In the Mind

Chapter 14: Explanations

"What do you mean?" Elijah asked, sitting up in his bed while looking at Damion.

"How.....he was.......right..." Damion stuttered while pointing at the spot Noah was before he disappeared.

"Wait.....you saw him?" Elijah asked. Damion slowly nodded.

"But......he's my imagination there's no way you could've seen him." Elijah said shaking his head.

"Well he was right there and then suddenly he was gone." Damion said with panic in his voice. He began to pace through Elijah's room.

"Okay, well maybe now's the time I tell you everything I've been seeing....like Noah.......and these nightmares." Elijah said looking down.

"That would help......maybe we should bring Natsuki over. She deserves to know everything too right?" Damion asked while Elijah looked down.

"Yeah, but she does know more than you do." Elijah said stoking his fingertips through his hair.

"I'll bring her over." Damion said and left the room.

"So now you finally decide to speak up?" Natsuki said crossing her arms as she sat on Elijah's bed.

"Yes." Elijah replied looking over at Damion who closed the bedroom door and sat on an empty space on his bed.

"C'mon Eli! Spit it out!" Natsuki said impatiently.
"Okay okay, I'm start." Elijah replied to the eager girl. She was rocking back and forth in her seat while Damion had a look of interest.
"So it started right before my dad died....or Jamie as his real name." Elijah started while looking back and forth at Damion and Natsuki.
"Go on!" Natsuki said impatiently. Elijah nodded.
"It was a nightmare that I have a hard time forgetting....it was......really weird......yet terrifying at the same time......I remember it like it happened yesterday." Elijah said while looking down.
Elijah looked around. His heart pounded so hard he could hear it in his ears. He sat next to his bed with his knees touching his chin and his arms wrapped around his knees. Tears were strolling down his face, while a pain he had never felt before consumed him.
"Why her? Why did she have to do it?" Elijah asked quietly to himself.

He was at least thirteen years old, older than when he had the nightmare. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs of the small house, and Elijah jerked his head up. Fear overwhelmed him and he began to panic. He could hear the footsteps coming closer to his bedroom door. Elijah's throat grew an even bigger lump and the back of his neck burned like someone was burning it with a lighter. The bedroom door creaked open and a tall shadowy figure stood in the doorway. Elijah looked at it and the figure soon came into view. The creature came into view and slowly edged towards Elijah. He quickly crawled backwards, terrified at the sight before his eyes. It smiled at him and licked it's lips.

Elijah explained his nightmare, not a single detail left out. The scenes playing in an endless loop through his head, causing him to feel a horrible pain through his body. By now however, Elijah was having trouble figuring out whether the pain was real, or if it was just in his head. A pain from when Noah died. A pain when his dad died. Or if the pain was something physically wrong with him. Elijah shook his head at the thought and looked up at Natsuki and Damion.
"So....it's like you knew what it was.....and was afraid of what it would do." Natsuki contemplated, looking at Elijah with intense curiosity.

"You said you mumbled to yourself....asking why some 'she' did it.....did what?" Damion asked.
"I don't know....it was just a nightmare....but they kept on coming back and then.....dad or Jamie died." Elijah said looking down.

"Well it just so happens that your nightmares are becoming true. Like that creature. It's in the real world so it has to be more than just a nightmare." Natsuki said looking at Elijah who's body ached and stomach burned.

"I don't know who this 'she' is. I don't know why or how anything right now is going on. A creature from my nightmares is haunting me in real life and my dead friend is talking to me like a fucking fortune cookie. So I don't know a god damn thing!" Elijah yelled. He put his hands on his forehead and rubbed it, he could feel a headache brewing.

"Calm down Eli. We're just as confused as you." Natsuki replied to Elijah who was now quiet and looking down.
"Yeah. You and your outbursts." Damion teased, making Elijah want to punch him in the face.
"You guys don't get it. Suki's only seen the creature once, and you've only seen Noah once. Do you know what it's like to continuously see these things over and over again? And each time it takes something or someone? Sometimes it takes parts of me away. It's like I'm slowly losing my mind and the only things that are around me are what I thought were figments of my mind. But apparently, they're real. It just gets more confusing and I've been pretty much the only one dealing with it." Elijah explained to Damion who was looking at him with a blank expression.

"Eli, you've gotta quit complaining about it because that's not gonna help you. You've gotta interrogate Noah or this creature and get the information you need." Natsuki explained. Elijah's frustration was like a volcano nearly ready to blow it's top off.

"Don't you think I've tried that already? Every time I ask that creature who by the way is named Kishiki, a question, it tells me 'You know why' or 'it's in the mind'. And Noah I've tried talking to and all I've gotten from him is that if he tells me what's going on, there's a high chance I'll either go insane or kill myself. So how am I supposed to figure things out if no one will tell me anything?" Elijah argued. His irritation was overwhelming him, causing his thought process to become blurred.

"Maybe this Kishiki thing and Noah are giving you clues so you can figure it out." Natsuki shrugged as she gave her theory.

"What's the difference between figuring it out on your own and someone telling you?" Damion asked, contradicting Natsuki's theory.

"A big difference according to Noah......this is so annoying." Elijah said, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips.

"Okay, I have an idea." Natsuki started with her finger up.
"And that is?" Damion said, moving his hand in a circular motion indicating her to go on.
"Let Noah and that thing...or Kishiki, continue to give you small pieces like they're already doing and try to put them together in real life." Natsuki said.

"What do you think I've been doing? That's how I found out Damion was my brother. It's just some things don't make sense. Like what happened last night." Elijah replied while shaking his head.
"You said that Kishiki's been giving you these dream things like last night. Maybe they're not dreams but like.....alternate universe stuff or something." Damion said with a shrug.
"Damion this isn't a Sci-Fi movie! There's no alternate universes. Eli they're probably just throwing you off and acting like they're helping you, but maybe they're not. What if they plan on killing you or something?" Natsuki questioned.
"Kill me? Why though?" Elijah asked. Natsuki's theory made his skin crawl. But her theory wasn't nonsense, there was a possibility that they were going to kill him. Acting like something's happening, and as soon as he goes to look for it, they kill him.

"Why would it kill Noah? It had no reason to. Just like it would have no reason to kill you. Just a.....murderous beast." Natsuki shrugged, but her face turned a shade lighter.
"I say we plan for the worst, like it killing Eli or even worse than that, killing all of us. That way we're prepared for if Kishiki or Noah come's after us." Damion contemplated. Elijah and Natsuki nodded in agreement.

"Well, that means we're gonna be pretty busy." Natsuki said with a smirk.