Chapter Twenty-six

Abby woke up in an agitated state. She could vaguely remember the dream. She could not remember the details –not exactly. But it had included her running away from an invisible enemy.

Her heart was still hammering away. She felt unsettled, why was her heart clinging to the back of her throat? She remembered having awful nightmares but she never woke up in this sort of state. What was going on?

She tried moving her limbs but for some strange reason they would not move. She tried moving her head or opening her mouth to talk but it felt like someone had dislocated her nerve endings, the messages her brain was sending to her arms and legs was not clear enough to bring forth a response. Abby felt helpless.

All she saw was darkness. And when she opened her eyes she saw dark bare branches; the sky overhead was dark and gloomy.

Abby's hearing went from hearing the distant rumbling of a storm, rustling of dead leaves and the faint eerie sounds of winds picking up speed to hearing….nothing.

Abby's eyes opened wide but that did not aid her hearing, her vision was muddy –suiting the muddy colors of the bare forest- and her movements were clumsy.

It was like trying to move with a bad fever. Like you were trying to pull yourself out of quick sand. Walking through a murky swamp.

Only Abby wasn't moving. It seemed that the only thing that moved was her vision. She'd feel that she was getting up as her vision showed a higher perspective of the forest –this would happen for a few seconds then her vision sinks slowly towards her lying body.

Am I dead? Abby wondered. Was this what it is like to be dead?

No. The dream. Who was chasing her?

Abby attempted to climb to her feet. Another unsuccessful attempt, as she felt herself being drawn back to her body, the skies were illuminated by a lightning flash and the thunder that followed seemed to have the capacity of stopping her still-beating heart.

The sounds of the storm followed quickly, and the muddy colors of her surroundings lifted as if some invisible camera filter was discarded.

With the arrival of her senses, Abby felt herself able to climb to her feet. As she did, another lightning flash illuminated the landscape. The roar of tumbling thunder followed and then the wind almost blew her off her feet.

Abby gasped. She tried to reconfigure her bearings, where was she? What was she doing in this forest? Why was she alone?

Abby heard the cracking and groaning of tree bark as the wind unmercifully turned it's force upon it. Another clang of branches was heard when –at the same moment- Abby felt something rough and cold touch her bare shoulder.

Abby spun and with another dizzying flash; what she saw, terrible; Dominic. Mickey.

Dead.

They were hanged!

Their dead eyes stared glassily at her.

Abby screamed as terror gripped her. And that's when it hit her. Where she was. She was beside the river. The bare trees! They looked so familiar, and she knew why. She knew that this is where she shot her victim; Richard Ben. Victor's orders. No, it was Mark's. It was his fault she had to kill the man. To get Sixkiller back.

They didn't need her!

Abby was gasping for breath. She took slow steps backward. Her eyes glued to the spot where Mickey and Dominic were hanged. Strange that she could recognize them. But Abby had no time to marvel about it. The most gruesome part of the dead corpses was the face. It was raw. Bloody.

Like it was skinned.

Each face was contorted in an agonized scream. The eyes were dull with dead fear.

It was a violent death. A violent scene.

The sky growled hungrily. Lightning flashed and another thunder-boom added anxiety to Abby's already nervous state.

Run.

Her dream!

It came to her in a flash. The forgotten dream! She was running! Just as she was running now, someone was chasing her.

No.

But no matter how hard she tried to stop her running feet –she couldn't. The feeling of running away from an invisible enemy turned to running away from a too real an enemy.

Abby's heart hammered.

Her breath was ragged.

She felt as if she was being hunted by a predator. By a super natural predator.

Only there was no where she could run to. Nowhere she could hide in.

Trapped! Abby spun away from the lip of a raven that appeared very suddenly in front of her. She spun and the hunter, the thing that was chasing her-

"Arrghhhh!" Abby jolted out of her sleep.

She was alone

"It was a dream." She whispered. "Just a dream."

Deep within her conscious mind, Abby knew that she wasn't entirely sure.

And the storm that rumbled overhead confirmed the feeling with a sinking heart.

But Abby was alone, and if her suspicions were true, where would she run to? And who would help her?

Who and what could help me, Abby thought, if Sixkiller was after me?

No one but yourself Abby thought to herself. Abby stared at the empty scoop longing for Tom or at least the Andalite resident, someone who could help her out of this nightmare.

No one but yourself.

Abby sighed to herself, and despite the shiver that ran up her spine she thought that the only person who could get her out of this trouble was the same person who got her into it.

Of course, that person was Abby herself.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Huh, you like it? A dream in a dream, oh well, too bad Dominic and Mickey had to die. They're not dead yet, but they will be. Sad.

Oh well, don't forget to review!