Chapter 2: Suspicions and More Denials

 

That strange feeling from this morning never left you. The hairs on the back of your neck stood up the whole day, and you felt as if someone was watching you, studying your movements everywhere you went. It got worse the further you got into the day, and your nerves were getting the best of you. Suspiciously, the feeling wasn’t as harsh after 9th period. But, your instinctive bad-feeling sensation started back up again the farther you left the school, and the closer you got to home. It wasn’t as bad as before, just seemingly telling you to be cautious. This has probably been the weirdest day of my life.

        Now it was the end of the day. You were on the bus with your viola in hand since you had felt the need to take it home, although usually you don’t. This time, you sat alone, but that was actually a good thing. It was already a little difficult to move around with the instrument case inside the small space a bus seat provided, let alone try to get out of the seat with someone else sitting with you. Plus, since you were alone, you were left to your own thoughts in peace.

        Finally, after what felt like an eternity, it was your stop. Since you were one of the last stops in the morning, you were one of the first in the afternoon, so the bus ride wasn’t that long. You squeezed through the tight rows with your precious baby in hands and exited the bus. You enjoyed the bright blue sky with barely any clouds and sunny day it turned out to be. You walked the three minutes it took to get to your house, noticing that the nervous sensation you had been feeling was becoming worse.

        When you arrived you opened the front door, but your mom wasn’t there like she usually was. Neither was Rocky, who would literally bark at anyone who so much as touched the front door. Maybe mom had people coming over and took him to the kennel? The silence was a bit unnerving either way. Your younger brother was of no concern because he was still in elementary school, so he usually didn’t come home for another hour.

As you were about to head upstairs, you noticed a sticky note taped to the inside of the door. It was from your mom. It said that her and your dad would be out for a few hours. This wasn’t something to worry about though. Once in a while your mom would do something like this. It just meant more alone time for you then. You went to the kitchen to get a snack when you saw Rocky lying in his bed, watching you intently. So he didn’t go to the kennel. Odd. Rocky would normally be so noisy, thinking whoever stepped foot into the house was someone to bark and run at no matter who they were. Plus, when you opened the refrigerator, he didn’t come jumping up from his bed and sprint towards you and beg for food like he usually would. He merely stayed in his bed, disturbingly still, his chest rising and falling in a steady motion. You swore his lips were raised in such a way as an equivalent to a smirk, and you glared suspiciously at him. Definitely my imagination. It has to be. But why is he acting so strangely? Maybe he’s tired or sick? …Is it me or do his eyes seem more… glowing. Your instincts were really warning you now, and they were telling you that things were definitely not right.

You, however wrong this decision may be, neglected them, but still remained suspicious as you got a random yogurt and a glass of milk and sat down at the couch Rocky’s bed was beside. You turned on the TV to try and calm yourself down and distract you from your strange acting dog next to you. You logged into your dad’s Xbox 1, put on funimation, and watched Fairytail. It was the only show that always helped you calm down and feel better. After a few episodes, you went to put the controller away but found (Favorite Childhood Movie) instead! Immediately, you put it in the DVD player.

        An hour and a half later the movie finished, which was when you realized your brother and mom still weren’t home yet. Where is he? Your brother was definitely supposed to be home by now, since you realized it had already been over an hour past when you got home. You had the TV set loud, but still loud enough so you could hear his bus, and it usually came right in front of your house. Even if somehow you hadn’t heard him, your brother could still walk inside himself. Plus, he always slammed the door, so there was no reason you shouldn’t have heard him. He’s not home yet, but why? Is his bus late?

        Then, just like that, it was like a light bulb appeared in your mind. Mom must’ve had too many errands and decided to pick him up herself. That makes sense. But how long does it take to go to the grocery store? Like sheesh! The silence was starting to get too unnerving for you, and you wished for company. As if on cue, Rocky walked towards you and sat right in front of you, although there was something… different about him. Sighing, you scratched behind his ear, his favorite spot, for a few minutes, which he seemed to enjoy greatly.

        Suddenly, you got the strangest idea to practice your Taekwondo forms. There was an open field right next door with a hill that overlooked everything! You stopped scratching behind Rocky’s ear and ran up to your bedroom with, Rocky curiously following right behind you. You closed the door before he could get into your room and changed into just your black sports bra and another pair of black super baggy pants with a red outlining. It was impossible to do the moves with your feet not being able to slide, so you didn’t put any shoes on. You grabbed your bow staff with one hand, which was inches taller than your tiny form, and held it right next to you, comparing the height differences. Unfortunately, it only reminded you of how short you were. You grabbed your nunchucks with your other hand and walked towards the door, with the bow staff acting as a walking stick. You opened the door to find Rocky sitting before you, staring up at you in a trance.

        “Come on Rock, move out of the way.” You started walking forward, and it snapped him out of whatever daze he was in because he moved and started to walk behind you.

        You then went out the front door and locked it so Rocky couldn’t get out, which he almost did. You admired the beautiful day again, which was just as nice and clear as when you first arrived home. Why do I feel as if this is the last time I’ll ever see it? You ignored it because it just made the weather that much more beautiful. You absolutely loved nature. You finally focused on the task again and ran to the hill. Once you reached the hill you set your weapons down, deciding to do your non-weapon forms first. With one of your favorite orchestra songs, Dragon Dances, in your head, you started. You moved with the beat of the music in your head, letting your motions flow in fluidly. You showed more power and perfection when you started to feel the competitive stress of being watched intently, like judges at one of your competitions. You didn’t worry about this feeling because you had been used to it for so long, you merely played the song in your head a little louder as you continued practicing. 

        After about 30 minutes you returned home, only to discover that still no one had returned. Why isn’t anyone home yet? When Rocky noticed you were home his head shot up from his bed and stared at you. Before doing anything else you decided to go to your room to change. Rocky raced past you and entered your room before you even reached your bedroom door. He sat down in front of you and looked up with curious eyes. You glared. “Rocky, out. I don’t give a damn if you care or not, I need to change. It’s called privacy. Come on, out! Now!” He reluctantly obeyed, and you shut the door once he was back in the hallway.

        You changed back into the clothes you had on before, and felt another urge. This time it was to play your viola. You really enjoyed the practice time with your forms greater than most others. So, why not play as well? You  got out your viola, set up your instrument stand, and turned on your TV for background sound. You ran through all of your songs you had for your upcoming concert, and you surprised yourself by playing them fairly well. You barely messed up or missed something, even your vibrato was dead on. Now, it felt like you unlocked some weird talent hidden from you all this time. It felt great. You actually felt some pride now, and a strange sense of confidence that made you cheerful, still distracting you from the feelings of dread.

(Time skip to 7:00)

        It was already time for dinner but still no one was home, so you decided to make something yourself. You decided on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some Doritos on the side and a glass of fruit juice. You then sat in the living room and watched random shows that you like. Your nerves were almost going into overdrive with this perplexing feeling of something not being right. Rocky was making it worse by just sitting down in a corner watching you, not even a little excited about the food you had, which he would always beg for. What is wrong with everything today? Nothing is helping me to calm down. There’s gotta be something that’ll help!

        After eating, you turned the TV off and decided to try something more distracting. You went upstairs and finished your homework, took a shower where thankfully the watching feeling wasn’t there, dried your hair, put it back up, changed into a baggy black wolf shirt and big black fuzzy sweatpants, and headed back downstairs. Rocky kept trailing you the whole time, except in the shower when you literally had to push him out of the bathroom. Is he scared or something? Well I guess he is getting old. That might be affecting his mood.

        It was 9:00 when you turned the TV back on again, still trying to find as many distracting things as possible. Bob’s Burgers or the Cleveland Show should be on. Yes! Those should DEFINITELY help me to relax!!! You loved those shows. they were basically a better, funnier version of what you hear in high school. Seth MacFarlane’s stuff was pretty freaking HELLarious. You grinned happily and flipped to the desired channels, but instead of the ones you were expecting, there was only King of the Hill. You. Hated. That. Show. With all of your life. “WHAT!? AW COME ON, NO ONE LIKES THIS SHOW IT IS SO FREAKING DUMB!! DAMMIT!!!” After your little outburst, you immediately changed the channel. You groaned loudly, Rocky stared at you in amazement as you yelled, and now it seemed like he wanted to laugh his ass off if he could. You glared at him quickly and went to the freezer, grabbed a (Favorite Ice Cream Treat), and started eating it. You sat back down, and while flipping through the many channels, you thankfully found that South Park was on. You checked the ratings to make sure nothing extreme happened and continued watching.

     After the episode was done, you turned the TV off and went back upstairs, Rocky following you, remembering another way to relax. You knew the dangers, but being Friday and not a school night, you were allowed to stay up until midnight; you could do this if you wanted. You turned the TV and Xbox 360 on, found your Xbox controller, and finally pulled out the mother of all games, Skyrim. Skyrim is my favorite game! I could pull an all-nighter with this one! You grabbed and clutched your Skyrim symbol pendant you got for Christmas, and mentally squealed with delight. Rocky was in your room while all this happened, and watched you in bewilderment. You put the game in and waited for the loading screen. You pressed continue, and started playing.

(Time skip to midnight)

     After a few hours that went by fast, you noticed it was midnight, and unfortunately stopped your game. You just defeated Alduin and completed the main quest. But you needed music right now though. A giant frostbite spider had jumped down on your character in a ruin 30 minutes ago and scared the crap out of you, making you yelp and cower. You had closed your eyes, bunched up in a ball, and had quickly felt and pressed the pause button. You had to take a couple minute break before you had the courage to unpause the game and kick its ass. Then, still, you sat there shivering and had gotten as far away from the screen as possible. Rocky was there the whole three hours you were playing, seemingly fascinated with the game, or at least curious to what you were doing. He even gawked at you, shocked, after the spider incident, like he expected you to not fear something as stupid as video game spider. You told him to keep it a secret, obviously, and explained that you had no idea why the hell you were scared in the first place.

     “There’s just something about them that makes me freeze in my tracks. They’re so freaking creepy. This stays a secret, Rocky, OK?” He still sat there, seemingly conscientiously understanding. He is your dog after all, you can tell him anything, right?

        Turning the TV off, you went to your fan, put it on high, and turned off your lights. You climbed into bed, not bothering with blankets since it was too hot for you, and you always got warm too easily. You realized Rocky was still in your room, looking straight into your eyes. It was like he was willing you to go to sleep. You couldn’t take it anymore.

        “Rocky, go. Go on. Get!” He still wouldn’t move. “If you don’t get out of my room, then I can’t go to sleep. So go wait for Mom downstairs or something. Get!” You got up and went to shoo him out of your room, and he walked away and you made sure he went downstairs. You went to your bed, still queasy, and had one continuous thought before you shut your eyes, laying on your left side towards the open window.

        I have a bad feeling that something is going to happen tonight.