I awoke with the creepy-crawly sense I was being watched. The sight of a human perched on the end of my bed made my pulse jump in my throat, but then the figure shifted and I realised with a trembling sigh that it was Sarah, dressed in lime green pyjamas. Not some crazy reflection made of broken glass.
Sarah leaned forward. “You okay? Did I scare you?”
“What did you expect, waking me up like that?” I grumbled, running my hands over my face to brush away the cobwebs of sleep.
“Sorry,” she said, her tone unrepentant.
“I had the weirdest dream. It was me … but not me. Prettier. Except I don’t think she liked me very much.”
Sarah blinked. I opened my mouth to explain further and closed it again. The details of the dream were already starting to fade … although the expression on my reflection’s face stayed with me, as clear as Sarah’s perplexed scrunch of her forehead.
I glanced at the clock. It was just after seven am. “Why are you waking me?”
“I had to know. What happened with Dominic?”
“Nothing. Well, not like you mean.” I sat up, rubbing my eyes before explaining our encounter with my mask-wearing attacker.
“Oh, shut up. He thinks I’m an idiot, the way I fell on my butt.”
“Guys dig the whole damsel in distress thing,” she contradicted me. “It makes them feel all macho.”
“Well, it made me feel like an idiot.” I stretched. “And sore. If I could get my hands on the… I wonder what he wanted?”
“Given the mask, I’d guess to freak you out. Or maybe he was taking advantage of Halloween to wear a mask and steal people’s purses.” Her eyes widened. “He didn’t steal your purse, did he?”
“No. Just my dignity.”
“Shame. I was hoping you’d tell me Dominic stole your virtue.”
She squawked when Mister Monkey hit her in the face.