I was running. My feet were flying behind me as I pushed myself further along the damp street. My eyes were closed, but I didn't need to open them. I wasn't going anywhere in particular.
The moon was so ashen, so bursting, but it only shown on me. Everything else was dark, except for I. My breath was frozen, but my body remained warm. How long was I running?
Suddenly, something soft touched my skin and I halted to a stop. I could feel something crawling, growing up my leg, like a spider clinging to her web. For the first time in my dream, I was afraid. I opened my eyes without hesitation, though my heart kept pounding in my ears.
"Stay here," A rough voice demanded in my head. I looked down to my feet to find vines clinging to my legs. Grunting, I tried to run, but I was stuck. "Where would you go? Who would go with you?"
Trying to fight my way out, I looked forward at the sound of feet walking. "Danny!" I gasped, reaching out to the boy at the end of the road. His smile was wide and we locked eyes for a moment. I begged him to help me. And the more I begged, the more he frowned.
Something was behind me, I knew that. He kept staring at it, and I wanted to turn around but by now, the vines were tight around my body and they kept growing.
I watched his face grow pale. His hands began to shake. My mouth was suddenly cold, and I couldn't choke out anything. Blinking away tears as the vines hugged around me tighter around my torso, I opened my eyes to find him gone.
I began to tug at the roots as more salty tears dripped down my face. "Where is everyone?" I shouted, glancing up at the moon. "Where is anybody?" The coldness in the air began to freeze my hands, they were beginning to be covered in ice. I didn't want to fight anymore... so I shut my eyes and endured it.
"Don't cry," I heard a small voice, weaker than the one before- different than it, but not so different. They were both calm, but one more so than the other. My tears suddenly stopped falling. I felt someone else's hands gently touch mine. Their cold fingers went sliding over mine. "Eden…" The voice whispered so close to my ear that I could feel their breath upon my neck. "Don't cry, Eden."
Their soothing hands grasped mine tightly. And although they were colder, the ice from mine began to melt away. Who was it? I didn't dare open my eyes.
The moon began to grow smaller. Darkness began to disappear into a serene fog. Again, my eyes weren't open, but I knew what was happening. "I want to be close to you," The voice cooed seductively in my ear. Even though it entranced me, I could hear the pain in the words in which he spoke. "But I can't. Is it wrong? To want to be close to you?"
"No," I choked out speedily. The voice began to sound familiar in my ears. I kept trying to open my eyes in the dream. I wanted to see this boy- this boy who I was dreaming of. "Don't leave. Please. Keep talking, just keep saying something."
I felt their fingers lazily trace my wrist and then move up to my hair. "Don't worry, Eden. I'll protect you."
My heart began to race. If someone would have said something like this, I had to know who it was. What if it wasn't someone I knew? I mean, my dream must be telling me something, right? If it wasn't someone I recognized, then I simply had to keep my eyes open for him in the future.
On the other hand, if it was someone I knew… Then I would have to watch out for them. Because, it seemed they would be watching out for me.
Biting on my lip, I snapped my eyes open.
There he was. Standing inches away from me. I blinked, and then blinked again, trying to see if the figure would disappear. He did not leave my sight.
His hair was twisting around the wind as it blew. It clung loosely to his white face that looked at me with indifference. Nothing that I had ever seen in my life could have been so beautiful.
But I hated thinking that this was the person who was speaking to me. I couldn't have been true; it was all just a dream. I shook my head, trying to wake up, trying so hard to tell myself that nothing was meant to see him in my dream, and that all of it was just an illusion.
The voice once more rang inside my head, but only this time, in my body as well. I could feel the words just crawling into my ears and into my brain, as though they were true and that they would always be true.
"I'll protect you, Eden Davis."
I woke up screaming, sweat dripping down my face and all across my body. I twitched and hugged my blankets closer to myself. Gazing out the window at the full moon, I couldn't help but notice it was just like the one in my dream.
The name of the boy in my dreams trickled onto my lips in a nervous breath.
"Jasper Hale."