I was confused. I looked at my hand. The writing was still there… still intact, I may add.

“You don’t see the crazy Hebrew writing?” I asked her.

“N-no… not really,” she walked away, choosing other products to buy. “I thought you were learning Russian? You changed to Hebrew?”

“Nope. Some kid wrote it down on my hand yesterday.”

She turned to me, her hands hovering over a wrapped bread roll. Once she saw my poker face, she rolled her eyes. “Very plausible, Isabella.”

I bought some food and canned coffee, and left the canteen with Laura. We parted ways halfway through to the classroom. I took a brief experiment when I distributed the handouts to my classmates: I showed them the writing on my hand but no one seemed to see anything. It was a most peculiar incident. I wasn’t hallucinating, I was sure of it. I mean… I saw it before I took all those coffee.

After class, I rushed out of the classroom and bumped into a person as soon as I faced the length of the hallway.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered, still keeping my head down.

The person chuckled a hearty chuckle that I immediately recognized. “Isabella, it’s me.”

I looked up. Kaiden’s smile was the first thing I saw. I stepped back and his dark brown eyes looked at me amusingly. He laughed, making my heart beat even faster. He leaned towards me, gently tapping my nose.

“You’re blushing,” he wheezed. “Your little anxious heart is probably beating so fast, right now.”

“Not cool, Kaiden,” I told him, taking a deep breath in an attempt of calming myself down.

He chuckled. “I’ll make up for it.”

He grabbed my forearm and dargged me out of the building, heading for the set of stairs to the school fountain. On the way, I saw Professor Owens’ assistant standing alone in the empty hallway leading to the laboratories for the Biology department. She smiled at me and waved. I smiled and waved back as we walked past. Kaiden followed the direction I was waving at, an expression of unease slowly forming on his face.

He faced me. “You know her?” Kaiden asked, absent-mindedly squeezing my forearm.

I nodded. “He’s Professor Owens’ assistant. You know, my calculus professor.”

He stopped in his tracks, making me stop as well. He looked back at where the assistant was. He looked… confused. It was the most confused I’ve seen him.

“Something wrong?” I asked, instinctively raising my free hand to give him a comforting squeeze on the shoulder.

He shook his head, swatting my hand away. “I’ll tell you later,” he freed my forearm from his grasp and walked ahead. “Let’s go.”

Once we got seated in the café, I felt the effects of the caffeine start wear off. My eyelids got heavier and heavier and I fought the urge to sleep. Kaiden must have noticed this and asked if I got enough sleep last night.

I shook my head. “I didn’t want to dream again.”

He folded his arms on the table, concern evident on his face. “Why? Did you have a nightmare again?”

I looked down. “I saw a kid standing at the corner of my room. I couldn’t move or even scream,” I rubbed my hands together in an attempt to comfort myself, “I thought it was so real.”

“Is it the first time you dreamt of it?”

I held up two fingers with my left hand. “This one was just too scary.”

He suddenly grabbed my hand and traced the writings on it with his index finger. He looked even more confused. His thin arching eyebrows met and he curled his lips unconsciously. He was obviously in deep thought.

“What’s the translation?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, right…” he fidgeted on his seat, “It means ‘nightmare’ in Hebrew. It's... a spell of some sort.”

“Wait a second…” I removed my hand from his grasp. “How do you know all these things?”

“Oh,” he blinked several times before answering, “I know magic.”

Now, I wasn’t sure of my exact expression back then but I can only assume it was somewhere along the lines of ‘what-the-fudge!’. “I’m sorry,” I muttered, placing both my hands on the table, almost as if I was going to prop myself up, “Of the times that we talked and chatted over the phone, you failed to tell me ‘I can do magic!’”

He chuckled, amused by my reaction. “I guess it slipped my mind.”

“You know I love those kinds of things!” I flailed my arms around. “ How? When?”

“It actually runs in the family so… ever since I was young.”

I threw my arms upward. “What the hell!”

He laughed. “I’m sorry,” he managed a few chuckles before he stopped, “At least you know about it now.”

I pouted and crossed my arms over my chest. My expression softened and I looked at my hand again. “How do I remove the writing?”

“It’ll probably wear off after a day,” he sighed. “I’m getting worried, though. Would you want me to summon a familiar to protect you? Maybe just for tonight?”

“I would love that, actually.” I pouted, surprised at myself for believing him without question.

He nodded. “I’ll do that as soon as I get home.”

I nodded. I lifted up the menu but stopped short when I felt a throbbing pain on my chest. My breathing quickened and was shallow. The pain intensified; it felt as if my heart was being gripped tightly. I doubled over and fell to the floor. Kaiden suddenly stood and ran to my side.

“Isabella!” he exclaimed, aggressively shaking my shoulder.

“I think I need to-”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found myself hunched over a table in the library. Surprisingly, the library was empty, not even the staff was present. I stood and felt my chest tighten, forcing me to inhale and hold my breath.

“Probably just the coffee,” I muttered and exhaled sharply.

I walked around; my autopilot taking over. I knew it was the school library but I noticed subtle differences. The shelves were taller and fuller of books. The books looked more like binders, their contents were all handwritten. More importantly, the computer section of the library was gone. I walked back and forth, running my index finger over the exposed spines of the binders until I saw someone sitting at the spot I woke up in. It was almost as if she showed up out of nowhere.

“Hello…” I called out to her as I approached carefully.

She turned to me calmly and smiled. I couldn’t help but think her face looked familiar. “Come see me…” she muttered invitingly.

I felt my heart beat faster and my chest tightened once more. This time, it was more intense. My knees buckled and I fell to the ground, the woman’s voice still echoing at the back of my mind.

I opened my eyes and saw a glint of light flicker at the corner of my eye. I looked to my right and saw curtains. Am I in a hospital? I struggled to sit, feeling nausea kick in once I raised my head. I groaned and lay back down. Squeaking sound of shoes rubbing against the tiled floor approached my area and the curtains at the foot of my bed was partially drawn back. Kaiden peeked in and sighed in relief when he saw me awake.

“Good, you’re awake,” he walked to me, closed the curtains, and sat at the foot of my bed, “Isabella… what in hell happened back there?”

“It was probably the coffee…” I answered, my hand on my forehead.

“Coffee?” he frowned, “How many did you have?”

I groaned. “Uh… I don’t know, four or five? I had a couple of energy drinks as well.”

“What?!”

I looked down, guilty. “I didn’t want to sleep…”

“Isabella, you do know what’s wrong with that statement, right? You know what too much caffeine can do to your body.”

“I know, I know,” I sighed, “I just didn’t want to see that dream again.”

“You do know you have to cut back, or better yet, stop consuming caffeine, right?”

“That’s going to be difficult.”

“You have to,” he locked eyes with me as he leaned closer. “You don’t know how worried I was back then. I don’t even remember how the hell I got you here.”

I smiled and reached for his hand. “Thank you for being there for me,” I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’ll give up caffeine. Now wipe that worry off your face.”

I pinched his cheeks and he chuckled. He turned over his hand so he could grasp mine and gripped my hand tightly. “I’ll be fine once I get you out of here.”

After talking with the doctor (and a mini-speech about the importance of unwinding), we left the hospital and Kaiden accompanied me to the apartment.

“Are you sure you’re going to be fine?” he asked me.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him, “After a cuppa, I’ll go back to sleep.”

“Cup of…?” he looked at me with wide eyes as if waiting for me to say the correct answer.

“Co- water…” I muttered, my eyes darting left toright.

Kaiden rolled his eyes and chuckled. “It’s going to be fun watching you control yourself from the coffee demon. I bet you're going to drink coffee first thing in the morning.”