Every Sunday he ate with his mother and today was no exception. And it was a beautiful day too—absolutely perfect. Not too hot, not too cold; just perfect. He wondered if maybe he should get the picnic ware out. Ma would probably love to eat outside today. With a slight shrug he started towards the house, but noticed that the mailbox was full.

He found it very peculiar that it was stuffed full of mail as though she hadn't bothered to get it for a week or two. Shrugging to himself he quickly detoured to grab it. He hummed quietly, shuffling through it. Every return address had only a number on it, more specifically a date ranging from early October to late November. That was sorta odd…

He knocked on the door a few times before letting himself in, "Hey-a, Ma. I'm home." He moved into the house and set the stack of unopened mail onto the hallway table. "I got yer mail… Don' really look like nothin' interestin' though…" He trailed off, shuffling through the rest. Absent-mindedly he waited for her to reply, but she never did. "Ma?" No answer. "Hey, Mom?" The young man frowned worriedly, setting down the mail and wandered further down the hall.

The second door he passed was the living room and he caught the back of the rocking chair moving back and forth slowly in the corner of his eye. It was an old silly thing—draped with what he liked to jokingly refer to as 'old lady quilts'. His mother, however, sat it in every day, gazing out the window in between her reading. She enjoyed it and so Ellis never really teased her too much about it.

He stopped in the doorway.

"Hey, Mom?" Creak. Creak. The chair groaned eerily with each rock—Ellis didn't quite remember it ever making such a noise. "…Ma…?" For some reason he felt a tremor of fear gripping him. He didn't know why. He took a step forward, squinting hard. He could barely make out her arm—her bracelets glittered in the sun, but she still… still did not answer him. He moved to speak again but before could say anything he became aware that someone was standing directly behind him. He jumped, turning on his heel quickly. "Ah—shit, Keith, man ya scared the piss outta me!" Ellis let out a laugh, but it quickly died in his throat.

Keith was not smiling, in fact, his face with contorted oddly—almost like he was in an enormous amount of pain. Ellis caught a glint of silver. His eyes drew down his friend's right arm. Keith was clutching a large knife in his hand. Keith was shaking.

Ellis felt his heart starting to pound even harder.

"Uh… Keith…? Wassup…?" Keith took a step towards him and Ellis took one back. Keith's eye twitched and his mouth curled into a sneer. "Keith…?"

"Yer dead," the man said coldly.

"Uh, no I ain't, Keith. I'm righ' here."

"Dead," Keith said again, his voice was soft and deadly.

"I ain't—"

"DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!" Keith brandished the knife in his clutched fist and brought it down to slash at Ellis but the mechanic quickly dodged the blade. He let out a terrified scream and bolted past him. His feet tangled up on each other and he stumbled into the hallway. Behind him he heard Keith snarling. Panicked, Ellis shoved himself off the wall and sprinted out the door.

Oh shit, oh shit! What the hell's going on? Man this is—this is—

Ellis came to a startled stop. Keith was standing in the middle of the road now, knife lifted menacingly. He was still whispering harshly under his breath. His face was now twitching uncontrollably and his body moved awkwardly as he came towards him. Ellis shook his head in denial. No way—how did he get there? He glanced towards the door—that was impossible—impossible—just—

Keith was standing directly in front of him and Ellis let out a scream. The knife came down and buried into his shoulder. Ellis screamed again and fell over backwards. He felt the blade wrench from his body and the pain was intense, overwhelming. He let out a choking sob, shaking his head in denial. What's going on? This isn't right. This isn't right!

But Keith wasn't done. He came down on him again with vicious wrath and the knife led each attack. Ellis tried to protect himself—he threw up his arms, cowering and kicking at the other—but, God, it was useless.

His left hand sheared off at the wrist and the blood that pulsated from the severed limb became a shower of crimson. Ellis felt his stomach lurch and the pain was almost too much to bear. His right hand did not fair much better. First he lost his ring and pinky fingers and then his thumb and finally the last two digits were sliced away. Keith laughed and continued to stab him with murderous intent.

And the blood—there was so much blood. Ellis couldn't even comprehend how all of this blood was coming from him. His body felt weak, awfully warm and the pain was so choking that he couldn't even scream anymore. The blade nicked his neck and a spray of blood painted Keith's front red. Keith didn't stop. He kept stabbing the knife into the other, laughing cruelly.

"Yer dead, yer dead, yer dead," Keith whispered repeatedly, and each time he said the words the knife plunged somewhere new. Ellis felt blood gurgling in his throat. He choked on it, trying to spit it out, tried to bring air back into his starving lungs… but it was useless. He could not breathe.

If the wounds didn't kill him, his own blood suffocating him would.

I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

"Ellis!"

HELP ME! PLEASE HELP ME!

"Ellis!"

GOD PLEASE DON'T LET HIM KILL ME!

"ELLIS!" Nick shook the other roughly one last time and the mechanic finally awoke with a startled gasp. "Ellis? Are you all right…? Hey? Ellis?"

Ellis lay rigid, mouth working to form words but nothing came out. There were tears coming from the corners of his eyes. When he finally looked at the older man, he looked terrible lost—but most of all, he looked scared. Nick quickly drew him into his arms. He was alarmed by how little Ellis reacted to the embrace.

"It was just a dream, Ellis… All right? No one's going to hurt you… You're okay." He held the other close with one hand while the other stroked through his hair comfortingly. It took several minutes before Ellis finally even seemed to register where he was.

"Nick?" the southerner asked quietly, almost confused.

"Yeah, kid. You're all right."

Ellis' arms finally came up and gave Nick the embrace the conman had been expecting the first time. Ellis clung on tightly, staring out at the wall with morbid detachment. He was strangely quiet.

"Ellis…?"

"Keith ain't dead, man," the young man whispered shakily.

Keith isn't…? Nick blinked several times. A worried frown found his lips. "Ellis, it was just a dream…"

"No, I mean Keith ain't dead."

"I don't understand."

Ellis sighed and very slowly he pushed himself out of the the other mans arms. Nick reluctantly let him go. Ellis settled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, eyes searching through the darkness.

He swallowed several times before he tried to speak again. "Keith's all locked up an' shit, Nick. I've seen him a couple of times since we've been here, but they told me I shouldn't come back no more 'cause he was only gettin' worse… I probably would have kept goin' an' stuff… but I wanted ta be there fer ya too… I… I almost forget tha' he was still in there…" Ellis shook violently. He lifted his hands up and studied them intently. "…Shit man… I gatta see 'em one last time… Jus' ta make sure there ain't nothin' more I can do for 'em…" He hesitated before looking at the Nick. "…Can… Can ya come with me?"

"Yeah… Ellis. Yeah, I can do that." Cautiously Nick reached out to gently run his palm down Ellis' cheek. The mechanic looked at him through the dim light. His eyes were still full of tears. Nick studied him worriedly. Ellis seemed to not want to speak any more and Nick respected that, knowing all to well how horrifying ones own mind could be in sleep. Sometimes it only made things worse to speak of such terrible nightmares. "We'll do that in the morning, all right?" Nick offered gently.

"…Yeah… Thanks, man." Ellis condemned himself to lying alone, refusing to let the other comfort him. But, Nick was persistent and eventually Ellis found himself wanting to be reassured with gentle touches and kisses. He shifted over and Nick instantly pulled him back against him. Nick pressed a delicate kiss against the corner of Ellis' mouth and the young man couldn't help but smile.

Nick offered the comfort he needed—craved— but despite his valiant efforts, Ellis still found his heart ached too much to be warmed with such gentleness.

Neither one of them fell asleep again.

A/N: Mostly this chapter is so short because I am so god damn tired. I don't know what the deal is, but I haven't been able to sleep lately. So I do apologize for the shortness. I was going to condense this chapter and tomorrow's chapter as one, but when I started to expand it, I realized I was too tired to even think any more.

NOTE: I don't write dreams for the fun of it (although it is quite fun). The dreams that they have all have hidden meaning in them. If you look closely you may be able to find links to thinks back in previous chapters or giving hint to things in coming chapters... I just had this sense that people might start thinking I use dreams as a filler when I don't know what to write, but I write each one in an attempt to give you insight on what they're currently thinking/feeling.