I was running in a field with grass so green and flowers as tall as trees. Giggles left my mouth as a boy called from behind. "I'm gonna catch up to you Addison!" That just made me run faster. My shoe hit a rock and Istarted falling, but Ididn't hit the ground. A leaf scooped me up and smiled as it passed me on to another flowers leaf. "No fair!"
His shout made me turn my head towards him. He was a child, dark hair was all I could make out. As I looked at his face, I realized I couldn't see it. I knew what he looked like, but at the same time, I didn't. I looked at my hands and saw that I was a child too. "This isn't right" I missed the next petal and started to plunge towards the ground. As I fell I watched the bright green grass split into a dark opening underneath me. Screams left my mouth, but never reached my ears. I looked to the boy as I fell. He was running, but not with joy, with fear. Darkness swept up behind him quickly and I tried to reach for him, but he was too far.
I lost sight of the boy as I fell down the dark deep hole. A light of purple came towards me, I could sense it yearned to hold me and keep me safe, but I was sucked down the hole. I stopped falling, and started floating in the black abyss. A small light came closer and closer tillI could just make out what it was. The boy, only he wasn't a boy anymore, he looked nearly twenty. I don't know how, but I just knew it was him. I could see him chained to a wall, his head hanging down so Icouldn't see his face.
Blood trails came from his neck, arms, and stomach. A blood curtailing scream left my mouth, and this time it reached my ears, but he still didn't move.
Sweat drenched me as I shot up in bed. My breathing came fast and hard, I needed more air. I fumbled for my glasses on my night stand. Once they were on my face I opened the drawer on my night stand and pulled my inhaler out. As I pushed the inhaler for the third time the air became less thick and I was able to breathe again.
My body was so exhausted I just lay back down in bed. My mind was racing, so I didn't sleep. Who was the boy? I had been dreaming of him since I was seven. He was hurt, and just thinking about that made my heart ache.
I rolled onto my side and looked at the clock. It was six thirty in the morning and I was supposed to be up in two hours for work and then after that I had to meet my mother to help her paint.
Everything in my new apartment was silent. As I got out of bed my footsteps echoed in the basically empty room. I trudged over to the shower, turned it on and let my body relax when I stepped in. The hot water ran through my fiery hair and down my porcelain skin. While I was washing the sweat from my earlier dream off of my body, all I could think about was his arms wrapping around my waist and his kisses on my neck. It had never happened, but I felt as if was happening right then.
I shook my head and the feeling went away. I finished up quickly and got out. The bathroom door had been open, so the mirror wasn't foggy when I looked into it. Taking in how the front of me looked was easy. My chest was more than decently sized and my curves weren't bad to look at. It was the back I was afraid to look at.
I turned around and pulled my hair over my shoulders. It was blonde once, but I had an urge to dye it red one day. The thoughts of my hair came to a halt when I saw my scarred back. I sported one long scar from my right shoulder to the bottom left of my back. Small scars scattered around the big one. They appeared after the first night I ever had the dream.
The story I told my mom effected her. She was listening intently and looked as if she believed me, but when I mentioned the purple light she held her breath. I could see tears in her eyes, but she coughed to cover it up and hugged me.
I never thought it was odd that she didn't take me to the hospital. I had scars that appeared all of a sudden one night, but I didn't seem physically damaged in any other way. There was no pain, no blood, just confusion.
All my clothes were in the suitcase at the end of my bed. It was winter outside so I grabbed a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt. I found one of my shoes by my bed but the other was missing. I walked around the apartment looking for the other one and finally found it beside the door. My bag and jacket were hung up in the hall. I slid my jacket on and pulled the straps of my bag on.
Snow covered the ground outside and was falling from the sky. I always loved the snow. It was pure white, innocent, beautiful. Footprints from all the other people led in every direction, but were slowly being covered up by the new falling powder.
Work was only a five minute walk from my place so it didn't bother me so much that I didn't have a car. My job was at an ice skating rink in the middle of town. I was the person who made sure everyone's skates were secure and the blade covers were off. That they had on appropriate clothing to be out there. It was Thursday, so the professional team was going to be there, so technically I was just showing up for the hours.
Normally when you open the door to work on a snowy day, you expect to be greeted by warmth, but it was the same tempature inside as it was outside. I walked in and immediately went back to the office where there was a heater to warm us up when we got too cold. My coworker Annabella was there. She worked behind the skate counter and sometimes the snack stand when she needed the extra hours. "Addison, your like an hour early."
Being this early wasn't necessarily new for me, but it didn't happen all the time. "I just wanted to get here early and make sure the coffee was ready and grab a snack before we have to get everything ready today." Before the skaters would come in, we would have to pull out the Zambonin and make sure the ice was fresh for them and have warm towels behind the counter for their feet and calves afterwards.
Anna got a happy look on her face a let out a sigh of relief. "It's Wednesday! I forgot. We basically just come in to make sure nothing goes missing and nobody gets hurt." She was right. I didn't know much about her, but I knew she lived alone with her younger brother. She was only seventeen, just two years younger than me, and she was raising him all on her own. I didn't know why, and I never pried.
She once came into the office and saw me in my tank top because some kid had spilt a drink on my sleeve. Anna never asked about my scars, and I knew she saw them from how her face looked. So I showed her the same respect about her personal life.
Work flew by fast. Anna and I made jokes and watched the skaters do insane tricks. Nobody got hurt, everybody went home and we clocked out.
When I got back to my apartment I changed into clothes that I wouldn't mind getting dirty and called my mom to pick me up.
About twenty minutes later there was a knock at my door. When I opened it I was greeted with the most beautiful smile. My mom was about five'six with beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. I always wished I had gotten her big blue eyes, but mine were a dark shade of green. "You ready?" I laughed and followed her out the door and we got into her car.
I looked out at the snow as she drove. That boy was still on my mind. He had been since I was seven. I could hear him whispering my name. The whispers turned into screams. I saw a man chained to a building his head leaned back as he screamed bloody murder. I squealed and threw my hand over my mouth. "What's wrong!?" My mother screamed. I blinked and he was gone.
What the hell was that!? "I thought I saw a cat run into the road." The lie just slipped off my tongue. I hadn't just seen that. I had to keep repeating that in my mind. He was never there. I just dozed off for a split second. It was just a dream.
My mother reached over and shoved my arm a little. "You know I already don't like the icy roads. Don't scare me like that." She didn't just hate the icy roads. She didn't like winter in general. The cold always put a fearful look in her eyes. I always thought it had something to do with her arthritis in her knee. As I got older though, I realized it wasn't just that. Something bad had to have happened when she was younger.