Dream Catcher

Chapter 4 - Your Worst Nightmare (Part 3)

He rushed to my side with impossible speed and
agility and gently grabbed my shoulders,
carefully rolling me over and supporting my
weight in his lap. I crossed my arms tighter over
my stomach. It hurt when I moved.
"Ow. Ow. OW! God stop friggin moving me!" I
screamed as a searing pain ripped through my
torso like a stray javelin. I hugged myself even
tighter.
"God, I'm so sorry!" cried the boy as he flushed
scarlet. His hands released their grip on my
shoulders and I leaned in his lap. My face
contorted in pain. I watched through squinted
eyes as the boy hesitantly reached out his hands
to move my arms off my stomach, then recoiled
them in second thought.
"Mmph." I mumbled out.
"Does...does it, um, hurt?" the boy questioned
stupidly as he rubbed the back of his neck with
his hand and flushed scarlet again.
I sighed in frustration at his cowardice. "What
do you freaking think, huh! OF COURSE IT
HURTS! God! Now if you can do something
about it than do it already! Or I really am going
to finally die after several near death
experiences!" I was shocked at my own sense of
sarcasm despite my pain.
The boy chuckled and smiled, revealing a
gorgeous row of shining white teeth. I almost
threw up. The happy emotion welling inside of
me was contradicting with the pain.
"Technically you were never that close to dying.
You have quite a bit of will to live." the boy
smirked bigger and this time I actually felt the
bile rise in my throat.
"I really don't care right now, alright?" I said
with bite in my words. "Now do something or
get off me so I can die in peace!"
The boy recoiled back from my harsh words. I
sighed, "Listen, I'm sorry. AH, ouch. Mmm,
sorry. It just, AH, AH, oh God that hurts!
AHHHHHHHH!" My teeth gnashed as I tried to
fight back my cries of pain. My eyes wide in
fear, I watched the boy's expand likewise. And
when my body started to gently convulse, the
boy lost all timidity and dived into action. I
couldn't hold back any longer and I cried out in
broken screams. I felt the boy's warm hands on
my wrists as they fought to pull my arms off my
stomach. He eventually managed to tuck them
underneath the small of my back out of the
way. I threw my head back as I screamed and
my back arched in convulsion. Through tears I
saw the boy's face blush again, and he chuckled
darkly in embarrassment as his gentle fingers
began to lift my sweater off my stomach. When
it was revealed, I heard him gasp. And through
frantic heavy breathing and sobs, my chest
heaving, I looked down to see whisps of Nothing
twirling on my stomach. I gasped and
swallowed, then laughed darkly in fear.
The boy met my eyes, his breathing coming
shorter too, and he said, "This...this is going-"
He was cut off as the searing pain jolted my
torso once more and I fought to hold back
screams, throwing my head back, my back
arching. The boy turned his head and through
tear-blurred vision I saw his black hair twirl
and I saw the back of his head. The corners of
my vision shone purple as his pendant glowed.
I felt his fingers on my skin, gently following
the swirling movement of the Nothing. Then,
with split second reflexes, he shoved roughly
into my stomach causing me to gasp.
The next thing I knew, I could feel his hands
inside my stomach, gentle fingers crawling
through my intestines, frantically searching for
something. I felt something different squirm
toward my throat, but the boy's hands shot
quickly and grabbed it. I could both hear and
feel the sucking noise as he dragged his hands
out of my insides, pulling something with them.
And it was then that I finally made the
connection. There was some thing inside of me. I
gasped and bit my tongue as I watch the boy
pull the thing out of my innards.
He arched his blood covered hands up, pulling
what looked like a thick black snake out of my
insides. The boy had it by it's tail, flaring off in
whisps of Nothing. As the last piece of the
squirming worm ripped out of my torso, the
boy released one of his hands' grip on the tail
and grabbed it at the other end, forcing it into
the glowing pendant that held my horrors.
I pulled my hands out from behind my back and
used them to help me sit up as the last of the
squirming worm slid into the pendant. I
examined my stomach. There was not a mark
on it, but a single drop of blood that had fallen
from the boy's hands in the process.
I heard him sigh beside me, and looked to see
him shake his head, his black strands swinging
around his face, then settling back to the sides.
He looked into my eyes, than looked to his
blood covered hands. I wish there was a bucket of
water or something , I thought. And low and
behold, with a slight pop, one appeared beside
the boy.
"Thank you." he said curtly, then dipped his
hands into the bucket of water, it slowly
becoming diluted with my blood.
When they were about as clean as they were
going to get, he pulled them out and dried them
on his shirt. I wished the bucket away and it
was gone.
"That's weird how that happens," I said, as the
bucket faded from existence.
"Hmmm, what?" the boy asked, avoiding my
eyes.
"That," I said, pointing to where the bucket had
been. "How I just have to, like, think something
and then it, like, appears." I gasped and
chuckled simultaneously.
"It is amazing isn't it?" the boy almost sighed,
his gaze rising to the heavens above.
"It's cool." I admitted with a shrug.
"It's more then that. Especially for you," he
responded.
"What do you mean?"
"Only you can do that." he said, causing my face
to twist in confusion.
"But, no matter," he droned on. "Now is not
time for explanations. You need to rest."
I laughed. "That's definitely not going to
happen. Not after all this. Where the hell are we
anyways?"
"Shhhhh... I know it's going to be hard, but
you're going to have to. Your body needs it." the
boy comforted me, meeting my eyes. He smiled
lightly, and I couldn't help but smile back. I
don't know what it was, but he just made me so
happy.
He cocked his head slightly to the side, still
looking at me, and reached out a hand
absentmindedly. It stroked back my hair,
curling it behind my ears. I saw the reflection of
the glowing pendant in his eyes. When his hand
pulled away and softly travelled down my arm,
I saw the blood disappear in the wake of his
glowing fingertips. I broke his gaze and
examined my arm, then return to his eyes.
"Thank you," I sighed timidly.
"You're welcome," he sighed, leaning in closer
to me. Before I could even think, I felt his soft
lips on mine. He's kissing me , I thought as my
brain made the connection. Well, no freaking duh! ,
it seemed to respond back.
I could feel his gentle hands on my waist and, as
though I wasn't in control, I threw my arms up
around his neck, kissing him back. My eyes
were closed, but I could feel his lips beneath
mine curl up into a smirk.
It was the strangest I've ever felt. It wasn't
happiness, joy, anger, sadness. No it was
something so much bigger. I couldn't register
thought, my mind blank but for the fireworks of
colour that erupted inside it. They flowed and
blossomed like flowers and lava mashing
around in my head. It was a sad description, but
that's the best I could do to explain the amazing
emotion.
After what seemed like forever, he pulled away
from me and looked into my eyes. I could feel
the expression on my face. I looked shocked. I
couldn't look into his eyes as all sense of reality
came rushing back to me. What the heck? Eli, that
was really stupid. What do you think you're doing? For
all you know, he could be in league with the evil man!
You could be dying...again. Who the hell is he anyways? ,
my thought process scrambled.
I looked up to the boy's face to see him
examining the walls. They were covered in the
brilliantly coloured eruptions from my mind.
"Well," he said, as he cocked an eye brow in
admiration.
"Who... who are you?" I asked, avoiding his
eyes.
I heard muffled sounds that I couldn't decipher,
as my eyes blurred and the image they saw
changed.
I felt like I was opening my eyes, then I saw
another blank, white, drywall wall. My head
flopped over to the side to see several different
machines, an IV in my arm, and the boy lying in
the bed next to me, a smile plastered on his
angelic face.