Deadly Nightmares (The Last Guardian, Book One)

SEVENTEEN

Warnings: Possibly bad sibling relationship rep? Idk i feel like it's right. Mention of physical injury and some emotional abuse. 

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TAMARA WAS DREAMING. 

Again. 

But this time it was something else. Something way more dangerous. 

A portal opened in the darkness. A man came out with a woman, hand in hand with smiles on their faces. 

She felt the shock rise in her like a wave. She tried to yell in protest, to do something, but it felt like her voice had died down and her body paralyzed. 

Her life seemed to flash in front of her eyes before she started falling. 

She woke with a jolt, finding herself in a bed and staring at a white ceiling. She sat up, hissing at the pain in her chest area, again confirming the broken rib. Or ribs. 

"Good morning," Aurelia said, sitting in a chair with a band-aid on her forehead, reading a magazine. "Welcome to the broken ribs club."

"Glad to see you're not dead!" Carissa said with a smile. 

"Did you have visions too?" Nainika asked, looking up from her phone. 

"Uh," Tamara said, blinking once, processing all their words and deciding who to answer. "Yeah."

"Hm. Anyway," she went back to her phone, scrolling away. 

"Um. So you guys had dreams too?" She asked. All three nodded distractedly. 

Then with a sigh, she leaned back, setting a pillow behind her back. "That was crazy, though."

"Eh, it's the usual stuff. Easier than it usually is," Aurelia said, flipping a page in the magazine. 

"Hmm, yeah. It's usually harder to destroy a relic like that. Oh, my god, that dress, goddamn," she muttered, her eyes lighting up as she stared at the screen.

Carissa just shook her head in disappointment and sighed. "Don't mind them. They're pretty shaken up about whatever they saw. It was weird, right?" 

Tamara nodded, pushing her hair back. 'I kinda saw it coming, but I don't know if I should believe it."

"Let's just keep an eye out maybe," Carissa said, smiling again, but her liquid bronze eyes showed the fear and sadness that she felt. Tamara smiled back, trying to give her the assurance she needed. 

"So, I was thinking," Carissa said loudly. "Now that Tamara's awake too, we could get something to eat?" 

Nainika's head snapped up just as Aurelia's stomach growled. 

"Where we going?" Nainika asked, tilting her head.

Carissa shrugged, looking around, from one face to the next. "Somewhere. I think we'll figure it out.

Tamara looked at all the girls, who she knew were debating internally. She was doing it herself, suddenly being reminded of the small vial standing upside down in the back of a kitchen cupboard.

Before she went to Kilvale and met the Ferons, she was sure about what she wanted to do.

She heard a patient voice correct her: "It was Clifford, not all of them."

She sighed softly and admitted it to herself. It was a goddamn cliche, feeling changed and better after meeting one person. But, she supposed it did happen.