Tess woke up abruptly. She got up and got ready for school. She had been lucky, no nightmares this time. She had been having the same nightmare over and over again for the past two weeks, ever since the incident at the library.

In it, she was watching Dr. Armitage die, only this time, he turned to her, writhing in pain, and say, “You could have saved me,” before thorns came from his mouth.

She always woke up after that. The dreams had been vivid and horrifying. She hadn't told anyone about them, not even Titus.

Her trip to school was uneventful. The number 13 bus grew a mouth and fanged teeth and managed to catch a squirrel crossing the street, but the mouth at least vanished afterward, although the head lights did eye her suspiciously. The circle of life at work, she guesse...

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