Hunter's Mark: The Dream Walker

Chapter Eight

Adalyn

My mind was reeling when Malik told me that I was a dream walker. I've never felt like there was anything special about me. I was a normal girl and nothing interesting ever happened to me. "I can prove it", he said. "How can you prove that I'm a dream walker?" "Easy, one of you get something for her to lay on, and then we will begin." Rainn and Liam looked at each other like they were trying to decide if this is a good idea or not. "Guys I need to know and if this is the only way to find out then I want to do it." Rainn looked down at me with so many emotions in his eyes but the most prominent one is fear.

He moved closer to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He looked over at Liam and nodded his head, then put his head on mine and smelled my hair. "Why do you keep smelling me?", I asked, as my cheeks turned pink. He moved so his lips were right by my ear and whispered, "because you smell like a field of wildflowers, and it reminds me of home. It calms me." My cheeks turned red, and he started laughing. I went to say something back, but Liam walked in with what looked like a cot.

Rainn held on to me tighter, but I turned my body around, so I faced him and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I need to do this, and I need you to let me." He still looked reluctant to let me go, I pulled him down and brushed my lips against his. He sighed but he knew that this was important, so he did as I asked. I looked over at Malik, "What's next?" "You need to listen to all my instructions very closely, because if something happens and you die in someone else's dream, then you die here as well."

I'm not going to deny that I was scared and the more warnings he had the worse it got. I felt a familiar feeling in my stomach and felt my face heating up. I knew an anxiety attack was close and I was trying hard to breathe through it. Rainn must have noticed that something was wrong with me, and he was immediately back at my side and scooped me up in his arms. I snuggled myself into his chest and breathed his scent in. His name fit him perfectly because he smelled like a rainstorm. It calmed me like nothing ever has before.

"It's ok my love, just breathe, everything will be ok." I took a few deep breaths and wiggled a little, letting him know I was ready for him to put me down. I really didn't want him to though. Malik looked a little annoyed at the delay, but he didn't say anything about it. "Now, if we are ready, I will get back to it", he said. I nodded my head at him to continue.

"You need to lie down and make yourself sleep. Once you do, you will be in a random dream." "I'm not tired. There's no way that I'll be able to fall asleep." "Yes, you can, as a dream walker you can control falling asleep and waking yourself up." " All you have to do is lie down, relax, and clear your mind." "When you want to wake up you just have to visualize yourself waking up. It still takes time and practice, but eventually you can learn how to focus on your dream walk and choose whose dream you go to."

"So, her ending up in my dream was totally random?", Rainn asks. Malik looked at me and was in deep thought. "Adalyn, what were you thinking about right before you fell asleep that night?" I looked at Rainn and realized why I was in his dream. "I wanted to find love", I said. "I'm finally in a place in my life where I want a partner, someone to love me and for me to love in return." Malik looked at me and smiled, "That is why you found yourself in his dream, he is that person for you even if you didn't know who he was."

Liam cleared his throat, “Can we get this show on the road guys, we are going to have a lot of preparation work to do." I nodded my head and laid down on the cot. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it would do the trick. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. My body started to relax, and my mind went from black to a horrible scene unfolding in front of me. This wasn't a dream, it had to be a nightmare. There was blood everywhere and multiple screams coming from different directions.

There was a door on my right, and I turned the doorknob. The room was dark but when I stepped in, the lights flickered on and there was a girl lying strapped down to a bed in the middle of the room. There was a table next to her with all kinds of tools that looked like torture devices and she was covered in blood. She very weakly turned her head to look at me and I was in shock. Her green eyes were so dull she looked like she was dead already. She very weakly whispered "help me" and I ran out of the room and next thing I knew I woke up sweating and sitting up on the cot.

Malik looked at me with a sad smile, "I should have warned you that sometimes you can get sucked into a nightmare." Rainn was immediately by my side. I knew that he wanted to talk about what happened, but I wasn't ready for that. "Well, I think that's enough for today", Liam said. We left Malik in the cell for now and headed back upstairs.

When I first got here, I was so overwhelmed by everything that I didn't appreciate the complete beauty of this kitchen. They had chosen cherry cabinets with gray granite counter tops, all black appliances, and a six-foot island in the middle with a sink in it. There were bar stools on the opposite side of the island. Liam and I both had a seat and Rainn went to look in the refrigerator. "We have some leftovers in here.

If you're hungry, I can heat something up for you." I looked at the clock on the stove and realized it was 4am. "I'm actually really getting tired, and I would really like to get a shower if that's possible and then head back to my apartment." "No." Rainns answer was quick and didn't leave much room for argument, but I wasn't sure what he was saying no to. "That's ok if I can't get a shower but it'd be great if one of you could give me a ride home." Liam looked at Rainn with a smirk. Rainn just glared at him.

"I don't think you understand my love, it is very dangerous for you now and I would feel much better if you stayed here with me." I got excited for a moment. "There is a spare room next to mine that you can use, it has its own bathroom and everything." I immediately put my head down. I thought for sure that, after earlier, he would want me to be with him in his room, but I guess I was wrong. "Thank you, can you please just show me the room so I can sleep."

He led me upstairs and stopped at the first room on the right. "This is my room, if you need anything just come get me." I nodded and we got to the next door, and he swung the door open. It was a huge room, like the size of my whole apartment. The walls were a soft blue, there was a queen-sized bed in the middle with matching blue sheets, two other doors on either side of the room, which were probably the bathroom and a closet, and balcony doors.

He went to put his arms around me again and I pulled away from him immediately, "thank you for the room, I really need to get a shower and some sleep." He looked disappointed that I pulled away, but can he really blame me? After the way that he talked to me in the library and then just pushed me off into another room like it didn't even happen. I turned my back to him, and I heard him walking out and softly closing the door behind him. I went to the door on the left first and opened it. It was the biggest bathroom that I had been in.

The floor had beautiful white and blue swirl tiles, it had a huge claw foot tub, and a shower stall with amazing blue mermaid tiles. I looked in the cabinets for a towel and then went over and started the water in the shower. I got it hot and then stripped my clothing off. I stepped into the shower and let the hot water run over me. I started crying and felt so stupid.

I didn't even understand why what he did hurt me so much. I don't even know him and yet just that little slight seems to be killing me. I wash my hair and body with the products that are in here and rinse off. I'm so tired at this point, I'm on auto pilot drying myself off and looking into the closet. I find a shirt and throw it over my head. I walked over to the bed and climbed in and snuggled down into the blankets as I let the darkness take over.