《The Girl Next Door》Part 25 - Iris
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Pierce had told me everything about Logan when he came back, and we had cake and I told him we'd talk more on Monday.
Today I felt like someone hit my head with a brick when I woke up and I still haven't gotten out of bed yet. The dog has been patiently waiting at the bottom of my bed and I feel really terrible for Jax, and that's my only motivation to get up. Since today is Saturday, I can take him on a walk to the park and I'll hopefully feel better once I can stand.
I toss the covers off my feet, gripping the edges of my bed as I pull myself up and lay my feet on the cold floor. I gather my breath and try to ignore the purple stars dotting the corners of my vision. After standing up, I let out a deep breath and lean against the wall to keep going forward. It doesn't work though, and I collapse onto the wood beneath me. Not only do the stars take over what I can see, but the feeling of heavy tacks weigh on me and I feel like ants are crawling over my tongue and down through my esophagus.
There's only one clear thought that crosses my mind — Something bad is going to happen.
When everything comes back into focus and I start becoming numb to the feeling, I force myself to stand up again and call for Jax. "How about w-we go to the p-park, huh bud?"
His ears perk up at the word "park" and he jumps off of my bed. After struggling through to get his leash, I leave the house.
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Although it had been a long walk to get there, I decide to check my grades. Once they load I see that I have two B's and gasp. I've never even had one before. How did my grades get so much worse in a single week?
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The worst part is that I don't actually care. I'm more surprised but I don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything. I feel just as productive and... I don't know, I guess other things matter more. Even though it's at least taken me all of high school to come to that conclusion, I feel like it's better to learn it now than never.
Something bad is going to happen.
I start to get a little dizzy after looking at my phone for too long while trying to walk my dog and eventually Jax starts bolting towards the creek, dragging me on my stomach head-first towards it. I yell for him to stop but he doesn't listen, and the next thing I know I'm pulled into the cold onto the sharp stones and I feel so heavy I can't move.
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"Hello, 911, what's your emergency?" a lady with a smooth voice answers, as if she's happy.
"Mom is on the floor, she got shot!" I cry, wiping my eyes with a sniffle. "Dad won't wake up and... And a robber is here! With a mask and red eyes."
"Alright sweety, take a deep breath for me okay? People are on their way. How old are you? Can you give me your address?"
After giving her the address I don't bother telling her my age. Everything's black and I'm scared someone is going to try to get me or the cops won't really come.
"Can you tell me more about the man?"
"He was tall," I try to remember. "And he had a gun. And he shot Mom!"
My dad comes running out suddenly, his eyes widening at my last statement as he shoves me out of his way to run outside. I start to cry more, and suddenly I can't hear anything around me. I just stand there and I cry. It's like I'm underwater, because that's how much clarity the woman's statement has. I want to stop the tears from falling but I can't.
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Underwater.
I can feel myself coughing under the water, but my eyelids are so heavy I can't open them. I keep trying to force myself up but more air is expelled from my lungs to the point where I start to panic because I can't see anything. I can feel that I might've hit my head but the feeling is so distant that I can't tell. I can hear my ears ringing and my own muffled screams fight to be heard. I just feel so heavy, and even in air I can handle this more than now.
It's not like I can't swim, and that's the frustrating thing. I know how to swim but I feel like someone is chaining me down to the rocks. By the time I can see the sunlight shining on the dirty water thrashing over me I still can't move, but then my vision starts to be clouded by black spots before developing another curtain over my eyes.
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Rise
Su Xue, a woman in her mid 20s, is struggling both in paying rent and finding her path in life. Her latest stint has her trying to become a popular League of Legends streamer, though to poor results. One day, she is interrupted in the middle of a livestream by a surprise visit from her landlady. She is informed that she will be having a new roommate. The landlady’s nephew, Lin Feng, a 18 year old boy who has just transferred over to Shanghai for his last year of high school.Though initially opposed to it, Su Xue reluctantly agrees to the arrangement. She learns that the two share a common interest—League of Legends—and that he’s really amazing at the game. Lin Feng also reveals to her he wishes to become the best professional League of Legends player in the world.The next day. Lin Feng attends his first day of school as a transfer student at High School 13. He meets Ouyang and Yang Fan, and the trio find a common passion in League of Legends. Lin Feng is then introduced to Ren Rou, the president of the esports club with a fiery personality, and Tang Bingyao, a quiet bookworm with a love for money and a surprising talent for the game.A little about Lin Feng’s past is revealed. He was a once pro player, the youngest in history and a contender for the best player in the world. Until the finals of the Season 1 World Championship. There, he lost to his arch-rival, an equally brilliant Korean youth. That was the peak of his career, and also the turning point in his life. He stepped down from his team and disappeared from competitive play altogether. Now, after a four year long hiatus, he aims to make a comebackOver the next couple of weeks, Lin Feng learns about the upcoming Shanghai 16 School Tournament, and that his school’s esports club had performed especially poorly the previous year. He agrees to coach the club’s team and help them win the first place trophy this year. And so, he starts the members of the club out on an intense training bootcamp.Meanwhile, the Season 5 League of Legends World Championship is taking place at around the same time. Tian Tian, one of Lin Feng’s former teammates and best friend, is on one of the Chinese teams playing at Worlds. After a poor showing, he is on the verge of a mental breakdown. Lin Feng witnesses everything in a viewing party with the esports club members and becomes worried.On the day of the Shanghai 16 School tournament, Lin Feng reunites with Tian Tian on the phone. He tells Tian Tian he’s going to return to the professional scene, that he’s making a new team and plans to invite him. But Tian Tian has to vow not to give up at Worlds and keep winning. Tian Tian agrees, and Lin Feng promises he’ll fight alongside him. Lin Feng then heads into his match with renewed resolve, to climb from the bottom all the way back to the top, and overcome the rival that defeated him so many years ago.
8 1136Phoenix's Requiem
Painfully shy and conflict-averse, Yun Ruoyan is a scion to a noble house only in name, a puppet embroiled in political machinations beyond her ken. At the tender age of eighteen, poisoned and at death’s door, she finds herself thrown out into the streets. Her relatives have all been executed, betrayed by her dear husband and her cousin. With her dying breath, she curses her own weakness and swears revenge.When Yun Ruoyan awakens once more, she is thirteen, transported five years into the past by the will of the heavens. Her death-defying experience has changed her: no longer is she the malleable creature she once was. But more questions await at every corner—what is the truth behind the birthmark that disfigures her appearance? What are the circumstances surrounding her mother’s mysterious death?Will the phoenix rise from the ashes, or will she fall once more in thrall to fate?
8 646Poison Physician Consort
Follow Bai Luochu on a journey back to the peak as she reincarnates into the body of an orphaned daughter of the former great general of the Cloud Water Nation.With the Three Great Immortal Sects in front of her, her mortal enemies who caused her death, how would she rise to the top again?With her astounding medical skills and ability to create heaven defying poison, Bai Luochu heals the crippled meridians of her new body and attracts the attention of all three princes of the Cloud Water Nation!
8 1749Rebirth of a Fashionista: This Life Is Soo Last Season
Cinderella went from rags to riches, but when you are already at the top, fate is more than happy to kick you down. A car accident kicks off Sheng Jiaoyang's reverse Cinderella story by trapping her soul in the body of a poor girl, leaving her to succumb to fate and wait for her Prince Charming to come to her rescue -- obviously not!Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, Sheng Jiaoyang forges her own way back up to the upper echelons of society, clearing obstacles, taking revenges, and bagging her handsome and rich childhood friend on the way.If you are tired of reading about poor damsel in distress waiting for a man to rescue her, and wants a female lead that can carry herself to the top, Rebirth of A Fashionista is the novel for you!
8 274The Attack of the Wastrel
Her rebirth gave her a second chance at life. She was back with a vengeance and wanted to make those that had harmed her pay. But to those that helped her, she wanted to repay them. Her evil stepmother? She would slowly pull out her claws, one by one. Her evil stepsister? She would crush her pride. She thought that by getting her revenge for her past life, she would be happy in this life. However, she never would have thought that danger would chance upon her time and time again. The hatred from her clan and whether their bloodline would continue to exist, lay solely on her shoulders. Luckily, on this thorny path, someone had always been protecting her. "Third Prince, have you ever regretted being with me?" That person laughed lightly and peered at her with a loving yet weary look, "As long as I am together with you, I have no regrets."
8 1461Demoness's Art of Vengeance
Jun Xiaomo, notoriously known as “Lady Demoness”, finds herself chained and bound in a dungeon. Her hard-earned cultivation has been completely crippled, and she has no means of escape. Qin Shanshan, a lady she used to called her “close friend”, mocks Jun Xiaomo, revealing that Jun Xiaomo had been used by the people around her. Even her lover, Qin Lingyu was one of the masterminds scheming against her. Jun Xiaomo watches her life flash before her eyes and realizes that she had indeed blindly placed her trust in people. Her naivety had led to her current predicament. Jun Xiaomo wanted to end it all. However, she is determined to deliver a swan song. Over the hundreds of days tormented in that very dungeon, Jun Xiaomo had painstakingly painted a complicated formation array with her own blood. With a determined look, Jun Xiaomo burns her life force to activate the array. Her sole intent? To bring with her as many schemers to the gates of hell as she could. The bright red light from thearray intensified, and the end was nigh.…or was it? Jun Xiaomo opens her eyes and finds herself alive again; time had rewound right back to when she was sixteen years of age, albeit only at the eighth level of Qi Cultivation. Armed with the knowledge and memories of her previous lifetime, Jun Xiaomo is determined to learn from her mistakes and bring retribution to those who so deserve…
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