Consumed by Fire {On Hold}

Chapter Eight: Nightmares

Bluebell woke with a start. She looked around her bed, heart thudding, and lay eyes on Gwin curled up asleep by her feet. She let out her breath slowly and focused on Gwin until he heart calmed down. She’d had a very strange dream, and couldn’t figure out what it meant. At first, her dream was just about the wolf she and Dustfinger had seen as they were coming closer to the clearing where they were staying with Resa, Farid, Meggie, Mo, Roxanne and her children, but then it changed into something creepy and strange.

Bluebell was walking along the path behind Dustfinger, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. Before she could open her mouth to ask what was wrong, for he had gone stock-still, he turned quickly and grasped her shoulders, pushing her back off the path into the shadows. Bluebell stood there shocked, staring at Dustfinger, but he was looking over his shoulder at something. “Dustfinger,” she whispered. He looked back to her, worry etched on his face, and motioned for her to be silent. He moved her back further into the shadows, up against a tree trunk, keeping his hands on her shoulders the whole time. He glanced over his shoulder again, and Bluebell looked this time too. A black wolf was making his way down the path they had just left. Bluebell looked back to Dustfinger, eyes wide with shock, but suddenly, it wasn’t Dustfinger who was standing so close to her. It was that strange blonde boy from her memories and he watched her sadly. He whispered something to her, but the wolf howled at the same moment and the boys’ words were lost. She opened her mouth to ask the boy to repeat himself, but found she had no voice. The blonde boy looked at her again, his eyes sparkling with tears, before he turned and ran away from her, towards the wolf. She tried to yell at him to watch out, but he ran straight into it and the wolf attacked him. When the wolf looked up, it had bright green eyes and it spoke to her, one word only. It said Cathy. But who, or what, was a Cathy?

Just as Bluebell’s heart calmed back to its normal rate, she got another fright when Resa came into the tent. She looked at her with concern, and it was only then that Bluebell realized that she had screamed just before she woke up. “Are you alright, Belle?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I just had a bad dream.”

Resa came and sat on the bed, smiling softly at her. “I often had bad dreams when I first arrived here,” she told her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Well, there was this blonde boy in my dream, and he looked at me sadly, like he knew who I was and that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. And there was this black wolf, with bright green eyes, and he attacked the blonde boy. Then the wolf looked at me and… he spoke to me. He said ‘Cathy’ like it meant something, but I don’t think I know a Cathy, and I can’t remember anything.”

Resa reached over and wiped the tears off her cheeks; she hadn’t realized she had been crying until now, but suddenly the flood gates were open. She sat up properly and wrapped her arms around Resa. “I’m scared, Resa. I’ve never had a dream like that. And why can’t I remember who I am?”

Resa held her, muttering nonsense words of comfort and stroking her hair, until her tears stopped and her breathing returned to normal. Resa let her go and she sat back, sniffling a little. ‘Better?”

Bluebell offered her a small smile. “Better.”

“Good. And don’t worry about not remembering anything, Belle. It will just be a side effect from moving into this world so suddenly. I lost my voice when I was read out of Inkworld by Darius, but I’m okay now.”

“But what about my dream, what does it mean?”

Resa thought for a moment. “It’s probably just your mind trying to make sense of things. You saw a wolf yesterday when you were with Dustfinger, didn’t you?”

Bluebell nodded.

“Well there you go, that’s why the wolf was in your dream.”

“But we saw a grey wolf; the one in my dream was pitch-black and had bright green eyes. And what about the boy?”

“Did any of your friends have black hair, or green eyes? Or was one of them blonde? It will just be your mind trying to remember things, Belle. It’s okay, trust me.”

Bluebell looked at Resa. She didn’t remember any friends who looked like that, but if the blonde boy kept showing up, he probably meant something to her. “OK,” she nodded. “Thank you, Resa.” She hugged her again.

Resa smiled and stood up. “Now, how about some breakfast?”

“I would love some,” Bluebell replied, scrambling out of the covers and following Resa outside.