Forever

Trust Me

     Hazel's eyes flew open, the darkness around her swallowing everything. She choked on the air as she fought with the blankets trapping her limbs together. The last of her dream hung on, suffocating her as sweat poured down her face. The room was too small, everything too close. Trapping her inside. She had to escape.

     Finally freeing herself from the confines of her bed, she ran to her window and fumbled with the rusted lock. Her fingers shook as she tried to do it as quiet as possible, her heart pounding inside her chest. When she managed to get the lock undone, she pushed the glass open, wincing at the creak it made on the way. Somewhere in the back of her mind was her worry for her father waking. But right then all she could think about was sticking her head out into the cool night, drinking in the delicious fresh air.

     She closed her eyes, taking in slow, even breaths as the dream faded to nothing. But the feeling of being watched did not leave her as easily. Those eyes. Those eyes were always watching her now, tracking her every move. It sounded crazy, even to her. She was letting Jayden get in her mind, the fear planting it's roots in deep. Yet she couldn't shake it. Ever since she finished that painting, something was wrong. An impending doom hanging thick in the air.

     Opening her eyes, she tried to relax herself against the window pane, her eye still aching horribly. Something pulled inside her heart, tugging her towards something she couldn't see. These feelings usually went away after her paintings, an odd emptiness in their place. She didn't understand what was different. Why it felt so much more real this time. It was only a dream.

     Hazel sighed, gingerly touching the bruise by her eye. This was what her reality was, not the paintings. Not the dreams she escaped in with a brush and paint. She needed to stop pretending they were anything else but that; dreams.

     "You really have no idea," a deep voice sounded behind her.

     She spun around, barely holding in a scream. Jayden Moore stood casually in the middle of her room, flipping through her carefully hidden sketch book. The pages that contained the rough drafts of her dream paintings, when she woke up in a cold sweat in the dead of night.

     "What-how did you get in here?" Her eyes flew to her bedroom door, which was securely locked.

     He ignored her confusion, continuing going through the pages of her book. His expression held concern, pacing around her room as he muttered to himself. "Do you have any idea the power..."

     Hazel stood frozen, watching him. She was hallucinating, she must be. There was no way this boy was standing in her room just within arms reach. A hallucination, a dream. Anything along rational lines of thinking. Anything to still her crazed heart.

     Yet that tug, that pull she felt only moments before. It was stronger than ever, making her head spin. Everything was hanging on the edge, waiting. The universe seemed to hold it's breath in anticipation of what was about to happen. 

     "How did you get in my room?" She repeated slowly, gulping nervously.

     He drug his eyes up to hers, frowning. "He'll never touch you again."

     Frustration bubbled inside her. "Jayden I swear-"

     He closed her book, stepping closer as she took a step back. "There's a lot you don't understand yet Hazel."

     She took one more step back, her back exposed to the cold night as he came closer. He continued in his steps until he stood only inches away. His eyes held something she couldn't explain as her heart beat painfully, unable to look away. It was so loud she wondered if he could hear it as his hand began to raise. Immediately she stiffened, flashbacks to earlier that day paralyzing her. She closed her eyes and turned her head away as his hand gently brushed over the skin near her eye, gentle as a feather. She held her breath.