My (Not So) Charmed Life

Five More Minutes, Mom

Standing there in front of a background of sparks was Ryan. His clothes were torn and his face was bloody, but he had never looked stronger or more alive than at that moment.

My breath caught in my throat at the sight of him standing there. He looked mad. No. He looked murderous. I had never been truly afraid of someone until that very minute. He stared down Patrem with death written in his eyes and for a moment, there was complete and utter silence in that dungeon. Nobody dared to even breathe. 

"Get. Her. Down."

His words were final and intimidating as he directed Patrem. And yet, the idiot laughed.

"You think I take orders from a child? What next? Sending me to my room?" Ryan's glare magnified, and the hatred in his face terrified me. 

"Let her down now. This is between you and me," said Ryan, his face hard as stone.

"As you wish, sir," Patrem said with a sneer. He raised his wand and flicked it at me, and the invisible bonds that had held me there for what felt like an eternity loosened and broke. I couldn't grasp at anything before my body hurtled to the ground. There was a collective gasp as I plummeted to the ground and in the corner of my eyes, I saw the remaining hooded figure run towards me.

"NO!" Ryan shouted as I fell, but there was nothing he could do to cushion the blow. My body hit the ground with a resounding thud, and I felt several things crack. The pain knocked me out and as I lay on the floor, the last thing I remembered seeing was Ryan's expression of sorrow and guilt as my eyes slowly succumbed to the blackness.

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I dreamed in black and white.

I was running and running and running, but I never moved an inch. As I ran, everything around me moved. Well, except for me. I looked around at the people around me, but each face was blurrier than the next and I couldn't pin down a thing.

In front of me was the only thing that I could make out even remotely clearly. There was a red light blinking, like when a battery is dying and the LED indicator beeps to let you know that you need to get to a charger (not like anyone actually bothers to get up until the thing is at 1%). I assumed that if I made it to the red light, I would be achieving whatever I was meant to be getting at, but no matter how hard I pushed my body or how out of breath I got, I never was able to get anywhere close to the red light.

Until finally whatever was holding my body back broke, and I sprinted to the red light. I gave a whoop of victory before everything turned white and the dream changed.

Ryan and I were sitting in the park back home. The grass was green and warm under us, and on the ground was a picnic blanket with a box of pizza that was open to reveal the remains of a demolished lunch: crusts and sticky bits of cheese stuck to the cardboard. Ryan looked incredible with the sun shining down on his brown hair that stuck up in cute little angles, plus the emerald colored shirt he was wearing made his eyes brighter than I had ever seen them.

He extended his hand to me and I took it, reveling in the feeling of his warm skin on mine. He led me over to the swing set and sat me down on one. Getting behind me, he grasped the metal rings holding up my swing and leaned over to press a gentle kiss onto my cheek. I gasped in delight, a sound that was stolen away by the wind as he began to push me. We got into a rhythm and soon I was flying up and down; the heat of the sun making me grin as my hair was tousled by the air.

I let out a yawn, and Ryan grabbed the rings and helped me slow down. When I was finally stationary, he reached around from behind me and rested his head on my  shoulder. His soft hair tickled my chin, and I giggled as I leaned over to kiss his head. I closed my eyes in pure bliss as I forgot my troubles to bask in the warmth of the sun and the boy I was crazy about. I didn't let myself think the L word, at least not out loud, just yet.