Dream Catchers ( Slow updates )

Chapter 7

LEVI

The uncomfortable jolt and dull thud of my head clunking the wood of the wagon's edge, wakes me abruptly.

"Ow...dammit!" I hiss and rub my brow, wincing slightly as I sit up and blink a few times to get accustomed to the strong light...light? Sunshine?

Well at least something is looking positive.

I yawn and stretch my stiff limbs, rubbing my joints to get some blood pumping. I scrunch the greasy and tatty ends of my dirty hair, taking an inconspicuous sniff and gagging when I do.

Eugh...I need a bath!

To my left, my newly acquired friend sleeps, bundled in the warmth of the velour cloak. She looks comfortable and warm. I reckon the cold and the rain is probably not something she's accustomed to. It's probably really stupid of me, because good lord that girl is smart, but I feel kinda protective of her. I don't like all this about little hairy dwarf men making off with her...how the hell did they get her in the first place? What do they want with her? Something about all of this makes no sense, and yet it makes the very hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I feel like I should know something, or at the very least remember? It is very frustrating to have your own mind elude you...yip, I think I am turning into my crackpot, insane, whack job, mother.

I drop my head back and observe the canvas of the wagon top above me. The brightness is golden, glittery gold, and I remember Silver's conversation about Rivendale-dell,  about it being golden in the sun - that sounds nice at least - maybe we are almost there.
But the more I study the warmth the more I register the lack of sound, the lack of voices, the lack of birds twittering and horses nickering.

I sit bolt upright...the panic setting my heart off at an accelerated pace. I swallow reflexively and pinch my arm painfully.

"Ouch...No, oh god no...not now!" I choke out and scramble forward in the wagon, wheeling around when I hit the far end to find myself looking back at my own sleeping body.

I am right were I fell asleep, all bunched up with head precariously close to whacking the wood and waking me up. Only I didn't wake up...at least not technically speaking.
I would like to say that  this is a completely new occurrence, but it's not.  I've been having these 'dreams' since I can remember. It's like an out of body experience - only all my senses seem pretty intact and I just stand there and completely freak out at seeing myself. Most of the time I wake up, but other times I don't remember what happens to me. I just remember returning to the spot where I sleep, and staying there until I actually wake up!

I would also love to think it's just the product of a vivid imagination, or an irregular dream pattern, or something measurable by science? Only I know it's not, because my mum had them, and they took my mum away and called her clinically insane. Her dreams got worse when Dad went away, she started talking about seeing these places and about danger and having to keep me safe. She stopped sleeping, she stopped letting me sleep, in case whoever they were would come and get me in my dreams, taking me away from her forever. I eventually passed out with exhaustion in school one day, and that's how I ended up in foster care. Mum was taken away to the nut-house and I wasn't allowed to see her...apparently seeing me triggered her symptoms. Last I heard she was so drugged up she couldn't tell you her own name, let alone if she had a daughter.

So, I learned that you don't talk about these 'dreams' and you just forget about them. The therapist I was made to go to for much of my adolescence taught me to block things...things that might frighten me...things I didn't want to remember. I could block the content of the dreams, I could even pretend that I didn't suffer them, but I could never stop them from happening altogether.