Vivid (BoyxBoy) {Pipe Dream: Book I}

Chapter Seventeen: Fragmented Dreamscape

This kid wasn't human.

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I shouldn't be here.

Why shouldn't I be here?

A massive expanse of white was spilled out around me like a barren tundra wasteland. The sky and earth was hard to distinguish was both were pale white shades of bone and ash. Light snow slowly fell around me, enhancing the quiet.

A single, snow-covered tree was in the distance, marring the perfect white with its contrasting black body. But I liked it. I remember this place. It was...Where am I?

I frown. I've been here before. Anne was just born. I remember that. Where is she? At the house with Mum. We came here for a holiday one year. Cody was off with Dad, learning how the ski. I wondered off from the holiday house, looking for them and found this lonely tree.

But the tree shouldn't be here.

I don't understand.

It isn't this tree. This tree shouldn't be here.

Then which tree should be here?

Not this one.

...very helpful. Almost as bad as...who...?

Where is Cody? ...Why isn't Markus here? Markus wasn't born yet. But he should be here now.

Something rose up in in front of my eyes, making me jump back in surprise. Our house was now gone. The fires and screams echo around me in a vacuum. Blood splattered over me, drenching the snow is pristine red.

What?

I look down at my hands. Thick trickles of blood stained them. Looking up, I see someone shouting out at me but I couldn't make out their face or what they were telling me.

This isn't real.

No. It was real.

But it's messed up.

Dreams are always messed up.

Is this a dream?

Silence.

Where are Markus, Anne and Cody?

The air around me shifts and the world suddenly dropped from under my feet and I fell into a world coated in dejected darkness. The air squeezes from my lungs, making me collapse to my knees, struggling for breath. It felt like tar. It closed in over my windpipe.

Gone was the fire and snow. Now was total darkness and pure pain running thorough my brain, splitting it in half. I cling to my head. This...isn't me. I shouldn't be here. Something pricks into me. Flashes of white cloth. Pain. Blood. Longing for death. I was in a lab. I was hooked up to something. Wires...computer...flashes of coloured lines flick across my vision. Urgh I don't know this place. I don't know these images. But they are scary and make me feel so small and helpless. Why aren't I dead? Why aren't I dead? Why am I still...

These aren't all my thoughts...they are getting weaker.

"You shouldn't linger here."

That voice...I don't know it.

Something's touching my face. It's soft and warm. Familiar. Safe. Longing.

Is not safe. Not for Dreamer to be. Not Dreamer's dream.

Mr Tiger...

Suddenly it hit me. Like a bullet to the brain. Markus is gone. Anne and Cody are missing. I have to find them.

"It isn't real," the voice is now more intense, drowning out this horrible world I accidently fell into.

I blink and suddenly everything disappeared. Then in front of me, his thumb stroking my cheek as if to soothe me, was X. His bright intense mismatched eyes, falling on me completely.

I blink again. What the hell? I don't remember this place. Why is there ice everywhere?

His fingers touching my face felt like electricity, moving under my skin, searing it to the point that my bones ached. What the hell is that? I jolt from his touch, flying backwards off of some table I was apparently on, and came crashing to the floor in shock. I smacked my head pretty hard. I look up at him, seeing him staring fixedly at his fingers that were only just touching me a moment ago. I thought that I might have hurt his feelings as I had retreated from his touch. But instead, he was...fascinated by something.

Hearing someone laugh from the doorway distracted me from that weird feeling and why X was even here in the first place. Looking over there I see this blonde lady looking at me rather amused. With a boy staring pointedly at me and a girl beside him was hiding her face, blushing.

I look down at myself and realise I'm naked.

Quickly locating a blanket, I rapidly wrap it around myself, really wanting to disappear right now. I just flashed everyone. Great. Way to leave a lasting impression. 'Hi. I'm just your friendly neighbourhood flasher'. Shit.

The blonde lady suddenly comes closer and I move backwards, as far from her reach as possible. But I suddenly hit a wall of ice with nowhere to go.

"Oh come now. I'm not gonna bite you," she grins, still amused with the way I'm acting. "I might nibble though."

So not making me feel at ease here.

"Ok. Ok. Let's start with the basics. I'm Hanna. This bundle of sunshine is X. Those two twins at the door are Rain and Mist...and the cranky one behind them is Fenir. Don't mind him, He just forgets to eat his greens."

I wasn't the only one who was surprised to see that big bulky man behind Rain and Mist as the pair jump into the room. Fenir also has a gun pointed directly at me.

"Put that away," Hanna manages to growl rather scarily at Fenir without looking away or losing that smile on her face.

"He's a threat to all of us."

"Ignore him, please." She smiles sickly sweet at me still.

I'm really uncomfortable here...

Then a thought hit me. "Where is the tiger?" I quickly ask, my voice was raspy and it hurt my throat, like I've been screaming at the top of my lungs for a few hours.

Hanna looks at me like I was a plant that could suddenly talk. "Oh wow," then she was on me with a touch and pulling at my face and jaw, ignoring my personal-space rights. "All his signs are normal. Blood pressure and heart rate are normal. Oh fascinating! There is no sign of the cancerous splintering in his system at all. The Lunar radiation doesn't seem to affect him whatsoever."

"Ra-radiation? Get that out of my face-Ow! Waaah! Crazy lady! Wait-" I try to move away from the overly-touchy-grabby lady. "Can you stop for a second!? Hang on!" I pull away from her, putting my hands up and realise that my right arm for the first time.

My right arm is black and smooth, like onyx. A few scales illuminated against the pale light. My nails have become thick talon-like pieces of darkness, the very tips a milky white (like some weird ass version of a French-tip. Shut up, I know what they are because Anne forced me to paint her nails once.). I shakily touch the skin. It was soft but the random scales were hard and smooth. My palm still felt like my hand but it was still foreign to touch. What is this? The dark scaled arm ended just at my elbow, fading back to my original pale skin but thick tattoo like vine markings ran up my arm and along my shoulder until I could see where it ended. I...What am I? What is this?

This isn't my arm.