Outcry - Completed

Chapter 1

(Picture: Rayne Slade ^^^^)

Rayne bolted upright in the center of her bed, her heart pounding a deafening rhythm against her rib cage as breaths came in short, quick gasps. She clutched at her sweat-drenched T-shirt and stared into the darkness of her bedroom, trying to focus her eyes as they darted back and forth from shadowed corner to shadowed corner, searching for the person she knew was just there.

A dream. It was just a dream.

She couldn't catch her breath. It felt as though someone was sitting on her chest, preventing her lungs from expanding. She desperately grabbed for the lamp on her nightstand, and as soon as the light flooded the space, she jerked around, looking over every inch of the room.

Empty.

She leaned over and rested her elbows on her knees, face buried in her hands, trying to calm herself as she wiped away the auburn hair plastered to her forehead in a thin sheen of sweat. Her newfound paranoia and nightmares were getting out of hand and did nothing but make her angry.

Why? Why is it the same damn dream every time?

The perpetual string of questions that had haunted her since the break-in decided to rear their ugly heads as they had every morning for the past two weeks. Obviously, the incident had affected her more than she thought. At first, it hadn't really bothered her. She'd just assumed that it was a crime of opportunity. An individual saw an empty apartment and decided that there might be something of value inside.

I bet they were disappointed.

It wasn't until she discovered that absolutely nothing had been taken, that her mind began to throw every possible scenario into the mix. She started to worry about the true motives of the offender. She tried for days to convince herself that it was a mistake: Once the thief realized that she was just as bad off, if not worse than himself, he left with nothing, maybe out of pity, or something else perhaps.

The nightmares started shortly after. Every morning at four A.M., she would awaken exactly the same as she had just then, drenched in sweat, unable to breathe, and very nearly on the verge of a heart attack. Over and over, she relived the torture from a rancid monster with rotting teeth, putrid breath, and disgusting in every way imaginable. He would force himself on her as she lay helplessly restrained to her own bed, unable to move or even scream. She still could feel the slimy trail his repulsive tongue left on her neck and the way his greasy hands groped and pulled on her body.

That's all it had been at first, just her and the beast. That is, until she noticed the faceless stranger standing silently in the corner, watching.

After several days of enduring the vision, she became somewhat accustomed to it and realized that it wasn't as terrifying as it originally had been. Every time the vision came to her, she saw a little more detail about his features. Tonight, she was able to see his eyebrows and the faintest hint of color to his eyes.

Blue, maybe?

Trying to recall every minuscule element to the stranger that had been plaguing her, she suddenly realized something that hadn't occurred to her till then: I could see his lips.

A shiver started at the top of her head and snaked its way down her spine, ending at the tips of her toes. Tiny bumps pricked her skin and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she let the image fade in and out, wondering if she'd really seen it or just imagined it.

Of course you imagined it. It was a dream.

The fact alone that she could see his mouth was not what had bothered her. It was what was around it. There, at each corner, was a trail of blood dripping down his chin.