Clopwyck River (Book One)

Clopwyck River Part 21

Chapter Twenty-one

I wake up with a jolt, my hair plastered to my sweaty face and I sit up in my bed. I push my hair out of my face, the unfamiliar curls still making me shudder, and I pant hard as I my mind staggers between nightmare and reality.

            Sullivan was in my dream for the second time since I've been here, but this time he was accompanied by Ciara. We were in the woods; them, me, Leo and Ruby, standing in a circle. Ruby's face was contorted in a silent scream as she flailed her arms around shouting wordlessly at me. I looked at Leo whose face and body was unmoving, only his eyes moving in their sockets as he looked helplessly from me to Ruby. When I tried to shout out for him no sound came out and when I tried to get to him or Ruby, I couldn't move my legs, like they were stuck in three feet of mud.

Ciara and Sullivan were holding hands and chanting, repeating the same foreign sounding words in unison. A bright light suddenly flashed overhead, and Leo was suddenly on the floor with his eyes shut, Ruby was still screaming with no sound, and I was laying down on my side unable to move. I looked up just as Sullivan reached one of his hands up to his neck, digging his nails into his skin and roughly yanking his flesh away, pulling it upwards like a sick balaclava to reveal dark red muscle riddled with tiny black snakes and maggots burrowing through his festering flesh. His eyeballs remained for a moment before plopping down onto the floor leaving two dark craters in the centre of his malignant skull. He looked at Ciara who proceeded to do the same until she also revealed the monster beneath her flesh. They both regarded me with their sunken soulless eye sockets, then gripped each other's blood smeared hands and walked away from the circle, the sounds of their maniacal laughter echoing through the trees, assaulting my ears until I woke up.

I fling back my bed covers and swing my legs over the side of my bed, putting my head in my hands as I rest my elbows on my knees. Taking deep breaths, I try to subdue the nausea that lingers from my nightmare. Thirsty, I squint at the glass on my bedside table, picking it up to confirm that it's empty. My shoulders sag and I muster up the energy to walk into the bathroom to get a refill.

            With the glass in one hand, I use my other one to guide myself through the darkness until I feel the bathroom doorframe underneath my fingers. I stick my arm around the open doorway, waving it around until I knock the weighted chord of the light switch, waiting for it to swing back into my grasp and I pull it, illuminating the small bathroom.

            I walk in and look in the mirror, my reflection staring back at me like that of a stranger with sallow skin and dark circles under her eyes. My bird's nest hair is beyond any attempts of taming it so I turn on the tap and stick my hands under the running water, letting it cleanse my inner disharmony, and I lean forward cupping the water up and splashing it over my face.

            I straighten up, reaching for the glass, but as I rest my eyes back on the mirror I knock it into the sink, my heart exploding in my chest at the sight of Sullivan standing right behind me. My fear catches up with what I'm seeing and I let out a scream, clamping my hand over my mouth halfway through stifling it, but not my terror.

            He's not there. It's not real. This can't be real, but I can feel his breath on my neck. I can't tear my eyes away from his reflection as a slow smile spreads across his dangerous face, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth licking the inside of his lip. I'm frozen to the spot as he lifts his hand and sweeps my hair from my shoulder, exposing my neck. He leans into my ear, trailing a cold finger from my cheek down my neck, and whispers, "Bad dream?"

            I shake my head and close my eyes, disappointed that's he's still there when I open them. I look at the shards of glass in the sink and then back at the reflection in the mirror, Sullivan still leaning in close to my ear, as he trails his finger across my shoulder and down my arm.