It's Not All Roses

Chapter 6

I found a rose on my doorstep. I picked it up, and found my hand bleeding. It seemed that in the quick moment of me picking it up, it had sprouted horribly sharp thorns. I dropped it out of surprise. It wilted almost instantly. I looked back up to see Dominic in the doorway. I looked back down at my hand, it looked like I had never gotten pricked at all. It was fine.
I then went over to Dominic, and placed my hand on his cheek gently. After I did that, blood began to drip from his cheek. I stepped away, and found a large gash about the size of my hand on his cheek. I grabbed his hand to bring him to the bathroom, but he didn't move. I looked back, his hand had begun bleeding as well.
I was confused. Scared even. I looked at my hands, they were covered with blood. When I looked back up, Dominic was gone. It was as if he vanished. The door was shut, the lights flickered in the now empty room. The rose still laid on the floor. I tried to pick it back up, but it vanished too. Gone.
I ran to the kitchen to clean my hands. I kept running, but all the rooms were the same. Empty and lifeless. There was nothing there. Just empty rooms, with cream colored walls, and a door on the other side. It was just doors, doors, doors. All that was before me were doors. I was getting so sick of it. As I went through the rooms, it seemed that they were losing texture. Eventually, I made it to the last room. By this point, it looked as if I had entered a poorly made knock off of some video game somewhere. Creepy. There were now no more doors to go through. I stopped, and tried to look back at the door which I had entered the room from, but there was no door. It had vanished. The only thing there was writing on the wall. I read it, It said 'Your Fault!' in big, dripping red letters. I then began to hear loud laugher. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. I covered my ears and turned around, just to find that the same sentence appeared on the other wall. Every wall now had the message. I couldn't escape it. I sat down in the middle of the big, empty room, and brought my knees to my chest. I covered my head with my hands. I could now hear my own heart beating louder than anything else.
The laugher and heartbeat just kept getting louder and louder. I threw my head back violently, and screamed as loud as I could. I screamed for what felt like hours. No one was coming to save me. I knew that now. Not a single soul was in that place but me. I was alone, like a tiger locked in a cage. I was trapped. I hated that feeling. I had felt it for so long. By now, I gave up screaming. It wasn't helping at all. It's not like anyone could hear me. I sat there, and cried. I just cried. I begged and begged for it to end, but no one answered my calls. Who would? It was only me. And here, I was powerless.
After a while, the room went dark. The sentences disappeared, and the walls seemed to be gone too. I was in pure darkness. I soon got up to look around. Behind me, I found Dominic. I hugged him as tightly as I could, I didn't want to let go of him. I was scared.
"I thought you loved me... How could you.." Dominic said out of the blue.
I was so confused. I did love him. How could I what?
"You hurt me.. You said you would never hurt me, so why?" He stayed in the same position. It seemed as if he had read my mind. that freaked me out a bit.
"What do you mean.." I backed up, letting go of him.
He then closed his eyes, and vanished. poof. I tried to grab him, but he was gone. I fell to my knees. It felt like I had lost everything. I then found the rose in front of me yet again. I looked at it, it had a note beside it. The note read 'How could you'. The thorns were gone, the paper disappeared. I picked up the rose, and held it tight. The petals began to fall, then it went dark.
I sat up in my bed, and looked around.
'It was just a nightmare.' I thought. 'I'm okay now.'
I got up, and went to the living room. I picked up my cat who was on the couch, and held him like a teddy bear. It made me feel safer. I didn't go back to sleep, I couldn't. I checked the time, 12:09 am. Shit. I just laid down, and listened to music. The cat stayed with me the rest of the night. I think he could tell that I was upset, and that something was wrong, because he laid curled up against me, and didn't want to move away. The next morning, I didn't even want to get up. I forced myself to anyway, and got ready to go to school. My mother would have been upset with me if I didn't. When I arrived, Dominic was already there. I let out a small sigh of relief. I was glad to see that he was okay. I had thought I actually lost him. That's how bad the dream scared me. I didn't talk that day. I just stayed quiet as it progressed. I couldn't stop thinking about that horrible dream. I never wanted to experience anything like that again. Never again. It was horrible. The worst feeling I had ever felt. I told no one about that dream until now. It hurt me a lot to think about it, and even more to talk about it.
After I got home, I stayed in my room the whole rest of the night, I tried to find something to do to stop thinking about it. Nothing worked. The dream remained stuck in my head like a catchy song. I just couldn't get it out. No matter how hard I tried, it stuck with me.
I stopped sleeping regularly again. I just couldn't force myself anymore. Instead of sleeping, I would listen to music and draw, or just stare at my ceiling and think about the day I had. My friends began to worry about me again. I told them I was fine, but I wasn't. I knew I needed help. I just... I couldn't get myself to go to anyone. I don't know why, but it just felt so hard to ask for help. After a while of feeling this way, I finally told my mother everything. She helped me for the next couple of weeks, and everything improved, except for my sleeping habits. I knew sleep was important, but I didn't worry about it. I knew I would start sleeping properly again, but I was taking things slow. I didn't want to force myself to do any more than I had to. I knew if I did, it would result badly. That dream still stayed with me though, I guess it would take more than that to get rid of it. Damn it. Why couldn't it just stop? Why did it have to continue hurting me?