Beauty In Death [DreamNotFound]

chapter five

George didn't know what he had done to upset the gods, but Poseidon was certainly angry.

Wet kisses nipped at his heals, smothering his ankles with slobery intimacy and casting a glass layer over porcelain skin. Razor-winged butterflies ripped at his insides threatening to burst out of their cage, their metallic wings creating intricate patterns of lacerations cross-crossing over soft tissue leaving abstract drawings of carmine in its wake.

His feet thudded against the moist ground, his toes sinking into wet mud as he charged across the terrain, very much aware of the burning tight grip on his wrist.

George was also aware of how he seemed to be running at a much slower pace to dream, as he was causing dreams arm to bend at peculiar angles to hold onto him and possibly declining their survival rate dramatically. He worked his legs harder, the muscles straining under the fabric of his now sodden cargo pants.

The blur of trees around them seemed to be melting together as they rushed past them, though George suspected this was due to the way dream was practically dragging him forwards, his little legs hardly having the ability to keep up. The smell of the water stung his nostrils with its intense salty stench, causing his nose to go up in flames and stain his skin red.

The forest seemed to be thinning out as they continued to run and George thought they had finally escaped it when his foot slipped from underneath him and pulled him deep down into the mouth of the water. Stitches ripped out of his wrist and opened up wounds as dreams fingers slipped from their grasp, George's body plummeting away from it's reach.

His whole figure sunk beneath a murky grey body of water, the wave so powerful it knocked into his stomach and winded him, leaving his abdomen bruised and his breaths wheezy.

The water was everywhere.

It delved into his hair, ferociously pulling at his roots as it knotted it's fingers into his chocolate locks, tugging at his scalp. It cuckcooned around his body, hugging at his hips and scratching at his feet, weighing on his chest and clawing at his throat. It ran it's tounge down the back of his neck and licked at the crevices of his colar bones, whilst trailing moist fingers over the insides of his thighs and then continuing down and wrapping around his legs in a tight squeeze. It's cold tentacles slithered down his ear and coiled in his ear drum, then proceeded to tickle at his mouth to try and ply open his tightly closed lips. George was even sure it had got into his blood stream.

His arms desperately clutched at straws, paddling away beside him and viciously trying to swim towards the surface. His legs kicked out beneath him in trembling determination but it was like an anchor had been tied to his ankle and was dragging him down, excruciatingly slow.

Every time his head nearly reached the top, another wave of water rushed over him, the extreme weight slamming down on top of him and crushing him underneath, leaving him knackered and out of energy.

He hardly had the capacity to keep his eyes open, they kept drifting closed with each kick he lashed out, the dirty water stinging his eyes and burning his irises. All he could manage to make out was a blue water colour painting, with large paint strokes dashed across the canvas conveying a sea of insinuations.

The pain in his chest was growing at an increasingly dramatic rate. His lungs were getting no oxygen and they were only going to last so long. They seemed to be screwing themselves into a tight ball inside him, as if they were a messed up drawing that needed to be thrown in the bin. His esophagus was tainted with black malignancy, it's dark claws burning the skin inside his throat until it was dripping with ichor and swirling with smoke. 

He needed air and fast.

The veins in his neck swelled up, pulsing against his China skin, the thin tissue pulled tightly against his Adams apple and revealing all the blue roads that intertwined and interlocked under the surface. The redness, caused by holding his breath for so long, was slowly working it's way up his face, the warmth spreading across his jaw and filling his cheeks that were stained with the blood of pomegranates.

Ever so gently, his arms slowly lost all energy to move and drifted down to his sides, the water causing them to bob up and down. His eyes flickered closed as his legs stopped kicking beneath him, his motivation faltering to a stop, his body too heavy and too tired to carry on.

The water continued to press at his lips, running a faint finger over his pink mouth, ridden with intricate lines that split down the skin like cracks in the pavement. He could feel his heart pounding in his head, the sound causing his eye brows to knit together in pain from the cearing headache that was drumming at his brain. Underneath his tightly sealed lips, was a build up of air that was slowly spilling it's way out of small gaps at the side of his mouth, bubbles erupting from the gush of oxygen. His puffed chest slowly started to deflate as the breath escaped his body and the clock started to speed up, it's ticking haunting his mind.

A gap in the centre of George's lips gently detached it's self from the other, creating a small 'o' of space inbetween, giving enough room for the water to start trickling in and filling his mouth, tickling his tonsils. The liquid inside pushed open his jaw and widened the gap between his lips allowing the salty substance to race down his throat and scratch at the inside of his esophagus. He could feel it coursing through his veins, melting into the blood stream, squeezing around his heart with an iron fist and filling up his lungs like water buckets. His body started to shake and twitch in an attempt to remove the water from his system, jerking his stomach into a tight cramp and releasing it quickly, pumping his insides of fluid.

As George's mind faded in and out of consciousness, a hot grip suddenly appeared, latching onto his arm and burning finger prints into his wrist.

It cut through the water like a blade slicing through tissue, their tight hold incinerating 100 degree burns onto palid skin, long fingers wrapping round George's tiny wrist, so small that the tips could touch on the other side. The fingers flexed and tightened their grip before dramatically pulling, tugging George's body upwards and towards the light near the surface which sprinkled diamonds across the water, twinkling with each wave.

His eyes had drifted closed by now so could only use his other senses to work out what was going on.

His head broke the surface of the water like a breath of fresh air, and in fact it was. Water spilled out of his mouth like a waterfall, dribbling down his chin and running underneath his sodden shirt which was stuck tight to his body. The smell of fresh air hit his nasals like a truck, the refreshing fragrance a relief to his previously salt filled nostrils that had blushed pink under the heavy scent.

The breath he then took caused constellations to explode, nerve endings to spark and pupils to dilate. A cold shiver raced down his veins and counteracted the heat that was gnawing at his body, cooling his warm cheeks and soothing his wounds.

The fingers indented themselves into George's hips and hoisted him over broad shoulders, the smooth muscles straining underneath his stomach which was laid face down in a fire man's lift. His body draped forwards, the blood pooling in his head which was pointed towards the ground.

Suddenly, in one smooth motion, George was slung down onto soft grass, his back hitting the ground harshly causing his body to jolt. Two large olive hands interlocked their fingers over George's heart and rapidly pressed down, water spluttering out his mouth as air was pumped into him. Finger tips pinched his nose, plugging it when a warm breath intermingled with his own, seemingly hesitant for a second before latching its mouth into George's and heavily blowing into his mouth for CPR. And although George didn't move, his whole body reacted, his cheeks dusted a deep rose in what he assumed to be embarrassment and his heart skipped a beat out of shock, sweat pooling in his palms. The procedure repeated a few times until his lips tingled and his skin prickled, water erupting out his mouth a few times, mixing with his dramatic coughs.

His back was then lifted back up when warm finger tips grabbed hold of his face, squishing his cheeks together and pulling his head forwards. George's eyes opened and flickered upwards, staring into mesmerising emerald irises which bore into his own coffee ones, uncomfortably close. The pads of Dreams fingers then reached further forwards and indented into his neck, feeling for his pulse, when the crease in Dreams eyebrows had finally ironed out, he let him go, seemingly satisfied.