Chapter 14

Dreams

It starts with a thump. Just one. A thump that sends my fear buzzing tremendously throughout my body. I can feel it in my chest as my heart starts to increase its speed. My toes start to go numb just as my fingers curl into my palm, shrinking back. My eyes bulge out of their sockets, ready to pop. My stomach constricts and contrasts torturously, making me nauseous. My reaction to this one ongoing, darkening noise is absolutely ridiculous, since there isn't a thing that should cause my sudden discontent. There is absolutely nothing frightening about the situation that I am in, besides the fact that I am submerged in water, unable to move. An intense feeling settles at the pit of my stomach. That feeling that tells you to hide under your blanket so the monsters don't eat you. That feeling that tells you to run the hell away before your as dead as a doornail. That feeling is always right. Always. The thump sounds again, louder this time, making my body tremble. Again, a thunderous, bone chilling noise. It shakes the water as it comes closer to my fragile figure. Something tells me to stand my ground, to feel no fear. But I ignore that something, because right now I'm not worried about being brave, I'm worried about being sucked up into the giant black hole that seems to be hurtling towards me. It swallows me at once, flying me through its black passage ways encrusted with secrets. Suddenly I am no longer floating in the dark, but standing. Standing in a cramped, wooden room. The only light shining is in the center, circling a chair.

"Sit." Seethes a voice. And because of the shiver that ran down my spine as soon as I heard that voice, I sit. The circle light begins to move slowly, towards something that I hadn't noticed before. A daisy, planted delicately into the pot. It's yellow petals make me wince, for it is the only thing in the room that does not have some sort of shadow casted over it. Even the light is dim. I dip down, gently touching its soft skin, and all at once it begins to shrivel beneath my fingers. The roots turn black, the flower itself vanishing into thin air, and the light switches off. I hear the voice again, laughing maniacally into the air.

"Wrong!"

The music begins to play as the floors start to shift. The wooden boards beneath me rock back and forth, making me stumble. I walk backwards, tripping on something that no longer seems to be there. The floors tilt and I slide into another abyss.

"Help!" I hear a tiny voice sing

I snap my head towards the little girl. She hold a stuffed bunny, shivering as the wind picks up. She looks so small, delicate. I want nothing more than to reach out and snuggle her, reassure her that everything will be alright. All of a sudden, two white gloved hands snatch her. I start running as soon as I hear her squeal.

Colors swirl wildly around me as I run through the never ending hallway. I stretch out my arm, trying but failing desperately to grab the squirming little girl in the no names arms. Suddenly, I am being pushed my some unknown force into another doorway. I look around at my surroundings. In the corner sits a toilet, to the side is an empty bath tub, and right up against the wall to my right is a sink. I'm in a bathroom? The toilet flushes, making me jump. I get up, staring into the tub, completely forgetting why I'm here in the first place. The bath tub is filled with some kind of brown liquid, disgusting to the eye. The toilet is smeared in some kind of grime. And the sink seems to be the only clean thing in here. But then I look up at the mirror. I don't see myself. I don't see blond hair, blue eyes and a narrow nose. Instead, I see red, scaly skin, slits for eyes, and hair as black as the grim reaper's cloak. I jump back, tearing through the paper thin walls and into another room.

The pain starts at my toes, slow yet devious. I almost don't feel it at first. Like when you have a tickle on your nose. Your not really sure until it starts to grow. And that's exactly what it did. The problem was that I couldn't scratch it off, I could only scream until my throat was raw. I arch my back as it crawls up my spine, excruciatingly steady. It explores my body, looking for anything to crush and sever. And then the music picks up again. Carnival music, just as the laughter increases. Their laughing at me, at my pain. I don't know who they are, but I want them out of my head. I curl up in a small ball, tears now falling profusely from my eyes.

Minutes go by, hours, days maybe, before I starts to think. This is not real, it is just a dream. In my dreams, or shall I say nightmares, they don't end until the task is completed. And then my mind drifts to the girl. That poor little girl. She's the reason I'm here. She's my ticket out. I get up, ignoring the white hot fire coursing through my veins. I pull out a gun that I didn't know I had, shooting it at the wall repeatedly. The light streams through, and I can here the girls voice again. She screams, calling for me. I kicked down the wall, and the scenery changes once more. Concrete surrounds me, conceals me. I run down the concrete hallways, my mind set on one thing.

"Complet the task, end the dream. Complete the task, end the dream. Save the girl. Save the girl. Save the girl. Save the girl." I chant over and over again.

I turn the corner, stopping in my tracks as I see her wavy blonde hair. And then I notice that she's pointing at something in front of her, her lips part and a single tear rolls down her face. Petrified is the only word that can describe her expression. Petrified. She walks backwards, bumping her shoulders into my abdomen. She turns around and locks her arms around my waist.

"The monsters out to get me" she squeaks. I shake my head at her. "I won't let anything hap-"

What stops me is the deathly growl. I can feel my body vibrating as it steps closer. All I see is its eyes, black, filled with hunger and lust. Lust for my body between its razor sharp teeth, my blood seeping down its throat. And then I run like bloody hell. I carry the girl in my arms, trying to find something, anything that would get us away from that..that...monster. I swivel and swerve while the little girl's wails get louder. At some point I feel a sharp pain against my ankle, and I cry out just as the girl does. It scratched me. Now I'm tripping, stumbling through this maze.

I scream, sweat racing down my forehead, eyes as red as blood. I slam into the wall, the rock disintegrating as it comes in contact with my skin. I will save this girl. I will. I expect to keep falling. I expect to fall until we're swooped into another demonic room. But we don't. I don't. I hit something hard and give out a grunt. I set my head against the ground, feeling the girl slip out of my grasp.

"Mommy!" She squeals, making my eyes stifle open.

She skips into the embrace of her mother, giggling happily while she swings her in her arms. A smile slowly starts to spread across my face. I set my head back down onto the ground, closing my eyes as I realize something.

Task, completed.

»»

I gasp awake, hitting my head on the wood panel above me as I sit up. Tobias fidgets beneath me while I desperately try to catch my breath.

"Are you alright?" He asks groggily, rubbing his red eyes.

"Yeah, yeah..." I swallow hard

"Just a bad dream."

I've been having a lot of those lately. I suppose it's because of the sudden change. One minute I was happily engaged, in a loving relationship with Eric, the next I'm married. Except to Tobias. It almost isn't fair. It makes my head spin to think about what has become of my life. I'm in a mess, a cold blooded, heart throbbing, eye stinging mess, and there is no way in hell I'm getting out of this one.

Things have been tough with Tobias and I. Constant fights and outbursts. What did I expect though? None of this was going to be all la di da, were running from Nazis for Christ's sake. I can't help but notice the change in Tobias. It's like he's a wire, coiled up to the point where he's about to snap any second. We walk all day until dusk, then we find a place to sleep for the night. On good night's, we find a cave or even an empty warehouse, other wise we have to sleep on the cold, damp forest grounds.

It's the way he sleeps that makes me worried. Both arms securing me tightly against his chest, his jaw clenched as dreams, eyes fluttering open every minute to check if there are any approaching bystanders. He's on the edge of sanity, the only thing keeping him from tumbling off is me. It's hard to be his barricade, though. Sometimes he makes me so aggravated, the way he can talk to me like I'm a child, like I'm just the extra weight. I know he doesn't mean it though. Usually when we have one of those fights he ends up apologizing when I'm curled up against him and the moon is the only thing that stands out amongst the black sky. It's taken me this long to realize that were made for each other, and that I could never leave him even if I tried. He's my life preserver, the rope that pulls me from the bottom of a never ending abyss, the single star in a sky full of dark. I love him, and it's when we're tangled in each other, when his hands squeeze my bare shoulders and my lips kiss vehemently at his own, that I tell him that. I whisper it in his ear while he wraps my legs around his waist. I scream it to the world as he pounds against me. There's nothing that can separate us, not even the Nazis.

He rearanges the pile of hay beneath us while I bury my face in his neck.

"Try to go to sleep,"He whispers, tucking in a stray hair behind my ears

"I'm right here."

Those were the last words I heard from him that night. Those were the last words I ever heard from his lips. When we were pulled out of that abandoned barn by soldiers in green, when we were forced to our knees as the sun just began to peek through the rolling hills, he gave me a look. A look that said it all.

I'm sorry

Don't be afraid

I won't leave you

I love you

He looked beautiful that morning, with his hair tousled and eyes shining brightly. They held something which I didn't quite understand at the time, but I would learn to appreciate completely. They held a sense of peace, calm, dignity. And I admired him greatly for that. There was a yellow glow tracing around his broad figure as they held the gun to his temple. There was something tremendously magnificent about him that I hadn't seen until then, that even the soldiers themselves had noticed. And it was when we locked eyes that I saw him for what he truly was. He was God's gift, to me. Sent down from the heavens to save me. And I couldn't have been more grateful. And as the man pushed his finger against the trigger, as the burst of the gun reverberated through the air, as my husband and savior elegantly collapsed into the grass, all that could erupt from my eerily calm figure was a single tear.

The birds paused their singing, the forest ceased its natural hum, the entire earth seemed to grow silent and still, remembering, acknowledging, honoring the life of Tobias Eaton.