Angel Eyes by Briaunna Evanoff (the snowy day read aloud .txt) 📕

I woke up exhausted, though the feeling wasn't new to me. I had been having vivid dreams for months now, dreams where strange creatures attacked me, my friends, and everyone around me.
Now that summer was beginning and I'd moved out of the house to live on my own, I would have no more school or family distractions. It exhausted me to go to sleep wondering if the nightmares would continue, and unbearable to wake up feeling eyes on me when I woke up again. I thought I was going to lose my mind if I didn't get out of the house and do something. Completely bonkers.
Get a hold of yourself.

I thought as I swept my legs out of bed and sat up. It's nothing but your imagination. You're just freaking yourself out. You just need to get out of the house.

My eyes scanned the room out of habit now, though my logic told me there couldn't be anything there. Still, my intuition told me someone had been watching me and might still be here and I muttered a prayer against evil. I touched the cross necklace where it lay over my heart and hoped that my prayer wasn't necessary.
Lately, I'd begun to study the darker parts of religion, specifically the details and stories that most of society tended to either stay ignorant of or purposefully avoided. Originally, I'd done it out of boredom, but lately I had been making more and more strange finds. Because of my christian background, I was especially interested in anything to do with secrets of the Bible or stories from Old Testament times and to my satisfaction, there were many conspiracy theories and bizarre texts available to me on the internet. It seemed to me that the subjects I became increasingly interested in were ones that 'God-fearing' people didn't understand. Didn't even want to know about.
I often wondered about the term. What exactly did 'God-fearing' mean? Didn't it just mean respectful? His followers weren't afraid

of Him, right? The very idea made me want to laugh out loud, but something held me back.
Perhaps it was the feeling of an everwatchful presence in the corner of my bedroom, or the old bible stories of a jealous God who sent His wrath on those who rebelled against Him. Whatever the case, I found it an innapropriate thing to laugh about and corrected my trail of thought.
God was forgiving, beautiful and even fatherly, but I had also come to know that the most beautiful things in life often had less appealing sides to them as well.
Just like everything else, God had a bad side too. However patient He was, His patience wasn't something to be abused, especially by the masses. I thought about that for a minute, contemplating the disastrous events that dotted the history of mankind like an ugly, if not well-deserved rash. One had to walk through poison ivy to get its side-effects and the same theory had to apply to God, as far as I was concered.
People were just as at fault as God was, if not more. It wasn't God's fault for the choices people made, and because of justice, he had to make sure that consequences were carried out in order to maintain order in the world.
Deciding that I'd had too much serious thought for one morning, I put on my tennis shoes and headed out the door, but not before calling my best friend Kim. We were supposed to go shopping today to get furniture for my new place, but I wasn't feeling up for it at the moment. I was greeted by her voicemail.
"Hi, you've reached Kim..."
After I'd left a quick message, I picked up my music player and put on the headphones, turning the volume way up. As I left the driveway, I sped into a jog, thinking about the dream from the previous night.

***

I screamed, tears falling from my eyes as I ran through the wrecked city, terrorized citizens running away from the hell that was breaking loose all around them. Skyscrapers shook as jets lost control and explode into them, smoke spreading across the now black sky.
Someone was laughing. To my utter astonishment, someone was taking immense pleasure from this chaos and destruction. I didn't want to imagine what kind of monster would think any of this was funny.
I ran through the streets, determined. I was looking for my best friend Kim, and couldn't find her anywhere.
Oh God, please don't let her be up there.

In front of me was a burning building, exactly eighteen stories tall. The top six floors were completely on fire, the middle six floors had shattered windows, with people screaming inside and unable to leave. The bottom floors were untouched, with nothing to block the way of anyone who wanted to get inside...
And on top of the building stood a man, laughing hysterically, looking down at me as I watched in panic. He held a limp figure in his arms. A figure with short red hair, wearing a jean jacket... Kim

.
I cried out in rage, and jumped, momentum carrying me through the smoky air to the top of the building, where I landed. When I touched the roof of the building, everything was quiet. I could see nothing except the man.
He wore a black leather jacket and jeans and his short dark brown hair was done perfectly over his strong, yet somehow fine, features. I would have thought he was beautiful, except for his menacing smile and the scar on his neck. It stretched up to just under his jaw and down over the back of his shoulder where it vanished under his shirt.
I recognised him somehow, and spat at him, saying something full of acidic hate.
The man laughed, turning his back on me. I felt the urge to hurt him severely, but something held me back. I watched as he stepped to the edge of the building, smiled satisfactorily over his shoulder at my horrified expression and dropped Kim over the side of the building...

***

I shook my head, trying to clear the image from my mind. It was a disturbing dream, and I didn't enjoy replaying it.
After a while, I started to break a sweat. I didn't know how long I'd been running, only that I'd probably been going for at least an hour or two. I was just turning around to go back when I stopped dead in my tracks. Not twenty feet in front of me was the man of my dreams, and not in a good way. He was driving a black sportscar and he was stopped on my side of the road.
I resisted the urge to run away, but I couldn't move forward either. Then, from the way he looked at me, I realized I must've been glaring. He stared at me with such an intrigued look on his face, I felt disgusted.
"Excuse me, miss."He called, rolling down one of his car windows. "Do I know you?"
I didn't answer. His eyes were probing me, and I didn't like it. It almost seemed like he was amused about something, though I didn't care to guess what that might be.
It must have taken every ounce of willpower I had, but I turned and walked away, slowly at first, then breaking into a sprint without looking back. I wasn't going to explain myself to some stranger on the street, much less some creep who'd been in my nightmares. I was going home. Screw this.

***

I slammed the door shut to my apartment. My heart was pounding, but not from the excercise. Not because I was scared. No, the only emotion I could detect was anger. How dare he.

My mind raced. How dare he.

There was really no reason for me to be mad, though. It wasn't his fault I was having nightmares. Even with him in them. Sure, it was a weird coincidence, but that was all. Maybe I'd seen him before and hadn't realized it. Either way, it made me feel uncomfortable and unbelievably pissed off.
Before I could evaluate myself and my bizarre emotions, the doorbell rang and I nearly jumped out of my shoes as I was ripped from thought. I realized then that Kim probably hadn't heard my message yet and had come to take me shopping. Taking a moment to regain my composure, I stepped into the bathroom to splash some water on my face.
"Get a grip." I told myself. "It was only a dream."
The doorbell have an impatient ring and I called to let Kim know I was coming. Taking a deep breath, I walked to the front door, put on a smile and stepped out onto the front porch as I murmured and apology about taking so long.
"It's okay." A deep bass voice answered.
The immediate shock that coursed through me next was paralyzing and suddenly my throat went dry as I recognized the person standing in front of me. Lo and behold, the man from my nightmares was standing there.
On. My. Porch.

"Wait!" He said, blocking my path as I tried to get back inside. Realizing I couldn't get past him, I became infuriated.
"What do you want from me?" I yelled.
"Pardon?"
"You followed me home!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't think you would mind."
"What on earth would make you think this was okay?"
"You were glaring at me. I wanted to know why."
"You wanted to know why.." I said in disbelief, crossing my arms. "That's why you followed me?"
"Not exactly."
He held out his hand then and I flinched instinctively.
"It's okay." He reassured me. "It's yours."
I looked down and saw an earring there in his hand. Feeling my ears, I found that one of mine was missing and looked at him incredulously, feeling my anger ebb away.
"You followed me all the way home to return an earring?" To my embarrassment, I felt a blush spreading across my face.
"Kind of." He smiled then, making my heart beat so wildly it made me dizzy and confused.
What is wrong with me?

I thought to myself. Whatever this was, I wasn't sure how to respond to it. It was so new and sudden that it felt wrong somehow.
"Wow, you're good." I said, realizing what game was being played here. He laughed then, the most amazing laugh I'd ever heard and I swore at myself for being such an easy target.
"Well, it was worth a shot. My name is Miles." He said, holding out his hand.
"I'm Amy." I shook his hand, smiling. I found myself beginning to like this guy,