What Is A Dream?

Chapter 13

Adela woke in a cold sweat. She'd had the most terrible nightmare. It was about the days of Samuel's death. She curled up on her bed and pulled the covers around her. Finally, she got too hungry just to stay there. Still, she didn't want to get up and have people see her like this.

Ian, she called out with her mind. She made her mental face look as if she'd had a normal night of sleep, not whatever her fitful night could be called.

Good morning, he replied.

Bring me food, Adela requested. Unhealthy food. Chocolate! A few minutes later, he knocked on her door. "Come in," she called, hastily wiping her tears and sweat away. He entered carrying a tray. On it was a teapot, a teacup, and two covered bowls. He lifted the tray up to her and smiled.

"Enjoy." Adela thanked him as he left and looked at her breakfast. In one bowl was chocolate pudding, and in the other were scrambled eggs with jelly, just how she liked them. Adela opened her computer and started watching Merlin. She ate the eggs first because she didn't want them to get cold, then she savored the pudding.

When she was all finished, Adela was finally ready to get up. She climbed down from her bed and brought the tray down too. Just as she stepped outside her room, she was somewhere else.

It was dark and cold. There was metal beneath her feet. Adela looked wildly around. She couldn't see anything in the blackness. She knelt and felt the ground. It was roughly hewn. Adela crawled in one direction until her hands hit a wall. It was just as rough, but it had a strange substance on it, like sticky oil. Adela wrenched her hand away and wiped it on her pajamas.

"Del?" Ian's voice asked. She whirled around. There was now a soft light shining from an unknown source above, just enough that she could make out Ian's features. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," she answered, running to him. "What could have done this?"

"Demons, or faeries," he guessed. "Angels too, but they wouldn't. That's all I can think of. How long have you been here?"

"Just a few minutes," she answered. "You?"

"I appeared here a second ago," he told her. "Del, how do we get out of this place?" Adela shook her head to show that she didn't know, then took his hand and looked around. Ian's hand tightened around hers and he gasped. She looked to see a red spot on his chest. It grew. The tip of a knife pierced through his skin. Ian's eyes were wide and shocked. Blood gurgled out of his mouth as he died. Ian fell, but before he hit the ground, he disappeared.

Adela screamed. "Ian!" she screamed. "Ian! What have you done with him? Who are you? Bring him back! Bring him back!"

"Adela!" Samuel cried, running and hugging her. "My baby girl, what's the matter? Where are we?"

"Daddy," she sobbed. "Ian! He was here! He was here, and something- a knife- he disappeared- died- wh-" Before she could finish her hysterical babbling, Samuel backed away. His eyes were blank. Something dropped in front of him and he picked it up. "Daddy?" Adela asked like a child might. He didn't respond.

Samuel picked up the object. It was a length of rope. Adela was frozen as he tied it around his neck and pulled. She couldn't move as he choked up empty gasps for air and his face lost color. Her legs became jelly when he fell to the ground, motionless. When she finally made herself move, he was gone.

"No," she whispered. "Not again."

Next was Christine. She drowned. Then came Lucy. She was decapitated. Baby Ruby was drawn and quartered. Stephanie burned to death. By then Adela realized that it wasn't real, but each one felt so real. Each one held her and told her it was okay, except Ruby of course. But even the baby was comforting until an unknown force snatched her away.

When Adela tried sitting in the corner of the room, closing her eyes, and blocking her ears, the scenes occurred just as vividly inside her head. When an unknown amount of time, maybe three or four hours, had passed, the visions stopped. A bowl of stew and a crust of bread appeared in the middle of the room. Adela weakly crawled over and devoured them hungrily. She finished and put them aside. "Come out," she called in a hoarse voice from all her screaming. "I'm done playing games. Show yourself!"

Nobody did. Exhaustion eventually got the best of Adela. She curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

In the morning the visions started again, this time with her friends from school. She was given two meals that day. The next was her extended and immediate family, excluding her father.

It went on for a year.