Cherilyn awoke from yet another nightmare; she had several throughout the night. Each increasingly more intense then the other and all having to do with the Western Wood in one form or another and she was glad to see that the sun had finally rose. She got out of bed and pulled open the curtains to let the warm sun's warm light in and stood still with her eyes closed, bathing in the calming light. However, today even the morning's shining sun didn't seem to wash away her worries, nothing felt right since escaping that forest. She felt something was not right with her surroundings. Anxiously she inspected the area for anything that was out of place and noticed something lying upon her desk. As she approached the desk she felt uneasiness fill her heart. Atop the desk was a large yellow manila envelope with her name neatly scrawled across the front in a tight calligraphy script. She was certain that the envelope had not been there when she had last awoken from her nightmares and there was only one person who used such a fancy handwriting in the school, Headmistress Sophia, and this fact did not set easily upon Cherilyn's mind. She glanced around to see her small roommate was still soundly sleeping in her nightshirt with her blankets partly kicked off the bed. Cherilyn warily reached out to touch the envelope; the butterflies in her stomach escaping from their cage and were wreaking havoc on her nerves. She apprehensively licked her lips as she picked up the envelope by the corner when there was a light knocking at the door that caused her to jump and recoil from the paper. "Wh... who is it?" Cherilyn asked trying hard to hide her tension, her eyes unable to leave the letter. The bedroom door opened and Tanya quickly entered, "Cherilyn!!!" She exclaimed with such excitement that it forced Cherilyn to turn around and face her friend, "You will not believe what just happened." She was waving a large yellow envelope exactly like the one Cherilyn had just found, "I'm being transferred!" She rejoiced. Panic filled Cherilyn's eyes, she spun around, snatched up her envelope and tore it open in one swift movement. Inside she found a single piece of pink paper with her photo on the right hand corner and along the top of the page were the words 'Notice of Transfer to Western Wing'. "NOOOO!!!" Cherilyn screamed out and collapsed to the ground trembling. Cherilyn's roommate sat bolt up right at the sound and searched for what had awoken her. Tanya rushed to Cherilyn and dropped to the girl's side, "Cherilyn, are you alright?" She inquired anxiously, "What happened?" Shakily Cherilyn handed Tanya the notice with her face buried in her hand. Tanya only smiled at the page, "This is great. Maybe we can room together." She said unhesitatingly. "I... I don't belong... there..." Cherilyn quivered as her worst fears were coming true. She feared this day from the moment she realized she had feelings for Tanya. She knew that entering those woods marked her for sure, she could feel it on her skin and it made her feel filthy. Now she was being signalled out and set to the one place she didn't belong, the Western Wings. "There is nothing wrong with the West Wing." Tanya assured her friend, "Jenn and Kris are already there. It will be gre-" "No it won't!" Cherilyn snapped, cutting the girl off, "This is all your fault." Her voice rose to a point of hysteria as she clenched her arms around herself tightly. That was right, it was Tanya who wanted to be transferred and not her. She turned her angry eyes on Tanya, "If you had not gone running off into that damned forest then none of this would have happened. I don't want to leave here. I don't want to go to that place. The girls there are creepy and I don't belong there." "But..." Tanya stared at Cherilyn, bewildered by her friend's outburst. Cherilyn sharply stood to her feet, "Why can't you understand this?" She screamed hysterically, "Why do you always have to think about yourself? Why can't you think of me for once? What I want?" "I... I thought..." Tanya stammered, "I thought you... you wanted to be with everyone? Don't you want to be with me?" She inquired, crawling backwards on the ground to get out of range of her friend's fury. "Yes, but not there!" Cherilyn gestured violently out the window at the Western Dorms off in the distance, "And not with those girls!" She cried out, waving her hands madly about frantically, "They are sick and perverted crazy people that don't belong in the world." Tanya's brow knitted in disapproval of her friend's outburst, "Those girls are my friends." She declared softly, a fury burning lightly in the back of Tanya's mind. Tanya was one of the few from the Eastern dorms that treated the Western Dorm girls with any level of respect. She knew Cherilyn disliked the Western Dorm but this was the first she had heard her friend refer to those girls in such a hateful manner. Tanya abruptly sprung to her feet and glared at Cherilyn with anger filled eyes, "And I am one of them." She declared proudly, "If you think that my friends and I are sick and demented then I don't want to be around you anymore." She shouted then stormed out of the room. Cherilyn was taken back by Tanya's rage. Tanya had never shown any sign of anger before and now Cherilyn was watching as her friend was running away from her. "Tanya!?!" Cherilyn called out finally finding her legs and tried to chase after her friend to have the door slammed in her face. She punched at the door in frustration. Why did she always find herself having doors slammed in her face? Her roommate perched upon the edge of her bed, watching Cherilyn slid down the door in defeat, "You just can't win now can you?" The roommate said nonchalantly. "Shut up!!!" Cherilyn yelled and tossed a housecoat at the girl who dodged it gracefully by somersaulting backwards across her bed. "Don't go yelling at me." The girl said irately as she stood to her feet and walking over to pick up the notice off the ground, "You decided to go into those woods after her. You knew what you were getting into." She handed the paper over to Cherilyn, "Now you have to deal with the outcome." Cherilyn took the paper and let out a deep, disappointed sigh. ***** To be Continued . . .
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