Chapter One: A Vivid Nightmare

Friday September 3rd

I woke up in a cold sweat, the morning sun casting a blinding spotlight on my unprepared
eyes. “These dreams are getting worse” I mumbled to myself, stifling a yawn. I rolled my body
to face myself away from the window and grabbed my phone off my oak nightstand. Because of
the movement, my phone screen lit up, the brightness was set high, so it took my eyes a moment
to adjust. Once my vision was back to normal, I looked at the time, 7:38am, twenty-two minutes
until my alarm would be going off.
“No use in trying to go back to sleep now” I groaned, tossing off my purple comforter as
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed to sit up. My feet blindly found their way into the pink
bunny slippers that were a gift from my dad last Christmas. I would have loved them as a child,
I’m not the biggest fan of them now, however, I wear them every day since it shows he’s trying.
I stood up and stretched, wincing at the pain in my shoulders as I launched my arms above my
head and my legs as I lifted onto my toes. My body felt as if I had done an intense, full body,
workout last night even though I barely exercise as it is.
Early September in Spokane is essentially winter in the mornings then spring in the
afternoons, plus this early 1900’s house doesn’t hold heat very well so it should be no surprise
that I caught a chill. I made a beeline for my closet, grabbed the blue fuzzy robe from the door
hook, slipped it on as I began my journey downstairs to the kitchen.
I should probably introduce myself since you’re going to be dealing with my inner
monologue for the next X number of pages. My name is Aurora Grace, I’m twenty-one years of
age, and I’m currently in my junior year of college at Gonzaga University in Spokane,
Washington.
Just like every morning after a nightmare, I avoided looking into the mirror at the base of
the steps. I always look like I lived the experience, and I wasn’t in the mood to see how bad it
was this morning. I shuffled into the kitchen and passed my best friend Allie, who was perched
at the table, while grabbing a bowl from the cabinet.
“Another nightmare?” Allie asked, looking up from her laptop for a moment as I sat
down across from her.
“Is it that obvious?” I responded, grabbing the box of Lucky Charms, pouring some into
my bowl and adding milk.
“Only a little, but not as bad as most mornings when you’ve had one.”
“Anything interesting?” I mumbled over a bite of cereal and pointing towards her laptop
with my spoon.
“The news is saying that another body was found this morning in the bushes behind the
carousel” she pressed pause on her video to focus her attention on me.
“That makes what, four within the past three weeks? Do they think it might be the same
person doing this?”
“There isn’t definitive proof that it’s the same perpetrator, other than the bodies being all
found in bushes and a head wound.”
“They may not be considering this a serial killer, but I for one, am a cereal killer” I
laughed, setting my spoon in my now empty bowl as I stood up, still feeling hungry, and took my
dishes to the sink.
 I tend to have a huge appetite after a nightmare, probably due to the stress my body goes
through, it weirds me out.
Allie got up from her laptop, her wavy brown hair falling over her shoulders catching the
sunlight, pops of caramel color shining through. I stood entranced, watching her curvaceous
body as she made her way towards me.
“What?” she asked smiling, “you’re looking at me as if I’m your next meal.”
“Maybe you are, the cereal didn’t fill me as much as I would have liked.”
She laughed, melodious and thunderous at the same time. “If I didn’t know any better,”
she said, locking her eyes on mine and closing the distance between us, “I’d say you were
checking me out. Maybe even considering leaving Jeremy for me.”
I held my breath, being this close together made me very aware of my heartbeat as well
as our height difference. If I was into girls, I would have placed her on the counter so we could
have our way with each other.
She giggled and stepped away, “made you think about it, didn’t I?” She turned and
bounced out of the room before I could respond.
I shook out my thoughts and pulled my phone out of the robe’s pocket. 8:02am was
staring back at me, I needed to hurry and get ready for my classes. My stomach grumbled so I
snagged a granola bar to eat while heading back upstairs to shower. I leaned against the shower
wall, feeling the hot water rush over me as I rinsed out my hair and tried to grasp at details from
last night’s nightmare.
I’ve been having intense nightmares off and on since I was sixteen, they started the night
after my mother was murdered in our home in Everett, Washington. They always involve me
hunting down and murdering someone, I wake up feeling the adrenaline but can never remember
the details.
I shook my head in frustration, it was no use, the specifics were gone from my mind. I
stepped out of the shower, grabbing the purple towel off the rack to dry my body off, my arms
almost gave out as I threw my hair up in the towel. I took a deep breath and finally looked into
the mirror. My eyes had deep purple bags that resembled bruising as if I had been punched in the
face, my lower lip was swollen, possibly from biting it in my sleep and my usually pale skin was
looking extra ghostlike today.
I grabbed my concealer off the marble countertop and applied as many layers as needed
to hide the discoloration around my eyes. Once I was somewhat satisfied with my face, I brushed
my long white-blonde hair back into a high ponytail, the pink chunk on full display. Apparently,
one drunk night, I had one of my other roommates add pink to my hair. Jess is an aspiring
hairdresser, and whatever dye she used, did not want to come out of one spot on the underside of
my hair. I’ve come to accept that it’s now part of me, I’ve tried just about everything to get rid of
it, but the color just won’t fade.
I made my way back into my bedroom, checking the time on my phone again, 8:13am, I
had about seven minutes until Jeremy would arrive to pick me up. I hurried to my closet, pulled
on my blue “Ability Juice” band tee shirt, from Jess’s failed attempt at starting one, and grabbed
the first pair of jeans I could find in the pile of clothes on the closet floor After lacing up a pair of
black Converse and slipping on a black cardigan I grabbed my school things and made my way
downstairs to the front door where Jeremy was inside waiting for me.
“Niessie let me in,” he smiled, pulling me into his arms and planting a light peck on my
forehead. “Nightmare?” he then asked, while looking down at my face.
 “I thought I covered it up well,” I sighed turning my head away from him, “we can talk
about it later.”
He led me out the front door and down the steps towards his car, a matte black Jeep
Wrangler bought by his dad for his twenty-first birthday. Jeremy opened the passenger door for
me, once I was seated, he grabbed my right and kissed the back of it before shutting my door. He
walked around the front of the car to the driver’s side, his copper curls shimmering under the
sunlight, then we began our short drive to campus.
Jeremy and I have been together since our junior year of high school, our four-year
anniversary is coming up next month, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I remember having a
crush on him during our freshman and sophomore years, before he had his big growth spurt, the
summer before junior year, that took him from being five foot eight and slightly chubby to the
six-foot tall, muscle man he is today. Between the body changes, and the glow on his skin from
spending all summer on the lake, he had every girl melting in the palm of his hand, however
none of them could grab his attention.
We had only seen each other in passing at school before we both got nominated for
homecoming court. My mother’s murder occurred a month before school had started so my
nomination was the dead-mom pity vote, whereas his was because he was popular. We started
hanging out, going to movies, studying, keeping it friendly while also flirting like crazy with each
other. Since he was on the football team, I frequented the games, and the homecoming game was
no exception. Our team won, and with the excitement, Jeremy ran over to the sidelines right up
to the edge of the bleachers and waved me over to him. Once I was there, he grabbed both sides
of my face, and pulled me in for our first kiss.
“We’re here,” Jeremy announced, pulling me out of my daydream of the past, the five-
minute drive to campus is always so much shorter than I realize.
He pulled over and parked along the curb, hopped out of the car, and was opening my
door for me before I could even unbuckle.
“Why thank you, my good Sir!” I exclaimed, while not so gracefully exiting the car and
butt first onto the pavement. Jeremy swiftly got me up to my feet, holding on to me until we
were certain I was steady.
“Would the Lady like an escort to class?” He asked, extending his hand for me to take.
“I think that might be a good idea,” I giggled, linking my fingers with his, “otherwise I
might not make it there in one piece.”
He gently squeezed my hand in reassurance, then we wandered our way into the older
brick building. We stood outside the classroom door for a moment, just enjoying each other’s
presence, then he lifted my hand to his lips and gave it a gentle kiss.
“Be safe,” he stated, “don’t get any papercuts in weird places for me to take care of
later.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “Actually, on second thought, do it, and make sure it’s
on your butt.” He playfully smacked me on the ass to usher me in the door, then blew me a kiss
when I turned to look at him before settling in.
Class wasn’t all that eventful, being only the second day of the term, we’re still going
over syllabus details as new students from the waitlist were given a spot. Students have until the
fifth day of the term to add or drop classes, this class has the quickest turnaround for being added
then dropped. A lot of people drop this class once they realize our professor, who once worked
with Bill Nye, isn’t as cool as they assumed he would be.
New faces meant the syllabus was discussed every single day, so I’m not quite sure why I
didn’t just wait until the fourth day to show up. Maybe I just needed an excuse to get out of the
house. This is the only course I have left to take to graduate with a business degree. Leave it to
me to overachieve to be able to graduate junior year, while leaving my worst subject: science,
for me to take last.
Professor Jameston won’t even mention his time with Bill or do any fun science activities
like they do on the show. He is a very serious man, who won’t, in his words, ‘take any bullshit’
from anyone. Today was just him reading the syllabus, for the third time, very irritated by the
various questions he received about his time working with Bill Nye. I let myself zone out until
time was up and I could leave. Jeremy has multiple classes, so I usually walk home since it’s not
that far. I was full of excitement as I walked home, today was Friday, also known as brunch
night at our house.
We started this tradition last year, once we all were twenty-one, where every Friday, to
kick off the weekend, we make breakfast for dinner and drink ourselves silly with mimosas. Also
included in this tradition is Jeremy coming over later in the night to take care of my drunk self.
I walked in the front door and was bulldozed by the scent of French toast wafting through
the house from the kitchen. Allie and Jess don’t have class on Fridays so they usually get an
early start to setting everything up so that by the time Niessie and I get home, we can all get our
drink on. The smell lured me into the kitchen where Jess and Allie were working harmoniously
to get everything finished up.
“Rors! You’re home!” Jess called out, being the first one to spot me, “How was class?”
“It was fine, just more syllabus work for the benefit of the new students,” I replied, “it’ll
probably be like that on Monday as well.”
“People either love or hate professor Jameston” she added, flipping her punky purple hair
over her shoulder.
I mentioned she’s into cosmetology, right? She has a habit of changing up her hair color
about every few weeks or so.
“I really like this color on you,” I walked over to Jess, lifting the ends of her hair. “The
way you have if blend from dark at the roots to lighter purple at the ends is mesmerizing. It’s like
fire if fire was purple.”
Jess blushed; compliments are her love language so I give her them whenever I can.
“I’m home!” Niessie called out as she shut the front door. She dropped her bag on the
couch and strutted into the kitchen, taking a spot at the kitchen table.
“Don’t you two get too comfortable” Allie said, pointing her spatula at Niessie and I, “go
get your sweaters on so we can get started.” She shooed us off to our rooms.
Freshman year the four of us got assigned to the same pod style dorm room, and from the
first moment of meeting, we were all the best of friends. We’ve stayed roommates over the years,
and even though Jess no longer attends Gonzaga, she dropped out sophomore year, we still live
together. Let me get back on track, freshman year we decided to do a secret Santa exchange for
Christmas and somehow, we all got each other the same sweater, just in different colors. Now
we wear them for Friday night brunch.
I walked over to my closet, once I entered my room, and pulled out the light blue
pullover sweater that had been Allie’s gift to me. I slid the sweater over my head and exchanged
my jeans for a pair of legging shorts then hustled back down to the kitchen.
Niessie looked me over as I entered the room. “You look like you’ve lost some weight,”
she said, walking up to me and grabbing the hem of my sweater.
“You really think so?” I asked, looking down at myself, “I haven’t been able to start
working out yet.”
 “You’re practically swimming in this,” Jess added, walking around me looking me up
and down.
I turned around and walked to the mirror in the hallway at the base of our stairs. I gave
myself a once over, and sure enough, the sweater was very baggy on me.
The sweater had never been a snug fit, it was the perfect size when Allie gave it to me. I
had gained the “freshman fifteen” during the first few months of freshman year during a small
period in my life where I wasn’t having nightmares (AKA the best few months of my life) and
because of the course load I had, there was no time for me to hit the gym.
“Are you sure you haven’t been working out?” Allie asked, walking over with a look of
concern on her face.
“I’ve had zero time or energy for the gym,” I answered, “but I see the face you’re giving
me, and I promise I haven’t done anything harmful to myself to lose this weight.”
“Hey man, I’m just asking because your ass is also filling out those shorts in a good way,
seems you’ve been doing squats or something.” Allie stepped towards me, scanning my face,
“you look less tired than you did this morning- OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS?” She exclaimed.
“What is what?” I asked right as she moved her hand up and pressed down on my
shoulder, causing me to scream in pain.
“Okay, so that isn’t makeup.” She turned my body until I was facing the mirror again,
pulling the neck of my sweater down a little and revealing a fist sized bruise.
“It’s not what you think” I protested, as Jess and Niessie joined us in the hallway, my
scream piqued their curiosity and they had to see what was up.
“So, Jeremy isn’t putting his hands on you?” Niessie asked when she spotted the bruise.
“He would never, actually I fell on my way to class today so there’s a chance I could
have hit my shoulder in the process.” I did my best to put on a reassuring face, I’m pretty sure
none of them bought it, even though it was the truth, but they decided to drop it for now and we
all settled into the kitchen to start our evening.
We spent the next few hours gossiping, drinking, and eating more than we should have
and then found our way to the couch to continue more chit chat.
“Oh, did I tell you guys about the new trio of people I saw on campus today taking a
tour?” Niessie said as she excitedly bounced in her seat. “The guy was totally hot, and very much
my type, and the way he looked at me gave me the feeling I might be his type too.” She
pretended to tuck her hair behind her ear flirtatiously.
She’s been shaving her head since middle school when her best friend at the time was
diagnosed with terminal cancer, and they shaved their heads together. Her friend died not too
long after, so she just never stopped shaving her head.
“Oh Allie!” Niessie continued, “there was this girl in the group, you would be in love
with her after just one glance. Hell, I almost was.”
“Well,” Allie started, her icy blue eyes quickly darted in my direction then back to
Niessie, “if this situation I’m in doesn’t pan out, maybe I should track this girl down.”
“What was the third like?” Jess chimed in.
“Well, they were really cute in a mysterious quiet kind of way,” Niessie replied,
“definitely want to know more about them so hopefully, starting Monday, at least one of us has
them in a class.”
“Wait, how do you know they’re starting Monday?” Allie smirked, knowing Niessie had
done something sneaky, “all you said was that they were taking a tour.”
 “I may or may not have done some digging at the admissions office,” Niessie said
innocently, “and may have found their records to know they’re junior transfer students.”
I was about to ask for more details when we heard a knock at the door.
“Oh, that must be Jeremy!” I bounced up from my spot on the green velvet couch and
swung the front door open.
Before I could even say anything, someone grabbed me, turned me around and pulled me
to a hard body, the attacker covering my eyes and mouth in one smooth motion so I couldn’t see
or scream. Before I could begin to panic, the arms pushed me away and spun me around so I
could see them.
“Oh my god Jeremy!” I cried out, lightheartedly smacking his chest, “that was so mean!”
“I could’ve been the person running around killing people, and you just flung the door
open.” He looked at me sternly, “at least ask who it is next time.”
“Well fine, I just won’t let you in next time.” I laughed, sticking my tongue out at him,
and grabbing his wrist. “Have a good night, ladies!” I called into the living room before pulling
Jeremy into the house.
I had just begun leading him towards the stairs when Allie stepped in front of our path.
“Did you put your hands on her?” she asked Jeremy accusingly, crossing her arms over her chest
and casting a soul-piercing glare in his direction. “Rora has the biggest bruise on her shoulder
than I’ve ever seen in my life. I just want to be sure you’re not the one who gave it to her.”
Jeremy turned to look at me, I reluctantly pulled the collar of my sweater down to show
him the bruise. Concern washed over his face as he gently ran his thumb over the purple
discoloration on my skin. He then turned to Allie.
“I would never hurt Aurora; she means the world to me, and I love her too much to ever
do something like that.” Jeremy said sincerely.
Allie seemingly believed him, “Fair enough, but if you ever do hurt her, it’ll be the last
thing you ever do.” She turned and walked back to the living room, opening the path to my
room.
Jeremy chased me up the stairs, giving my butt a few lighthearted smacks, and into my
room, shutting the door behind us. He scooped me up in his arms and gently tossed me onto my
bed, I broke into a fit of drunken giggles when I landed. He laid down beside me and pulled the
comforter over us and slid me closer to him.
He kissed my forehead before asking “So, where did you really get that bruise?”
“I’ll tell you what I told Allie,” I said, looking into his eyes, “I’m pretty sure it happened
when I fell out of your Jeep today.”
“You do fall quite a bit, don’t you” Jeremy laughed, pulling me closer to him.
“I’m one of the clumsiest people I know,” I laughed, breathing in the scent of pine and
soap filled my nose as I dug my face into his chest.
“Are you ready for ‘The Princess Bride?’” he asked, after a few moments of us laying
there in each other’s arms.
“As you wish,” I replied, looking up to see him crack a smile as he rolled his eyes at my
joke.
We had our own Friday night tradition to go with the girl’s night, he comes over and
takes care of drunk me while we snuggle and watch a movie.
He grabbed the remote and turned on my Tv, after a few clicks the movie was started. At
some point before the Cliffs of Insanity, I drifted off to sleep in his arms. I was in my happy
place, safe and warm, and loved.
 Dumpster Diving
When I woke up it was still dark outside. Jeremy was sound asleep beside
me, snoring blissfully while I checked the time on my phone, it was almost two
am. I quietly slid myself out of bed and tiptoed to my closet. I dug through
the clothes pile and found a pair of black sweats, and a dark blue hoodie, I
put both on before slipping into and lacing up my black running shoes.
Stepping softly, I crept into the bathroom to make sure I got all my hair up
out of my face, then tucked it into a black fitted cap. I quickly dipped back
into my closet to grab the backpack I keep hidden on the top shelf. I was
ready to go, so I silently snuck out of the house.
Once I made it outside, I pulled a bottle of hand sanitizer out of the
backpack and covered my hands in it then opened a sealed package containing a
new pair of sterile gloves, careful to not tough the outside of them with my
fingers. I walked up Mission towards Hamilton then crossed the street, heading
towards the area of off campus housing that were known to be party houses. As
I got closer to the sound of partygoers, I began creeping in the shadows,
hiding behind trees and bushes to keep myself unnoticed. I was on the hunt and
didn’t want to be caught.
My heart was racing with excitement when I made it to my destination, a
big blue two-story house that was filled with strobing lights and college kids
drinking and smoking anything and everything. I planted myself in a set of
bushes along the side of the front yard, nobody had seen me, and it was the
perfect spot to sit and wait for a target.
After about fifteen minutes of sitting and listening to various
conversations, I heard a muffled scream from the side of the house. Nobody
else had heard it apparently, so I decided to investigate, bobbing, and
weaving through the bushes towards the scream, I found my mark. I took in the
scene in front of me; a short red headed girl pinned to the side of the house
by a guy almost two feet taller than her with his hand up her pink top, she
was struggling to try and break free.
I waited patiently, I didn’t want to alert everyone else by striking
too soon, but also didn’t want this poor girl to get too traumatized.
“Let me go, please,” she pleaded, fighting as hard as she could to get
out of his grasp.
“Don’t worry baby,” he laughed, “just relax and you might enjoy
yourself. I know I will.” He shoved her to the ground on her back, the impact
disorienting her long enough for him to unzip his jeans, part her knees and
kneel between her legs. He used one hand to keep her legs apart and began
lifting her short blue skirt with the other. He was about to make his move,
but I made mine first.
I pounced, shoving him off her with enough force he had rolled and
smacked his head on the side of the house. The girl saw her opportunity and
ran without even giving me a glance. My mistake was watching her run off to
make sure she was safe. Next thing I know, I’m on my back lying on the
ground. The jackass had gotten himself up and knocked me down.
“It could’ve been her,” he laughed, now climbing on top of me placing
his knees between mine. “I guess you’ll have to do.”
He grabbed the waistband of my sweats and started to pull them down, I
squeezed my legs together tightly and threw my body to the right. It caught
him off guard and he now was under me, and I was straddling his waist. I
pulled his arms down, using my knees to pin them. I smacked him across the
face before shoving his head to the side, pressing his face into the dirt with
as much pressure as I could.
He had started sobbing when I leaned down to whisper in his ear, “since
you don’t believe in consent, today is your lucky day. I’m going to kill
you, whether you want me to, or not.”
His sobbing started to become a scream but was cut short by me lifting
his head by his hair, and slamming it back onto the ground, effectively
knocking him out. I panicked for a moment, realizing I hadn’t double checked
for witnesses but with a quick scan of the area, there was nobody to be seen
and I was safe to drag his body to the back alley.
I propped his body up against the dumpster while I laid out and plastic
wrapping from a mattress that somebody had thrown away and found a heavy rock.
I made sure to keep a close eye on him in case he came to. Satisfied with my
project, I plopped his body on the plastic to prevent any blood from getting
on the ground. I knelt to the side of his head and held up the heavy rock, the
light from the lamppost giving me access to finally look at his face, or
rather the fuzzy blob where his face was, I was unable to make out distinct
features, could only see indents and shapes for his eyes and nose.
Before I could focus harder, the fuzziness around his eyes shifted, he
had opened them. I saw the outline where his mouth had begun to open, I
slammed the rock down hard on his face before a sound could escape him. I
smashed his face at least five times before he had gone fully limp and there
was no heartbeat to be found. I took a moment to catch my breath, looking
around at the mess his stupid head had made. There was brain matter floating
in the pool of blood on the plastic, which was kind of cool, but would be a
pain to clean up.
I started with the difficult task of heaving his lifeless body into the
dumpster, making sure no blood dripped on me or the ground I was able to get
him over the lip of the bin until he toppled inside amongst the rest of the
trash. I carefully gathered the plastic together, ensuring all the blood and
matter was in the middle and wouldn’t spill out, tied it up and tossed it in
with him. I then climbed up and straddled the edge of the dumpster, pulling
trash bags and carboard up over him to hide his body which would hopefully not
be discovered at least until after the trash pickup on Monday where he would
be crushed in the compactor.
I stood for a moment and admired my work, I normally don’t need a
reason to kill someone, but it felt good saving someone from something so
evil. I also don’t normally knock my victims out first, but loud-mouthed
party boys aren’t the easiest to kill while conscious.