In My Restless Dreams

Part Two:

I'm Yours, James

I awoke in an apartment on an old, smelly couch with my shoulder cold and caked in blood. I had been stitched up and bandaged and lying asleep for hours it seemed. I looked over and saw James with his head resting on his fists. I sat up, and he jerked his head my way. I winced at the faint pain in my shoulder and smiled at him.

"Hello, there... James," I said, reaching out to touch his face. "Heaven is a beautiful place, isn't is, honey?" I joked, laughing.

"Jamie... I found some first aid stuff... Obviously. How are you holding up?"

"I can't feel much of any pain anymore... Thanks, babe." James smiled, his eyes red, presumably from crying.

"I didn't know whether or not you'd wake up... You lost a lot of blood..." I smiled at him.

"It's no big deal... How long was I out?" I brushed my hair back with the hand that wasn't holding me up.

"Several hours... maybe... ten?" I was shocked. I froze, and I let myself fall back against the couch again. I expected my shoulder to release a wave of heated pain, but it never did. James touched on the bandages on my arm. "It doesn't hurt anymore, or something?"

"I thought it would, but it doesn't. I guess that's a good thing, eh?" I smiled, my eyes closed. In the darkness, I saw the image in the window shield of James' car of me, screaming in pleasure, and James, his eyes closed tightly and his mouth curled into a beautiful smile. The cool touch of James' hand against my cheek brought me floating back down to the beautiful reality God had gifted me with. James' lips touched mine, and we made out for a while. When he pulled back, I let go of his head, and he sat up and smiled at me.

"Feeling okay, still?" he asked caringly.

"Yeah, I'm better than okay!" I giggled, happy that I could enjoy such light-hearted conversation in such a horrible place. I looked up at James again, and he was staring at the wall, his face calm, his features accented well by the blu-ish glow of his flashlight that was attatched to his jacket. I smiled at his beauty, my mind racing with words to describe his virtues. Breaking the silence, I suggested,"Why don't you tell me about this place, I mean, what you know."

It took James a moment to adjust to where he really was, but when he had adjusted, he replied,"Oh, without you, this place is as close to Hell as it gets without dying. I'm beginning to wonder myself... There were these... things... 'monsters' I guess... they do all these horrible things... I'm sure you'll see some. You'll learn about how to fight them. It was a real hassle to get you here." James stopped for a moment and smiled kindly down at me. "It shows how much I love you, huh?" I couldn't believe him, but I had to. It was crazy enough. Besides, I had just had sex with a guy I've never met who's searching for his dead wife in a ghost town where it's always foggy and strangers get randomly stabbed in the shoulders... I think monsters are at a believable level right now.

"Did they... Are you... hurt?"

"Do I look hurt?" he asked, smiling lightly.

"No... you look like a perfect creature from a dream." I closed my eyes while I spoke, trying to summon that memory I loved so much again. My garudian angel carressed my forehead with one hand then lightly kissed it.

Getting up, James said,"If you think you're ready, we should probably get going. If we ever wanna get out of here..." I got up slowly and nodded. Heading for a closet, I imagined some nasty clothes hanging up, but I decided to check anyway... Yep. Nasty clothes... I looked over at the door next to the closet. Carefully, I opened it, unsure of what was on the other side. When I opened the door, I couldn't believe what I saw. Two pairs of shiny, plasticy legs glued together, standing there in the silence and darkness. My heart rose to my throat. The image before me was terrifying, but it was like a train wreck- it was horrible, but I just had to watch. It twitched now and then when I would breathe loudly. James noticed and took out a pistol.

Stepping lightly, he walked into the doorway and shot the thing twice. It fell to the ground, shrieking and twisting and jerking all over the floor. James ran up to it and kicked it, and it settled down, still... dead. I smiled at the bravery of my man. He did it so routinely as if it was as typical as a house spider, and he knew the method so well. He must've polished it in only hours, maybe minutes. These thoughts made me giggle, and James threw a surprised look at me.

"I'm glad to see you take it so lightly," he laughed. "Oh, you're amazing to me... Since I've been with you... I've laughed more than I ever have in my life! Even as a kid." James walked over to me, took my waist in his arm, and led me into the hallway of the apartment building, lined on only one side with doors. Once we were outside, James clicked a radio on. The minute he turned it on, it started crackling and making static sounds. He looked all around us for some reason, pointing his gun like a cop might do. I think we both looked the same way at the same time, and we saw a big man, probably seven feet tall and VERY muscular, standing behind the spikes to our right. He was wearing some kind of pyramid-shaped helmet and wielding a spear.

He turned to look at us, and James held onto my waist so tightly, I thought I was gunna pop. He bent down and whispered in my ear:

"He's the one who hurt you." I could feel the pain, the acid, the pure hate in his voice. I knew he wanted to kill the thing. He raised his gun and tried to shoot, but it did nothing to the big monster. I couldn't take it anymore, watching him stand there, wasting his bullets in a hopeless attempt at killing the invincible beast.

I tugged on James' hand, tears in my eyes. Seeing that the thing wasn't trying to hurt us, I walked the other direction. James pulled free and ran up to the bars, shooting again, tears in his eyes.

"Goddamn you," he muttered, quitting his fire. "What do you want with us?" I walked over to him as he dropped to his knees and put my hand on his back. He sat there in frustration and hate for the thing that had hurt me. He couldn't bare the thought of me being hurt or dying, and that's why he strived to kill the red pyramid thing before it ever had the chance to bring him those feelings and thoughts again.

A tear rolled off of my cheek and splashed onto James' back, seeping through his jacket and making a dark circle. He felt the pressure of the drop and looked up at me, worried.

Standing up, he said, "Please, don't. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I'm not afraid," I said. "I just love you so much, and... I wish you wouldn't act so wreckless..." James put his cold hand on my face and kissed me for a minute or two. James showed me this window he'd found that led into another building. He said he wanted to wait until I was with him to go through it. He talked all about these things he'd found and seen while looking for a place to rest me, and I was utterly fascinated.

When we were finished in the apartments, we had met a young man named Eddie, and we had seen a little girl with blond hair and a horrible attitude. She'd kicked a key out of James' hand and then stepped on it. His hand, I mean. The brat. Anyway, we were walking through an alley when we saw the girl sitting on a wall, reading a letter.

James asked her what she was doing here. She said she was Laura, but... she also asked, "Are you blind or somethin'?" Like I said... She's a brat. She ran off saying, "You didn't love Mary, anyway." This upset James a little. I comforted him, of course, and we continued on. We reached Rosewater Park, where James thought Mary might be.

When we got in the park, twilight was setting over the horizon, and James had been talking sweetly to me for an hour or so. He took me and set me under a tree.

Taking off his shirts and jacket, he said,"Mary and I used to love it here... I still don't think it's lost its charm... It brightens the... the monotony of the place."

I smiled as he layed down next to me, and I said,"I love it here, too." James took my head in one hand, leaned it towards him, and kissed me, his tongue, again, toying with mine. The milky twilight fell gently on the horizon as we sat under our tree, kissing each other, letting each other know there was more than the lonliness of the town in this life. The powdery white sun acted as a silvery halo across the town, and ashes began falling from the sky, making the whole scene that much more enchanting. James pulled me closer and nibbled my ear, making me giggle. I blushed and sucked on his neck.

"I'm yours, James," I told him as he slipped my clothes off again. This time, he was more gentle and less demanding, as if we would never age and had all the time in the world to savor the happiness we felt. He undressed, too. Lying next to me, he kissed my chest, making my heart race. He rolled over ontop of me, and we had sex until it was dark. He made me feel like a goddess. I felt like something special because I was his... "I'm yours, James..." I always will be...