“Astra?” A voice repeated.

I quickly snapped out of my daydream.

Looking around, I spotted 30 pairs of eyes watching me. I immediately felt my face burning.

“U-Uhm what?” I stuttered, my hands soggy with sweat.

“Never mind.” the teacher moved on from me. I must've been asked a question.

I dropped my chin to my chest, avoiding eye contact with anyone, my eyes focused on my book. After discreetly wiping my hands on my school jumper, I picked up my pen and began mindlessly doodling in my book. Various stars and planets rapidly filled the page without me realising.

I quietly put my pen down, folding my arms tightly, trying my best to focus. My eyes wandered around the room, but when I made eye contact with a girl, I swiftly looked down again. Her ocean blue eyes burned the top of my head as she stared. I kept my head down for the rest of the lesson, paranoid her eyes were still on me.

Finally, the bell rang and I had never got up faster. I packed my things, shoving my books into my bag and almost running out of the door, one strap of my bag over my shoulder.

As I got out, I slowed my pace, praying I wouldn't run into the girl again. I felt someone's presence beside me, and my heart dropped.

“Why are you walking so quickly?” a deep, familiar voice asked me.

I sighed, not realising I was holding my breath.

“I don't want to be late.” I lied, hiding the obvious panic in my face.

“Astra, it's hometime,” my brother, Sorin, replied in a cautious tone.

I looked at my watch, 3:30, he was right. I was so focused on that girl in English that I forgot it was the last lesson of the day.

Finally lifting my head, I glanced over my shoulder, expecting the girl to be there; thankfully, she wasn't.

When I got home, I took off my shoes and ran up the stairs to my bedroom. I got my laptop out of the drawer in my desk and sat on my bed. I had to find out more about this girl. I think her name was Amelia- so I typed her name everywhere possible, trying to find accounts. After an hour of trying to find her, I realised I had a brother. He is one of the most popular people in the school- he is bound to know her.

I jumped off of my bed and eagerly walked to his room. Before I even knocked on his door, he opened it, startled to see me outside. Without thinking, I immediately started talking, describing everything about this girl to him, and just as I expected, he knew her- Amelia Glaucous. After I had gotten all the information I needed, I traveled back to my room and began endlessly googling her name.

I glanced over at my clock. 19:11. I got so invested in Amelia that I didn't notice the time.

The plate of spaghetti my mum had brought up three hours ago was marinating on my desk, cold and untouched. My door creaked open.

“Astra,” my mum started, “you haven't eaten your dinner.”

My eyes dropped to my light grey carpet, focused on a small scrap of paper lodged in it.

“I forgot about it,” I replied to her, almost whispering

She sighed and dodged all the clothes on my floor, reaching for my plate.

“Please tidy your room,” she asked in a slightly demanding tone.

I closed my laptop. That's enough stalking for today, I thought. Respecting my mum's wishes, I began picking up things from my floor and putting them away. Although it wasn't exactly the neatest, I did what I could.

As soon as I had gotten changed, I slid into bed, my eyes heavy with tiredness. This whole week had been so overwhelming, especially today, so I was glad it was finally the weekend. When my head hit my pillow, I immediately fell into a deep sleep, completely unaware of what was happening around me.

My eyes jerked awake. My room was covered by a slight blur as I looked around cautiously. I glanced up at my ceiling only to see, in millions of different fonts and sizes, the exact number- 1911. The number was copied and pasted all over my room, like some sort of glitch. Everywhere I looked, it was there. I used my weak hands to slowly sit up in my bed, terrified of what was happening. My shaking hands made it difficult to find the light switch, so I got up, trying my best to run. It seemed as though the number appeared in every direction I turned. I dropped to my knees, clutching my eyes in fear.

I jolted upright, sweat rolling down my forehead and the hairs on my arms raised. It was just a nightmare, I thought to myself. Weirdly, I have been seeing this number everywhere recently. So often, I had started writing it mindlessly in my school books.

After that, I couldn't sleep, so I spent the rest of the night thinking about the numbers. Could it be a sign? Or was I just paranoid?

I must've fallen asleep eventually, because the last time I checked the time, it was 4:38, but I opened my eyes to it being 8:00 in the morning. I groaned and sank back into my bed, exhausted.

The number 1911 couldn't get out of my head. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see it, so I decided to go for a walk to attempt to clear my mind for at least an hour.

I slipped on my shoes and reached for the door. As it was the weekend, I didn't have any plans. My life consisted of only school; I never went out, mainly because I had no one to go out with, and all I did on the weekends was homework. Although others find it boring, I actually enjoyed it.

When I opened the door, a wave of relief flowed through me. I immediately felt the weight lift from my shoulders, and I took a deep breath as I stepped out of my house, silently closing the door behind me.

The slight wind blew my hair into my face as I trudged through the long grass in front of my house.

I always thought about how different my life would be if I was different, if I was like how most people are. If I could choose how my next life would be, it wouldn't be very different from how I am now, but different enough. Popularity wasn’t important to me, although the idea of at least three close friends with the same interests as me was comforting. Ones who I could go out with and have fun, and not be exhausted after having any kind of interaction with them. I wouldn't want to be shy and quiet like I am now, but not like one of those people who talk to everyone. Just enough so I'm not too anxious to talk to anyone, or answer basic questions.

I think I focused too much on school, but my mum told me it was impossible to be too focused. My biggest fear was getting bad grades, even though I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. My hobbies would only last for a while, and then I would never do them again. It was quite hard for me to stay with things, everything just got boring after a while, except for one thing- space. I was obsessed with space and all things related to the sky. Sunsets and sunrises were so fascinating and calming to me, they brought me a kind of peace I'd never felt before.

I looked up from my feet at a beautiful bridge, encased in vines and moss. It was like something straight out of a fairytale. I stopped to admire it for a few seconds, only to realise I probably looked weird gazing at a random bridge I see every day on the way to school, so I put my flushed face down again and continued to walk.

It wasn't long before the number drifted back into my thoughts. I don't think it ever left, I was just distracted. What did it actually mean? I thought it could be a password for something, or maybe a year, but nothing clicked in my brain. I had only started seeing the numbers a couple weeks ago, before that I had never seen them in my life. I looked at my phone. 17:00. I had to get home, my parents must be worried, and I had a lot of homework to do in such little time.

After that dream, they didn't stop coming. It had been two weeks since the first one, and I'd had one every single night after it. It got so bad they were keeping me up at night, distracting me from school and everything else. Those numbers were the only things on my mind. No matter how hard I tried to forget them or distract myself, they just kept coming back, and the dreams just kept getting worse.

After nearly a month of the dreams, I’d finally had enough. I did everything I could to work out what the numbers meant. I asked everyone in my family about them, did research, but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. I even spent hours studying what dreams meant, but still, nothing linked back to those four numbers. After finally realising I wasn't going to find out anything, I decided to give up.

All that had been able to distract me from everything at the moment was walking. It was a familiar environment so I knew where to go and where I was safe. Again, for at least the fourth time this week, I slipped my shoes on and left.

About halfway through my walk, I noticed something off. I unlocked my eyes from the gravel beneath me and glanced up. The house that had previously been for sale for as long as I could remember had been sold! I kept walking, but I slowed my pace a little bit, so I could delay the time it would take to get back home. I wondered who it had been sold to. It was a beautiful house, a cottage-like style, but big enough for at least four people. It was a bit overgrown in the front, but it had a lot of potential, and the back garden was connected to a huge field, overflowing with yards of sunflowers.

When I looked down at my phone, I realised I had lost track of time. Again. It was 6:00pm, and I had five pieces of homework due tomorrow. I was never going to get it finished in time, I thought to myself. I cupped my head into my hands. A few missing assignments couldn’t hurt, could it?

When I got home, I debated doing it all or not. I ended up starting one piece, but gave up halfway through due to the numbers filling my head, once again.

That night, I had a dream, but it wasn't the normal nightmare of the numbers again, it was different this time. It started off as me, i woke up in what seemed like a dark room. The ground below me was hard and stone cold, so cold it felt like it was burning me. I quickly struggled to my feet. Darkness surrounded me, and it was almost silent. Silent except for an extremely faint noise, almost like the sound of electricity. I was then startled by a girl standing beside me, who was trying to tell me something. Her mouth was moving rapidly, but no noise ever came out. She looked as though she was shouting, it was desperate; a cry for help. I leant in closer to try to catch any words, but her beautiful hazel eyes shifted to the emptiness behind me, and she froze. Suddenly a rush of heat ran through my body, I felt two scorching hands harshly grab my waist, forcing me to cry out, yet no sound followed. I was then rudely awoken by my alarm. I sat up in my bed, still half asleep while I wrote down every part of my dream in a notebook I kept on my bedside table. After the first week of the number dreams, I decided I was going to write down every dream I had in immense detail, even if it was the same one. I thought maybe I could look back on them and notice something. I didn't, but it was worth a try, and it might be useful later on in my life. I sighed as I got out of my warm bed. It was Monday again. At least I lived close to the school, so I didn't have to wake up extremely early, but I liked to wake up relatively early anyway, just in case, so I had time to get ready.