Accomplice

1

Flames erupted all around me, licking my face with searing heat. Smoke cluttered the unfamiliar hotel room I was enclosed in, suffocating me. My eyes watered, and I shut them without thinking about the consequences. Something cool gripped my arm, shocking me into taking a deep breath, causing fumes to fill my lungs. The hand holding tight to my sleeve pulled me down, guiding me as I coughed violently. My head grew dizzy from lack of clean air, causing my vision to go in and out. I got a glimpse of the figure leading me somewhere. Her blonde hair was dangerously close to the fire, her clothes and body covered with soot. Dark curtains were pushed back to show a windowed view of two stories up. I struggled to open the window, but it didn't budge.

"Watch out." The voice from behind me ordered. I obeyed, scurrying to the corner of the window. I barely got any chance to see the chair she was holding before she smashed it through the window. Without thought, she took her jacket off and put it on the window sill so the glass was hidden. She locked eyes with me, only looking away at the last moment and she was gone. My breath caught, and I nervously looked out to where she fell. She was standing, like she never jumped from twenty feet up.

"Jump!" She yelled, her voice a grave warning of what might happen if I don't. Yet I hesitated, my body frozen in fear. My eyes searched for a loophole, but the smoke in my lungs and the heat on my back distracted me. I shakily put my foot on the window sill, hearing the crunch of glass as i shifted my weight. Right when I began to put my other foot on the ledge, a slam thundered the room. My head whipped back, my current situation forgotten as the smoke in the room was sucked out and into the hallway. In the doorway was a figure of large renowned, and I began stepping off the ledge, thankful that the fireman was quick enough to save me from the fall. The man got closer. The man was not a firefighter. He was scowling. I didn't know the man, but I did know the look of danger when I saw it. My heart raced, every fiber of my being yelling at me to not jump.

But, the girl below me and the man beside me both fought for the fall. I was frozen in place, once again turning my blood to steel. The man stepped forward, and my feet left the ledge. In the split second as I was falling, time seemed to crawl. Along with time, my thoughts also went slow. I felt a painful stinging in my arm. My eyes caught the source of the pain right before I hit. A shard of glass had sliced my bicep. Blood made my already dark skin darker. My feet hit the ground, and I woke up with a start.

Out of breath, I rubbed my face and tried to rid myself of my dream. After a moment, my jump and the fire of my subconscious were subsided behind my daily routine I've created. My clock read 3:27 am, and the sky was still dark. I was used to waking up before the rest of the world, my vivid dreams weirding me out enough to successfully keep me awake. I walked downstairs, not bothering to keep quiet. I sighed deeply, pouring myself coffee and thinking over my day. I sat down, ignoring the fearsome clutter. With the TV on, I distracted myself until the birds work up and I had to go to school.

The drive to school was short. I lived just far enough that I couldn't walk but it still felt like I was wasting gas. My car was old and run down. I almost had gotten my dad's practically new truck, but we had to sell it a year before I got my license. With a little over half the money from the old car, I had bought the oldest car on the planet.

I parked, my actions turning to autopilot as I grabbed my things and entered the school. I sat against the wall where Logan and I typically met. I was only fifteen minutes early, but as soon as Logan saw me he knew.

"You had another dream?" His question was knowing, asking more to explain than the question itself. I nodded, and he sat in front of me like an excited little kid. He nodded his head as to not ask another question. I sighed, trying to force an uneasy smile onto my lips.

"This time I was in a hotel," I began, already feeling the slight sting on my arm from memory. "The hotel was on fire, and the door was blocked. I had to jump out the window to survive." He raised his eyebrows in entrigue.

"But no girl?" Logan's question was expected, as I had jet to mention her. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, she was there." He smiled, like my unhinged dreams were a type of television show. "But she looked better."

"Better?" He asked, getting up as the first bell rung. "Better how?"

"Her hair had grown out," I pictured her from my previous dreams, with messily cut short hair. "And her leg had healed completely." I tried to avoid talking about the man in the dream, because my excuseless fear of him was a bit humiliating.

"So this dream is set way after the others." Logan guessed, though speaking more to himself in theory. I shrugged, they were dreams, and sometimes dreams didn't make sense. "What's the weird?" He pressed.

"'The weird'?" I echoed, thought I had a vague idea what he was talking about.

"You know," his words paused for a second to think."Last time it was that vivid smell, and the time before that it was you knowing my middle name when I have never told you."

"Firstly, you definitely told me your middle name, and second, this time was weirder."
"Weirder than you knowing my middle name when I did not tell you?" I nodded, not bothering to fight with him.

"As I jumped out of the burning building, a broken piece of glass cut my arm. And it hurt, it hurt more than anything else I've ever felt."

"But you can't get hurt in your dreams," He laughed humorlessly, "that's like, the number one thing about dreams." I shrugged, not disagreeing with him. The bell rung, and we turned our separate ways. "That is weird." He murmured as the hallways began to crowd.