A silent breath escaped my lips. I was walking through the woods in the middle of the camp. I didn't know how I got here or what was happening. I was breathing silent, heavy breaths. It was as if I'd been running except no sound could escape me.
I stared ahead through the trees. I thought I saw a figure of a person. A silhouette. It disappeared the moment I'd processed the shape.
I could feel myself beginning to panic. My body was shaking, and I could feel my chest rising up and down at a quicker pace. I still couldn't hear myself, though. I couldn't hear my breathing, my heart, my footsteps on the leafy ground. There was absolutely nothing audible. Had I gone deaf?
I stared at my feet, not moving, trying to focus on anything. Any sound I thought I'd be able to hear in a forest. Birds chirping, sticks breaking, maybe even the low chattering of chipmunks in a nearby log. I heard nothing, not even when I forcefully broke a stick beside my ears.
I looked up again, this time trying to find out where I was. This didn't make any sense. I didn't remember leaving the dorm. I didn't remember waking up. I'd never had a lucid dream before....was this what it was like? If so, I didn't enjoy it. I wasn't really in control of anything. All that was happening was that I was self aware.
Suddenly, I saw the movement again. The silhouette reappeared. I took a greater step forward, wanting to catch up with the strange being, but it vanished again. I felt my shoulders slump in defeat.
A shrill scream made me jump. My eyes flickered to my right, spotting a shadowy person in the distance. No, two people. I squinted my eyes to try to get a better look, but I couldn't see anything clearly.
I slowly made my way towards the two strangers, taking note that I still couldn't hear the sound of my own footsteps on the forest floor. Why was I able to hear the scream of the girl?
When I was close enough to see better, I froze. I noticed a long knife in the hand of a man. The girl, who I assumed had screamed, had her mouth open and her eyes wide. She stared at me, straight through me.
A shiver passed through my body. She couldn't see me. I was invisible. Not being able to hear myself began to make more sense, but that thought soon disappeared from my mind when the man lifted the hand holding the knife clear above his head.
I couldn't see his face. It was dark, and covered with a hood. Not even the slightest glimpse of his nose. Only the clear sound of him heavily breathing in the girls ear, maybe even whispering something to her.
I could tell from where I was standing that she was whimpering, shaking. Tears rolled down her cheeks. She cried out again, except this time it was cut short. The knife came down onto the top of her head, ending her life quickly.
I felt my mouth open, and scream emitting from my own throat. The man immediately turned towards me, and I was no longer invisible.
I tried to move my feet to run, but it was as if I was glued in place. I shook my head, closing my mouth, as the man strode towards me. He had detached the bloodied knife from the girl's head, carrying it in his right hand.
I shook my head, pleading silently for him to let me go.
Then, the man spoke.
"Alayla!" He screamed.
I lashed out, my upper body being the only part of me that seemed to be cooperating with my brain.
"Alayla, wake up! Please. Alayla! Ouch!" He yelled.
He dropped the knife and brought his hands to my shoulder. With a firm grip he began to shake me.
"Alayla wake up" The words came from his mouth, but they no longer sounded like his voice.
My eyes flew open and I looked up to see a worried Kaylee peering down at me. She was fully on my bed with both her hands grasping my shoulders. She hopped off of me as soon as she saw that I was awake. I shot up, breathing heavily, and stared at her.
"What happened?" I gasped.
She shrugged, looking rather annoyed. "I thought you were dying. You were obviously dreaming. Actually....you hit me."
I didn't want to apologize just because of the attitude she was giving me, but I was so shaken up from the dream, "I'm sorry." were really the only words that easily rolled off my mouth without thinking about it.
"It's fine. I guess." She muttered, walking slowly to the bathroom. "Probably woke up the entire floor. I'm surprised you didn't alert any of the guards."
"Oh please! Kaylee, stop being a bitch about this. We hear people having episodes all the time. Give me a break. My brain is fried. You're terrified, too. Don't pin this all on me, trying to tell me I'm crazy."
She stalked back towards my bed, pointing a finger at me.
"I did not ever call you crazy. Yes, I am terrified, but I'm also tired. You woke me up an hour before the waking bell. I could have had an extra hour of sleep. .I was having a rather good dream, too!"
Again, I didn't want to apologize, but my guilty conscious forced me too. She quickly thanked me for it and continued to get ready for the day.
I was drained from the nightmare I'd had. I couldn't get the image of the girl with the knife in her head out of my brain. It was like someone printed it onto the inside of my eyelids so I could see it every time I closed my eyes.
I just hoped it didn't mean anything..
~~~~~~~~~~
After the four hours of agonizing push ups, sit ups, and constant two minute planks, we were able to head back to the dorms.
The instructors led us deep through the woods, because for some reason today they thought it was a good idea to hike all the way out to the lake just to do some push ups that we could have easily done in the air conditioned dorms.
They had an intercom, they could have instructed us through that.
But, coming out here did have its perks. I liked nature, and plus I got to see Jason. We had become rather close. It was easy, especially when you were both terrified of the same thing. We could relate to a lot.
We didn't talk about camp all the time, though. Thankfully, we had a lot of other things in common too. We liked a lot of the same music. He actually wrote some himself. I told him about how I liked to draw and was pretty good at it too. He liked to paint. I told him about my love for big dogs.
It was a nice bonding time we had. Sucked that our conversation about the things we loved had to be cut short.
I nearly ran into the girl in front of me because of how abruptly she stopped. I almost yelled at her for it until I heard the same scream I had in my dream.
My blood ran cold and my throat got extremely dry.
"What was that?" I heard Jason whispered.
I shook my head and looked to my right, exactly the same place I looked when I was having my nightmare. I saw the same silhouette, too.
"Oh my god," I spoke.
Jason gave me a questioning look.
"I had a nightmare about this last night."
I watched closely, as did everyone around me. It was a man and a girl, just the same as the dream. His arm rose up and I could just barely make out the jagged edge of his knife from here.
"No!" I cried, Jason covering my mouth with his hand to prevent me from causing a scene.
His hand drove the knife through the girl's scull just as tears began to run down my cheeks.
"Shhh." Jason turned me around to face where we should have been heading. "It'll be okay." He was rubbing my shoulders in a soothing manner. I couldn't help but relax into his touch.
My mind was buzzing with what had just happened. Why had I dreamed about this? Why was my mind foretelling the future of others? This couldn't be normal. I had to be dreaming again. This had to be a continuous nightmare that just wouldn't go away.
I shook my head, trying to release the thoughts....so I thought of something else.
Day seven down, only five more to go.