Julia's point of view:
The dream:
*******************
All around me, the city is on fire. Buildings weaken underneath the flames' heat and come crashing down, killing who knows how many citizens. Smoke overpowers the atmosphere as it fills my lungs and chokes me from the inside. I look around wildly, the air making my eyes sting with tears.
The war is raging as people are at each other's throats, the fight not showing a clear winner. Blood trickles down the streets, flowing underneath my shoes and smelling worse than the smoke.
I run, passing the bodies of fallen enemies as well as fallen friends. However, I stop and do a double-take as I pass by a body with golden blonde hair, hair that's all too familiar to me. Blood soaks her once sterile white doctor's coat, and her hands are stilled with death.
I bend down and turn her body over so I can see her face, and I stumble backwards, stifling a scream in the process. The woman's face is cold and lifeless, her lips parted in a call for help that was never answered:
Cassia.
I run from the sight, my heart cracking like a piece of porcelain.
But a cry not far off causes me to turn my head, seeing Susan get knifed in the back from an enemy. She falls with a grunt as blood trickles from her mouth, and then she becomes as still as Cassia.
"Julia, run!" Someone yells, and I turn to see Adam running for me, pushing me forward and past the fighting.
"Adam, why is this happening?!" I plead in a panicking voice.
But before he can answer, the sound of a gun goes off.
Helplessly, I watch a hole form in his stomach as blood pours out. "Run," is the last thing he says to me before he collapses.
I turn on my heels and do as he says, crying profusely at the hell unfolding around me. "Julia, help!" I hear someone yell for me.
I turn my head and look, only to see Kyle get his throat slit and fall to his knees.
"Please no," I croak out before remembering Adam's words. But before I run again, I hear a different voice, one that sounds familiar and not in danger.
I turn around, coming face to face with Peter.
"Peter," I say, exasperated as I wrap my arms around him, the tears still flowing. "Everyone's dead," I huff out as I try to take deep breaths.
But when Peter doesn't say a word, much less return the hug, I look up at him, gasp, and stumble backwards to get away.
His face is hard-set and unfeeling, his eyes the exact shade of evil gold that Henley's are.
A booming laughter is heard through the city, shaking the ground upon which we stand. A laughter I only know as Henley's.
"Seems only fit how this will all end. Put to death by your lover's hand," she says, taunting me.
And I don't understand what it all means until it's too late.
Peter attacks me, knocking my knees out from under me and kicking me in my stomach. "Stand up and fight," he snaps at me in a voice that is not his own.
I struggle to my feet, panicking as I look up at Peter's face. He looks so angry, so cold. Murderous, even.
Peter tries to hit me, but I dodge his fist and wrap my hand around his arm, twisting it to a painful angle behind his back.
He looks up at me, and for a moment, his eyes flicker from gold back to brown. "Julia," he pleads in his normal voice, indicating his pain.
I immediately drop his arm in shame, but he takes my moment of vulnerability to his advantage. His pain was a trick as I see his eyes become gold once again.
He uses his moment of having the element of surprise, wrapping his hand around my throat and lifting me off the ground by my neck with one arm.
"Peter, it's me!" I yell, my lungs screaming for air as I claw at his hand. "You have to remember me!" I choke out.
Peter just looks up at me, a cruel smile planted on his lips. But then his face begins to change, evolving into that of a woman's.
In horror I watch as this transformation takes place until it is no longer Peter holding me by my throat, but Henley herself.
"You have watched everyone you love be corrupted and destroyed today. Now, it's time for you to join them," she says.
I feel something inside of me snap open, and then I die.
*************************
(Now in the present)
My eyes snap open, heat and a bright shade of orange being the only thing I can register. I squint against the brightness until someone's face comes into my line of sight.
"Julia?" The person says, and then my vision clears up enough to see that it's Cassia.
She's alive.
"You're ok!" I say, relieved. Looking puzzled as she helps me to my feet, Cassia says, "Of course, I'm ok. Why wouldn't I be?"
I open my mouth to explain, but then images from the dream flash through my mind like hallucinations, and I start shaking like someone who's gone mad.
"Hey, calm down, it's ok. You're safe," Cassia tells me, although it doesn't make me feel any better.
I look off in the distance, seeing the fire as a stronghold for the city. "It's already started?" I ask Cassia, completely having lost track of time.
"Yeah. We need to go; we're already late," She says, helping me walk due to my wobbly knees.
We walk in awkward silence, my mind not being able to focus on anything else but that wall of fire and how it reminds me of my dream. The heat, the smoke, the flames, all too real now.
After a few more minutes, I can feel Cassia's concern for my condition itching in the back of her head, not being able to stop her mental medical suggestions that could possibly explain my mood.
And then, the silence becomes to much for her. "Ok, I can't take this anymore. What's wrong with you?" Cassia demands as we come to a halt, surprising me with the twinge of harshness in her voice.
I look down at the pavement, remembering the blood that stained the concrete and splattered the streets. "I can't describe it," I say, defeated. "Try," Cassia pushes. And then, I sigh as I try to explain.
"I had this dream last night...and then another relapse of it just a second ago. It was you and Susan and Kyle and Adam and...Peter...there was fire everywhere...so much blood...Henley...I couldn't breath...smoke...eyes turning gold...people becoming evil...her voice...choking me...death..." I trail off, the horror unfolding and finally sinking in.
Cassia looks at me as if I have two heads, not understanding a word I just said. "Could you try to explain that a little better?" She asks in a soft voice.
But I just shake my head no. I don't want to talk about it anymore.
Out of the corner of my eye, something suddenly catches my attention.
I turn around, only to see in horror as a monster rounds the corner of a nearby building, a grotesque thing with five blood-red eyes, two sets of teeth, deadly sharp claws, and grey matted fur. It hisses at me, its forked tongue shooting out.
I scream and fall backwards, pointing at it in silent horror. "What is it?!" Cassia asks. "That...that thing!" I yell, not understanding how she can't see what I'm pointing at. Cassia turns around and looks at the creature, and then back at me. "Um...Julia? That's just a stray cat," she says.
In disbelief I rub my eyes, only to see the creature transform into a normal tabby cat. I blink a few times, dumbfounded that my eyes could trick me like that.
Ok, now I know that there's something wrong with me.
"Let's just go with the other healers," I tell Cassia as I walk briskly away from the cat, refusing to believe that I've gone insane.
"No," Cassia tells me.
I turn around and look at her, my eyebrows raised in surprise. "Excuse me?" I ask.
Cassia walks up to me and puts her hands on my shoulders, her eyes a soft shade of blue.
"I'm going with my healers. You're going home to take care of yourself," she orders me.
"What?! No! I won't! I have to...I have to stay here and help...you guys need me. Henley and Will are going to be here soon...I need to fight," I ramble, trying to make her understand.
"You're not going to be doing anyone any favors in this kind of condition you're in. Besides, when Henley and Will do get here, you'll only be more vulnerable to them," she counters.
"Y-you can't just expect me to board up my windows and hide in my house! I have to help!" I plead with her.
"I'm not saying to hide in your house. I'm asking for you to go home and take care of yourself. Then when you're up to it, you can come back," she says before adding, "maybe try talking to Peter? He can usually calm you down."
But then, I feel my heart sink at her suggestion, remembering the events of last night. "That's um...actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Peter and I..." I trail off.
A moment of silence passes before Cassia tries to make me talk more. "You and Peter what?" She asks.
"We..." I begin again.
"You what? Kissed? Hugged? Made popcorn while watching a scary movie? You guys what?" She presses.
I take a deep breath, and let the words go.
"We broke up."
And after that, the only noise that can be heard is the sound of the fire quietly melting away the invisible barrier, feeding the flames and weakening our backup defense.
"You...you guys what?!" Cassia demands, disbelief at my words.
"It was my fault," I say, dropping my head in shame. "Why? What did you do?" She asks.
"I said some stupid things because Henley was messing with my head...and he left the house. So I went after him, and then he suggested that we break up until the battle's over. He said it was only to keep Henley from interfering with us, but I think I really hurt him, Cassia. And I was...angry. So I locked myself in my room and left him downstairs, conveniently having the worst nightmare of my life the one time I didn't let him be with me," I explain, pouring everything out after holding it in. "And so I left early this morning so I wouldn't have to face him. I stopped by my parents' house and spoke to them, visited with my sister Allison. You know, she's really starting to grow up. I hadn't noticed-"
"Julia, that's great but...you don't have Peter anymore. Why aren't you crying?" She asks, surprising me a bit.
"I did all my crying last night and this morning with my parents. But Cassia, I'm not ready to look him in the eye again, especially after the dream I had. So please, just let me come with you to help keep the element empowered energized. It may be good for me," I beg her.
Cassia opens her mouth to protest, but then haunches her shoulders in defeat. "Oh all right, come on. We're very late," she says, and we hurry off to the entrance to the city where everyone is, waiting for the worst to come.