Lucid (2 page)

And that stupid necklace... is that supposed to bring me back? Does Olivia expect that to change anything? With her fake spell mojo what could one necklace really do against three years of pain. But I wear it anyway. If only to prove her wrong when it doesn't work. It's clear facets glimmer and spark in the moonlight, and if I was into believing crazy paranormal theories I
might
think that it would work. But I don't believe. I know better.

The necklace is like a dead weight against my chest. A symbol of how far I have fallen from my sanity.

Crawling into my bed I lay there in the moon bathed blackness and wait. Wait for the darkness of sleep. Wait for the pain. Wait for the dying.

Chapter 3

The darkness finally begins to fade, leaving in its place a burning brightness as light filters through the thick leaves of the forest. I've never dreamt of the daylight before. It was a small welcome change at least.

My eyes pulled down to the necklace as though they were drawn to it. My mind subconsciously wanting to confirm that it was still there. Instead of the whitewashed clear stone I expected, the crystal was now blue. It was emitting  a soft glow against my skin.

“Well... I'll be damned. Maybe she wasn't joking after all.” I say to the stone, giving it a slight shake.

The howling precursor that lets me know my dying dreams have started had yet to come. Only the shrill chirps of birds that I had never heard before filled the air in the forest. Seating myself on a moss covered log I waited for the terror inducing howls to fill my ears. But the longer I waited the less certain I was that the howls would come. Maybe Olivia really was a witch... or I had finally stopped being crazy.  My vote was for the latter.

The sun beamed down on me warming my skin under its tree filtered rays. My body began to relax in the warmth, and I began to doze off curled against the broken log and forest floor.

“What do you want from me?”

I let out a panicked cry at the sound of the soft gravelly voice. Spinning around to face the voice I began stumbling backwards to get away from whatever it was. But what I found was not what I expected. His piercing eyes and harsh scowl matched his dark brooding look and over six foot frame. All I could do was stare at his imposing figure, leaning casually against a tree.

“I said,” he enunciated more slowly like he was trying to help me hear him past his thick brogue. “What the hell do you want from me?”

“You can talk? I mean they've never talked before.”  His red eyes and the tips of the fangs I can see when he talks clue me in to him being dangerous, but he's the first one that has spoken. That means I might get answers, answers that are
long
overdue.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he slowly pulls up to his full height, and begins walking toward me. When he was only a few feet away he stopped and just continued frowning.

“I'm sure you know whats going on right? So what exactly are we doing here and what's wrong with me?”

“What's wrong with you? Whats wrong is your an
idiot
. The reason
I'm
here is because you brought me here!”

“
Me?
How is any of this my fault? I don't even know what the hell is going on.”

“Hati preserve me. This is going to be a long night. Listen-”

“No
you
listen.” I cut him off before he could speak any further. “This is
my
dream and your not gonna talk to me like that your just a figment of my imagination anyways.”

“Shh...” He hissed softly surveying the dark shadows between the trees.

“Don't you dare shush-”

His calloused hands covered my mouth and he began dragging me into the dark shadowed recesses of the forest. His red eyes were piercing into mine as he spoke.

“Shut your damn mouth.”

The words were accompanied by a nod of his head toward the clearing we had just left. And I knew I had been right.
Seeing
the monsters made the fear so much worse. My trembling body automatically pressed against the chest of the mysterious boy. His warmth coursed through my back, but the fear kept me chilled as the beast huffed and snorted where we had just been standing. This was a dying dream. Olivia's necklace hadn't done a single thing, except make it bright enough to really
see
the beasts that would kill me. Its hulking body moved slowly through the clearing tossing its head back and forth try to catch a traceable scent. If I didn't get out of here fast it would kill us both. And while this mystery guy may be a jerk I couldn't just let someone die because of me.

I turned until we were standing face to face, his luminous red eyes were staring right at me. His breath was soft against my cheek. He really was something else. So rugged and handsome, and so incredibly
unreal.
I dreamed him up after all.

“It's a shame your an asshole, cause you're pretty darn hot.” I whispered with an almost silent laugh.

“Huh?”

I took one last deep look into his blood red eyes, and enjoying the warm closeness of another body. Enjoyed the feel of his muscular frame. And brought my knee up.
Hard.
He let out a soft wheezing grunt as my knee made contact with his groin and slowly slid to the ground.

“So sorry.” I whispered before taking off straight into the clearing and past the hulking creature. If I stayed he would die too. And I wasn't about to have that on my conscience. My mind may have created him in my dream, but that didn't mean he had to die and I would do my best to make sure he didn't. Asshole or not.

The beast let out a earsplitting shriek and came thundering after me into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. Well my plan was working. I was leading it away from Mr. Mysterious. The only question was what now? Now that I have seen the beast my limbs, energized by my fear,seem unable to stop running. And how far do I have to go to save him? How far do I have to run so the beast won't turn and eat him next.

The bite of the low lying branches leaves my face stinging as I continue my dash through the forest, but no matter how fast my legs continue to move the high pitched wail continues to get closer.

I hear it before I feel it, the loud footfalls of the creature as it chases me through the thick undergrowth, and I
feel
it before I see it. Pitching forward, my face makes a sick crunching sound as I hit the dirt, the gash the beast tore in my leg causes a searing agony to race through my nerves. Whoever said the endorphins hit first and the pain later, had never had a gash ripped open in their leg.  Forcing my body to keep moving, my legs feel pathetically thick and heavy now that my momentum has been stopped. I can feel the beast behind me now stalking slowly, watching, waiting. I know better than to spare the energy to glance at the monster but my body reacts on its own and my head turns around for a peek at the beast.
 

The sight of the beast renews my panic and sends my mind into a hysteria, my body no longer obeys my mind and my limbs struggle with frantic jerking movements. My fingers close around a fallen tree branch. With all the strength I've got left I roll onto my back bringing the branch up straight into the creatures face. The thunderous crack of the branch breaking across the beasts jaw does little to drown out the rabid shrieking, my own or the beasts I do not know.

I try desperately to scramble away from his hulking frame. I barely make it anywhere before he grasps my ankle and begins dragging me closer to him. The monsters clawed hands dig and tear the thin fabric covering my ankles. Blood begins soaking cloth. I thrust my free foot into his massive jaw over and over but the beast's grip doesn't lessen.

The fear is crippling. My body moves purely on instinct. But, next to this monster I am weak, frail...
human
. And nothing I do seems to make the beast back down. It's clawed  hands grip my chest, lift me off the ground, and with a shouting roar smash me back into the hard forest floor.

It's grip once again tightened around my torso, I assume to slam me again to the graveled and rocky forest floor. But before it could crush me, a large black mass slammed into the both of us. My body was slung against a tree, and I could feel my ribs crack under the impact.

Each breath sent searing pain through my chest, as I struggled to right myself after the brutal landing. The snarling and howling was interrupted only by the snapping of jaws and the thudding of the large monsters colliding with each other. The monster that had run into me was only slightly smaller than the original monster, but it was definitely more agile. Its pitch black body dipped and darted out of the larger monsters reach. It's snapping white teeth closed tightly around the barreled chest of the first monster. I could hear popping coming from the first monsters chest as the black beast crushed its body.

When it finally went limp the black beast released its fanged grip, and dropped the creature to the ground.

The beast now that it had stopped moving I could only think of as a wolf. A
giant
wolf. Its hulking frame was nearly as tall as I was, with massive paws. Its fur was pitch black and almost mane like around its thick neck, with long tufts of fur down his legs. But it couldn't have been a wolf, no wolf I'd ever seen had such massive claws almost the size of a bears, or such long sharp fangs.

As the beast slowly turned toward me it wasn't its oversized claws, nor its enormous size that caught my attention. It was its large, luminous blood red eyes.

Chapter 4

Everything
hurt.
I opened my groggy eyes only to find that I was back in my room. On the floor. Slowly working my stiff limbs, I was able to pull myself up off the hardwood floor. My body was still shaking from the after shock of getting tossed around in my dream.
My Dream!
I lived... for the first time in four years I lived.

All because the mysterious giant wolf boy saved me. And I was sure it was the same boy from the clearing. The piercing red eyes were not something I could have easily mistaken. He easily could have killed me judging by the skill he used to kill the other monster. Yet he didn't. He saved me. Maybe my imagination didn't create such an asshole after all.

I slowly hauled myself into the bathroom to assess the damage that the night caused, but surprisingly I was looking better then I had the day before. As if just getting a nights worth of sleep alone had begun to heal the damage all the dream dying caused me. The nausea that usually accompanies me on waking isn't even present.

Saying a silent thank you to my red eyed hero, I slowly begin to work my way back into my bedroom. I pull on a pair of dark fitted jeans, a black tank top, and my favorite old hoodie. I lift the danburite necklace up to take it off, but I decide against it and place the stone against my chest. It is once again heavy and white, just sitting like a dull weight against my clothes.

When I made my way downstairs thankfully it was quiet. My parents already having left for work. Pulling the cereal out of the cupboard I poured myself a bowl. And sat down to the first meal I'd been able to eat in the mornings since the dying started. The first meal I haven't been too nauseous to eat. It tasted even better than I remembered. After placing the empty bowl in the sink I grabbed my car keys and headed out the door.

The crispness of the autumn air caused me to pull my arms tighter around around me. The red and orange leaves swirled in languid circles as they slowly fell to the earth. It created almost an effect of illusion causing my eyes to dart back and forth after thinking I was seeing something out of the corner of my eye. The only sound I could hear was the leaves hitting the ground and the crunching of my feet in the deep rifts of already fallen leaves. I shook off the feeling of being watched through the swirling colors and started my car. The  familiar hum of the engine set my mind at ease, that nothing was out of the norm, that the silence was only a trick of the mind. Easing myself into the driver seat I started off for another day of school, hopeful that one night of rest will have made that easier too.

As I drove down the road toward school, the sheer emptiness of the road had me on edge. I hadn't spotted a single car since I began driving, when normally there would be enough cars going in both directions to ease the feeling of being the only person on the road. There was nothing. No buses picking up students, no adults on their way to work. Only the silence and the cascading fall leaves. Inadvertently I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, the oddness of the morning making me jumpy and nervous.

As I rounded the corners of a sharp twisting road a sudden flurry of leaves rushed up and blocked my view of the road. Panicking at the loss of sight I slammed on the brakes but not before I hit
something
. The hard thump caused my car to skid to the side as I came to a stop. Panicking I jumped out of the car to make sure nobody was hurt. By the time I remembered there wasn't anyone on the road it was to late, I had already left the relatively safe confines of my car. And when I saw it, standing there grinning, I had the distinct impression that I hadn't hit it,
it
had hit
me.
 

The beast stood roughly eight feet tall and its fangs were long, extending out of the confines of its lupine muzzle. Its broad shoulders flexed as it slowly stalked forward. The muscles rippling under the thick chocolate colored fur.  Its smile only grew wider as I tried to back away. My back began pressing against the hard steel of my car and I knew there was nowhere to run. It knew it too. It let out a short barking laugh before lunging at my fear prone body.

Just as it's body was about to come crashing down a swirly gust of red and orange autumn leaves once again blocked my vision. At least I wouldn't have to see it lunge in to kill me. But the attack never came. There was only the sound of the leaves swirling around like a shield. And when the leaves cleared it was only me and my car in the middle of the road, as though none of it had ever happened. The erratic beating of my heart was the only sign that anything was amiss.