Just Survive

Chapter Fifteen

- Ashley Gray -

I bolt up from my position, awkwardly laying, half asleep on the lumpy ground of the forest. The dying grass is sharp against my sticky skin, the prickling sensation numb against the fear radiating from me. I'm frozen under the raging heat of the sun, my forehead drenching my hair. Cold sweat condenses on my boiling skin, the once ashy-brown pigment of my dirty hair melting into black. The droplets of sweat drip from each strand, watering the wilting grass.

My laboured breaths catch in horror and stupor. My hands press into the dirt in front of me, my nails gathering mud as I try my best to stop myself from falling forwards. My skin crawls and my face twitches, the flesh twinging as adrenaline pumps through my veins at an unbearable rate. My eyes sting like a branding iron. The only thought that's able to munch away at my brain is the horrifying nightmare that just encased me in my sleep and then freed me into a reality scarcely different.

Cody, who lays beside me, flinches and squirms for a moment in his sleep. I hear the muffled crunch of the loose dirt beneath him as he leaps up onto his knees, mirroring my posture. He shuffles so that he is facing me. My eyes blur as if a vignette filter is covering my pupils. I can only see the outline of his alert body.

He places his hands on my shoulders as I continue to hyperventilate. I'm unable to utter a word through my panicked breaths. My blood begins to burn and my mouth becomes dry. I can hear his trembling voice shouting at me, it sounds distant, I don't understand what he is saying. It's just quiet yelling as my head spins.

A metallic taste trickles on my tongue and that's when I realise that in my mad head-space, I've begun to bite down on my cheek so hard that I'm drawing blood. Then an oddly familiar yet terrifying hunger flashes behind my skin like lightning behind thick grey thunderclouds...

I stand in a vast, dissolute and wild plain of a grassy meadow, the sun bright and comfortably warm. The tall shards of grass and wheat tilt and flow in the cool breeze that diverges the beating rays of the sun burning at my skin. I take a deep breath, embracing the tranquil aura that begins to wrap around me. I can't remember the last time I've felt so relaxed. My tense muscles let go, my mind lets go of all the horrors that once surrounded me: the corpses, the death and the sadness. My eyes close and a small smile hooks at the corner of my lips.

I open my eyes. A miraculous pool of clear water sits at my feet and I see my reflection. My eyes are a bright blue; my face clean from the years worth of blood and mud and my scar, the horrific scar is gone. It's as if the world never ended and I have returned to my innocence. A white glow emanates from my body, soft and light like a feather. I'm refreshed, happiness hugging me, suffocating me.

It fades.

The green grass turns grey and the blue sky turns black, just a moon to light the space between myself and a figure darker than the midnight sky. He materialises from the storm clouds, his silhouette strong, stern and confident. Everything changed so quickly from that luxurious green scenery; I barely know where I am. I'm lost now. A sense of eeriness engulfs the once calm aura, sending shivers up and down my spine.

His face becomes clear. The clouds disperse into the air around him, sinking into the water at our feet, swaying the waves and washing my toes. It's just me and him in the storm.

Me: the fighter, the damsel, the lonely. Him: the villain, the evil, the wolf in sheep's clothing. The far-from-typical hero versus villain; protagonist versus antagonist; Ashley Gray versus Wayne Phillips, once again.

Only this time, his skin glows orange and red like the flames I used to turn him into dust; his eyes are purple with malice and his teeth are sharpened like daggers. His glare could kill, his eyebrows furrowed into one and his fists clenched at his sides.