Lay Me To Sleep

Chapter Fourteen - Dreams Are A Funny Thing, Aren't They?

~Nina's Dream~

I was suddenly all too warm.

Sweltering heat engulfed my being. I could barely open my eyes, they acted as if they were glued shut. I was just so exhausted, it made it a challenge to do the simplest of bodily functions.

To blink, to open my eyes and look around me.

I knew that I had to move, to escape this burning heat. I felt like I was going to die.

I tried to move my arms and legs, even if I couldn't convince my eyes to open, I was sure in trying to move. Nothing. There was no movement, and I was beginning to fall into panic.

Suddenly something pulled me out of my body and I was aloft above myself. Or rather- the shell of myself.

I was floating in the air, but still increasingly warm- no, it wasn't warm. It was the type of heat that was so hot that it was painful. Like knives slicing up and down at my skin. Forest fires licking at my wrists and down my calves.

"Move, goddamn it. Move..."

I tried to visualize myself back inside my body- moving, getting up and fleeing this. Leaving the fire behind.

Suddenly I could open my eyes, I could feel my face and neck. But I still couldn't move.

It began to become brighter and brighter, red and orange lights could be seen, the occasional blue orbs that would flicker off and into the air- slowing climbing into space.

Something turned on all the lights and all I could do was scream.

I was in my apartment. But it was a sad reflection of what it once was. The entire room was set aflame. My beautiful home was being destroyed and I, in it, I unable to leave or call for help. I had been screaming for what seemed like hours and no one came to save me. I was convinced that I was mute to the world and only I could hear myself. I was arguing with my own body, hoping that screaming would wake it up and force it to move.

Feeling started to come back to my arms and legs as I leapt off of my almost burning bed. The blankets and frame were an angry red before they crumpled into black dust.

And as I looked around my bedroom I was shocked to see the walls begin to melt and in their past- only black voids could be seen. It was as if someone was painting over a colorful masterpiece with black tar and candle wax. The high beams that were strung above my bed and really the entire room, we're falling to the ground. They either splintered off into ash or stayed complete.

I tried to run out of my room and down the hall to call for help, to alert neighbors of the ever spreading flame. But as I reached for the handle a beam set alight, fell in front of me, blocking the exit. I screamed again hoping someone would hear me.

No one replied to my incessant pleas.

I turned around and proceeded to run into the adjoining rooms, the kitchen and dining room were conjoined. I was able to reach those rooms before any more beams fell in my path. After I sprinted out of there, I ran for the door that would bring me to the buildings main stairs. I found the doors handle an angry red as well. I tried to turn the handle anyway. This resulted in burn marks from my right hand that climbed up to my wrist.

I tried and tried, resulting in a continuation of severe burns. But I could no longer feel the pain as I had before, I was now much more numb to it. I made the mistake of looking back into the doorway of the dining room that I had just fled- it was now covered in flame and a black, wax-like, tar substance. And the black void began to swallow up the fire, replacing the reds, orange and blues with a seemingly endless black void. The darkness scaled the surrounding walls and made its way over to the door that I now stood at, I was still shaking and banging on the door violently.

Soon the flames that peppered the walls feathered off and were replaced with black tar. The tar then moved to the floor, dripping down and making its way over to me. At this point I had given up. My body was reduced to a pile on the floor as I held myself, shaking. "Please.. Please.. Please." I repeated over and over. It was like a little prayer I said. Please let there be a God. Someone to end all of this, take away the pain or kill me swiftly. As I had already seen what damage awaited whatever was lost to that black void.

"Please... Please let there be a God.. Someone, help... Please." It went on like this for hours. Me, screaming and scratching at the floor around me, my nails splintering off and being caught in the wood flooring. I was starting to go mad with fear, my mind reduced to ash, just like that first beam I had seen.

Distant shouting could be heard as I tried to focus on that sound and not the sounds of a burning house. The walls around me screamed as I had, almost weeping for me.

"Please, oh God no, ahh.. Please.."
"Nina."
"Nina wake up. It's only a nightmare, you're safe. Louis-"

The walls continued to shake and scream, embers from the beams above me- that held the house together, began to fall. The little, painful fireflies dancing all around me. Some would land on my skin, burning holes through my exhausted flesh. The fireflies turned into round orbs that floated all around me. I looked up as I heard someone besides myself yelling.

Katherine and Mother stood on the other side of a burning beam. Mother held Katherine to her breast, keeping her head down- to avoid the painful little fireflies. I tried to climb over to them but the building collapsed on my side. Over half the floor was now beneath me, some hundreds of feet downward. I looked over to her as I yelled for them. I was coming. I was coming, I called.

Mother and Katherine began to fade away. I found myself stuck under a fallen beam. It was too heavy, I couldn't move it and I was pretty sure I was paralyzed.

"My baby!!" Mother screamed as Katherine was caught alight. She went first this time too. Only this time she did not go gentle. Why was it always this. Would we always end up here? " I'm so sorry, Momma... Please don't go, don't leave me all over again. Not you too-" my crazed ranting was cut off by my mother.

"This has always been your fault. Your the one who never stopped it from happening. You could've saved me, baby. Could've saved My Katherine. I am dead because of you."

Those were the last few words my mother ever said to me before she too, was caught by those sweet flames. I was content to let death take me.. To hell if it must. Surely I wasn't worthy of a heaven- if such things existed. God save me. God save them.