Asazi
Chapter 16
I had fallen asleep to my thoughts and had awakened in a stormy hell. Literally.
The wind was blowing so hard that it was starting to push my body off of the branch. The rain pouring down was actually hurting me; the wind and gravity combined cause pain to feel like hail. I was in a storm that was so forceful that it was starting to push me out of the tree.
There was a sudden gust of wind and I fell! CRACK! I landed on my back, on another branch. I felt it pop and there was a sudden, agonizing pain. "AAA," I cried out. I started slipping again—NO! I fell, my arms shooting out to grab any kind of—
BAM!
I hit the ground, strong pain forming all over me. I could hear the crashing waves from some beach that must've been nearby, I could the screaming wind… The hard, thick rain gusted in and out—it got a little calmer, then came on even stronger, then got a little calmer…then got stronger!!!! The flashing lightning happened every three or four seconds. It was bright and lit the park like day.
It was not fun. I had to get out of here. Had to leave. I had food and water, I had—
The backpack! Where'd the backpack go?! I frantically looked around but I couldn't see it. Where'd it go? Did it— I looked up and a flicker of bright lightning revealed my backpack, hanging on a small limb. Uh oh. I jumped up part of the tree and grabbed a hold of the lowest branch. I had to get my backpack.
I started swinging my legs back and forth, trying to get some height so they could swing up and latch onto another branch. Back and forth, back and forth, back and—
"AAA," I screamed as I slipped from the wet branch. I crashed onto the ground, my knee hitting a sharp rock. Pain filled my leg and I looked down at it. A few seconds later a flash of lightning appeared and I saw blood all over my knee.
Climbing that tree was insane in this weather.
The wind howled at me, literally screaming at me with no words. And that's when it began. When I stopped for a second and listened to the wind. I looked over at one of the trees and saw rain fly by it—a face! I frowned and looked closer—it was gone. What the hell was that? I rested on the muddy ground and watched the pouring rain fall towards the ground…
No more faces…there! I saw it and a mouth opened and I heard a whisper…, "Where are you?" Chills came over me and goose bumps popped up on my skin. The face disappeared as quickly as it came. I frantically looked around, searching for the whispers.
I looked to my left…no face. I looked to my right, at the tree and—
At the trunk of the tree, some roots twisted around to form a small, hand-size face. "Are you there," it whispered and then disappeared quite suddenly.
"I'M HERE," I screamed into the air. "WHAT ARE YOU?"
Another face formed in the rain and whispered, "Your nemesis."
Nemesis? What's a 'nemesis?
"An enemy," came another whisper. I whirled around and saw a face disappearing into the cold, hard rain. "Your enemy," it came again. The whispers scared me.
I have an enemy that moves in and out of rain and trees?
My breathing started to go fast, my heart began to race. I searched for another face but there were none. Suddenly I saw one pouring by me. It whispered, "I'm coming."
I screamed and stood up but fell right back down. My knee…the pain. The ground was mud, the water wasn't soaking into the ground and there were a few inches of mud before you could actually feel somewhat solid dirt. My left leg slipped and my face fell into the mud, swallowing some mud as my teeth sank into my own tongue. How did I fall? There—the nemesis.
I looked up and saw a face of rain pouring down toward me it said, "Your seventh birthday—I'm coming to take you." The face melted away. I trembled with fear. Not read-the-horror-book fear…solid, bone-clenching fear.
My knee…the pain. My eyes…the fear. My life…the hell.
And suddenly, everything went dark……
-_-
I woke up and looked around. My heart was beating fast…but there was no pain in my knee. I looked down at it and in the pale moonlight and saw skin. No blood, no wound. I was in the tree, my backpack still on my back. No chills or goose bumps…
A dream. It was a dream. No, not a dream…a nightmare worse than any nightmare I've ever had. But like all dreams and nightmares, it meant something. Or did it?
My seventh birthday? Now that I think about it, that's pretty soon…but when exactly is it? I shook my head, trying to remember…I couldn't. I couldn't remember my own birth date. I had forgotten already.
I looked through the leaves and saw that the storm that had been coming toward me was still coming toward me… But it was still pretty far. I must've only been asleep for a few minutes…I remembered me falling out of the wet, slippery tree in my dream…
I better not be in the tree when this storm comes… I climbed down, making sure my backpack was still on my back and that I wouldn't fall.
When I reached the ground I carefully watched my step to make sure I didn't fall on any sharp rocks. I don't know if the dream was a prediction or just a shear nightmare that scared me halfway out of the tree. But it doesn't hurt to be cautious…
Nemesis.
The 'thing' in my dream had said it was my enemy. No doubt it was evil—if it existed. No, it was a dream; there are no such things as faces that move in and out of the rain like that. They weren't face faces, with hair and eye color; the faces that were made out of the rain with one expression: coldness. The face showed no fear in its watery eyebrows; no fear was on its face at all. Only coldness, like it was enjoying my pain and screaming with smiling. Like Brink.
I shivered and glanced back at the storm. It was coming, the clouds swirling and beginning to cover up the moon. I remembered seeing these storms on the news…
Me and my mom used to watch the news every now and then. One time it talked about these huge storms that had strong winds and ferocious rain and nasty floods… I snapped my fingers, trying to think of the name of them… Hurricane! That was it…the weatherman also said that people died in hurricanes, especially when not in a safe place inside…
I had nowhere to go…a shelter? Were there any shelters in Miami, home of the beach?
Of course there is! There's gotta be a hurricane shelter somewhere around here. I left the park and started jogging around town. I was in a nice neighborhood; there had to be a storm shelter somewhere.
The wind slowly began to pick up and sped up a little more…
I glanced up toward the skies. The moon was gone now, dark clouds moving in on Miami, the clouds swirling slowly in a circle.
I started running down the streets, looking for a big building that might be a shelter. After a few more minutes of running, I stopped out of breath and discouraged. I was also beginning to panic. "HELP," I cried out. Surely someone was hiding in their home or something like that… "HELP," I yelled again. I ran down two more blocks and screamed the word again…
Nothing. No answer, no reply, no lights suddenly flickering on…I was alone and about to die. "NO," I shouted. "I won't let this storm get the best of me." My will to survive returned and with renewed courage I walked up to a house and thought, if they don't want to let me in, I'll make my way in.
I looked around and saw a water hose attached to the house. I picked up and screwed on a nearby metal sprinkler. Weighing it in my hands I smiled. This'll certainly work. I walked up to a shorter window and slung the metal sprinkler at it. The window came down! CRASH! The glass fell inside of the house so I made mental note to watch my step once inside.
I tested the hose and it was stuck. Good, I thought and smiled again. I was too short; the window was a little taller than me. I used the hose to pull myself up through the window. I landed on a soft chair that was covered with shards of glass. I carefully stepped off of it and saw the metal sprinkler had gotten stuck on a leg of the chair.
I started walking through the house, looking for a room without windows or anything that might break and hurt me…I checked all the rooms with open doors first, then started—carefully—going into the rooms in which the doors had been closed. I had checked all the rooms in the house except one in the back. There were no people in the house—so far—and no first aid kits either.
And all the rooms I'd been in had had windows in them.
I was standing ten feet down a hallway from the door when I thought twice about opening. There might be some people in there…and they might think I'm a prowler or something… I went back into the house's very nice kitchen, found a cutting board that I could use as a shield and went back to the hallway.
I wanted a shield because somebody might, just might, be waiting for me.
I slowly stepped up to the door, very quietly and very nervously… Just do it fast…
Holding the cutting board with one hand, I reached out and whipped the door open with the other hand and—
WHAP! Something crashed down onto my head and everything went black…my last thought was, so much for a shield…
-_-
It was raining. The pouring hard rain stinging my face. I was awake and I was lying down next to a tree. A very familiar tree. A flash of lightning! A whirlwind of the echoing howls of the wind…the hurricane.
How'd I get back I here? I moved my leg but a sharp pain shot up it. "OW," I cried out and looked down at it. With another lightning bolt, I saw it. I was bleeding, a gash in my knee…I had fallen on a sharp rock and—
Oh no.
I looked up and waited for lightning. When it came, I saw my backpack up in the tree, hanging on a little branch. Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no…the dream with the faces wasn't a dream…me busting into the house was a dream…and that means that…
Nemesis existed.
Fear overwhelmed me for a few seconds…I started looking around for the faces in the rain, hoping that they wouldn't come but fearing, almost knowing that they would return. Nemesis…what was he?
I eventually took deep breaths and blinked my eyes a few times…oh boy…dreams in dreams upon reality. I was now scared. Very scared. I was alone and I couldn't go anywhere. The sharp, stinging rain pounded onto my face…I was in a hurricane, wounded with mud seeping into my bleeding knee…I was weary, exhausted. My back hurt because the fall through something out of line…
And because of it all, the stress, the blood…Nemesis…I fell asleep…