THE DREAM CATCHER

8.

I wake up from my terror of a nightmare just to find myself walking the streets of my city completely alone. I don't remember walking out of the house. I don't even remember waking up at all. And suddenly I'm out, walking the deadly empty street in the middle of the night. I have a feeling that many huge, creatures surround me. I see them with the corners of my eyes. They peek out from behind the buildings scratching the sky with their heads. They are bony, grey creatures shining at me with their red eyes. But every time I turn to face them it turns out it's nothing there. I'm alone.

The silence is so loud it hurts my ears. I take my phone out of there pocket. It's almost dead, I have 3 percent of battery. If someone attacks me I wouldn't even be able to call for help. I feel shivering going down my spine. I don't remember walking out late for ages. So now I am to whiteness everything that people do when the sun isn't watching. Everybody says it's safe in the Sun City. They say that it's the refuge from the terrible outside world. But what I witness now is not even close to what is called safe.
I'm walking down one of the main streets of our city and people don't even care about being out on the sight, far past a curfew hour. I see a group of people behind the wall of one of the skyscrapers. It's dark here and they're covered by the shadow of bridge against them. There are approximately 15 of them. And what I see through the shadows is the reflection of lantern light in a piece of steel. They're holding a machete. I know every kind of white weapons because I've been training with them at school for the last five years. We have many different classes about defence and offence fight tactics so I'm certain this is it. And they're holding it pressed against someone's throat. I'm not close enough to see their faces but not so far either so when they start talking I can hear their voices clearly. It's man's voice. It's echoing through the street and bouncing off the walls. It's so terribly deep like it broke the border of human voice octave. But it's something warm in it. It's a young men's voice. If we still listened to music he would be an amazing singer. I can hear a shadow of Italian accent cleverly covered by being  surrounded by English as he growls at his victim:

,,Who did you sell it to?" I can hear the sobbing of the man or maybe a woman pressed against the wall.

,,Just some kids from around the corner, not much, like 5, maybe 6. That's all." It's a she. And she is clearly terrified. No wonder why in case a machete blade is hold against her throat.

,,Kids? You've sold this shit to some kids?" He continues with a slightest amount of disbelief. Like he doesn't want to believe her words.

I have no idea why I didn't move. Why I didn't run away or at least hide. Instead I stand in the absolute middle of the empty street and you can see me like in a palm of the hand. But I just can't miss the opportunity of the human, full of emotions interaction. I haven't seen it in so long. I think I haven't seen it ever at all or I just didn't pay enough attention. But it's so brutally fascinating I can't take my eyes of it. I wish I could be invisible and come closer. I have to explore the world and people from the start, like a newborn, since I wasn't able to do it for... I don't know how long I've been numb. I don't know for how long I've been floating in a bubble of nothingness and unconsciousness. Not moving may cause me getting shot. But my feet are like stuck in the beton of the street forcing me to look at the performance of human brutalism.

The woman's scream brings me back on the ground. Suddenly, my view is sharp again and all I see is an arm rolling down the pavement. A chopped arm. He chopped off her arm and left her to bleed out. I feel such hideous urge to throw up I hardly can stop myself from it. I've seen a lot but this is simply disgusting. My legs have broken free and in a minute I run to hide behind the building. I breathe fast, too shocked with what I saw to maintain calm. In the past this wouldn't move even a single muscle in my body. But now, as I'm capable of feeling, this view turns my insides upside down. It's horrible, inhuman, unethical. Something you just see in movies or people tell rumours about. I had no idea that things like that happen these days. I thought we have peace. But I was so terribly wrong. What happens next only proves my brutally accurate point. I hear a trash can beside me making horribly loud noises. In a blink of an eye an Asian lady jumps out of it and tosses her body directly on mine. I'm leaning against the wall so I don't fall down but she pins me with her body to the wall so I'm trapped. I know how to fight, I'm an excellent warrior in every of my classes. I was. Until something changed in my brain and maybe now I will hesitate from hurting another human being. Maybe my reborn brain will not let me do that. But my instincts seem to take control. The first thing I notice is her face. It is so shattered, covered in bruises, dirt and blood I can barely see her skin colour. I wonder how a yellow ray resident had gotten into the white one. I can tell her race by her eyes. Eyes. They are completely white, no irises or pupils visible. None. The foam is oozing down from her smashed mouth and dripping onto my shirt. She looks like an animal, completely insane, wild, lusting blood. She growls at me and snaps her partly knocked out teeth. She scratches my body so painfully I can feel it through my clothes. I have to act fast. I try to push her away but she attached her fingers to the wall so tightly I can't move her even a bit. Suddenly I feel something cold pressed against my ankle. A blade. I'm always carrying a butterfly knife with me. In case. My mother told me to so I did. I never had an opportunity to use it. Until know. I pull the weapon nimbly from my boot and without any hesitation I sink it in my attackers neck. I know exactly where the most important veins are so she knocks down on the ground immediately. Even though it's silent outside my brain is attacked by terrible, squeaking noise so loud I didn't even hear the bullet shooting directly into the woman's head right before she fell down. I can tell she got shot because I see a gaping, full of black, bloody liquid hole in her head. But I didn't have a gun. Someone who stands at the entrance to the alley had. And now he is standing there, still holding a gun pointed at the place where my attacker was standing just a seconds ago. And as he asks in this barely audible, Italian accent I know it's the same guy that chopped the woman's arm off on the street. It suddenly starts raining like on a command.

,,Are you okey?"

I think I'm about to faint.

Scared.