Chapter Fifty One
It was like I was dead.
I hung in the dark, unable to move, arms dangling above me, pants around my ankles... blood in my nose, clogging my senses. Hands around my throat. Choking. Strangling.
The laughter.
He was laughing again, laughing at the way he was hurting me, the way I writhed.
Why did I feel like my heart was breaking? Why wasn't I fighting back, why was I crying? His laughter, it was so familiar, as though the sound was calling me, reaching out to me with glowing black arms... and, with a strange yearning, I mentally reached out to the black light.
I felt a sudden, numb pain bloom in my lower region and flinched so badly that the dark vision faded slightly, swirling in a somewhat half-aware state. The laughter momentarily disappeared and I heard nothing but an odd ringing noise... but what was it...?
Could it have been a voice...?
Was it wind chimes...?
Or water running...?
Metal... shards...?
The sound of iron... bending and shredding... as it was ripped out of... something?
I shivered violently as strange shapes and images began to take place behind my eyes... was that my old bedroom? No... it was a club, a dance club... Dark Light, the one I'd met my boyfriend at... the flashing... the strobes... it was so familiar... but if I wasn't mistaken, that was my sister...
Kimberly... but, not how I remembered her. She looked young... very young. The sight of her dancing under the strobes with her hair let down was odd, since she hated dance clubs. I wanted to reach out and talk to her... to ask her why she was here... but... this wasn't real.
My sister was gone.
The moment I thought it, the room distorted and I saw a blurry figure, swirling like mist.
"Wow..." someone whispered. "He's so handsome..."
I realized only at the last second that my lips were moving, but then the strobes twisted and the world spun as something touched my lips and went down my throat. The air turned dark and the silhouette expanded, shadowy hands reaching out to me, obscuring my vision, drowning me...
"Something the matter, pretty boy? I thought you said I was handsome!"
"SOMEONE!" a distant voice screeched, voice muffled as the world was erased. "HELP ME!"
Red.... my hands, all over my hands, my fingers...
"What did you do...?" someone whispered in an insubstantial voice. "Oh, my God..."
"Don't forget," another, static-riddled voice hissed into my ear. "I own you now."
Then... the world was gone. Blackness. Infinite shadow stretching on endlessly.
Then red... all over a cracked floor.
Floor...
Red rivers... white pools... milk?
No, eyes... eyes... those eyes. I knew those eyes! Those were my---
"NO!" I screeched, bolting upright in bed; my hair flew forward and obscured my face, suffocating me in a way that made me panic. I flailed my arms with a wail, hyperventilating and covered in sweat, tearing my hair off my nose and mouth. Clear of it, I wrapped my arms around my stomach and stared at the unfamiliar room, panicking blindly.
My vision was blurry but when I saw a shadow slide into view from the open door I let out an involuntary scream of terror and scrambled backwards until I hit the headboard. The hulking figure jumped and seemed to sway, but I covered my head and face and folded up into a ball.
The room was suddenly suffused in light and I flinched.
Within seconds, two huge warm hands were cupping my waist and shoulder, fretfully ghosting over my clammy skin. I didn't uncurl, I didn't want to, if I did I would see...
My heart thumped and my eyes flew open.
Something wasn't right.
Not at all.
"I can't remember," I whispered, unfolding just enough to cradle my own head. "I can't remember what I just saw or why it scared me so badly! I can't remember any of it! What the fuck was it?! I saw it, I know it was important, I can feel it, so why?! What's wrong with me?!"
I devolved into panicky tears, feeling helpless and not understanding why; the bed bounced and two strong arms were suddenly lifting me into a sitting position, peeling my hands off of my face and gently pulling them down. I shuddered, shaking my throbbing head, fighting to remember.
I couldn't.
I couldn't remember what I had seen, what I had dreamed about, what it was. Only... eyes... it had been something about eyes... something that, for whatever reason, made me feel sick and awful and anguished down to the core of my stomach even though I couldn't figure out why.
I jumped when two brilliant green irises obscured my vision and my breath caught; Woody was looking at me from about an inch away, staring at me with an expression of extreme concern. I swallowed hard, slowly coming back to myself, slowly realizing that I was safe, that I wasn't in danger, that nothing bad was happening to me...
I winced as a stab of sharp pain rocketed through my temple and squinted, getting a flash of... white? Eyes? The sick feeling came back, multiplied by a hundred, and I closed myself off.
"Nope," I choked out, shaking my head. "Nope, nope, nope... nope. I'm not going to think about it, I'm not going to try to remember, I don't care. It was just a dream... not real, I'm safe... r-right? I'm not... in danger, am I? Not anymore?"
Woody looked at me very strangely for a few seconds. He licked his lips, then glanced at my temple and manually turned my head, looking at it intently.
I almost missed it when he raised his hand and gestured, 'You're safe. Nothing can harm you while you are staying here. I give you my absolute word that you aren't in any danger.'
I swallowed past the dryness in my mouth, hair sticking to my sweat-damp skin, and took a deep breath to steady my raging pulse. I could feel it pounding in my wrists and throat, an undulating flag of fear and distress, but the biggest issue I had was why I even felt afraid in the first place.
Nightmares typically didn't send me into a blind panic.
Not like this.
Not over something as simple as... eyes.
Eyes.
"Ow," I hissed, wincing as another stab of pain went through my head; I got an abrupt flash of... oh, no. Nope, I didn't care, wouldn't care, it wasn't real. Just a nightmare. I gulped down a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself. "Ugh... I'm not going back to sleep after that shit."
Woody let out a sigh of his own through his nose and pulled back, worriedly staring me down.
Lifting a hand, he signed, 'it's seven thirty in the evening, If you want to you can start your day early, but I think you should talk to Sebastian about seeing a doctor for your head injury.'
I jumped, staring at his fingers with my hair standing up; then I glanced at him in horror.
"You're kidding, right?" I flatly demanded; all phantom traces of the dream faded away in the face of his stark rationale. "A doctor? If I go to a hospital I'll be screwed! They'll be able to tell that something isn't right with my body and it'll eventually get out that I'm a vampire!"
Woody shook his head and urgently signed, 'Do you really think there aren't doctors who'll look after beings that aren't human? Werewolves are creatures that can be born into this world just as easily as they can be turned. It's a bit unreasonable for you to think that we've all been around for hundreds of years without getting seriously sick even once, isn't it?"
I blinked since, to be honest, I hadn't even thought of that being a possibility.
"I guess you do have a point," I muttered, rubbing my temple. "If you guys really do have doctors that won't get me chased from here to Canada by an angry mob, I'll talk to Sebastian about it. I haven't been feeling quite right since I hit my head, anyway. Might be better to get it looked at."
Relief slid into his features and he nodded, seeming to relax.
After a few more seconds of making eye contact, he pulled away from me and rose, cracking his back with a sleepy-looking yawn. I heard his joints pop and flex but then he was looking down at me through disheveled, tangled strands of hair that stuck out in every single direction.
Whoa, I mentally exclaimed, brows raising when I realized just how messy he looked. He's got some serious bedhead...
Noticing my stare, he smiled tiredly before raising his hand and signing, 'if you are fine, I will be going back to bed now. I stayed up all day so I only got about an hour of sleep before you woke up screaming. I'll be in my room if you need anything, but I will kindly request that you try to keep a low volume since I am a very light sleeper with very sensitive ears, as I'm sure you know."
My skin flushed hot as I remembered the embarrassing talk I'd had with Sebastian, but that only made him beam.
Really, he was all smiles about this, wasn't he?
"Of course," I assured him, pushing my sweat-plastered hair off my forehead. I noticed, then, that my thirst had gotten a little stronger. My body's sensitivity was elevated and after assessing my current state I surmised I could last about another day or two before I reached the point where I would need blood. "I'm up now. I'm gonna go take a shower and then I'm gonna go up to the loft and hop on AC. Is that okay?"
He blinked and nodded wordlessly, turning around with a little wave and leaving my room with the light on. I sat against the headboard for a long time after he left, staring through a little spot on the covers of my bed without really seeing it.
My heart was still pounding even though I could remember absolutely nothing, but the weirdest part -- and probably the main reason why I was so damn disturbed by it -- was the fact that I had this sinking feeling that I should have.
I remembered only that the dream had felt far too real and... the eyes.
Eyes.
A third painful twinge went through my head and I pressed my palm against my left eye, putting pressure on it to alleviate the ache coursing through my brain. Sparks lit up behind my closed lid and I held my breath as a flicker of something white with... red... blue and black?
Eyes... but they were erased by a terrible twinge that made my brain hurt.
"Ow..." I groaned, clutching my head with a heavy sigh. "Fuck... why does thinking about the connection between eyes and that freaky dream hurt my head so damn much? Ugh..."
It was awful so I decided to give up on the weird little cycle of pain and rose to my feet, padding over to the dresser and pulling out some fresh clothes. Laden with a simple pastel-pink t-shirt and a pair of denim short shorts with a bead-embroidered bumblebee on the butt, I made my way into the bathroom and started up my typical shower and teeth-brushing routine.
Only, after I was washed clean and had gotten out I started blow-drying my hair and noticed, with absolute horror, that my russet brown roots had grown out about an inch.
"Oh, no," I muttered, frowning at the strands of burnt chestnut in dismay. "Ugh... I don't even know if there's a hair salon that does root touch ups around here, let alone one that stays open past eight or nine. Fuck..."
I grumbled to myself as I got dressed, aggravated beyond comprehension since my hair was something I meticulously maintained and I'd actually forgotten to do just that. I pinned it all up on top of my head and wrapped a towel around it so it would dry, giving up on blow-drying because what was the point now?
Slinking out into the cabin's wide hall, I made my way over to the loft ladder and, rung after rung, climbed to the top. I pulled myself up with a grunt, taking a moment to straighten my shirt before I rose.
Within minutes, my PlayStation and the television were both on and I was loading into the world of Atlas Chronicles. I felt a little calmer once I spawned in, but when I checked my friend list to see who was online I noticed that Sebastian's ID tag was active and felt a little surprised.
I took a glance at where he was on the map and discovered that he was in one of the trading cities near the harbor, a place called Hearth that I myself frequently visited and hung out at, mostly because of the town's aesthetic and overall pleasant design. It was simple but cozy and best of all, racially diverse. Lots of PVP and friendly interactions took place there.
"Welp, looks like I've got me a werewolf to find," I mumbled, feeling a little more relaxed as I started running down the road towards my destination. I could have messaged him and let him know I was online and coming, but I figured I would surprise him by popping in early.
After all, why not?
He and I didn't have to hold back on here, right?
I flipped my microphone on and sprinted towards the fast travel post, keeping an eye on the in-game clock while I went. The sun had apparently just gone down in game and would stay down for an hour in real time.
I bumped into a few players traveling along the road as I went but didn't stop to say anything. I had supernatural speed so none of them would be able to keep up with me unless they were on horseback or riding a superior mount, like a dragon, drake, or chimera.
I avoided thinking about how jittery I was thanks to my nightmare by thrusting myself headlong into the game. Only, my hands still trembled slightly. My reflexes weren't as sharp as they usually were.
I was still uneasy.
"It was only a nightmare," I muttered to myself, absently sprinting down a fork in the road towards the waypoint. "Dreams aren't real."
Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself of that... I couldn't ignore that I had dreams of my childhood and adolescence all the time. I'd had a great deal of dreams about things that had, in fact, happened to me in the past... but, oddly, I always remembered those dreams.
That's why I was confused and also why I was sparing it more than a second thought.
I sighed through my nose and stopped in front of the FT post, opening the menu and highlighting Hearth. I heard the sound of clinking coins as I paid fifteen silver pieces to travel, and the screen momentarily went dark.
When it came back up, I was standing on the edge of a dock overlooking the water, and I could hear a great deal of people in the roleplay menu yelling vulgar shit and laughing behind me. I turned my character around and blinked in real life when I saw a familiar illumination stretching above the buildings, signalling that the party bonfires in the center of town were lit.
Odd, I mentally muttered, furrowing my brows. Is there some kind of scheduled thing going on in Hearth tonight? Why do they have the bonfires lit? I thought it was only for special occasions.
Curious, I trotted away from the dock and into the town, moving past a great deal of NPCs and beautifully crafted rustic cabins, saloons, and stores along the way. I momentarily wondered, with a surprisingly light feeling, if Sebastian had started making friends on here.
"If he did, I have to give him props," I murmured, feeling a proud grin building up inside my chest. "I never would have thought he'd end up joining a celebration..."
As I drew closer to the bonfires, I heard people a little more clearly.
"Dude, this is fucking hilarious!" someone cackled over the deafening laughter and multitude of voices. "I've never seen anything like it--"
"Wow! Look!" someone else cried. "Damn! Reggie is really going to town on--"
"Oof, looks like its trying to--"
"I got it, don't worry!"
"Get off me, you filthy--"
My blood froze in my veins and my fingers paused on the controller, ears ringing as that voice, one that I recognized immediately, was drowned out by the yelling and laughter. I felt a twisted little knot form in my gut when I heard a familiar in-game snarling, belonging to a werewolf.
I tensed and immediately ran towards the commotion, squeezing my controller handles as I sped down a few more streets and into the center of the town square. To my actual shock and horror, I saw Sebastian's level seven character struggling on all fours with ropes around every single one of his limbs and a rope around his neck, surrounded by real players.
"Keep the bitch still!" someone hollered. "Won't be able to get myself close enough to his ass if he keeps breaking free of the damn ropes!"
"He's got quick fingers," someone else laughed. "His character is almost completely dead from the looks of that health bar, so he can't keep up the struggle for much longer."
"Just wait until I get free!" Sebastian viciously snarled. "You filthy mother fuckers! "
"Aw... is the puppy mad? Well that's what you get when you attack a guy like me, you know?"
My brain momentarily stopped working and I disconnected from myself for approximately ten full seconds because that simpering, mocking voice was one that I fully recognized. I just couldn't believe that after everything that had already happened he was this fucking dumb.
"You filthy bitch," Sebastian spat, and I watched, stunned, as he broke free of the ropes again, tearing the players holding him captive off their feet. He smartly tried to run away but more ropes from the mob around him came flying and an uproar of deafening laughter filled my ears as his character was again dragged down to his knees, and then all fours.
"ENOUGH!" he roared. "I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING HEADS OFF!"
"Oh, no you won't," Stink_Wrinkles laughed. "After all, you just used up the last of your stamina. What will that girly little vampire boy think when he sees the video of me fucking his mighty werewolf friend in game, I wonder? You think it'll make him mad?"
"You keep your filthy mind and filthy mouth away from Aerin, bitch," Sebastian hissed. "If you don't, I'll make your life hell."
The players in the clearing went quiet almost immediately... so quiet I could have heard a pin drop.
"Aerin, eh?" Stink_Wrinkles sniggered. "So that's Little Vampire's real first name?"
I heard silence from Sebastian's end.
"Oi, just fuck him already so we can take the videos!" someone hollered. "He can't fight back anymore so there's no point in dragging this out longer! I got quests to do!"
"You heard the man, puppy," my enemy chuckled, and I stiffened when his game character undid his iron greaves and stripped from the waist down. "Be a good little bitch for me, eh?"
I don't know what came over me.
Hate? Rage? Wrath? Vengeance?
Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't sane.
I was suddenly so vehemently angry that, in a split second, a pulsing red haze had completely covered my vision and I was moving forward in-game, already charging up my most powerful destructive spells and, for the first time since I'd started, equipping a sword from my inventory.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!" I screeched into the microphone, bolting into the crowd; I mashed my buttons, stabbing people in the back with one-hit kills, slitting people's throats, tearing through them the way a knife slides through butter.
"Holy shit!"
"Is that a Vampire?!"
"Get your weapons out!"
"What are you idiots doing?!" Stink_Wrinkles shouted. "Don't let the werewolf go! Attack the vampire, but don't lose fo--"
"SHIT UP, BITCH!" I screamed, cutting him off; I swung, and hacked, and swung, and stabbed, parrying every weapon and gutting any who dared to come near me until, suddenly, almost nobody was left standing aside from the people holding Sebastian still. I turned and looked at them, breathing hard, wishing I could crawl through the screen and murder them.
Player names flew out of the screen, one after the other, over and over again, zipping past my head like trophies proclaiming that I had killed my enemies, but I didn't care. I wanted to hurt them. I wanted them to suffer. For daring to do what they'd intended.
"Fuck this, I'm out," the guy holding the rope around Sebastian's neck squeaked. "I'll see you later, Jeremy."
"Don't say my name, you idiot!" Stink_Wrinkles cried when he turned to run. "Hey! Where the fuck are you going?!"
"Nowhere," I spit, locking onto him and activating my most powerful lightning spell; my character raised his left hand, clutched his wrist with his right, and let out a dramatic high-pitched scream as a bolt of brilliant green lightning exploded out of his palm.
It took my enemy's head clean off and sent his charred body flying into one of the buildings.
I watched as his decapitated corpse burned with green fire, then turned and shot the same spell at the remaining four players, killing each of them instantly. Sebastian's character rose, sinking into the wounded stance despite being in werewolf form, and I watched him limp backwards.
Stink_Wrinkles, however, drew his sword.
Only, for whatever reason, he was laughing. The fucker was laughing, and I hated it.
I hated him.
"I fucking did it!" he cackled, making me bristle; I took a deep breath through my nose, face and ears burning with rage. "I actually did it! I made you mad enough to kill someone on here and caught it all on video! Everyone said you didn't kill people! They said you were the sweetest person on AC, that you're even one of the top three players on the entire game, that you got there without killing a single person or a single NPC! I did it! I fucking took away your record!"
"Video, huh?" I seethed, breathing hard. "So, you saved this as a video?"
"Even better, I'm live-streaming this with over a thousand people who play AC watching!" he gleefully informed me. "I've live-streamed every single time we went at it! Every time! And I finally did it, I made you crack... I actually made the so-called sweet little vampire fag crack!"
"Good, I'm glad that you're live-streaming this," I hissed, advancing on him; he charged with a laugh, raising his sword, but I swung my own in retaliation and used a combo to disarm him and send his weapon flying; he let out a startled exclamation as he staggered, fully knocked off guard and wide open to a variety of brutal execution animations, but instead of using them I sheathed my own blade and tackled him to the ground, wrapping my hands around his throat in a chokehold.
"What the fuck?!" he snarled. "What are you doing?! Get off me!"
"I've never, not once in the nine years I've played this game, killed a single player," I hissed viciously, red pulsing in my skull, making me want to butcher him, bite him, taste his blood and hear him scream... not in the game, but for real. "Do you know why?"
"Like I fucking care!" he spat, struggling; my stamina bar barely twitched under his attempt to get loose, I was buffed up so damn much from my spells that I could hold him for an hour and he still wouldn't be able to escape. "Get off me, bitch!"
"It's because I value people's lives, whether its a life in a game or a life in the real world," I whispered; in return, I got only silence. "Not once... not once did I ever lash out at you. Not when you called me names, not when you left vicious posts about me in the communities, not when you tried to jump me, not even when you were being a homophobic piece of shit."
"Who the fuck cares?" he suddenly laughed. "It's just a damn game! Why you so mad?"
My hands clenched so hard that I heard plastic cracking and I had to breathe in and out to avoid throwing my controller at the television screen.
"Who cares? I care, bitch," I hissed. "This is, in fact, a video game... but do you see that werewolf over there? You don't get to touch him. You don't get to hurt him. You don't get to insult him - in a video game or the real fucking world because that man is MINE! AND IF YOU EVER FUCK WITH EITHER ONE OF US AGAIN, I WILL FIND YOU IN REAL LIFE AND I WILL FUCKING HURT YOU! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"
Just as he started to respond, I mashed my X button and gouged his throat out, puncturing both of his jugular veins with the claws on my thumbs and spearing his neck. His character gagged and gurgled blood, performing the flailing death emote beneath me, slowly falling still.
I pulled back and made my character rise, but in frustration I kicked his corpse, twice.
Bitch, I mentally cursed him, fuming. Fucking hypocritical rapist... homophobic piece of--
"Aerin."
My mind went blank when I heard his voice behind me, filled with a tone I didn't recognize. I instantly swiveled my screen around to see him standing there, idling and dripping blood. I swallowed the rising anxiety that flooded through me and charged up a healing spell, waiting the required twenty seconds it took before casting it at him. His character shone brilliant gold for a second and straightened up, all of his cuts vanishing in a spray of glitter and sparkles.
I was still pissed though.
I think he could tell, too, since I was finding it hard to slow my breathing down.
"Sorry," I somehow managed to croak out. "Sorry I didn't get online sooner. This never would have happened if I had been hanging out with you when they showed up."
"Aerin," Sebastian said, deep voice rasping against my ears. "Calm yourself. I understand that you're angry since I was... also... venomously pissed, but you beat them. They did not manage to do what they intended to. There is no longer any reason for you to be upset."
"No, there actually is," I snorted, walking away. "He was going to rape your character on a fucking live-stream to get at me! To get under my skin, not even yours! I've had it! I'll see you in twenty minutes... I'm going to hunt him down the way he always does to me and I'm going to kill him over and over again to drive the point home that I am fucking done with his bullshit."
Before I could take four steps forward, Sebastian's character flashed back into a human form and ran up behind me, grabbing me under the arms and putting me on his shoulders. I glared at the screen through that pulsing film of red, finding it hard to think, to not get mad at him.
"No, you're not," he said flatly, and I bristled again. "You and I are going questing. Got it?"
"Put me down," I growled, squeezing my controller. "Now."
"No," Sebastian countered, walking in the direction opposite of where I'd been heading. "Deal with it and calm down."
"Why should I?" I snapped, and his character stopped walking; all around us, corpses lay in bleeding piles and the bonfire crackled pleasantly. "Give me one good reason!"
"You said that I'm yours," Sebastian flatly retorted, and my heart skipped a beat; the red haze vanished from my sight and I found myself blinking rapidly. "I know you were not in your right mind when you said it, I could hear it in your voice, but I am not below using that as an excuse to tell you to let it go. So, if you don't want to upset me, calm down."
"That's not a good reason," I muttered, slowly losing my confidence.
"Then here is another," he muttered, voice taking on a harder tone. "I bought this game to connect with you in more ways than you might presently realize. I want you to ignore him because he doesn't fucking deserve even half the attention you're giving him. The time that you want to spend butchering him repeatedly and pointlessly could be better spent with me."
Ah. Selfish though it was, he had a point.
I didn't like it, but he did indeed have a point.
I let out a disheveled sigh and took the towel off of my damp hair, setting it on the couch; stringy tendrils fell around my face in messy strands, wetly tickling my neck as I glared at the screen.
"You're right," I muttered, breathing in and out to calm myself down. "Let's just... go. I'll help you with your quests... I have things I need to talk to you about anyway."
"What things?"
"Woody thinks I should see a doctor about my head injury," I casually admitted, shrugging even though he couldn't see it when his character stopped. "He said that there are doctors that look after people who aren't, you know... human."
"Why did he suggest it?" he growled, suddenly sounding angry. "Are you all right?"
"I don't know," I told him honestly, slumping a bit. "Ever since I hit my head I've been having awful nightmares, but the weird thing is... I always forget them the moment I wake up and if I try to remember them I get splitting headaches. Everything just... goes fuzzy for a bit."
Silence filled my ears for the longest time, but after a moment or two Sebastian's character started walking again, putting more and more distance between Hearth's marketplace and us.
"I will arrange a doctor's appointment for next week," he suddenly said. "Woody may have healed your surface injuries but things like internal injuries cannot be healed by licking."
"All right," I sighed, shrugging again. "Sounds good to me. Also, this is a bit off topic but do you know if there are any hair salons in North Carolina that stay open past nine at night?"
"Why would I know a thing like that?" he deadpanned. "That sounds more like a question for Tiffany."
"True," I muttered, thinking about her immaculately bleached hair. "Maybe I should call her."
"Why do you want to know?"
"Ah, its my hair," I muttered, scowling a little. "My roots have grown out and I want to get my hair touched up so it's completely blonde again."
Again, that silence... but then--
"Why do you bleach your hair?" Sebastian lowly inquired. "You've grown it out so long that it brushes your lower thighs and hangs past your ass. Bleaching it is very damaging and you've been around long enough to know this, so, why? I find myself a little curious."
I blinked, then sadly looked away from the screen.
"My first boyfriend once said that my natural hair color was the color of bloody shit," I muttered a little reluctantly. "I went blonde the day after that and I've been blonde ever since."
I heard a low growl that increased in volume for a few seconds.
"I'll talk to Tiffany," he said through clenched teeth. "Don't worry about it any further. Let us just... play, and talk - with no more upsetting conversations."
He didn't have to tell me twice.
I settled back and got myself comfortable, ready for another night of gaming and getting to know him. Deep in the back of my mind, however, was a niggling little feeling... a feeling that told me something bad was happening to me, something that had to do with my nightmares.
Like always, though, I avoided thinking about it and buried myself in a distraction.