Was it Just a Dream?

One shot

The morning sun had just begun its ascent into the still dark sky when Ashton opened her eyes. She looked around her room, rubbing her eyes to get used to the darkness when her eyes saw a faint orange light coming from under her door. Intrigued she got out of bed and saw that the source of light was coming from her best friend’s room. What is Cameron doing up this early, she usually doesn’t wake up till 11:00?, Ashton thought to herself.

Cameron Mitchells and Ashton Spence, better known as Cam and Ash had been joined by the hip ever since they met each other in kindergarten. The two girls were still inseparable despite having taken on different occupations, Ash being a librarian and Cam being a nurse, where their fair amount of salary allowed them to share a small yet cozy two room apartment in Seattle. The girls had know each other for quite some time, so when Ash woke up to see that the usually heavy sleeper was awake she was immediately startled.

Ash slipped on her soft, fuzzy, purple bunny slippers and scuffed her feet towards Cameron’s room. She knocks on the door softly so she would not startle Cam, and she wondered to herself, What if I’m just overreacting. After a few seconds of no replied Ash got worried and knocked again, this time shouting out into the eery silence, asking Cam if everything was ok. When Cam didn’t respond, yet again, Ash through open the door. Her sight immediately transfixed to the floor. A pile of all their shared belongings: gifts, pictures, toys, lay scattered on the ground with a halo of dancing flames turning all of their precious memories together into a smite of ashes. As she shifted her gaze, she saw Cameron standing over the igneous mound with  a box of matches in her hand. For a minute, Ashton stood frozen in shock at the sight before her, trying to comprehend the situation. And then she snapped out of her daze, rushing forward try to distinguish the fire that had now quickly begun to spread and lick dangerously close to Cam who was standing immobile watching the scene unfold. Ash swatted at the fire, but in vain, the fire merely scorched her skin, making her flinch back. She then rushed out of the room and over to the kitchen to grab the fire extinguisher, tripping and slipping as she went. The only thing on her mind was to make sure she got Cam out of the fire before anything bad happened. Ash quickly ran back and put out the fire. She then ran over to Cam making sure she was ok, and then began yelling, “What were you thinking? Why would you burn all of our memories? How could you do this?” But all of Ash’s rambling seemed to have had no effect on Cam. “ What is wrong with you.” exclaimed Ash as a last  attempt to find out what was going on. She gazed in Cam’s eyes, the usual crystal blue, now appeared to be pitch black. Her skin color had turned goulish. The squeaking of floor boards was heard from the dark shadowed corner of the room. A deep mysterious voice spoke, the harsh screech repeating over and over “Kill her, Alexia.” A frightened Ash tried to peer into the darkness, to see who the mysterious creature was.  In a shaky voice she yelled out, “Who are you?” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cam staggering towards her, in a zombie like fashion, with a knife clutched in her hand. As Cam advances towards her, Ash yelled out, “What are you doing Cameron? STOP!” All the while the mysterious voice kept on encouraging Cam, saying, “Kill her Alexia, do it, kill her.” Ash snaps out to the voice, “What are you saying, this is Cameron, not Alexia.” As Cam kept advancing, with a raised knife in her hand, Ash whimpered to her best friend, “Stop Cam, you don’t have to do this,” but her cries were heard on deaf ears. Ash backed away from Cam, but bumped into the wall with no way of escape. Cam looked at Ash with a blank look in her eyes, she whispered out to Ash in robotic, dull voice, “ You have always over shadowed me, always the better of the two of us and now I will get rid of you.” The voice became a mysterious dark cloaked figure as Cam/Alexia gave out a mechanical laugh, she lifted the knife over her head and plunged it down into Ash’s heart. Ash’s blood curling scream echoed through the room.

She opened her eyes while screaming and looked around, noticing the tangle of bed sheets around her and her room. She breathed out a sigh of relief just as Cameron rushed into the room asking, “Are you ok?”, “What happened!” As Cam began fussing over Ash, she took a deep breath and smiled up at Cam, telling her, “ I’m fine, I just had a bad nightmare.” Then with a serious expression Ash asked Cam, “Will you always be my best friend?” Cam looked at Ash with a goofy expression on her face, “ Of course, I’ll always be your best friend, and if I didn’t then I’m pretty sure you would kill me” she said with a grin. Ash let out a small laugh, “ I wouldn’t but you might.” and then she saw blur of something black out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look, she saw nothing, thinking it was a fragment of her imagination, she ignored it. She turned her attention back to Cam when she asked her, “What are you talking about?” Ash quickly gathered Cam into a hug explaining, “Nothing, I’m just messing with you.” “ Now lets go eat breakfast, I’m starving from all the screaming” she laughed, as they walked out of the room, making plans for the day.