Dreams Apart

01

Angela

Present time

Nothingness. I was surrounded by the darkness, and the silence was broken by each footstep I took. Suddenly, a door appeared before me, and with a twisted feeling of fear, I froze still as though my body was perfectly curved that way.

My thoughts soon put me up to it, and I slowly reached for the door handle. However, within a second, it was taken away from me. My breath hitched. A flash of light. The world shifted around me like a kaleidoscope, and suddenly, I was sinking into water... my lungs swallowed wide, my skin blue with the feeling of knives carving into my flesh brutally.

My fists and kicks began to surrender to death. It wasn't its first attempt at taking my life. My eyes began to shut. It was the end, the end of a blue and helpless life. I let go, feeling a weight pull from my soul and into the unknown. This was it.

That'd be an easier ending, right? A simple death to a simple life...not quite.

At that moment, it was clear to me that the man responsible for death had envied the serene upbringing of my lifeless form because within another second, my eyes peeled open to the sight of the glorious sun. There it was, printing my skin like hellfire.

I shivered with fear and depletion. My blue nightdress clung to my skin with a dampness feel that felt quite unpleasant. The sudden urge to run hit me like a truck. I ran as quickly as possible and didn't stop for anything. My feet ached, feeling numb against the cold concrete floor. It didn't stop me, though.

I thoughtlessly lifted my feet into the unknown but froze as my eyes met the shadowy contours of a dungeon. The cold, unrelenting blue of the walls mirrored the water that had nearly consumed me moments before. I was captivated and lured.

My feet were being lifted involuntarily, curiosity possessing me deeply. I stood there, almost admiring the space until the feeling of fluid began to approach my feet.

A metallic smell began to awake; with a sinking breath, I looked down at the gore. Blood ceaselessly flooded the floor. I began following its path, searching for its bleeding corpse. Then there they were, my mother and father. Blood gushed out of their fragile bodies, entwined together. My knees began to weaken, and I stumbled into the arms of the unknown.

I promptly turned to see what monster I had fallen into, and there he was. At that very moment, our eyes locked, the gold in his awakened a familiar feeling in my chest.

"Angela." He spoke, my name echoing softly afterward.

It took me a moment to gather myself and pull away from his gaze. "My-my parents..." I breathlessly searched; they were no longer there, nor was the gore. The metallic smell was also seemingly replaced...

His touch lured me into his gaze again, and the familiar feeling struck my chest once more. It felt impossible to breathe as I searched his eyes.

"I've waited too long to let you go again." At that moment, there was a wavering light in his gleaming orbs. Our eyes intertwined. He had utterly consumed me; I should've feared or run. However, I could not lift my feet. His whisper echoed loudly in the back of my mind.

I parted my lips open to speak. However, my attempt was interrupted by the darkness that broke me away from him. The darkness then escaped the moment I peeled my eyes open.

I jolted upright, gasping for air. The dream lingered like a shadow, its grip refusing to loosen. The beige walls of my room offered no comfort, only the bitter reminder of Diana's pills sitting untouched on my bedside table. They silenced the voices. Stilled the nightmares.Erased the memories.

But this one lingered-his golden eyes, the metallic tang of blood, and the weight of a truth I could no longer ignore. My parents were gone, yet their absence screamed louder than any dream. And he knew why.