AN- So I realized belatedly that I didn't even put any characters for this story. I'm not usually so shortsighted. Thank you for the response for those that were able to find it.
She was in a large, grassy area. In the distance, she could make out the heads of trees.
Flowers of all kinds surrounded her. She was happy, at least as happy as she could be.
The sun shone brightly on her and made her skin appear as if it were glowing. Her feet were bare, but weren't grubby as expected.
The dress she wore was white and flowy. The material caressed her skin.
In an instant the dream changed. She was gagged and bound. Her body was dragged against a rocky surface. She felt each nick and scrape on her skin.
The rain fell heavily, soaking her through to the bone. She shivered violently, having never reacted to rain like this before. She had no idea how she was caught unaware as her senses were usually better than that, or at least they had been.
By the time she was loaded into a wagon, she knew her skin was completely raw. She felt the moment her shoulder dislocated as her captor certainly wasn't gentle in how they handled her.
Her body curled in on itself as she succumbed to the injuries her body incurred. Dimly in her unconscious, she relished in the destruction the storm was causing.
She was in the cave. There were voices she registered in the background, but she was unable to pick out a single one. With a groan, she pushed herself into a sitting position. At least she could see. It was better than not knowing. The ropes against her were too strong and would only cause more damage to her already fragile skin.
Her heightened senses forced her to pay better attention to her surroundings. With a start, she saw she was not alone. "You!" She screeched angrily.
"Yes, it is me." They replied. The face was blurry, but she saw the dark hair. "I didn't want to. But you've caused too much trouble."
The betrayal stung like no other. "Why?" She whispered hoarsely. Her throat was sore from lack of moisture.
"If it weren't for you, there would be no war." It was a bit of an exaggeration. The war was always on the horizon. Specific events only hastened the dawn of it. "With you out of the way, my family will live in peace."
She spit angrily forgetting all sense of propriety. "How… how could you think I wanted this?" She wasn't always what she was.
Their eyes dropped and she thought perhaps she saw some tears. "It doesn't matter what I think." They finally replied after some time passed.
"Why not?" Her curiosity burned as the defection began to hit her. "You clearly have free will and thought. Don't tell me you regret your actions?" Her tone was wry. She believed regret was an empty emotion. If you hadn't done something wrong in the first place, there was no need for it.
Violet eyes snapped in her direction and burned with some undetected emotion. "I had no choice. I lost so much. They promised if I helped, it would all be over."
"Then you are truly a fool." She turned her head away and refused to look. Eventually they took their leave and she was alone once again with only her thoughts for company.
She was aware there was no getting out of this one. She buried her head in her knees and cried tears for the situation they were all stuck in. There were no winners, for they had all lost.
Bella woke up, her heart pounding in her chest. It was the first time since the nightmares began that she dreamed of something other than blood. While the dream was no picnic in the park, it was much more pleasant than the ones that plagued her every night.
She at least knew more about the situation that led to the cave death. However, Bella still didn't understand why it was happening to her.
With a sigh, she rolled over to glance at her alarm clock. The LED lights blinked back 4:00 am. She groaned into her pillow. It was hard to fall back asleep after one of her dreams.
Her thoughts were consumed with the events she witnessed. She was never sure of when the dream occurred. It was unclear. She grabbed her dream diary from her bedside table and began to scribble about tonight's before she forgot it. She recorded every single detail of her dreams in the diary as a request from her therapist. They usually discussed it during her sessions. Her therapist loved to dissect it all.
Bella's eyes blinked wearily as she figured out what she was going to do now that sleep had been made impossible. Her eyes lingered on her unopened textbook.
Her homework fell to the wayside over the last few days, and she knew how much her professor enjoyed calling on students who didn't raise their hands. It was better caught knowing the answer than being unaware.
She released a breath as she gathered her blanket to wrap around herself. The chair was nice and comfy the way she liked it, and she flipped open the textbook and groaned. As her focus primarily related to anything prior to the enlightenment/colonization, she often became frustrated at the inability of her peers to stop believing in such stupid myths.
In her issues course on the Middle Ages, they were currently covering the war between mortals and Gods. She didn't believe in such rubbish, but amongst historians of the era, there was a general consensus of what occurred. Even her contemporary peers believed in it.
With a sigh of disappointment, she began to read.
In 800 A.D., the God of Creation married his wife. While she was born mortal, at their marriage he bestowed upon her the gifts of the earth. According to Vilhelm, a native of Scandinavia, she could cause the earth to shake with her anger, the clouds to rain with her tears, and the flowers to bloom with her happiness. Many historians are unsure of his origins as there is no official documentation of him except for his recorded histories about the war.
Vilhelm reported that the events of 1000 A.D. changed the relations between God and Man. Gods lived happily with mortals for well over a millennia until the kidnapping of the God of Creation's daughter. The Gods accused man of coveting that which was not theirs and war broke out.
Several battles were fought, which resulted in the deaths of thousands. Some historians estimate the count to be as high as millions. During the course of the war, Creation lost his wife. With his wife gone, he and man arranged a treaty in which the gods retreated to their own realm and man kept theirs. The two were no longer to associate with one another unless man found himself in great peril. Until that moment, the Gods have vanished seemingly into thin air.
Bella rolled her eyes in irritation. While it made for entertaining literature, she simply could not put stock into what amounted to a bunch of fairytales.
She slammed shut the book and tossed it to the floor. She would read about the battles at a later point in time. For now, she couldn't read without wanting to bash her head in. It was all so frustrating. In her opinion, people in the Middle Ages were probably bored while others were out fighting the crusades. They needed some entertainment and shared stories with each other. It sounded much more plausible, which was what she told her history teacher in high school. Of course that was after she called her an idiot.
It was probably best she got started on her morning routine anyways as Fridays were her longest days. Her first objective was to see to her garden.
Her flower garden flourished despite the poor weather the spring brought. She diligently worked as it was the only time her thoughts weren't consumed by her dreams. Her therapist asked her to find a relaxing hobby. It turned out she had a green thumb.
Alice often joked that as much time as she spent out there, she would turn green one day too. Bella would chuckle a bit before poking her tongue out.
Then she made breakfast for herself. Alice didn't appreciate her vegan habits. She often ate bacon just to irritate Bella, but she loved her roommate and her meat eating ways nonetheless.
As it was Friday, it was time for her bi-weekly appointment with her therapist. It was a stipulation to her parents paying for her college.
If only I could convince them I wasn't about to off myself. After the first week, Bella could no longer handle the twisted dreams. She attempted to kill herself, but her mother found her before any permanent damage could be done. Her wrists were wrapped and she was given a blood transfusion.
Then her parents placed her on a 48 hour suicide watch before shipping her off to the institution. It only made the nightmares worse as not only her screams pierced the nighttime air, but she could hear the screams of the other inhabitants of the facility.
She never truly wanted to die, but at this point they no longer believed her. She was stuck attending therapy until she was out from under her parents.
AN- I would love to hear your thoughts.
