© ItalRT4u, 2012
I awoke feeling extremely tired. I cursed those damn nightmares; I hadn't had them in nearly six months. I felt odd this morning. I glanced over at my bedside table looking for the time; it was just after ten in the morning. Feeling like I had wasted so much of my day already, I got up and dressed in my workout clothes. Tying my shoes, I headed downstairs and grabbed my iPhone and house keys.
A good run is all I need. I thought to myself, heading out the front door.
Half-way through my run, I had reached the park when I began feeling even more off for the lack of a better description. My stomach was beginning to churn, knots felt like they were forming within it, and my head began to pound. I shook it off and tried to pace myself for the second half of my run.
I was five minutes away from my house when my knees buckled and my hands clutched the sides of my head. Sitting on my knees, on someone’s front lawn, I attempted to breathe through the overwhelmingly throbbing pain. I hadn't noticed the pair of shoes that had stopped in front of me until I felt the person's hand on my shoulder – a hot touch.
“Hey! Are you alright?” The soft-spoken manly voice asked.
“I'll be fine.” I tell him softly with my head still hanging in my hands. I tried to pick myself up only to collapse back down to the ground, my vision beginning to slightly blur.
“I'm taking you home.” He said as he crouched down to my level.
“No. Honestly, I...” My voice trailed off as I found myself looking slightly upward into familiar eyes.
“It's you!” He said with a slight air of surprise.
“Huh?” I said as he helped me to my feet slowly. I wasn't running home yet, that's for sure. The pounding in my head was easing off but the churning in my stomach was turning, its knots growing progressively tighter, the unsettling getting worse.
“You're that girl.” He says and then, that's when I realized that it was the guy from the club last night – Mr. Bright Eyes.
“That girl?” I eyed him, curious as to what he meant by it.
“I saw what you did to that dude after he grabbed you. It looked like you instilled the fear of God in him with whatever you told him.” He tells me. “Then again, grab any guy by the balls like that and I'm sure he wouldn't dare mess with you any time soon.” I felt my entire face blush and heat up and he chuckled at my reaction.
“You saw that huh?” I couldn't look at him and I suddenly felt like I should keep making my way home. I began to walk away.
“Where are you going?” He took the two quick steps to fall in stride beside me. My legs were strong but the jelly feeling was getting stronger and stronger within them. The last thing I needed was another collapse.
“Home.” I answer.
“Let me walk you.”
Despite my protesting, I caved and was relieved in a sense because I could feel the earlier symptoms slowly creeping up on me once again as he escorted me home. Reaching my front walkway, he almost seemed disappointed that we had arrived at my house. I know I wasn't going to be hearing the end of it after I noticed Sahara's car parked out front, on the side of the street.
“Where the...” Sahara said jumping out of her car. “Damn Payton, are you alright?”
“I'm fine.” I tell her as everything starts to blur. I felt Mr. Bright Eyes' hand on my elbow as I tried to brace myself and my ears began to ring while my eyes finally registered black.
Quietly, my hand turns the knob and I exit my room, into the hall where I find my mother lying on her stomach, arms stretched above her head as she was attempting to crawl toward me.
“Payton! Run, Honey!” She yelled, blood sputtering from her lips. “It’s time to run, Sweetheart.” My head registered panic but my body was unable to follow my mother's orders. A man flew out the entryway to my parents’ bedroom with my father pressed to his front. I hadn't noticed the knife sticking out of him until he started to slouch down, life draining from his body. Dark brown eyes, deep as the deepest of abysses stared at me. They appeared as though they were trying to swallow me whole. I felt the instant my father's soul left his body. My mother was lying limp at my feet gargling on her own blood. I shuddered at the thought of what my fate held for me. The hunter took a step toward me; fear being instilled deep within my core.
“Come here!” He ordered me. My feet found their path as I started to back away from him. “I said, come here!” He ordered a second time and I spun around to make my way down the stairs, only to find myself hitting a brick wall; or so I thought. Hands gripped me at the wrists while the hunter that had killed my father marched over toward me. There were two of them. They were identical in appearance. One with deep black eyes, the one who killed my father and left my mother for dead; the second, with brown eyes and flecks of black in them. Regardless of color, they were eyes of killers – hunters, and I, their prey.
“What do you want?” I asked, fear lacing every shaky word that rolled off my tongue.
“You.” And I felt something hard, hit me on the back of my head.
I woke up in a pool of my mother's blood mixing with mine. A heavy weight on my chest; those same dark black pools for eyes, merely inches from mine. I couldn't help but wonder what he was trying to do. His mouth moved closer to mine but our lips never touched. My body ached from the abuse they had inflicted while I had been unconscious. The tensed air of frustration filled my senses. I could tell that whatever they were looking for, they hadn't found. I became consumed with feelings of anger and rage.
“Johnny, I don’t think…” His voice trailed off in frustration.
“Never mind that. Here.” I saw the shiny blade being passed to him but Johnny shook his head. “Finish her off. She’s no good to us anyway.”
“I want to feel her life drain away.” He looked at me with the most evil smirk.
Next thing I knew, everything faded and became black as Johnny wrapped his roughly calloused hands around my neck attempting to drain the remainder of my life out of me. In this moment, I let the darkness take me, hoping that it would whisk me away, sparing me of feeling the painful doom that my parents had succumbed to.
“Payton!” I felt light taps on the side of my cheek. “Come on Payton, you have to wake up.”
“Hmm.” I grumbled groggily.
“That’s it Payton. Open those emerald eyes for me, Hun.” I heard. Slowly coming to, I realized the voice belonged to Sahara. As more of my senses returned, I was increasingly aware of what had just happened. I bolted upright, and found myself sitting on my couch, Sahara, crouched on the floor beside me.
“What the hell just happened?” I whispered out loud.
“You looked deathly ill and then you just passed out.” She explained.
“Where’s Mr. Bright Eyes?” I asked her, looking around. There was no way she would have been able to get me in my house without help.
“He’s gone now. Where’d you find him?” She asked me.
“The club last night.” I tell her, my thoughts running through my head.
“I was with you last night, Doll. You weren’t with anyone.”
“I mean I saw him there last night.” I tell her.
“But that doesn’t explain him being with you today.” Sahara persisted.
“I don’t know. I had this pounding ache in my head and my knees gave out and he popped out from the middle of nowhere.” I told her. “It doesn’t matter. I’m fine now.” I got up and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. Truth was, I was freaked out by what had just happened. The nightmare during my loss of consciousness shook me some.
“You’re fine?” Sahara got up and chased me down. “Is that all you’re gonna say? For crying out loud, you scared the shit out of me woman!” She practically yelled at me.
“I’m sorry?” I turned to face her with an innocent smirk on my face after I had poured myself some water. “I hope he wasn’t too freaked out.” I say, in an attempt at diffusing her worry for me.
“He was worried, like I am now.” Sahara studied me. “How long have they been back?” She asked and I knew that she knew my nightmares had returned.
“Last night and just now have been the firsts.” I mumbled.
“It’s been a year.” Sahara stated with regard to my parents’ death. I nodded gloomily.
We had spent a few hours talking about what we had missed out in each other’s lives over the past year, since she had left for college. I pretty much listened seeing as nothing extensive had taken place with me other than work, Gage and school which she pretty much knew all of this from our various telephone conversations.
“Are you sure you’ll be alright while I’m gone?” She asked me.
“I’ll be fine.” I assured her. “Go have fun with the family. Tell your parents I say hi.”
“Will do and Happy Twenty-First Birthday, Love.”
And with that, my life-long best friend took off. I stood in the doorway, watching as she drove off, unable to shake the feeling that something in the air gave off a twinge of eeriness. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Shaking the thought out of my head, I closed the door, bolted it and headed upstairs for a well-deserved shower.
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