Thief (The Ichor Series: book 1)

Chapter 5: Strangers

Chase

I must say, watching people sleep is Very interesting.

And I don't mean in the creepy stalker-ish way. I just mean that people look younger in their sleep. More care free.

All the stress from reality slips off their shoulders and they are left with just their imagination.

Watching this girl sleep, it reminds me of me when I was first on the streets by myself. I would be so angry and stressed at myself and reality in general because I didn't know what was happening with my life. I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know how to handle it all.

I still don't, but I try my hardest to keep a hold of everything and not fall off the deep end.

Watching the girl sleep, she was peaceful. Her shoulders loose, her mouth a bit open, and her hands were draped across her stomach. It reminded me of a picture I saw in the old city archives once.

It was a women (or girl, I'm not sure) and she was sleeping in a fancy bed. There were rose vines growing around her and the thorns were everywhere. And the weirdest part was that three small fairies were hovering above her expectantly. The title under the picture was faded and worn out so I couldn't really make out the entire thing, but what I could read was Beauty.

The image I had fabricated in my head about that sleeping Beauty vanished as my eyes opened to the sound of something hitting the floor.

The girl was still asleep, but she was whimpering and shouting out in her sleep.

"NO!"

"STOP!"

"DON'T HURT HER!"

She was tossing and turning on the mattress I had put her on and she repeatedly kept hitting the floor with so much force that she was starting to bruise her hand. If she kept it up, she'd split her hand right open and start bleeding again.

It was as if she was trying to break through a barrier to someone or something......

I knew she was having a nightmare and that it was a pretty bad one, so I knew she was going to wake up soon.

Skylar

I look around me trying to figure out where I am because I remember losing consciousness on the street right after I ran away from my last foster parents but nothing looks familiar.

All I see are grey moldy walls, with water streams slowly showing on them because of the leak in the sunken roof. The floor was littered with pools of water infected with mosquitoes and their larva.

And I was lying on a moth eaten mattress that had been pushed to one side of the room.

Where the heck am I?

Just as I think that, I see them. A pair of blue eyes as clear as the sea, and as stormy as the ocean.