I gasped, my entire body trembling. I was up against Joe's chest and his arms were firmly wrapped around me. I felt scared, but I don't remember the dream or if there was any real reason I'm scared. There was a very dull light in the room, like the sun was just about to rise. I looked up, and saw Joe looking down at me. His expression was soft and tired. He tiled his head. "Are you okay?"
I nodded, looking back at his chest; my hands were balled into fists holding his shirt. I couldn't bring myself to let go of him, I literally couldn't unclench my hands. I looked back up at him, and his eyebrows turned up. He spoke again, "You were crying. I figured it was just a bad dream, are you okay?"
I nodded, and put an effort into letting one hand move up towards my face and wipe away old tears. I took a deep breath before I spoke. "I've been having nightmares. And they come true each time." I felt my cheeks warm as I said it. "It sounds crazy, but I dreamt everything that's happened, before it happened. And I don't know why."
He nodded, and brushed hair away from my face. "What did you dream of?" The gentleness of his touch made me want to remember, no matter how scary that dream may have been.
"I can't remember this one." I breathed, and rested my head on the pillow again. "What time is it?" He shrugged, and smiled. "Why are you smiling, Hardy?"
"Nothing. Get back to bed, the sun isn't even up yet." He closed his tired eyes and moved his hand from my hair to my shoulder. I scooted closer against him, and fell asleep once again.
I was sitting in a cell, like the one Joe was in. It was bright white with the exception of blood against the wall; sliding down until there was a body slumped on the ground. It was Frank's bloody body, a still bleeding stab wound in his stomach. Amber was leaning close to his ear, and her whisper was as loud as someone screaming, "Trust gets you nowhere, Frank."
It was like the lights in the room flashed on and off, and suddenly there wasn't any blood, and Frank was leaning against the wall. Amber was standing slouched, looking beat up. "We need to get out of here."
Frank nodded. "I didn't know you were working as an agent."
Her smile was dull. "ATAC sent multiple agents out in this area. I guess they didn't expect us all to meet in some unlikely place. In a cell underground."
ATAC? She doesn't work for ATAC, she works for WARD. She's lying to him. I wonder if he can tell. He's a smart guy, he has to be able to tell she's a liar. I screamed she's a liar, but no wound came from my mouth.
There was another flicker, only it was a flash of his bloody body and her holding a knife. The scene changed in a blink of an eye back to the relaxed, blood free setting. Frank looked at Amber.
"How unlikely two different agents would end up in the same cell." He said to her. Her dull smile faded.
"How did you know?" She asked.
"I wasn't with my brother. WARD and ATAC; sure to be a fight to the death. Just what they wanted." He said, his voice turning to a dangerous tone. She glared at him, and then the lights were turning on and off and on and off; I was only able to see small flashes of their actions like when you're moving around in strobe lights.
She jumped at Frank; Frank was on top of her. His arm was moving down like he was going to punch her, she had his throat. They were standing up again and Frank was punching her. She pressed him against a wall, he hit her mouth his his head. He had her pinned against the wall, her lip bleeding.
The lights began flashing so fast, it disoriented me. I covered my eyes; there were so many noises it started to hurt my head. Then I felt a terrible pain in my side. The lights stopped flashing, there was no more noise. I was looking down at a knife in my skin. I looked up at the person who did this, and the room was empty. I took hold of the handle and eased it out.
"Trust gets you nowhere, Nancy." It was Frank's voice.
"No no no no." I woke up saying that, looking right up at Joe and waking him up. "No, no, no, no, no." I sat up, making him let go of me. "No." I got right out of bed, and pulled at my hair. "No, no, no, no. No!" I screamed and left the room. Frank wouldn't do that, he would never do that.
"No!" I screamed one last time, and fell over. Joe sat on his knees in front of me.
"Nancy, what happened?"
"Every dream has come true, I don't know what to think of this one. It's messing with my head, Joe!"
He put his hands up, and slowly placed them on my shoulders. "Tell me all of your dreams. Just give me the details, we'll work this out. Okay?"
So, I found some food in the cabinets and prepared breakfast with the help of Joe until I decided he smelled too gross to work around food. As he took a shower, I brewed some coffee. I set out the breakfast at the island counter, and sat in front of my meal. Joe walked out of the bathroom wearing some new clothes.
"Found some nice clothes." He grinned. "Last people who rented this forget some stuff here." Plain and simple; a white button up shirt and a pair of jeans. He sat beside me and took a sip of coffee. He smiled at the flavor, and gestured at me to start talking.
So, I explained to him every dream I had and every event that followed it.
He seemed sad when I started talking about Frank stabbing me, but took a slow sip of coffee and furrowed his eyebrows together. He started drawing a little flow chart on my notebook paper and pen from my bag. He looked it over and over and over again.
"Wait." He said, slowly tracing the pen over a line with a dead end. "When you dreamt of me…"
I looked at the chart and shrugged.
"Nancy. When you dreamt of me, you dreamt you were in the cell with me." He sighed and then pushed the chart in front of me, moving my empty plate away. "Your dreams were dead on in the beginning. They were deathly accurate, down to the words that were said. And then when you dreamt of me, the accuracy fell."
"When you dreamt of me," He said, "You were in the cell with me. And I didn't notice you for a while, I was screaming and pacing. And that did happen, but there was a slip in the accuracy. It changed to scare you. It was supposed to confuse you, and it did. And with this one, you were very involved in it. There was a light show, there was gruesome effects meant to scare you. Whatever you're experiencing, it's supposed to disorient you."
"Disorient me?" I repeated.
He nodded. "What if it's Jaclyn? She could be doing this, causing hallucinations to scare you. She could be trying to alter your actions to get this response out of you. I don't know how she's gotten some details in before happened…but, it has to be her. It makes sense, right?"
"It makes sense." I said slowly. "But Frank-"
"He won't do that. He never would." Joe interrupted.
"But what if-"
"Stop." He said. "Don't even assume for one second Frank would do that. He's my brother, I know him."
I nodded. "I trust you."
I then heard someone whisper in my ear, a strangely familiar female voice. It sounded sexy and dangerous. "Trust gets you nowhere, Nancy." I screamed and covered my ears, and froze. Unlike when I heard someone scream 'wake up' in my ear, this voice came back. I heard it despite my ears being covered.
"Are you scared?" It laughed. "You should be scared. I can hear everything."
I breathed heavily, trying to cover my ears even more. "Go away." I said.
"I'm in your head." She drew out the last word, almost singing it. She laughed, and as she laughed what she just said repeated over and over again in different levels of volume.
I looked over Joe's shoulder, and saw a shadow of someone. I couldn't make out features; the sun was rising and she was backlit. I knew it was a girl, because I was hearing her voice. She's in the house, oh my god.
"Joe she's in the house!" I screamed. He looked over his shoulder and back at me.
"Nancy no one is in here." He said. "We're the only ones in here." His voice was slightly panicked.
I heard her voice again, and it was in the house, not in my ear. "Look behind you." I turned around, and I saw someone with a gun pointed right at my head. I jumped back, terrified by the events that just unrolled in the last few minutes. I fell back into Joe, the chair I was in falling over.
I tried to collect myself again, evening out my breathing.
"Nancy, what's wrong?" Joe asked me. "There isn't anyone in here, you're acting like a maniac."
"No there's someone with a gun." My voice was quiet. The person I couldn't quite make out the details of pulled the trigger. I heard a terribly loud gunshot, and it was aimed right at my head. I didn't feel any pain, but I covered my ears and started shaking.
"You're going crazy." I heard the voice again. "Crazy." The voice went sing song again, and it repeated over and over and over again. My senses dulled. I know I screamed something, but I just felt the syllables leaving my lips. I could hardly hear myself over the sound of the voice. "Get out of my head!"
I hardly heard Joe apologize, and I felt a weird pinching sensation on my neck. Everything blurred, and then went black.
