Night Owl

Chapter 4 - Vivid Dreams

 

Chapter Four

Vivid Dreams

The plans were for me to finish out my sophomore year and then move to live with my grandparents, my father's parents. They had made the strenuous mortal flight to be present at the funeral, which had been carried out as I lay unconscious. After, my grandparents made plans and arrangements for me, along with the input from the Rafferties. All four agreed it was important for me to complete my school year before moving.

I didn't have the same thoughts and couldn't have cared less about anything, most especially school. But I didn't toil the issue as they came to my room and discussed my future with me. I now supposedly possessed powers unlike no other and maybe even had the capacity to move things and the physical force to pick them up with my mind. The powers I possessed, just as my decision making, had not surfaced. And as I thought about it more, I felt frustrated thinking I may not encompass these implausible supernatural abilities. If so, my parents' deaths would have been in vain. I was filled alternately with knowing my parents had died for a cause; to not being able to fulfill that cause, leaving me restless, angry, and most of all crestfallen.

Even though most of my life had been apart from my grandparents, I trusted them as much as I did Nash and Mina. And even in my distress, I knew they were making decisions which were going to be best for me. I had always wanted to move back home, just not for these horrendous reasons. I kept hearing this was my beginning and many changes would take place, so I was going to allow the ones who knew me best to take care of those changes...for now.

I fell into a routine at Nash and Mina's during this healing process. The potions were helping me heal. I slept, ate, took my medicine, showered, and started the process again. Then one night, the routine was disrupted. I woke up drenched in sweat from a nightmare. Initially, the dreams surfaced at night. Then the horrid nightmares turned into visions during the daylight hours. In my dreams, I saw demon looking creatures coming after me. The same thing happened in my visions. The nightmares left me drained and tired.

The bandages covering my eyes were not trouble-free. I tried not to complain. I felt caged. It was almost too much to handle. I had to remind myself often of what Mother had said to me the night she was killed. "Be brave. Never give up. You are a Hally."

During my last vision or dream, I was sitting at the dinner table with Nash and Mina, eating a special dinner they had prepared for me. As I sat eating, a sharp pain pierced through my head and then the threatening images came into view, so clear and real to me. Afterward, Nash and Mina said I froze. They shook me and raised their voices at me loud enough for the entire neighborhood block to hear. I didn't budge.

***

My dreams are becoming more vivid, almost real. I really don't know how to describe them without sounding crazy, but after seeing all I have witnessed the past couple of weeks, maybe I am crazy. One minute I'm with Nash and Mina in their home, wide awake, and the next thing I know, I'm standing alone in an open valley of pitch-dark. What's so bizarre about the dreams, and what I do know for sure, I'm in dissimilar and odd places. The dream places are as real as where I am before. And whoever or whatever is after me, they want something from me and then they want me dead.

In my dreams, I see dreary clouds which are hanging ghostly overhead, obstructing the glowing moon from seeping through for any hint of light. Animals are heard howling in the distance, the howls ricochet off the dark, shadowy mountains nearby. I'm standing in the middle of a huge field of swaying grasses. The howls mix with shrieks of eerie voices, evil sneering voices. The underworldly sounding screams are traveling closer and escalating at a fast pace, becoming louder with each baying cry.

I can now hear the spine-chilling sounds approaching in all directions, piercing my ears, circling and coaxing, laughing as they tease me. At the very spot I stand, I turn in several directions, trying to make out the source of the devilish voices, which continue their circling flight around me, causing me dizziness to the point I almost fall. I close my eyes to regain my balance. When I slowly open my eyes again, immediately, I'm paralyzed with fear as I focus and see pale floating haunting faces, with dark eyes, snarling with intense teeth, leaving long tails of ghostly smoke behind them as they move.

***

Afterwards, I wake up choking and gasping for air as though two hands were folded around my neck, squeezing and stealing my air, leaving my throat aching. And lately, after waking from the nightmare, my neck's literally red and swollen.

When Nash and Mina found the marks, and Grandma saw it, they decided I should go ahead and move back to Madison, New Hampshire. I talked with Grandma on Skype. She hid her true feelings and claimed I needed the fresh air. She didn't overreact about the dreams and visions. I love my Grandma Lil.

    

(Skyla's dreams are scary.  Read on and see what happens next!)   ALL VOTES AND COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED!