Lucid

Chapter 4

I awake in my cot. Staring at the ceiling inside the stale room. My wrists are bound to the bed with cuffs.

After days of torment I don’t fear anymore. I just let them do what they want to me. Let them make me see what they want me to see. A little girl walks out of the corner. She is about six years, her eyes dark. Her face is pale and riddle with sores and pox. Probably from whatever killed her. “Are you hurt,” she says. “It's not safe here.” I whisper. “Curious.. then why are you here?” she asks, and disappears. But, she takes the demons with her. For two days I stare at the ceiling, only being unchained to eat or use the bathroom. Being fed various medicines that just made that day feel blurry or made me fall asleep. Has it been 2 days?

Finally, the door opens, and it's my Jim. He stares at me with a worried frown. Running his fingers

through my hair, he says, “How's the world of Amelia Rose?” A young pouty looking nurse begins to free my hand and I tackle hug him with my one free arm. “Doctors say you are doing better. That I can take you home now..” Tears stream down his face. “God I miss you baby.” But I shed none. My face blankened by medication and the last 6 months of my life.

"Gracie is with my mom,” he says on the way to the car. “I figured you might want to get a shower and

stuff first.” His recently crying face looks only at the ground, shielded from the vision of myself and others. As we get in the car I hold his hand and lay my head on his shoulder. I just never want to let go. We took a shower together. I ran my hands over his body mesmerized by the way the water beads off of it. My Adonis, I love his skin. Under the warm water I laid my body against his, so mentally tired, wishing he could just take it all away. And with a kiss, he did. I got lost in him and his touch, and the warm water.

Finally home, I laid rest all my troubles. Everything was right again.

That night when Loretta brought Gracie home she apologized for her being so late. Saying she wanted to give me a “little period to adjust.” But Gracie ran into my arms. My sunshine, nothing could be wrong when I have her. I held her the rest of the night and she told me about her tv shows and school. I fell asleep with her snuggled happily between me and Jim. I’d never felt so safe. No shadows. No demons.

That night I dreamt a million horrors. The last or which I woke up in a field. The small purple, orange,

and yellow flowers swayed in the breeze. My Gracie runs through them, twirling in circles. She wore a small white dress I remember sitting myself in our.. cabin? I turn to see the small wooden cabin behind me that seems eerily familiar. It looks like a cottage. With the framed windows and porch I remember painting with James? I hear horses fastly closing feet in the distance. “Run!” A voice says in my head as the ever familiar fear rises up in my chest. “Hide her!” I run as fast as my feet will fly to Gracie, who looks back at me terrified. I hide her in the small, almost empty grain barrell outside our house. Pleading with her not to make a sound and run as the hundred horses and villagers stampede out of the nearby trees. They carry torches and rifles. “Burn the witch!” “Get her!” Witch?

I try to lead them away into the woods, but as I reach the tree line I am pelted in the back of the head with a rock. Knocked off my feet I fall to the ground. Blood soaks into the earth.

The men quickly tie me to the tree I was running to for shelter, building a fire at my feet as they go. I get

hit, punched, and spit on. The fire burns, starting at my feet and moving up my legs. The white-searing pain blurs my vision as the flesh melts off my bones.

Amidst all the shouting and chanting I hear my Gracie scream. They found her. They burn us both.

My eyes open to Gracie in my entire vision, squishing my face to resemble a fish. She kisses my face and

insists we go make pancakes for daddy together. It must be Saturday. Before long she has me laughing with her, and all is forgotten.