Finding Eden by Camilla Beavers Read Free Book Online

away.
With each step he takes I feel a pull, a tug on the invisible string,
and an odd compulsion to follow him surges through me. I stifle the
feeling and push it down, and as soon as I do I can't help but feel
elated that I'm finally being left alone. Triumphantly, I walk
through the doors out to the parking lot and go home.
    The next day I walk into
the school with a smile on my face.
    “ Someone looks
happy,” Evaughn comments, her aura shining a tranquil and happy
glow, hinting at the same elated feeling that I have at the moment.
    “ Very happy
indeed,” I say to her smiling, “I was finally able to get
rid of him.”
    “ Get rid of who?”
She asks.
    “ My living shadow,”
I say, then clarifying, “Sahariel.”
    “ Oh,” she
mouths.
    “ It's so nice not
to have someone following me around all the time. You have no idea.”
    “ I kind of liked
having him around,” she says with a shrug, her colors betraying
her dismay at the news.
    In my mind I try not to
agree with her and I sit down in my seat.
    I try to pay attention,
but my eyes keep wandering over to the empty seat next to me. I stare
at it wondering if he changed his whole schedule or if he's decided
to skip class entirely. I'm so distracted by the thoughts running
through my mind I don't hear the question the teacher asks me, brain
lady weeping at her ruined fields.
    “ Eden,” the
teacher says my name at the same time Evaughn kicks the back of my
seat.
    “ Hmm?” I
glance at the teacher and then realize she's just asked me a
question.
    “ Sorry,” my
eyes finally focus on my teacher, “could you repeat the
question please?”
    She does, and I'm unable
to answer it. I sigh. I don't want to be here. Looking at the teacher
neither does she. Damn geology.

Chapter
Seven
    I'm asleep and I'm
dreaming, and in my dream I'm falling. I'm falling so fast that I
can't make out the shapes that are whizzing past me. I don't know why
I'm falling. I didn't jump, I wasn't pushed, I just started out this
way; just falling way too fast. The worst part isn't that I'm
falling; it isn't even that I can't find anything to grab onto. The
worst part is, is that no one is there to catch me, not even
Sahariel. That's the most frightening part. I'm by myself.
    I don't know if I hit the
ground in my dream. I wake up panting and covered in sweat, my heart
pounding out a disjointed rhythm so loud it makes my ears hurt and my
mind race about whether I remembered my pill. I don't like this
dream. It frightens me too much.
    I started having this
dream a few days after I ordered Sahariel to stop following me. I've
had this dream every night since then. Every night for two weeks.
After I wake up from it, I can't go back to sleep. I'm too scared and
alone. I haven't slept that much and now I look like crap.
    The little red numbers on
the clock next to the bed mock me as they tell me the time. I swear I
can almost hear the electronic snickering as the numbers read three
in the morning loud and clear. After laying there for an hour longer,
I eventually give up and turn on the television.
    There's nothing on aside
from awkward workout videos and laughable infomercials.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times I cycle through the channels,
they don't change or get any better.
    It's official. I am now
an insomniac. I am so tired but I can't sleep. My body is plagued
with that awful falling feeling every time I close my eyes for more
than a few seconds and brain lady is still weeping.
    “ God,” I moan
and rub my face, “I hate this.”
    I don't know where the
hell this dream came from, but I wish it would go away.
    Return to sender.
    Do. Not. Want.
    Instead of lying in bed
all morning, I decide to get up and take a bath, and for the first
time in what seems like forever, I'm filling the tub with hot water
and adding bubble bath. I undress and step into the tub, and soon I'm
relaxing in sweet smelling bubbles and hot water.
    I spend the rest of the
morning in the tub, and when the