What Are You Hiding, Roman Hart?

Smile

The coldness of the earth could be felt under my feet as they were buried in the snow. I didn't know where my shoes were, but surprisingly I wasn't cold. I looked around the terrain but I could only see the blinding white flakes falling onto the hard ground. The whiteness of the snow was so bright that I could barely see in front of me.

I moved forward in hope of finding something or someone. For some reason I was all alone and I could feel my heart racing at that daunting thought. I tried to calm myself and focus on steading my breathing. As I kept walking, I saw a figure in the distance. It looked blurred through the falling flurries.

"Hello!", I yelled in hopes of getting their attention. 

No response. I continued my journey towards them but they seemed to be getting farther away. I started to run to try and get closer but I was barely moving. There was this unexplainable need to get closer to them. I just knew that I needed to talk to this person.

I could barely hear someone talking to me, but I couldn't make out the words that they were saying. The words sounded muffled. They almost sounded familiar. The closer I got, the louder they became. I still couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me. 

Because I was so preoccupied with listening and running, I didn't notice that the figure was running straight at me. The running almost looked nonhuman. It was erratic and unpredictable. However, I didn't turn the other way.

As we got closer to each other, the voice was almost loud enough for to make out the words and I could almost see the person. But then the realization hit me. That 'thing' looked like my mother, but it wasn't her. It had her voice but her face looked distorted.

She got so close to me that I was staring into her eyes. They looked cold and empty. Nothing like my actual mother's. It was chilling to look at the woman in front of me. Goosebumps spread across my whole body, and my mind was screaming at me to run. I don't what changed, but the second I could tell who it was, I felt the need to get far away.

Before I could move, her long bony fingers wrapped around my wrist. She gripped my wrist with so much strength that it felt like it was going to snap. I looked into her eyes once more, and she smiled at me. A chilling smile. It was like she wasn't smiling at all.

"I found you.", she said to me in an unsettling voice. 

I tried to pull my hand out of her grasp, but she pulled tighter.

"That's it boy, try to run. You won't make it very far.", she said

I kept pulling but nothing was working. I was starting to panic. She was going to kill me. I am going to die.

"Wake up!"

I started to hit her, but she didn't even flinch. She just kept smiling her lifeless smile. 

"Wake up!"

She pulled me closer and wrapped her other hand around my neck squeezing the breath out of my lungs.

"Wake up!"

I could feel myself starting to lose consciousness as her grip strengthened.

"Wake up!"

I shot out of the bed panting. I was soaked in sweat and my eyes darted around the hotel room. Light was coming through the windows signaling that morning had arrived. I glanced at Roman and he was looking at me with worried eyes.

"Are you okay? I came out of the bathroom and you were screaming in your sleep.", he asked.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just had a nightmare. Probably all the shit that's happened to us is starting to make its way into my dreams.", I said with a light laugh.

Roman looked at me with sadness in his eyes, probably blaming himself for my bad dream.

"I'm going to take a shower. I feel gross.", I told him.

"Okay. I'm going to get us some breakfast while you're in the bathroom."

After I had taken a shower and Roman and I finished our breakfast, we started to make plans on where we were going to go. Roman told me that him and his dad had built a safe house in a couple of states over, and that would probably be the best place. His dad had been staying there for a couple of months when the attacks started because he's not able to defend himself as well as Roman. 

"Roman I need to ask you something."

"What's up?.", he said.

"I'm confused about the attacks. How much do they know about you?", I asked.

"I don't know the extent of the information that they have on me. I know that they know that I'm mother's son and where I live. I guess when they first started to try to kill me and my dad, they didn't expect me to be able to fend for myself. Ever since then, more men have been coming. That's why I've been going after them like what you saw at the docks and I've be trying to slow them down. I just wasn't prepared for this to happen." 

"It's a good thing that your dad decided to go to the safe house since we are on the run.", I said.

"Yeah. I'm worried about him. I hope everything's fine.", he said.

"I'm sure he's alright. Let's get going and then we can see him for ourselves.", I said while smiling at him.

"Okay.", he said while smiling back.

"Oh, Oli I almost forgot. There's a pay phone out back. Do you want to call your mom and try and give her some excuse so she isn't worried about you?", he asked.

The thought of my mom made me shiver. All I could think about was the woman in my dreams and her smile. "It's okay. She's probably really mad and would want me to come home, so it's best that I just don't call her."

He laughed, "Yeah you're probably right."

And with that we were back on the road. This time Roman was driving which I was extremely grateful for. The thought of driving again made me ill. 

Roman decided that we were going to drive until we reached a little town called Springsville. It was about 11 hours away, but it sounded like a nice place to stop for the night. I mean the name was cringy but I'm sure it was a fine town.