The Academy - Something Missing

Prologue

(Edited April 6, 2017)

Run, run, run.

The wind stung my face, making my eyes watery but my brain was sharper than ever - hyper-focused. The trees enveloped me, blurring together but I kept on running - running from something I wasn't quite sure of. All I knew was that I had to run.

I saw an opening and I pushed myself a little harder. I was stricken with the huge landscape that I saw before me. Tall grasses swayed in the warm breeze that seemed to go on and on towards the horizon of the sunset. I was out of the forest and in a field. Out of all the greenery, I spotted an old abandoned shack which was how I finally realized I was dreaming.

The shack had always appeared in my dream and no matter how far I tried to run, I always ended up in the exact same place. All the roads in my dreams led to this shack.

The dream started to get fuzzy and hazy and I began to lose the physical feeling of my body. My brain must have already sensed the strangeness of the dream and I knew the realization would soon hit my subconscious. I still had some time but not much. I had to figure out as much as I could.

Suddenly, I heard a rustle behind the bushes from where I stood and that was all it took for me to remember that I was being chased by someone. Or something - I was never sure.

I sped for the shack and found the old, rotten stairs that led upstairs where there would be a small windowsill that I usually sat before my dream world disappeared. It usually would have been calming and nice until the thing would chase me down.

The stairs creaked as I skipped two steps at a time. When I reached the top stairs I braced myself in the window seat, grabbing a stick with a good splintered end that was nearby for protection. I tried to control my irregular breathing but I was too scared - a natural reaction even in dreams. My ragged breathing quivered but it wasn't loud enough to muffle the creaking of the steps that rang in the still of the atmosphere. It was coming.

A large, gray-furred wolf appeared from the edge of the stairs - its green, sharp eyes watching me carefully as if trying to memorize my every move. I held the stick in front of me in defense but my hands shook violently with fear. I tried to scream but my voice had failed on me - there was no one to help me anyways. I was miles away from any real help - more like a whole different dimension because this was my nightmare and no one else could help.

I repeated to myself that it was just a dream a thousand times over, closing my eyes and begging myself to wake up. I did the only option that would take me away from this imaginary hell. I looked at the sharp end flipping it from the wolf to me, while still repeating to myself that this was all a dream. The wolf looked at me in confusion, those green eyes that looked too human haunted me. Before I could change my mind, I plunged the stick into my heart just as the wolf jumped.