The Hollow Ball

Chapter 5

Dark trees twined with rain-worn spiderwebs shimmered in the light of the full moon, reminiscent of diamond-encrusted nets luring unsuspecting victims into beautiful destruction.

Standing in a clearing surrounded by the lethal webs, a woman waited with her back turned to me. I wasn't sure how I got there, or who she was. Only that despite the chill of the wind and the too-still quiet of the night, I was not afraid—or her. Of anything.

The strange haze in my mind wouldn't let me.

Keep your eyes open, a voice in the back of my mind whispered. Dreams and nightmares come to find you.

I shook my head to clear the haze. Instead, it merely wavered.

Standing in my nightgown, I focused my eyes on the woman and her ornate white gown.

The style was dated but familiar, with large ruffles and a high collar, the white stitching adorned with pale gems reminiscent of the moon.

Did she bring me here?

When I stepped forward and the leaves crunched beneath my slippers, she whirled around to face me, and my breath halted in my throat. We shared the same tapered almond-shaped eyes, petite nose, and curly dark hair. But whereas her lips were full and supple, mine were smaller, and her skin was a deeper shade of brown. And where my eyes were the same onyx as the mountain range behind us, her irises matched the color of the sky.

I should know her. Was she a figment of a portrait from the gallery? An assumption from my past?

When our eyes locked, something inside of me unlatched like the door of a horse's stall, and the haze tapered until clear-headed panic gripped me tight.

"Who are you?" I asked. Was she a dream? Was this a dream?"Where are we?"

She ignored me, and I realized that her stare was not directed at me, but instead past me. When she started forward, I made a move to get out of her way, to asses my surroundings better, but an invisible force kept me in place.

"Goodness," she muttered. Determination furrowed her brow—and irritation. When she walked, she passed through my body as if I were nothing but air, and as she did, a sharp burst of pain zapped the top of my skull, and a tidal wave of emotions washed over me.

It was always the forest. No matter the time of day. No matter the weather. She always found herself in a small clearing of the crippled wood. She hated the secrecy. She was furious about the circumstances that made it the only way to see him. And she craved to see him.

Not my emotions. Her emotions.

Wake up, Hayley. Wake up!

Nothing.

Suddenly, my limbs jerked out of my control, and I helplessly mimicked her movements, walking behind her.

What is happening to me?

As she walked, her anxiety jarred my nerves, and my lungs constricted for air just as her lungs did, and we looked around the glowing forest for him.

She needed to find him before it was too late.

Stop! I ordered my body. Stop it now!

It was of no use. Like a marionette at the mercy of its master, I did as she did, walked as she walked, and felt what she felt, the emotion and aftertaste on my tongue. My legs burned as we moved urgently along the trail deeper and deeper into the forest. Something terrible was about to happen, and I needed to leave before it took me, too.