Chapter 43

Someone was knocking on the door. I woke up, looking around to see that I was in my house. I frowned and stood, looking out the window. It was snowing. The room was dark, the only light coming through the window from the porch light and the faint glow of a digital clock. The stereo in the living room was blasting A Perfect Circle. I staggered through the dark to the door, feeling for the doorknob and opening the door, stepping into the hallway. The lights in the house were off as I walked into the living room.

"Who the hell is here?" I asked. I got no response. The song Thinking of You played, the music making me feel disoriented and nauseous as it swelled in my ears. I entered the living room, the moment my hand touching the light switch the chorus of the song coming on and plaguing me, laughing at me.

"Sweeeeeeet revelation….Sweeeet surrender…" I gasped as I saw the blood all around, the room nearly painted red. Claudette sat on the floor, giggling, playing with toy blocks which were dripping with blood and that were charred black underneath that. Her eyes were bruised and her hair tangled. I ran to her, dropping to my knees and trying to knock the blocks out of her hands. She looked up at me, her eyes bright and green, brilliant from the dark bruises around them. I was horrified.

"Claudette!" I said out loud, not yelling it, necessarily, just saying it, observing. I took the slapped the blocks away from her so that they fell to the other side of the room. She started to cry. "Shh…shh Claudette calm down," I said to her. I reached for her, taking her in my arms. Her cried turned to some horrible roaring. I reached up to wipe a tear from her round cheek, frightened horrifically by her cries. The moment my hand contacted her cheek, her face crumbled.

Her cheek collapsed, and her nose, and her lips pulled back so that I could see her teeth all shattering and blood spewing up from the back of her throat. The screaming ensued as her eyes turned red and leaked from her head, as her skin turned gray and her limbs began to fall off. I screamed now as well, joining her, and dropped what was left of her to the floor. When she hit the floor she disintegrated, body turning to dust.

I was too shocked to scream, or to do anything but just stare, trying to breathe. My breathing was shaking and my hands trembled as I stared at it, and as the song changed to 3 Libras. I covered my ears, screaming and walking over to the stereo, turning it off. The music only got louder. I kicked it and pulled the cord out of the wall, taking Amber's sword from where it hung on the wall in display and beginning to smash it. It mocked me as the violin's came and swept up the music, dancing, beautiful. I cursed at it and smashed the stereo as it broke into pieces just like Claudette, the music only getting louder all the while. My ears began to bleed.

The blood ran down my neck and onto my bare chest as I ran into the bathroom, getting bandages and tissues and whatever I could find to wipe it away. It gushed, flowed down my body and my attempts to make it stop were in vain. I stepped into the shower to wash it off, finding that blood came from the faucet as well. I screamed now, and ran out of the bathroom in horror. I ran through the living room and into the kitchen, throwing open the backdoor and walking through to find myself in Paul's basement.

My heart felt like it would explode. I could hear him yelling at Mark upstairs, and I ran up them to get there, to know what was happening. I trying to open the door, hearing the sound of a slap and then hearing Mark scream. I pounded on the door, trying to get it to open.

Then came the crying. I heard crying, I heard Paul yelling and Mark running up the stairs to his room, the stairs directly above where I stood, and I heard Amber crying. She was sobbing for me.

"Kane!! Kane where are you!?!? Help me, Kane, don't let this happen to me!!"

"AMBER!!!!" I pounded frantically on the door, shaking the doorknob and trying to open it. "Amber I'm here!!!" I screamed.

"Kaaaaaaaneee…" she was sobbing. "No!! No stop it! Don't hurt Claudette!" she screamed. And then I heard the sound something contacting a skull and her blood curling scream, and then the morbid sound of her body thudding against the floor.

"AMBER!!!!!" I screamed. Finally I kicked the door open, and it flew off the hinges. The house was charred and dusty, burned. I was in Paul's home no longer but in the funeral parlor I'd lived in with my parents. I ran through it, screaming for her, crying. I felt horrible pain ripping through my face, the thing I'd felt when I'd been burned.

I saw the doors of the viewing room, where wakes were held. The doors were shining and perfect. I burst through them.

Everything was set up, the chairs, the flowers. I looked up to the pedestal where the casket would sit.

"Amber…"

She was lying on it, without a casket, in her wedding dress. I fell calm and slowly walked over to her. Her hair was curled, and clean, and resting on her shoulders, eyes closed and pale. Her hands were folded over her chest. I stood over her, staring down in shock. "Amber…" I said again. I reached up and gently touched her cheek.

Her eyes opened.

I woke up with a start, my heart pounding. I was covered in sweat.

The hotel room was empty. I looked out the window to see that it was snowing again. I swallowed and tried to calm myself. I was shaking. Jake was awake and came over to me, trying to comfort me. The moment I looked at him I began to cry.

It was only the first of many nightmares. The rest of that night I didn't go back to sleep.