A Nightmare's Fate

The Raven

Chapter Twenty-two: The Raven

"Thank you so much for helping me improve my cooking skills," I say as we head to the front door. Errik's smile creeps up to his ears as he turns around and looks at me.

            His soft eyes stare into mine and he says, "It was awesome to taste that lasagna. I'm thinking of hiring you." He chuckles.

            "Really?" I ask in excitement but of course I know it's fake. I suck at cooking, plus I'm not much of a chef and I already have a job anyways.

            "No.”  He laughs, his smile growing to his eyes this time. "But if you get better, I may ask you to quit City Times and come work for me."

            I nod. "We'll see." He shakes my hand for a long time; his grasp isn't tightened, it's loosened like he's checking to see if I'll let go. But something inside me wants to keep shaking his hand for as long as I can.

            Pulling himself near me, he kisses my cheek and once his lips removes itself, the spot burns and my stomach starts churning from some type of feeling I have, but I can't put my finger on it. "Have a good night, Raven," he whispers, a little too close to my face and I notice his eyes gazing down to my lips once more until he leaves a smile for me to see and heads out into the cold night.

            The door shuts behind him and I gasp for air, now realizing that I was holding my breath when he kissed my cheek. Pushing back my hair, I turn on my heel and head towards the kitchen to clean the rest of the dishes that was left from dinner.

            After cleaning, I turn off the remaining lights and head towards the bedroom. I put on my silky white nightgown with laces on the chest part of it, and I lie myself down on the mattress. Cuddling up with the wolf that Errik had given me for my birthday, I breathe in deeply. Ever since I had received it, I've had good dreams; not a lot of nightmares.

            As my eyelids droop down from heaviness, the blackness within them turns into a white forest coated in snow with one bench near a large, thick tree. I look down to what I'm wearing and notice it's the same thing I usually wear in my dreams; the purple dress. I've always wondered what it meant, why I wear it all the time, however, since my nightmares are about Kenton, it could be towards him since purple is his favorite color.

            Sitting down on the wooden bench, I gaze through my surroundings. There is no animal in sight, probably because it's winter. Then out of nowhere, a single raven swoops down and lands on my head. I stand and try to shake it off, but the stubborn bird doesn't want to get out of my hair that thinks it’s a nest. He makes a noise and after a few seconds go by, a flock of them comes to me, grasping onto my body as their claws dig into my skin and blood oozes out. By now, I'm surrounded by ravens that won't let go of me.

            A whistle sounds and each bird flies away at an instant, leaving me to turn around to see Kenton in a suit and tie with a smile on his face. It takes me a moment to realize it's him, but I do realize this is all a dream but at this moment right now, I don't care. I run to him with freezing snow encircling my feet that leads its way down to my toes in the heels I have on. We embrace ourselves in a hug, my fingers entwining around his neck and his hands on my hips. The touch feels so real; it's weird to think of this as a mere dream. But I know well it is.

            "Raven, it's so nice to see you again." He grins, shaking his head from the snow on it which now looks as if it's dandruff.

            Tears roll down my eyes just by hearing his voice. I've longed for this day to come; smell, touch, see, and hear him, even if this is all a figment of my imagination. "I've missed you so much," is all I can say and he pulls me into another hug and rubs the back of my head, letting his fingers rake my hair. Sniffling and getting of our long clasp, I decide to sit on the bench and he follows behind me. "So what about that last dream of you with those skeletons turning into angels?" I quickly ask, wanting to know more about it.

            "It's your dream, Ray, you control it. After my death, you thought of all different ways of how I could die and where I would go. So for that, you thought of some type of Heaven-Hell situation," he says, sitting down beside me with his left leg over his right thigh.

            "What about what you said; that dreams never lie and that if I killed myself, I would be with you?" I remember clearly of that nightmare. Terror broke through my mind at the thought of him telling me to create my own demise.

            "You also control of what I say, so you were basically frightened and went off into that dark conversation." His brown eyes gaze into mine and I feel as if he's staring into my soul.

            "So does that mean I can have you say whatever I'd like to hear?" I ask, feeling senseless.

            "Not entirely. You allow your mind to flow with the dream, letting it do whatever and the people inside say anything, but there comes a time when you come to your senses and control the words spitting out of their mouths," he says with a sigh, putting his arm on the edge of the bench in the back of me as I notice his hand on my shoulder. "So, what about that Errik guy? I've noticed the flare in your eyes and your cheeks that burn from infatuation. It seems to me that you like him," he adds, changing the subject.

            I shake my head in disapproval. "I will not like him, ever. I can't give you up, Ken. You are my life, my spirit, and the one who will never be let go from me. I love you too much, I need to stay away from men because of you."

            "Because I'm dead?" He shakes his head. "I may not be with you, but I will be in your heart––"

            "That isn't true, Kenton! You're not in my heart. My heart tells me nothing, it just leaves me in rage and after my drinking, after all the pain you've caused me, it numbs me to the core. But you are in my mind, all the time. Why earlier today, Errik and I were about to kiss and I stopped it because I didn't want to hurt you!" I say in anger, like he doesn't even care that I love him.

            "You don't have to worry about me, Raven. I want you to move on, to let me go." He whispers the last sentence.

            I hug him once more and cry, "I can't do it." I repeat at least three times.

            After he pulls out of my grip, he says, "I love you." A black smoke encompasses around me as he turns into a raven himself and flies away.

            While he's gone, it doesn't register in my mind that he's far from here, far from where I stand and I run after him. Past trees and their roots, I climb up hills and run––slip down a few mud-slides on the journey. I keep screaming his name; "Kenton! Kenton!" But nothing in return bounces back. I yell, "Where are you!" a couple of times, but I don't receive a call from his voice.

            I hear a crack and I fall down a steep hill, tumbling from it. Even though I'm hurt, I feel nothing major like a broken bone in my body. But before I sit up, I realize the heels are broken and I just take my shoes off as I stand back up. A flock of birds head towards the way I was heading to and I run after them, hoping to find Kenton where they're going to.

            As the cold numbs my feet, I keep jogging but it seems like this way never ends. "I need you, Kenton!" I say out into the woods. But still, no reply.

            Finally, coming to a stop at an ocean, far off out of the forest, I breathe heavily and look out into the horizon. But what's out there is a bird carved in the sky like it's a blanket covering the earth. But as I stare at it longer, I recognize that it's a raven.