and Daniel was running behind me, screaming my name. He was catching up, and I was slowing down. I tried to push myself harder. Faster. I was out of breath, however. Eventually, my body gave in and I collapsed on the forest floor. I heard Daniel’s footsteps approach me. He knelt down and said out of breath, “Raina, what the hell? Why were you running from me?” I was so scared. I knew he was going to hurt me. All I wanted was to be away from him. “Go away!” I screamed. Daniel shook his head and said, “You ever run away from me again, and I will kill you.”

 I glared at him and said, “I dare you.” He laughed and said, “You got to run first.” I picked myself up at ran as fast as I could. My adrenaline was pumping, and I was increasing speed as I went. I heard him yell something, and soon heard his feet pounding about 20 feet behind me.

I swiftly darted behind a mass of trees and watched as he ran by, not even noticing me. I breathed a sigh of relief. My back slid down the tree trunk, and I perched myself on the wet soil. I almost let my heart rate go back to normal, but then I heard a branch snap to the left of me. I whirled my head to the area of the sound.

“Did I scare you?” Blake’s voice asked. I let my breath out and said, “No. I’m hiding from Daniel. So my senses are all paranoid.” Blake came out from behind a tree and nodded, “Raina. Come with me. I’ll help you.” Just as I was getting up, Daniel walked out from the other side of my tree and said, “Ah-ha! I found you!” Then, he took a long rope out of his pocket, unrolled it, and before I could move, he whipped me with it.

 I screamed and fell to the ground. “Daniel! STOP!” I cried out between each whip that I received. I could feel the cuts that the rope was making on my arms and face. I saw Blake’s shadow come up from behind Daniel, “Daniel, you better put that rope down.” He stopped whipping me and turned around to face Blake. “Oh yeah? And what if-” Daniel was cut off by a startled shriek that came from his mouth. I glanced up at what had happened. Daniel was standing there with a knife in his stomach!

I darted my eyes over at Blake, who was smirking. “BLAKE!” I screamed, springing to my feet. “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?” Blake looked at me and chuckled a little. “He was pissing me off. Apparently, a fistfight wasn’t going to teach him a lesson. So I decided to finish the job.” I stood there, shocked. “He’s not going to learn a lesson if he’s dead, Blake!” I yelled out. My brain was still in shock, however. It hadn’t connected that Daniel was dead yet. Wait. Daniel. Was dead?

My brain had finally caught up and realized what had happened. How could this have happened? No, this was not possible. None of it was. This is insane. I must be dreaming!

I felt a nice cushion under me, and soft warm blankets surrounded my body. I opened my eyes and saw a white ceiling. I sat up and glanced around my room. Same old. Same old. And then I remembered what I had just experienced. My heart nearly broke out of my rib cage. And then I became aware that it wasn’t real. It was a dream. Just a dream. Daniel was alive. Blake wasn’t a psycho killer. And everything was going to be okay.

At least I hoped so…

 

           “Yo, Raina, you alright?” My brother asked me, walking into my room in just his boxers. My breathing had returned to normal by then, “Yeah, I just had a freaky dream that Blake stabbed Daniel. It was insane.” Lucas laughed. “It’s so not funny!!” Lucas stopped laughing and asked, “Wait, who’s Blake?” Oops. I forgot to tell him about Blake yesterday. I half-smiled and said, “A guy.” Then I pulled my sheets off, walked around Lucas, and went to the bathroom.

 Once I shut the door I walked over to the mirror and looked myself up and down. The bruise that Daniel had left on my cheek was worse than I had expected. It was a dark purple with light purple around it. It looked really bad. I would not be able to cover this one up. Tomorrow at school, everyone would finally prove their little rumors saying that Daniel abused me. This was like the finale. The big bah bang. Chelsea Pungler broke up with that Daniel guy! Yeah, that’s the story. And it’ll be warped and warped until its become something like ‘Raina and Daniel were at this party, and she was being a little sissy and didn’t want to have any alcohol. Daniel was drunk of course, and didn’t know what he was doing, and he tossed the bottle towards her. Clumsy her, didn’t catch the bottle that was coming towards her face and it smacked right into her cheek’.

 I sighed and didn’t want to look at my reflection anymore so I opened the door and walked back to my room. Before I was even lying on my bed for five seconds, my cell began to vibrate. I rolled over and picked it up off my side table and read the Caller ID. “Ellie Spencers” was on the screen. I smiled; I needed a girl to talk to.

 I flipped open my phone, “Hey Ellie!” “Hey, girl! What’s crackalackin?” I laughed, it felt so good to laugh. “Oh, nothing...”I said exposing a little of my sadness and worry. “That doesn’t sound like nothing, girlie. Tell Ellie what’s wrong.” She said. I thought for a moment whether I should tell her or not. Yes, Ellie was my best friend, but I just didn’t know how to tell her. Although, once I though about it I wasn’t exactly sure what I was worrying about. Ellie was so sweet and never quick to judge so it wasn’t like she would say something that would upset me.

 “Well...yesterday Daniel and I went to the park just to hang out and talk. You know, casual stuff like that. Ellie sighed. She didn’t like Daniel too much. Just like the rest of my friends. “And what happened?” “Well, I tried to stand up to him and he slapped me. I blacked out and when I woke up he was gone, and then...” I told her the whole story about meeting Blake and how I broke up with Daniel and then ran off. At the end she was very quiet.

 “Raina?” Ellie said my name almost as if asking permission to use it. “Yeah?” “That is so amazing!” She screamed. I tugged on my earlobe, trying to get the sound in my ear back. “Mhm. Yeah, I guess. But I’m also really scared, El.” “How come? You should be EXTREMELY ECSTATIC! I mean you finally stood up to the b*****d! Isn’t that good?” “Yes, it is good. But I’m not really sure what is going to happen. I’m kind of scared that he’s going to do something to me. I had a dream last night that if I ran from him one more time he was going to kill me. That’s like an analogy. Running equals breaking up with him. Oh, and then at the end of my dream, Blake stabbed him!”

 Ellie laughed for five minutes straight. When she was finished I said, “El, that isn’t funny! I don’t want Daniel to die! I know that he isn’t exactly the greatest guy out there but I would still be devastated if he died! Maybe if he spent a couple of years in jail, then that would be fine.” Ellie sighed, a small laugh still in her voice, and responded, “Raine, that is really funny, though. Blake to the rescue!” I laughed. That was pretty funny. I was just glad that it wasn’t real.

 “Ellie, what do you think is going to happen tomorrow, though?” She didn’t reply for a while and I assumed she was thinking. “You have 6^th period History with him, right?” “Yeah, that is going to be so awkward!” I said, really starting to worry about the day that would soon be here. “Don’t worry, you’re strong. You’ll get through it.” Ellie was a big one for pep talks.

 “So sorry Ellie, but I have a bunch of homework, and its all due tomorrow. If I don’t want to fail I better get started.” I said. “Alright, have fun. Oh, and how do you expect to see this Blake dude again?” She asked, her tone more interested. I had thought about that earlier, but couldn’t come up with anything good to see him again. I didn’t know his last name, where he lived or his number. How was I supposed to see this guy again? Maybe it wasn’t that smart to have just drove off, leaving him and Daniel there. “I have no idea.” I responded and then clicked off.

 After four hard hours of labor, I finally finished my homework. I fell onto my bed, and closed my eyes. Trying to concentrate on an idea to see Blake again. After about an hour of non-stop pondering, the only thing I could come up with is to just find someone who knew him and ask them what his last name was so I could look up his number. But the more I thought about that one, the more stalker-like it sounded. So that plan was out. “This is so messed up! I wish that I could just drive back there and see him. But what are the odds of him even still being there? Maybe I could at least try….

  I ran down the steps and grabbed my keys off the hook. “Mum, I’m going out!” I yelled to wherever my mum was in the house. I jogged over to where my car was parked and jumped in. It was like a haven feeling the pedals and the wheel under me. I didn’t know why. Maybe I just needed to get out of the house after that dream last night.

 Once I reached the park, I scanned the benches for any bulky teenage boy. I didn’t see any boys that fit that description. I sighed. It was a dumb idea to come here. What made me think that he’d be here? Today of all days? Did I really think that he liked me? I was stupid to think that he would come back and wait for me.

 When I got out of the car, I realized that I basically came here for nothing since Blake wasn’t here. It really was a stupid plan. It was even stupider since it was one-sided. I guessed I’d take a walk for a while. Nothing better to do. So I began walking down the same path Daniel and I had walked down only a day ago. It seemed like an eternity.

 I hadn’t gotten that far into the path when I heard footsteps behind me. However, every time I turned around, no one was there. I was probably just extremely paranoid, and my mind was trying to freak me out. But even my theory didn’t help the fact that I felt like I was being watched.

 Once again, a branch snapped. And it was definitely NOT my imagination. I whipped around, and I saw a body run behind a tree. “I KNOW YOU’RE THERE!” I screamed, panic in my voice. The body emerged from behind the tree. He looked really familiar, but because of the distance between us, I couldn’t be certain of who it was.

 He chuckled, and began walking toward me. The closer he got the more and more familiar he got. When he was only about ten feet away from me, it finally clicked who he was. Blake! He was here! I screamed. I don’t know why. But I was so happy to see him.

 Blake laughed at my reaction. “Blake, what...what are you doing here?” He smiled, “I’ve been here all day, hoping you’d come back. I was just about ready to leave when I recognized your car pulling in.” I tried to hold back the smile that was bubbling in me. “Wow. That’s really sweet of you, Blake. Really.” The smile won, and it broke out across my face.

 “Say, um...What happened when I left?” I asked. Blake let out a big belly laugh. He laughed for a really long time. And by the time he was done, there were tears spurting out of his eyes. I laughed at his face. It was all red and humorous. “Well, once you left, Daniel was pretty pissed. You know, since you dumped him and all.” I nodded. I had expected that.

 Before Blake continued with his story, we walked to a park bench and sat down. He continued, “Daniel began blaming me for the ending of your relationship of course.  He said, and I quote, ‘what the hell? If she hadn’t met you here than she would have never broken up with me!’ So I just laughed in his face, and said that I had nothing to do with it, it was all about how he treated you.

 “And so it went on like that for about an hour until I just gave up and decided to drive home. But here’s the really humorous part. When you guys had decided to meet up here, he had his mom drop him off, so he didn’t have a ride back. So I was walking to my car, and he comes up all innocently and asks for a ride home. “

 I laughed. No, I was practically dying and drowning in my own laughter. That was so Daniel! How pathetic. “So, what did you do?” I asked, curious for more. Blake smirked and said, “Well, being the good citizen that I am-” I cracked up, and Steve cleared his throat. I tried to hide a smile as he went on. “As I was saying, being the good citizen that I am, I gave the poor girlfriendless b*****d a ride”

 Blake rolled his eyes at the end of his story and said, “What a loser.” I giggled to myself. “Anyway, its Raina, right?” I nodded. “Alright, just wanted to make sure I was remembering correctly. You know guys, being all forgetful and all.” I laughed. Blake was really funny. Then, he asked me to stand up, so I did, confused. He knelt down on one knee, and I started to laugh, but he shushed me. “Raine, would you do me the honor of having lunch with me at the restaurant across the street on this fine afternoon?”

  I beamed. That had to have been the cutest way to ask a girl out for lunch. “Blake, I will gladly do you the honor of having lunch with you on this fine afternoon.” Blake stood up and said, “Lovely!” Then, he put up his arm, and I hooked my arm through. And away we went.