The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 10: Disturbance (Part 2)

It was the middle of the night when I heard the shift beside me. I looked to the bed close to mine, the curtain already open. Aria rose up slowly, taking in her surroundings through the dim light.

"Glad to see you're awake," I greeted her. "There's some food on your other side if you're hungry. You've been asleep awhile."

Her eyes closed in on me, spotting the bandages, "A-Ardy!"

"Shhhh don't yell. I'm fine. A little hurt but it'll all heal easily enough."

"Y-you were shot."

"Luckily they were only flesh wounds," I smiled reassuringly. I had tried my best after all to take the least amount of damage. From the doctor's report I'd heal up completely fine, albeit some minor scars. "Are you okay?"

"I feel fine," she looked at me with tears in her eyes. "Ardy I'm so sorry."

"No, please don't be," I shook my head. "None of this was your fault."

"Maybe...," she shivered, "I-I don't understand. How did it all happen?"

"About that," I began to slowly and carefully explain what I had heard from Agent Wester, making sure that Aria's mental state was fine. As I finished, I had to ask, "Are you afraid now?"

"I...," it looked like she'd say yes, but instead she tilted her head confused, "I'm... I'm not. I feel like I should be. I feel shaken but mostly fine. I'm more worried about you. It almost feels like I've experienced it before."

"R-really...."

She nodded, confused herself, "Maybe it's because of that dream I had."

"Dream?" I looked at her with an apprehensive curiosity.

"Yeah, it was a weird dream. Everything was kind of blurred and it was like I was experiencing another me... but I could really feel how I felt in the dream."

"Tell me about it," I tried to remain casual. "Maybe it has meaning."

Aria laughed, "I doubt it, but it certainly felt emotionally draining. You and I were together. There were others as well. We were running in this passage, or maybe it was a tunnel, well the point is, we were being chased. They were monsters, these bone white kind of ceramic looking things. When I saw them I was genuinely frightened but the me in the dream felt fine. The monsters eventually trapped us in this big room and I had to seal the door shut while we looked for an escape."

"What was the room like?" I asked trying to sound as if my body wasn't in full tension.

"There wasn't much except this really big stone sphere in the middle of the room. You were really cool though and the dream me felt really proud of you. I mean I'm also proud of you but you get the point. Then... it was really sudden but I died. I felt something really powerful outside and tried to stop it but the next thing I knew something pierced through my chest and I died."

My heart was beating hard. Thankfully I had been disconnected from the heart rate monitor, otherwise a nurse may have come running. There was only one thing that Aria's dream could be about, but what I couldn't understand was why she had it. Was she going to remember everything like I had? Should I push her by telling her the truth? I paused and looked towards her, her eyes were staring down, reminiscing the scenes from her dream. The stream of white against her black hair was clear. Now wasn't the time to tell her. One day I would, but it wouldn't be soon. With everything she just went through, I wanted her to stay as she was for as long as possible.