The Outcasts

Chapter 4

That night as I got ready for bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about that Cyrus guy. What did he want with me? Why did he suddenly make contact mentally? I knew I was special but why go through all the trouble to talk to me? Did I put out my emotions so strongly that someone else felt it? I had so many questions and nobody answered them. I tried to calm my mind by doing some meditation exercises but my mind still roamed. There was Jem as well. Why did you have to bring up that you’d help him find out what happened to him? I should have but I had to admit he was rather annoying at certain times of the day like when I had just finished classes for the day or when I got off from work and I think in order for him to have peace, he needs to know. Right?  I moistened my lips and glanced over my shoulder to see him simmering in the dimness of the small light that sat on the counter top in the kitchen. Apart from myself, I wanted to go out and check on him but I couldn’t. There were a lot of questions that I thought needed answers. Jem on the other hand was at one point purely human and now he was a wandering spirit that didn’t know his way. I felt guilty for thinking this way but to make it up, I was going to try my best to get him answers. Somehow and some way.

After a while of thinking about the two situations at hand I finally succumbed to slumber but it wasn’t what I expected. I dreamed. Probably the same one that I had dreamed of the night before and it seemed like it was much worse than the last. This time is different. I was in my pajamas that I had dawned on before bed. A simple tank top and a pair of soft sleeper pants. My hair was tied up into a ponytail. I looked down and saw mud covering my bare feet. A portion of it gets into the crevices of my toes and under my toenails. I looked up from them to scan my surroundings. I was in the forest again. Alone. In danger of what may be ahead of me. Silence except for the noises that came from the trees and bushes. “Why does this happen to me?” I asked the darkness. I felt the fear that was ever present in my mind but I tried keeping it at bay so I could concentrate.

A voice came to me all brooding and malicious. You thought you had escaped? How cunning may seem to the human eye. My heart dropped and I had the urge to run away from that voice. As I mentioned last time you cannot escape. No matter how hard you try. We are everywhere. My feet had  a mind of their own and I ran. Hoping that I would find a safe place that would block out this voice that wanted me so badly. What did they want with me? You. Was the only response they came with my question. It was as though they or it was reading my mind on some level that I couldn’t explain. Whoever it was, the presence of this being, was evil and I had no intentions of being captured. I felt my fear rise as I heard more noses nearby. My feet carried me to this cabin, all worn from use. The doors and windows were boarded up to deny anyone entry but my willpower was stronger than any door. I ran into it, hoping that it would break down with the pressure bit to no avail, it didn’t budge. “What the hell,” I muttered as I felt the pain shooting up my arm from the force. “Why me?” The only thing I wanted was to sleep and hope that my day ahead was more peaceful than the last but I was only met with ghoulish nightmares that didn’t want me to wake up.

I rubbed my arm to ease the pain and I stared at the door and analyzed  how I would get in and away from this thing that wanted me so much. I concentrated hard until a sudden feeling came to me. The air around me felt compressed and suffocating but my body was all tingly as though something was about to happen. The next thing I knew and saw was the cabin door flying backward off its hinges and I heard myself gasp in surprise. In my mind this was all just a dream but it made me wonder if I could do this in the real world but I didn’t want to test it. At least not until I found a safer place and people to explain to me what I can do. Either way the door was broken and no way to bar it up once I got in safely. Once inside, I looked around. I was in the living area of the cabin. A fireplace sat on the far side of the room and a set of worn down furniture was scattered about the floor. Wood and other shards and glass pieces lay next to them. I had this feeling that something wasn’t right about this place but it was the only safe place I found so far that wasn’t inhabited with animals. The place was here a long time possibly before I came along which made me wonder what happened here but I didn’t let my curiosity get the best of me and instead I continued to look around. A staircase lay off the right of the cold and musty living room which leads upstairs to a set of bedrooms. I didn’t know how many but by the look of it maybe two or three at the most. 

The old hiding trick doesn’t work on us. The voice came again, still distant as though he was waiting. As though he knew I was getting closer to him in some way. I couldn’t let myself think about it because then fear would overwhelm me so that I couldn’t think rationally. If you think for just a second that this is just a dream, you are mistaken. We are everywhere that you go. In here and out there. There was laughter, the sound yet again vibrating against the walls of my mind and I hated it. “Leave me alone!” I shouted in the wide expanse of the cabin. I nearly blacked out with the sudden outburst and for a moment I didn’t care. I wanted to wake up from this hellish nightmare and away from that thing. I ran upstairs to the first room that I came across and didn’t care about the condition of the bed and jumped face down on it burying my face into my arms to shut out everything. It seemed to do the trick because I jolted awake and nearly fell out of my actual bed.

The light from the sun beamed through my curtain indicating that it was already morning. In that instant I muttered to myself, “Screw this.” I need to find a way to confront this guy before things get out of hand. With that I had a plan.