Night School

‘Allie, run!’


The scream came from ahead of her in the darkness. Allie didn’t know why anyone felt it necessary to say that – she was already running, and running as fast as she could. Her hair flew behind her, and although she couldn’t really see the trees clearly – she could just make out their shapes – she could feel the branches grabbing at her clothes; the twigs tearing her flesh. The forest floor was uneven and she knew that eventually she would lose her footing. You can’t run blindly in the dark through the woods. It’s impossible.

Suddenly just behind her she heard footsteps and felt the air move as if someone were right …

Hard fingers cut into the skin on her left shoulder and she cried out, swatting whoever it was with her hands, beating them away from her.

Then she heard a contemptuous laugh right behind her and, screaming, she was pulled off of her feet by hands she couldn’t see.



Allie sat bolt upright. For a short moment she had no idea where she was, and she scrambled into the far corner of the bed, her back to the wall and her arms wrapped around her knees protectively.

Then she remembered. Cimmeria. School.

That dream again. She’d been having it regularly for weeks. Each time she woke up sweating.

The room was still dark – the clock showed that it was just after twelve-thirty. She felt wide awake and anxious, and yet somehow still groggy, as if nothing were real.

She climbed out of bed, and leaned across the desk to look outside. The moon cast the world in an unearthly blue light. She clambered up onto the desktop and opened the window, feeling the cool breeze as she rested her chin on her arms and gazed out into the darkness. She listened to the night birds and breathed the fresh air in deeply. She loved that smell – pine needles and loamy soil – it was comforting.

Suddenly she heard footsteps … above her? Was that possible?

She strained to see what was above her window and could have sworn she saw the faintest shadow moving on the roof.

She sat still for a moment, listening, and thought she could hear, very faintly, a susurration of voices.

She closed the window, tested the latch to make sure it was secure then climbed back into bed. She was unconscious within minutes.





FOUR


Allie opened her eyes to find the room filled with light. In the hazy space between sleep and wakefulness she thought that, with its pure white walls and pristine white duvet, it looked like heaven.

She glanced at the alarm clock on the desk – six-thirty.

Had she ever been up this early in her life? Maybe for that trip to France with her family a few years ago, but never of her own volition. Never just for school.

She could hear voices in the hallway as she stretched and yawned. The room was cool with the fresh morning air.

She sat up straight and stared at the wide open window. Hadn’t she closed it last night? She could remember doing it but now it stood as far open as it had been when she’d sat in front of it during the night.

Maybe I just dreamed that I closed it.

She climbed out of bed muttering under her breath, ‘Get on with it, Allie.’ Pulling on her dressing gown and sliding on her slippers, she wrapped her shampoo and toothbrush in a towel and hurried down the hall, anxious about the shared bathroom scenario ahead.

In contrast to its echoing emptiness last night, the big room was now steamy and busy, but there was one free shower. Relieved it wasn’t one of those everybody-naked-in-a-brutal-concrete-cube shared showers, Allie pulled the curtain closed behind her and stepped in to find a private changing area in front of a spacious white shower cubicle. Both were spotless.

This wasn’t so bad, actually. There was plenty of space, a hook on which she could hang her robe and even a polished wooden bench where she could leave her slippers high and dry. In the hot spray she felt better almost immediately. Later, with her wet hair wrapped in a towel, she found a free sink to brush her teeth and didn’t really mind how busy it was. Swathed in a thick white robe like everybody else, nobody could tell she was the new girl.

Back in her room she quickly pulled on her uniform, combed her damp hair and applied a light sweep of mascara. Her hand hovered over the eyeliner … then she left it in the bag. This place seemed to have a different style than her school in London.