I don't know how I got there, but when I came to, I found myself at a familiar table with an all too familiar tea set arranged perfectly in the middle. Someone picked up the teapot and poured its deep red liquid into the cup in front of me.
"You're late," a female voice said sternly.
I looked up and met Heather's eyes. Her face was as white as the day we found her; her eyes just as glassy, but she was moving as if she had been brought back to life. She lifted her teacup up to her lips and took a sip, staining her lips red with her own blood.
I sighed, "Not this nightmare again."
"We've been waiting a long time for you," Heather spoke with a slight hint of disapproval, but her expression was near emotionless.
"Oh, don't be so harsh on the poor girl," the male to my right spoke. I turned and saw Gabe. He glanced at me with blood slowly dripping down from a hole in the middle of his forehead. He smiled as if all was right with the world, "She hadn't had sex in months!"
"What, you're here now too?" I exclaimed.
"I did tell him four's a crowd," the male to my left joked. I turned to the heavily charred man whose body still emitted a black smoke. If you looked closely at his skin, you could see the embers still burning.
"Why can't I at least dream you having normal tea, you without a bullet in your head and you with an actual face!?" I groaned.
"I don't know, you tell us. This is your subconscious!" Brodie laughed.
**
I sat up abruptly in a cold sweat. My vision darkened from the sudden blood rush. Breathing deeply, I waited for my sight to clear then I took in my surroundings. I hardly recognized them.
I was naked with only a single blanket draped over me surrounded by aged walls I had never seen before. I pinched the bridge of my nose while I struggled to remember what happened the night before. Recalling some very heated and intimate moments with Eli that were enough to make anyone blush, it hit me that I was in his makeshift bedroom. I felt like an idiot for not remembering, however another memory came back to me. One that pained my heart.
"Gabe," I muttered, voice shaking. His name had been added to my list of regrets. He now had a seat at my tea party.
Not wanting to be alone any longer, I got up and twisted the blanket around me as my clean clothes had been left in the other room. Then I headed down the hall to search for Eli. It didn't take me long to find him. He of course was back in front of his computer, completely oblivious to the fact that I had gotten up. As much as I would've preferred waking up with him next to me, just knowing he was still around and hadn't left me was all the comfort I needed. That he hadn't left like I had left him.
Suddenly my face felt wet. I reached up and touched my cheek to confirm. "Why am I crying?" I asked myself, confused.
Eli turned in his chair to face me. He smiled at first, but his expression soured when he saw my tears, "Because you've been through a lot, Dani."
"But I wasn't thinking about... I was thinking about you!" I argued.
His eyes widened, "Me?"
"Yes," I sighed. "I was thinking about how much seeing you still here makes me so happy," my voice trembled.
Eli jumped out of his chair and ran to me as the floodgates opened. He hugged me tight, letting me cry into his chest, "Of course I'm still here."
"Why am I so pathetic?" I sobbed. "I'm crying over something so insignificant!"
أنت تقرأ
Haunted by the Past (Original)
غموض / الإثارةSix years ago the quiet town of Raven Hill in upstate New York was terrorized by a serial known as the Triple-6 Killer. After marking the doors of his intended victims, six days later they would be found dead, posed in a gruesome scene. After a sixt...
