Dream Catcher

Chapter 4 - Your Worst Nightmare (Part 2)

The darkness was much cooler, freezing the
sweat on my brow as I ran into that which I
could not see, running to escape the pursuing
arms of fire.
I ran and ran, and just when I felt I could run
no longer from the things that I feared, It
happened.
Ahead of me in the darkness surged a
concentrated beam of light that came from the
infinite heavens above, pouring pure, angelic
light into the black of the Nothing, it recoiling
back from its heavenly glory. Shadows appeared
within the humming beam of light, shadows that
swirled and twisted forming the silhouette of a
humanoid figure within. I watched as the light
slowly faded, my knees buckling under me and
I tumbled to the ground. Through the last
twinkles of the white light, I saw him. The boy
in the dream. The boy in the music room. The
voice.
The light faded and he was engulfed in the
Nothing. Sweet tears of grief washed down my
face as I let out a pathetic moan of "no..." as I
realized the boy would suffer the same fate as
me.
As I stretched out my arms before me and
moaned as I lay myself on the ground, the
flames reared up behind me ready to strike and
engulf my fragile, broken body, burning me till I
was no more then ashes frozen in perpetuality
in the Nothing that surrounded me. I could
already hear the glorious music of the angels'
choirs calling me out of the darkness.
The boy must be an angel sent to guide me , I thought
as I felt the first tongues of fire leave their mark
down my spine.
My head shot up as I heard the sound. It was a
silent roar, and echoing boom like the roll of
thunder, flowing in waves toward me. I heard
the snap of one muffled clap and watched as a
horizon of light ripped through the Nothing like
it was only fabric or mist, shredding it in the
wake of the horizon of light above my head. The
Nothing recoiled from it and I heard the echo of
the thunder return towards its source. The light
followed suit shortly after, being sucked in
toward its origin, the Nothing and fire with it,
leaving the white room, though not as brilliantly
lit as before. I watched my horrors flowed like a
liquid into the gold pendant around the boy's
neck, that shone the most brilliant white, as
white as the hottest flames of a fire. His eyes
were closed and his face concentrated as he held
his hands together like a bowl, guiding my
horrors into the stone in the pendant.
When the last whisps of Nothing finally
tunnelled into the swirling, amethyst depths of
the gem, the boy open his eyes, brilliant purple
eyes like me, and stared deep into mine. And I
felt safe. My mind restored its control over my
body and I felt like I was in the White World of
my dreams, where I could control what I saw.
"Where...where did you get that?" I heard the
deep, blood boiling voice of the man behind me.
But I kept my eyes locked on the boy in front of
me. I thought only one thing. I wish there was a
mirror...
Suddenly with a flash of purple light, a mirror
appeared on the wall in front of me, behind the
boy. And in it I could see the disfigured form of
the man behind me, blood still dripping from
his fingers, his once sharp outfit ragged and
tattered. I gazed at the reflection in the mirror
and the boy. They looked almost identical. The
boy was a gorgeous spinning image of the man.
Eyes wide, I watched as the boy spat out an
answer to the man's question.
"Why do you care, you creeper?" he spat.
"Fuck," I heard the man cuss under his breath.
"You're the one. You've been following me.
You're her son. Damn you, Clockwork. Why do
you have to be so friggin gorgeous!" At the
mention of Clockwork's name, the pendant
pulsed violet. I watched the boy recoil from the
man's words.
"Who... who are you..." I managed to mumble
out in the silence that followed.
The man lunged forward, and jumped twenty
feet in the air, landing inches away from my
place on the ground, facing me. In seconds, he
rolled me over and pinned me to the ground.
His face edged inches away from mine once
more, though its features were futile and harsh.
The man bared his teeth at me and lunged for
my neck, which I almost unsuccessfully dodged.
The man's wicked laugher erupted as he threw
his head back.
Leaning in once more, the man mumbled into
my face, "My dear, I am you're worst
Nightmare."
My body became paralysed as chills ran down
the length of my spine. The voice I was so
drawn to before was now cold, hard, and
metallic.
As one bloody, scarlet hand reached toward my
throat, I heard the boy call from somewhere
above my head, "Don't. Touch. Her." in such a
cold voice I wasn't sure who I could trust
anymore.
In a streak of pure violet, the boy lunged over
me and tackled the man on top of me to the
floor. Through my panic and scrambling to get a
better view, I heard broken phrases.
"I know who you are."
"Get off me you-"
"I will find you."
"You're dead."
"Arrrggggg..."
"Why hasn't mother-"
"Oh she can't-"
"What?"
"-her fault."
"You, you-"
"Mmmm." the man rolled out of the tangled
wrestling match and stood up with amazing
agility.
"This is getting too much for me. You know how
I am. I don't like conflict I'm not inflicting. But I
will be back. The black finger of death lies upon
you both." With a swirl of black Nothing, and a
flash of an electric blue orb, the man
disappeared from sight.
I still felt the cold hand that was squeezing my
heart as I lay sprawled out on the ground, and
when the man disappeared, it released it's frigid
grip, causing me to double over and moan. It
brought the boy's attention to me.
"I," he started, then froze.
He just stood there looking at me. As I clutched
my abdomen with crossed arms, moaning on
the ground, I noticed for the first time what he
really looked like. I started from my view on the
floor of his simple sneakers and continued my
gaze up the edge of his straight black dress
pants, smudged and stained with blood from the
man's fingers. As my tear stung eyes longed to
view his face, they continued their gaze up to
his wine red dress shirt with the sleeves rolled
up to his elbows and along the edge of the long
gold chain that held the amethyst pendant
around his neck. As my eyes studied the cut of
his jaw line, they soon beheld his face, the
glorious face of an angel. The proportions were
perfect, every feature eloquently cut, his hair
falling in mismatched shoulder-length strands
that perfectly framed his gorgeous face. But just
like the man, what held my gaze were his eyes.
Eyes that told volumes, speaking emotions
perfect to me like the pages of a book. I gazed
into their enchanting violet, violet as the
pendant around his neck. I could feel it. A
connection. I could feel his gaze that I held
without breathing, wide eyed at his beauty, bore
into my very soul and read it like the open
pages of a book as I could likewise in his. I
stifled out a gasp as my mouth hung open. A
searing pain shot down my throat and erupted
in my torso like a bomb, feeling like I had been
punched in the stomach. It pulled the boy out of
his frozen state.