A Sacrifice of Names

Chapter 4

Darkness.

It felt almost inviting. No green eyes staring back at her, no whispering voices inside her mind. Just pitch black darkness. As if she could touch it Earie tried to reach out, but her arms did not move. She tried to speak, but her mouth did not even open. Perhaps it was all just a dream again, one of the many nightmares she had added to her list over the past few days.

Or had insanity truly gotten her in its grasp?

A sharp stabbing pain in her head finally forced a distressed whimper past her lips. No dream then. Then what, or where? She tried opening her eyes again, but the headache only grew more intense every time she did. There was light, somewhere. Had she forgotten to turn off the light on her nightstand?

No, she was definitely not back in her room like she had planned to.

A cave? The cave? She tried moving her head, but the throbbing pain only seemed to worsen with every movement made. How could this not be a dream? Never before had she felt pain in any of her dreams. Cold, yes, but wasn't pain supposed to be something that would make you jolt awake, drenched in sweat, only to realise it had only been another nightmare?

The first thing she tried moving was her pinky finger. Easy. Her hands felt freezing. Not altogether surprising remembering the bench she had fallen asleep on.

She had fallen asleep outside on a bench out of all things.

Those eyes, her eyes. A cold chill crept down her spine as memories started to flood back to her. Had it not all been her own imagination in the end? The lack of sleep, the excess amount of stress. Undoubtedly she had still been half asleep to imagine herself luring her deeper into the park.

But her head...

Something had hit her. Slowly she tried to lift her hand up to the side of her head. Her hair felt strangely wet, and pressing against it, albeit gently, certainly did not improve that stinging pain in her head either.

It was blood that coated her fingers when she lowered her hand.

No dream, no nightmare.

Reality.

Slowly but surely could she feel panic surrounding her. An attempt to push herself up failed. Blood had crusted against her right cheek. Whatever happened to her clothes she did not even want to know, but it looked almost as if she had been dragged through mud and dead leaves. The room around her slowly became more clear. It was not the cave she had seen in her dreams so many times, but there were no windows, no natural light. The only lights she could make out were blurred. Her eyes still did not want to focus, despite the sudden adrenaline rushing through her.

And shadows.

She could see the shadows, the same kind of shadows she had seen so many times before in her nightmares. They moved. Some closer towards her, some away from her.

And those whispers.

It was like she heard herself talking again. Female voices surrounded her. Some muffled, some so high pitched she wanted nothing more than to cover her ears and make herself small just so the sound would not reach her.

A nightmare that had turned into reality.

She desperately wanted to shout at them to stop, but even with her mouth finally opening the sound died on her tongue, another sharp sting of pain now forcing both hands to cup the sides of her head in an attempt to make it stop.

Two hands wrapped around her shoulders, forcing her down before she could make another attempt to sit up.

The shadows surrounding her had finally disappeared. Instead she found herself looking up in a pair of auburn coloured eyes.