The Soul Thief

Chapter 23

The nightmares were back, only this time, I was in it and aware. Would I remember this when I woke up? Was this how they always were? I didn't remember falling asleep, but the last thing on my mind had been texting Nancy after dinner when we were both back in our rooms.

Her light conversation and introducing me to memes was such a contrast to the current situations. Wherever I was, it was dark and someone was screaming. Sat on the floor, my hands searched around me for a clue where I was. It felt like wood and my back pressed against a wall.

It was warm here and sweat had my hair sticking uncomfortably to the back of my neck. It took me a minute to realise the person screaming was me, and my throat was burning like lava was being poured down it. My hands abandoned their exploration of my surroundings and felt up my neck to my open mouth.

Tears were running unchecked down my cheeks and my chest ached with a pressure I couldn't explain. I pressed my hand over my mouth, trying to force it closed but barely muffling the noise. My pitch rose to a keening wail.

"Run Erica, you have to get away from them!" a voice screamed

"Mum." I gasped out between the screams I couldn't control.

My head turned blindly, searching the dark for her familiar face. But the blackness was never ending and now I could smell something burning too. Thick smoke in the air and filling my nostrils. My eyes watering from it and still my scream continued.

"Run Erica, run." Her voice screamed again. "Get out! Get out of here now!"

My body snapped upright out of the nightmare with a start. My panicked breathing filling the silent room and I instantly latched onto the technique I remembered reading about to deal with panic attacks.

Five things I can see. Walls, door, bed, window, wardrobe.

I took a deep breath and released it shakily.

Five things I can touch. The duvet, the goosebumps on my arm, the thin fabric of my t-shirt, my hair, the wooden frame of the bed.

Another deep breath and the nightmare separated from reality and I began to process that I was awake.

I was safe. I wasn't wherever that nightmare had taken me. Around me I recognised my slightly messy dorm in the moonlight filtering through a small gap in the curtains.

Even with the fear receding, I still felt uncomfortable. The walls I had quite liked before were now too close, crushing in on me like the darkness in my dream. My breath began to come too fast as I fought against the returning panic that lingered from the nightmare.

A nightmare, I remembered.

I shifted so my legs hung off the edge of the bed and something slipped from between the covers, hitting the floor with a thunk.

As I reached to retrieve it, it lit up, and I recognised the phone with a smile. Nancy would never truly understand the gift she had given me with this. The screen showed unread notifications, and I sat back on the bed, sinking into the pillow to read them.

Blake: 'You can message me anytime about anything, little thief. All I want is to know you.'

I let out a half sob, half laugh. Would he still say that if he could see me now? Drenched in sweat and trembling in my academy issued pyjamas.

My muscles ached with the need to run, to follow my mother's screamed instructions and get out. Although I was pretty sure the place in my dreams was long gone and long forgotten, my skin itched with what felt almost like a memory of it. A small place we had once called home until something came for us.