Unspoken - Book 3 - S.S.

Anchors

"You were there too." Stiles said, the confession coming out of his lips easier than he thought it would as he walked beside Diana down the hallways of the school, retelling her in vivid detail about the dream he had had the night before.

"I was?" Diana frowned, as Stiles nodded.

"You were in my bed." He said, noticing how that could have possibly sounded as he gasped and turned around to look at the blonde girl beside him. "I mean... You were sleeping. In my bed. With me. But not... Not like that... Just... Sleeping."

"It's okay, Stiles." Diana nodded, biting back a smile at the way Stiles stammered nervously around her like he used to do the year before. "I got it the first time."

"Good." Stiles breathed out in relief. "But the thing is... I woke up screaming from a dream within the dream and... And you were there. And you told me it was okay, but then I saw... I saw my door half-open and I just felt... I felt like I needed to close it."

"So you did?"

"Kinda." Stiles shrugged. "You were telling me not to. Just to leave it, go back to bed... You were begging. But I couldn't. So I got to the door and I opened it."

"And then what?"

"Then... Then I saw the Nemeton again. But it was in the lacrosse field. And then... Then I realized it was another dream and I... I yelled at myself to wake up, but I couldn't. I mean, until I did and I screamed so loud, my dad came to my room and held me down until I stopped." Stiles said, stopping with his walk with Diana, causing the girl to stop as well as she turned around to look at Stiles, her eyebrows furrowed in worry. "Am I going crazy?"

"No." Diana shook her head, sighing quietly as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. Looking around to make sure no one was close enough to hear them, Diana bit her lip for a second before looking back at Stiles when she spoke up again. "A dream within a dream, you say?"

"Yeah." Stiles nodded.

"And you couldn't wake up?"

"Nope, and it was beyond terrifying." Stiles said, as Diana nodded.

"I know." She sighed. "You ever heard of sleep paralysis?"

"Hum, no." Stiles said, frowning quietly. "Do I want to?"

"I'm not sure you want to, but you probably should." Diana shrugged. "That dream you had... Did you feel like you're about to wake up, but you couldn't move or talk?"

"Yeah." Stiles nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly that."

"Right, well, it happens because, during REM sleep, your body is basically paralyzed." The girl continued with her explanation. "It's called muscle atonia. That way, if you start dreaming about running, you don't actually start running in your bed."

"That makes sense..." Stiles said.

"Yes, but sometimes, your mind can wake up before your body does." Diana said. "So, for this split second, you're actually aware that your body is paralyzed. And that's the terrifying part. It turns your dream into a nightmare. You can feel like you're falling, like you're being strangled, or, in your case, like you're at the center of a grove of magical trees where human sacrifices took place, I guess."

"You think it means something?" Stiles asked.

"What if what you did that night... What if it's still affecting you?" Diana suggested, causing Stiles to sigh, unable to answer her.

"But, you want to know what scares me the most?" He asked, as Diana nodded, her expression soft as she looked at him. "I'm not even sure this is real."