Aon

Chapter Four

The streets were bare, and every alley lied black and still as I scoped the area. The sky and the ground were like rubies; every building and every patch of darkness was as red as blood. I couldn’t move for some reason, I was stuck facing down the street with not a single person in sight. The wind was still, and all was silent. It was as if standing in the eye of the storm, waiting for the damage to be done. My stomach churned, my heart hammered, yet I couldn’t see the danger I was suddenly aware of.

Slowly, I began to hear murmurs, soft and almost inaudible. I questioned if they were there all along and I had not noticed before, or if they had just suddenly started as if they had never been silent. I listened closely, but nothing stood out from the soft speech spoken between them. It was not menacing, it should have sounded soothing, yet my skin prickled, and my heart leaped to my throat as they whispered.

One by one, shadows emerged from the alleys, wearing clocks like blood and their skin just as red as the sky. Their faces were hidden, they paced by as if I were invisible to them. Even though I couldn’t move a muscle –I stiffened, afraid to even breathe as they passed in front of me. They circled, murmuring from hidden lips as they shook their hands and swayed their heads as if in a trance.

A sharp wind blew through, one that pulsed with unnatural energy. It knocked down all the hoods of the shadows. They were faces of people I’ve never met before, people I knew, and had known. My parents, my brother, my coworkers, even Alexander and April stood on either side of me. They didn’t look at me, they didn’t even know of my presents. Instead, they jabbed a finger down the street in which I faced, their eyes glowing and their mouths quickening until they seemed silent once more.

I looked to where they pointed wordlessly, with my heart in my mouth and my lungs stifled to remain silent. Someone stood in the distance, the only one that wore black in the contrast of red. It didn’t seem to walk, but float down the street towards me with is shoulders ridged. Its head was bowed, its hands grey and sickly as it tapped each finger against its thumb. I felt horror wash over me as the figure neared and my heart faltered.

It stopped twenty feet from me, its head swaying and a sharp mutter coming from where it stood. But I couldn’t tell if it was coming from the black cloak, all the people in red cloaks began to murmur just as sharply. It was as if looking at seaweed with the way their bodies swayed as the murmurs grew louder.

Another wind came blowing from behind me, just as potent as the last, and shoved back the black hood. I froze at who stood before me, in both terror and rage. I couldn’t tell which one it was, Marcus or Jacob, but it stood perfectly still. His emerald eyes peering into mine wildly like a savage animal. It wasn’t Jacob, those eyes, how hard and murderous they looked. It had to be Marcus.

Something grasped the elbow of my right arm, but I didn’t jump or fear it as an energy enveloped me and the body heat warmed my right side. A soft breath ghosted passed my ear as I peered into Marcus’s darkening lethal eyes. His face began to morph into someone else’s, with dark eyes and pitch-black hair, he was much taller, with broad shoulders and a bulky build.

“Not everything is as it seems.” Jacob’s voice whispered.

Something glinted from Marcus’s throat and it caught my gaze just as quickly. It was darker, richer in the color hue of crimson. It was a Pendant of some sort, two figures in the shape of an ‘S’ stood back to back, with a thin chain hanging onto the overhang of the object. In the center, where the bottom of both ‘S’ shapes connected into a circle, three lines fell into the shape of a triangle upside down. In the center of this triangle, it appeared to be an oval, but the longer I stared, the more I realized beneath all of this, the oval actually led up to the open part of the ‘S’ and formed a heart shape. Wrapping around the triangle and the oval, holding it together, was a thin, maybe gold, thread that hung limply after tide at the bottom of the Pendant.

The Pendant pulsed like a heartbeat, the color flowing in rotation through each stem of its being. It flowed like blood running through the veins, and it dripped from the loose threads at the bottom as if the Pendant had a hole and leaked blood.

I watched in horror as the Pendant pulsed, growing brighter and larger, until it was all that I saw. It flickered, moving like a real heartbeat inside the body of the man who wore it. The murmurs continued and were vague until they erupted into screams of terror and growls of rage. The screams, how they wailed; the growls, animalistic as they howled. I couldn’t cover my ears, I couldn’t scream to drown out the horrific sound.

Suddenly the Pendant began to expand, absorbing the screams of terror like a vacuum. It expanded until it trembled and vibrated with energy, then suddenly, it burst…

I screamed, sitting up with a jolt as a pain hit my chest and sent my eyes flying open. I gasped for air as if I had none left and clutched my chest desperately as if the Pendant had lodged itself into me. I clawed at myself, trying to get rid of the blood dripping from my chest and the Pendant that seemed to nestle itself inside me. It wouldn’t get off and I screamed in terror, clawing until I realized what was happening.

There was no Pendant, it was just a hallucination out of the dream…

The sound of my own scream, it brought me to reality as I panted and grasped the covers in my hands. I was surrounded by darkness and silence, I was alone, somewhere unfamiliar. A sheen of perspiration trickled down my temple and mixed with the tears that streamed down my cheeks. I couldn’t gain my breath back, I felt as if I were being suffocated and had to learn to breathe again. I couldn’t stop crying, fisting my hair in my hands and rocking myself.

I had never had that type of dream before and my mind swam with its images. I didn’t know why that Pendant terrorized me. Or why I dreamed up such an idiotic thing, but it frightened me senseless. I didn’t even know why I was crying, maybe it was the terror I felt knowing it could happen, or maybe it was because I felt the pain even when I was awake, and it scared me.

I wanted my pills and I looked around myself frantically, before breaking into tears realizing I didn’t have my bottle on me. I couldn’t stop the tremble that terrorized my body as I combed back my hair from my face. The freed ginger locks clung to my skin from the cold sweat, and half scared me when I mistook it for a touch.

A light suddenly flashed in front of me, startling and bringing a scream to my throat. The person rushed in and I tried to fling away the covers and make a break for it, but the person got a hold of me and pushed me back onto the bed. I shrieked in terror, shoving against the person as it pinned me with its body.

“Stop, Eleanor!” A familiar voice rasped anxiously. “Stop, calm down.” It begged.

I stilled and panted as the person leaned back and stared at me with its emerald eyes. I studied the figure and noted the gleaming halo above the head as one of the twins. It was shadowed, and I couldn’t be sure who it was, but I knew it wasn’t Marcus by his tone.

“J-Jacob?” I half sobbed.

The figure hesitated.

“Are you okay?” He rasped. “What happened?”

My shoulders slouched as I forced my fingers to release his arms, then shoved my hair from my face and wiped away and tears as he leaned back. I quickly pulled myself out from beneath him and shakily fisted and un-fisted my hands.

“F-fine… just a nightmare.”

“Just a nightmare?” He demanded. “I thought someone was killing you…” He almost breathed in relief when he realized I was fine.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t take my pills.” I mumbled to myself, trying to block the memory.

“Pills?” He said in almost terror. “What pills?”

I shook my head as my brows creased. “Nothing, I’m fine. –I’m sorry I woke you.”

“No, what pills.” He demanded.

I brushed my hair back with both hands and rested my elbows on my knees.

“I have medication I take to calm me.” I whispered. “I have P.T.S.D., I’ve had it for two years now. The pills help me, it sometimes keeps the dreams at bay and it reduces the risk of flashbacks.”

“Dreams? Flashbacks? What are they about?” He mumbled as he sat on the edge of the bed.

I avoided his gaze as I rubbed my jaw as it began to ache from stress.

“The day my brother died, it sometimes comes back to haunt me. The other dreams I have, like this one… I don’t know how to explain how they came about. They have just been with me ever since.”

I looked up at him and my mouth felt like paste as my chest yet ached as if the Pendant had truly burst. Nothing in the dream seemed possible to me and seemed down right ridiculous.

“Can you tell me what your dream was about?”

“It was stupid.” I muttered as I shoved my hair away again.

“No, tell me…” He coaxed gently.

I hesitated and looked at him in earnest. “I-I don’t know where to begin…”

“How about from the beginning, sweetie.” He said gently. “It’s best to begin from there.”

I pushed myself to lean against the headboard and slouched back against it. I didn’t know if I should tell Jacob that his brother was a lunatic in my dream, but it all came out at once. I gave every little detail I could remember and ended up in tears by the time I ended again. I didn’t care if I hated him, he was the only good aspect in my dream so far. He was more verbal before I spoke of him and his brother, trying to coax and sooth me. After, he fell silent, but I didn’t need any coaxing, it all tumbled out at once. Once again, I had to quickly calm myself and tell myself to keep whatever’s in my stomach –down.

Once all fell silent and I was angrily wiping away the tears again, he turned his head to me.

“So, you think I –Marcus, you think my brother is…” He cut himself off speechless.

“I told you it was strange.” I muttered as I stared at my hands.

“No, it’s not strange.” He said quickly, before adding in a softer tone. “I’ve had that dream before, too.”

My head snapped up as my heart sank, it wasn’t just me. “You have?” I rasped in terror.

His head tilted up in a jerk as he hesitated to outstretch a hand.

“It’s probably nothing.” He tried to sooth before wavering. “But do you honestly think I –Marcus would do that?”

“I don’t know…” I whispered as I dropped my head into my hands. “I don’t know anything anymore, everything in my life is screwed up… I feel insane.”

He fell silent before standing and crossing in front of the light. I had thought he was leaving, until a hand touched my shoulder. I jumped and look up in alarm as he sat next to me. I hesitated to scoot over and attempted to do so, but his grip tightened as he bent to my height.

“Don’t worry about it right now, it’s probably nothing.” He repeated, then said. “Come.”

He pulled my shoulder towards him and wrapped an arm around my shoulder blades. I was stunned and stiffened as he stroked my back to sooth me. It was comforting to a certain point, but it was uncomfortable when I wasn’t used to a stranger hugging me like this. My face was pressed to his shoulder by his embrace, and I tried to move, but found I couldn’t move. His breath brushed passed my ear before he spoke:

“Not everything is as it seems.” He whispered.

My breath hitched at his words as he pulled away and stood. I sat stunned to silence, in both horror and relief as his figure disappeared and the door shut after him. I didn’t know what to think anymore, I began to believe even my dreams weren’t safe from reality. I have a gut feeling, a feeling in my chest, that my dreams aren’t just dreams, but a warning of what is to come.