Number Three

Chapter 1: The Dream

            I’m going to die, I thought as I ran, this is the end.

 

            I was running through a vast blackness, heading toward a light off in the distance.  After looking around for a minute, I discovered that the vast blackness was actually the town of Rosewater, where I lived.  As the light became closer and closer, I could feel him catching up to me.  He wasn’t even trying.  I could feel the icy coldness of Death coming to take me.  As much as I tried to run away, I knew it was too late.  I was going to die, and no one could stop it from happening.  So I decided to give up trying.  I turned around to face my end, but the moment I did, the man chasing me was gone!  He vanished, just like that!  At least, that’s what I had thought…

            As I stared back towards where I had just been running so frantically to get away from the man, I realized he was right behind me.  I spun around so fast that I should have easily fallen over, and came face to face with him.

            What I saw in those last moments could only be described as the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.  He was tall and slender, with jet black hair and brilliant yellow eyes that seemed to glow bright in the darkness.  His voice was smooth as silk, but had a dark, sinister undertone when he spoke.

            “It’ll be over quickly, I promise,” he told me as he gently but firmly took my shoulders in his hands, “You won’t feel too much pain.”

            Then there was pain; lots of pain.  The most pain I’d ever felt in my entire life.  It came from the left side of my neck, and it lasted for what seemed to be around a minute.  He didn’t lie to me.

            I had that dream when I was very young, and it haunted me for a very long time in my life.  It was a recurring dream for around ten years, and it was always exactly the same.