The Dark Ones

Chapter Five: Surprise

As Georgia watched the sights of her town flit past the large window, her mind consumed them on autopilot. Grayston could be a dreary place at times and the gray tinge from the dark clouds above made it seem more lifeless today than usual. Her mind was on her dream from the night before. Hayden had featured in it more prominently than she'd ever admit to anyone.

No surprise there!

Her mind was half annoyed and half confused at its relentless obsession with him. The dream itself added a new layer of mystique to him. It started with her being able to see him. He was beautiful and strong, his skin seeming to glow under a moonlit night, the sinew of his arms and chest a million times more desirable because of it. She kept trying to reach him but he kept pushing her away. Even in his rejections of her, she couldn't help noticing how strong and forceful his touch was. It excited her somehow.

"Let me in," she kept pleading with him.

The more desperate her cries became, the more her conscious self was disgusted by her weakness for him as she thought of it now. In the dream she was submissive at first and initially backed off. The sight of him so close to her was devastating. At first, she thought it was because she needed to be with him. Analyzing the dream now, Georgia realized it was something deeper. In the dream she could sense him somehow. The connection gave her an insight into his deeper self. She could feel his pain, share in the fear and loneliness he felt. It made no sense to her in reality.

How could he be lonely? He could have any girl he wanted. In the dream it was different. He felt pain and saw himself as an outcast. It only heightened Georgia's desire to be let in, to help him. Instinctively, she knew that only she could. Her submissiveness was overpowered by her desire to protect him and she became more forceful in the way she pushed herself toward him. Her renewed vigor changed him too. He was soft and gentle when he rebuked her at first. When she refused to stop trying to get to him and became more forceful in her attempts, his gentle manner gave way to a harsher one.

She watched his eyes darken as that familiar and frightening flash of anger passed through them. Only, in the dream she was unafraid. A low rumbling sound emanated from his chest as he held out a hand and pushed her away, harder this time.

"You don't understand," he said angrily.

She was deaf to his words, consumed by her desire to help him, to end his loneliness and heal his pain. The low rumble moved up from his chest and passed through his throat in a low growl that eventually escaped his mouth. It was a deeply disturbing sound; an inhuman sound. Georgia shivered slightly as she thought of it now. Hearing it in reality would terrify her. She'd already heard a lower, tamer version of it twice, once on the street and then as he was pinned to the wall by Tyler. In the dream, the sound didn't scare her. All it did was conjure up a different kind of anger within her until she too felt a rumbling in her chest and actually growled back at him.

The momentary shock as he heard it was enough for him to drop his guard and as she lunged forward, she finally knew what it meant to be "let in". After that moment it was as if the pair of them had merged. They were one mind and she could feel everything he did—she was him! Everything changed. As she glared at the moon above them now, it was like she saw it for the first time, a glorious orb of light that pulled at their collective emotions, egging them on. Before Georgia could impose her own will on them, Hayden's took over and they were running. She saw the grass and trees, and darkened shadows of the woods flash past them, his deep panting breaths pounding out viciously as he ran like the wind, trying everything he could to wrench her free of his mind and be rid of her.

She wrestled his mind and the ensuing tussle caused the body they were inhabiting to falter. Its steady stride began to lose its footing and slow just as they approached a dark, shimmering lake ahead. The body's legs tangled and it fell hard and almost rolled its way forward. For a moment, Georgia's heightened senses were rocked as she saw tumbling views of grass, trees, and then the sky before the body they shared came to a crashing halt at the edge of the lake.