THE DREAM CATCHER

53.

The city looks different during the day. Once we managed to escape the forrest we were spitted out to the haggard outskirts. It's the first time I am a witness to how the city changed because of the drug, despite a little journey I had with Niccòlo before. The absence of his black eyes roaming over me from the distance makes me uncomfortable. I though that getting rid of him will finally make me feel free. However, without him near I feel strange, endangered. He was always there to protect me. And now, even as I walk between my two best friends, twins I feel odd. Like something is missing. He is missing. I try very hard to push away the thought that I miss his company. Maybe I just crave an opportunity to hate on somebody. But maybe, just maybe, I'm worried about him. We passed multiple of dead bodies, animals and humans, partly buried under the sand of the deserted outskirts. Nothing more, just the endless space of sand and nothingness. And death. Until we reach the point where building scatter the surface. My body freezes solid. There's a scaffolding, looking like a skeleton of a building places next to the concrete hut that poses as a home for some lost soul. It's five metres tall. And there are bodies hanging from the pipes. Somę hanged lower, some higher. All of the corpses are grey, they must have been hanging there for a long time. Those people are dressed similarly to us, haggard and neglected. Bodies are dry, lifeless. It's horrible. It's like I've been dragged to hell. I hear Valentina's gasp from the side. Even as we pass the suicide grave I can't take my eyes from it. There are seven of them. There's even a body of a young hanging there. Im so close I can see their grey, absent eyes roaming over me. Nobody says anything. We just walk. Walk past the proof of degradation of human mind. It degraded to the point where people hang in the place where their death becomes a momentum. They are so hungry for affection even after the death. They want to be seen. As no one saw them during their lives. They swing peacefully in the morning air, their ripped clothes dancing with the wind. They're hanged by the chains. I wander if they hung by theirselves or if someone did this for them. For the first time I deeply consider the idea of the dream catcher. If this is what happens with people without it, is it really necessary to cancel it? But then I see more people and I immediately abandon the idea. We entered something resembling a housing area, the concrete huts grow there thicker, there's even an outline of a rocky road. It's around ten or maybe eleven a.m. and the street is full. Partly. Because those people don't look present at all. Their faces are dead, empty, shallow. Every single one of the passersby has circles under their eyes so dark, it looks swollen. They're seemingly starving but they don't seem to notice. No wonder why as their eyes are completely covered by a white fog. Intoxicated. They are all under the influence of the dream catcher. All of them. We found ourselves in a crowd of zombies, ghosts. People stumble over each other in a slow, uncontrollable pace. When someone falls down, others walk over their bodies like they were some kind of fallen tree branch. They don't see the world. They're trapped in the imaginary world in their heads. I can tell by the slight smiles on their faces. They look like they are inches from death of hunger or thirst but their faces are peaceful, calm. I feel the snake crawling up my spine. My body is ready to fight. The same looking person ran over another one with a car last time I saw something like that. Im alarmed, I'm tense, I grip the handle of a gun hidden behind my belt tighter.
,,They're not dangerous." I hear Isaac's voice from the front. ,,It looks like the second edition to me. Not violent." Second edition. There's been more. I wonder which one was the one I saw. Under which one's influence I've been.
Suddenly something lights up right in front of my eyes. I have trouble distinguishing the reality from my recent visions but this one must be real. Someone lit themself on fire metres from us. Flames climb up their pants, attacking the shirt and soon devouring their hair too. It's a human torch. In the middle of the street. I can't take my eyes of it. Even as I see pieces of clothing melting from their body and falling onto the ground. Even as I see the skin melting on the bones. He or she stands there peacefully, not moving, not screaming. Nothing. They don't feel a thing. And suddenly the whole crowd erupts. They must have, somehow, noticed the danger. They all start running in every possible direction, stumbling over each others, falling to the ground, bleeding out on the sandy, rocky ground.
,,Hide!" I can hear Evan's voice and see his hand in the air pointing to one of the bigger huts. So I run. I run just as I run when I met Valentina in the same mayhem ten years ago. I run as I ran when I escaped asylum and as I run to Noah's grave. It seems like I'll never stop running. Once our group manages to reach the hut it starts again. The vision. Im certain this is it. The familiar flashlight directly in front of my eyes.

Our group stands in front of the wooden door. I can see us all from the distance, the reality curved in a fish eye. As Even catches the handle the whole building explodes. It's a trap. It's a bomb. Everything in my sight bursts into flames. Including me. Each one of us.

Another flash of a white light and I'm back in reality. Evan approaches the door. His hand reaches for the handle.
,,No!" I scream at the top of my lungs, feeling the flesh peeling from my throat. ,,It's a bomb!" I catch Val's and Valerian's hands to drag them back, to drag them away from this hell that's going to erupt in a minute. Isaac and Axel confusingly take few steps back, distancing themselves from the building. But Evan doesn't.
,,Shut up!" He screams as he pulls the handle. And I wasn't wrong this time as well. The whole building explodes. I gather Evan's body being swallowed by flames and rubble before the force sets all five of us to the ground. I fall face-first to the ground, diving under the sea of ghosty-like people surrounding me. If we didn't hide in the crowd the explosion would eat us alive. As it ate those who separated us from the building. As i did eat Evan. I purely hated this guy. But it was an unnecessary loss. He could have avoided death if he listened to me. But he was wiser. He paid for it with his life. The squick in my hears pierces my brain through. I feel my body being buried under the fallen bodies and leftovers of the building. I just hope none of my friends separates me from the death in this moment. And I feel warm liquid running down the back of my neck. Blood. I like blood. It's scary as it escapes mine, or anyone else's body but it's the sign of life. Of live I have. Of life that is mine. Life so fragile, yet so beautiful. Somę say that right before your death all your memories display in front of your eyes. To comfort you. To assure you your life was not just a dream. I wish my wasn't.