Dateless and Deadly

Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

I was dreaming. Only this dream was based on reality which, at this moment was not pretty.

I was dreaming about my own death. It happened a bunch of different ways but it ended the same every time. Me, lying in a pool of my own blood, the light in my eyes slowly fading as I breathed my last breath. It was terrible and horrifying and I wanted more than anything to wake up but I couldn’t. I was trapped there in a world where all I could do was watch myself die over and over.

I wanted to cry but I didn’t have a real body so I just watched as a medieval sword was plummeted through my chest.

“I was going to give you a nightmare,” I turned my attention to the right to see Angela standing there, “but I see that’s unnecessary.” She tore her eyes from my dying self to look at me. I looked at my hands and suddenly I had a shape, a body.

“Am I dreaming about you, too?”

She shook her head as she turned to look back at my dream. This time a bolt of orange fire shot right through me and I fell down, writhing in pain and, of course, dying.

“What is this?” she asked, looked at the other me, lying on the ground as once again, the light faded from my eyes. “This image is more real, less like a dream and more like a memory.” The image paused as we both looked at me, taking my last breath.

I felt her eyes on the real me again and I shrugged. “Calypso had a vision that I would die. She told me that no matter what she or I did to change that future, it still happened and at the time, we were communicating telepathically so I got the image.”

“Oh my god, Cass,” Angela started as she looked at the image of my death.

“Angela, please, don’t tell anyone,” I begged.

“James─”

“No!” I cut her off, turning my head to meet her eyes. “Especially not James,” I said more quietly. Looking back at my body, I whispered, “It’s me or everyone else.”

“Holy shit,” Angela said, wrapping an arm around her stomach as if to provide some sort of comfort to herself.

“Yeah,” I replied, understanding how she felt.

“Cass, I’m so sorry.” Her eyes met mine and for a second, we were friends. I smiled a bit and shrugged, not knowing what to say. Then her eyes took on a faraway look as she concentrated on something else. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered and disappeared. “Are you expecting anyone else?” she asked in a disembodied voice.

“Seriously? This is a dream, how am I supposed to be ‘expecting’ anyone?”

She didn’t reply as my death started all over again. This time, Caine was there, holding a pistol aimed at my heart. The shot rang out, making the real me jump and the dying me fall to the ground.

Caine lifted the gun closer to his face and inspected it. “Nineteen millimeter Beretta, not bad,” he said as the gun disappeared from his hand. He turned to face me, his black eyes flat and cold, his lips turned up into a terrifying smile showing his perfect white teeth. “So, I was wondering if Calypso managed to deliver her message but I see maybe she got distracted by showing you something else.” He gestured to my dying self as he walked closer to me. He stopped a couple feet away. “In case you missed the memo,” he hissed, “I have your precious brother. He misses you so, so much, Cassandra. Won’t you come see him?”

“Why? So you can kill us both at once?”

His smile disappeared and his face contorted with rage as he turned around, facing the other me and buried his hand in my chest, ripping out my heart. “Don’t play the unfeeling card with me, Cassandra. You and I both know just how big your heart is.” He looked down at the still beating heart in his hand, grinning.