I was on the bus when it happened- but I guess if you were looking at the technicalities of things, it started happening a few days prior. The dreams, that is- the ones that started all this.

Typically I had normal enough dreams; that is, ones about falling from great heights or losing all of your teeth. But just a few days ago, they started getting… disturbing.

The first one wasn't too bad, really. I was sitting in a room, the only light on me, the rest of the place shrouded in darkness. A face appeared from the darkness, one that seemed to be made of living rocks- a mass of grey, it began to speak.

"You have four days time. Say goodbye to your loved ones."

I woke up in a cold sweat that night at around 3am, and didn't go to sleep afterwards.

The night after that was even worse, but nothing I shouldn't have been able to handle.

I was in the room again, but this time there were two lights- the one above me, and one that was on a couple feet away, revealing someone who looked vaguely familiar, I just couldn't figure out why.

She looked to be around 18, with glowing purple eyes, wavy purple hair, and a suit that was black with purple streaks running down the sides of her arms and legs. I couldn't see her back, but it looked like it was cut backless, with rims of purple around each seam. She was staring straight at me, looking like she was sorry for something, though for the life of me I couldn't figure out what.

"You have three days left. Use it, Eve. You'll wish you had later."

I woke up much more gently this night, tears running down my face while I tried to figure out how I recognized her. I spent the rest of the day at home, feigning an illness so I could stay home from school. My friends were worried. I was too.

I went to sleep more apprehensively this time, making sure to stay away from anything horror-related and using a freshly dried blanket, in hopes of having better luck sleeping.

It didn't work.

I was, once again, in the room- but this time it was fully illuminated. I could see a row of mirrors on the wall furthest from me, and a door that looked like it was fairly old in the far right corner. The handle was coated in cobwebs.

There was someone else in the room with me this time, too, but it wasn't the girl from before. It was a boy that looked to be around my age, with brown hair and hazel eyes, looking at me with a worried expression.

"Two days, Eve. I wish we could give you longer, but Tony says you need to be here as soon as possible."

I stood up and walked over to him, but my arm passed straight through his body.

"You're not actually here right now. We managed to bring your dream body here while you're asleep, but nothing else."

I nodded, even though I didn't understand at all.

When my alarm went off, I almost cried as the room around me dissolved.

I turned it off, opting to stay home again and research dreams.

The only thing I got was remedies for insomnia, and ways to test if you're lucid dreaming or not.

I went to bed early that night, wanting to know as much as I could before the dreams stopped- after all, the people I had spoken to were counting down.

I was in the room again, and this time there was a team of people standing in front of me.

The girl from before, the boy from before, and a man made of rocks who could've been the face I saw the first night. Standing alongside them were a man wearing something that looked ridiculously patriotic, a woman with bright red hair in a leather catsuit, a man in what looked like a red and gold metal suit with no helmet, and a man with a quiver strapped to his back. The woman smiled and stepped closer to me.

"One day left, little one. Sometime tomorrow you're going to come here for real. Be ready."

I shot bolt upright as soon as she was done talking, breathing heavily and sweating into my bed sheets.

After I got my heart rate under control, I stumbled to the shower and turned it on the lowest setting before stepping in and relishing the coolness on my overheated body.

My mother made me go to school that day, saying that I'd missed too much and that I could sleep when I got home.

So now I'm on the bus, squished between the window and the man next to me, who had a suspicious-looking line of powder under his nose and deep circles around his eyes.

I figured I didn't look much better, seeing as I had gotten a grand total of 13 hours of sleep for the past 4 days.

We hit a speed bump, and as I felt myself be lifted off the seat slightly from the force of it, my chest pulsed- a deep, aching pulse, like someone had grabbed my heart itself and squeezed.

I gasped, my hand shooting to where it had started as the pain died down.

Then again, another pulse, this one seemingly coming from some part of me that was more deeply imbedded than my heart. I looked down to where my hand was clutching my chest, and it had started to glow a faint purple.

I began hyperventilating, and as I stood up and pushed past the man next to me it pulsed again, the glow visibly getting stronger. I stumbled down the aisle, more than once having to rest against a seat as my very core throbbed.

When I got to the front, the driver seemed to know what I wanted and he braked, opening the doors with a concerned look until he saw the glow of my chest from under my fingernails.

His jaw dropped, and I ignored his looks and just left the bus, making my way to the closest alley and sinking to the ground.

The pain was getting worse, and I removed my hand from my shirt, surprised to see small spots of blood where my fingernails had been piercing my skin.

There was one final pulse, a great surge of purple energy that ebbed from my chest and left my veins colored violet, my eyes burning with a power I had no control over.

I went completely blind for a second, the sounds around me fading away into a high-pitched buzzing, before that, too, died away, leaving me seemingly floating in a senseless expanse.

Don't worry guys, next chapter will have everyone in it! This is my first ever attempt at a serious fanfic, so please review!