Talisman 01 - The Emerald Talisman

didn’t matter though. As soon as I closed my eyes, I saw his face; his beautiful eyes shining radiantly down at me, and felt the pull that melted my heart. I knew, no matter what I did, he was going to haunt me forever.

5 - FRUSTRATION
    M y eyes slowly opened and I strained to focus on the blurry surroundings. I recognized the place at once—I stood alone in the dark forest. What was I doing here again? I knew the creature was going to return and eat me like it wanted to and I had to get out of there, but my legs wouldn’t move. I turned before I heard the angry snarl. The noise came from just beyond the trees. Frozen in fear, I waited and watched. Evil green eyes appeared and stared out at me, with lips curled up to reveal teeth ready to rip me to shreds. I shied away but knew I couldn’t defend myself. I gasped when I recognized the face that bore daggers into me. It was Nicholas.
    I found myself sitting up in bed, drenched in sweat and screaming. I looked around the dimly lit room for the thing I feared, but the dark images floated away like a fine mist, and suddenly I couldn’t remember what it was I searched for. I flopped back onto my pillows and I rolled over shivering, afraid to close my eyes. The clock read 2:20 a.m. like it did the night before.
    The soft light of the full moon gently shone into my room and helped bring me to reality. My heart finally slowed as sleepiness clouded my mind.
    I’ll just close my eyes for a second.

    Something made a horrible buzzing noise. Feeling groggy, I opened my eyes to find the sun’s happy rays glaring throughout my room. Annoyed, I reached over, hit my alarm, and groaned. My body ached all over.
    Keeping very still, I wondered how I would make it to school today. Staying home seemed like a more logical choice, but I knew I’d go stir crazy waiting around at home all day.
    Once I got to school, I wished I’d gone with my first instinct. Even though only two days had passed since the accident, life at school had returned to normal. My rescue story was already yesterday’s news and everyone stopped living vicariously through me. Actually, they were starting to get annoyed at my disability and so was I.
    The girls played volleyball again, while I sat on the bleachers and watched during P.E. class. I tried to listen and take notes in History, but found myself daydreaming and tuned out Mr. Marshall’s monotone voice. When the bell rang to let us out of Chemistry, I packed up my things and gasped when I looked at my notes. I’d unconsciously doodled Nicholas’ name all over my paper. Quickly, I crumpled the evidence into a ball before Sam could see it.
    There goes turning over a new leaf.
    We waited until the crowd subsided before leaving the room—less people for me to accidentally run into. She took one look at my pathetic heavyhearted expression and furrowed her brow.
    “You’re not doing any better, are you?” she asked.
    I pouted up my lips and nodded my head.
    “I’m trying, but I can’t stop thinking about him,” I said, completely despondent.
    We headed across the lawn towards the cafeteria and Sam kept a slower pace. Since the accident, my appetite diminished to practically nothing and the thought of food made my stomach lurch.
    “I know, let’s go do something tonight,” Sam suggested cheerfully.
    “I can’t do much with these,” I said while lifting up my crutches.
    She sighed. “When do you get rid of them?”
    “The doctor said, depending on how I’m healing, I could try moving around without them on Monday, but he warned me not to overdo it.”
    “How does your ankle feel?”
    “Still tender,” I said, not wanting to reveal my heart felt a hundred times worse in comparison.
    “I can’t wait until you can walk again. It’s hard to cheer you up when you can’t go anywhere.”
    “Tell me about it,” I said with a sigh.
    “Hey, I know what we can do.”
    A mischievous smile spread across her face.
    “Oh no. What?”
    “How about going to the Boardwalk?” she said while raising her right eyebrow. “We could get you a wheel chair so you don’t have to wait in line.”
    I imagined how stupid I would look and rolled my eyes.
    “No,” I said, wrinkling my nose.
    Everyone knew the only reason locals hung out at the Boardwalk was to show off their current infatuations, which I didn’t have. And even if all the rides happened to be free, I did not want to be subjected to unbridled displays of affection.
    “There’s always