Riot

Riot C6 -- Uncertainty

<Author's Comments> Not a very long chapter, I know. Forgive me, children! But some stuff happens, I promise! So don't just skip it. Please.

-- C6 --

I sat straight up out of bed and hit my head on the bunk above me.

"Oww," I whined as I rubbed the top of my sore head. I realized that I was sweating like crazy. I reviewed the dream carefully, not wanting to miss anything important. I tried to organize my thoughts, but it became a big jumble of questions. Was the golden eyed guy me? Was the burning town a prophecy of some sort? Was that John Ledlix standing in the center of the courtyard? Was it him who tried to kill me? Who was that girl he transformed into? Who did I transform into?

The questions kept jumbling around in my head. Maybe I needed someone to bounce ideas off of? No, this was weird. It could lead me to a big important decision that someone else would get in the way of. I decided to keep it to myself; at least until I knew it was safe to share. But it was just a dream, right? Or was this one of Forza's ways of contacting the living? Then why would he bother to warn me about anything? Maybe--

Just then, someone shuffled through my doorway. I jumped and hit my head on the bunk above me again.

"Are you okay? You're sweating all over your brick bed," Lexi joked. She walked over to me and put a hand on my sweaty shoulder, "But seriously. You okay?" Even if she kidded a lot, she cared about me.

"Uhhh, yeah. Er, I mean, yes. No wait, yeah. I am fine," I stuttered.

She looked at me suspiciously, "You don't seem fine. Bad dream?"

"Uhhh, yeah. Yes, bad dream. Bad dreams happen. I had a bad dream. Yes, a bad dream," I tripped some more.

She looked at me suspiciously again. "What was it about?"

Whoops. Maybe I should have said it was the stress of being third commander or something. I decided to go along with the almost-not-ha-lie and said, "Well, I was in a . . . a forest and things started to, uh, fall on my head. It was really scary."

She took off her suspicious face and sat down to comfort me, "Oh, don't worry. You'll only be scared for a little longer until the sleepiness wears off. Then you'll think it was just stupid paranoia. It happens to me all the time." She shrugged and looked away. She seemed to notice the little design I made over my doorway and added, "Nice decoration. Maybe I should do that to me and Fay's room." She looked back at me and smiled innocently. She seemed like just a cute little girl, but was really kick-ass when it came to training and such. She had a million different tactics for each situation, most of them about jumping on top of stuff.

I hit my head again when the human alarm clocks outside my doorway started banging on pots and pans. Lexi was too short to hit her head, though. She stood back up and said, "See you later, Deau," and walked out the doorway. I banged my head again while standing up. Maybe it was time to start sleeping on the top bunk.

The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. I did my first day of teaching, attended a meeting, but found nothing out about my dream. Lexi teased me about it, but she didn't know that it was actually about the destruction of Alco and me getting killed by some girl that John Ledlix transformed into. No, she thought it was about getting hit on the head. Kind of ironic, considering I had a sore head that whole day. It was actually kinda nice, getting teased. It took my mind off of the wacky dream.

The only thing I could take from it was that John Ledlix was not my friend. He had been smiling until he saw me in the dream. When we fought, I had the sense of three generations backpedaling, as if we were going back in time to an ancient battle between whoever that girl was and whoever I was. It made me think. Three generations? That would be great grandparents.

My eyes widened with the realization. It was Saedy Ledlix! She was the one who started the whole rebel thing! Then who did I turn into? My great grandfather? But he was dead! John had never really said whether or not Saedy was dead. She could still be alive. Did that mean that Saedy was the 'bad guy'? Or would it be John?

I racked my brain for an answer, but it was impossible. There was no way to figure it out. Maybe I was the bad guy. After all, I was pondering if I should ruin a plan that took generations to pull out. After a lot of questions and no answers, I decided that it was a bunch of rubbish. It was a dream! John didn't hate me. He had no reason to. Also, there wasn't really a reason for Alco to fall to pieces. I considered that my imagination was being a drama queen to catch my attention, but it was just a dream! Just some messed up story from the depths of my imagination. I decided to drop the whole thing and ignore it. Just my stupid paranoia coming back for one lousy night.

But I couldn't help it. Some small part of me cried out, trying to convince me it was to be taken seriously. I pushed it back, though that seed of uncertainty remained, nagging at my every thought as if everything was attatched in some way.

I climbed up into the top bunk and lay my head to rest, scared of what dream might follow.