Shift

Prologue

Dreams are plaguing, provocative things. Inhabiting your mind to make nights sleepless and imaginations a tangled mess. No, I had never liked dreams. For some, they were simply an escape from reality; a winning lottery ticket perhaps, achieving one's biggest aspirations; a person's inner deepest desires. But for me, my mind seemed to conjure up the darkest fears that lay within. Nightmares that totally transformed my perceptions of reality and plummeted my thoughts into a frightening unknown realm. They were so vivid, my senses were so alert, that I was sure I had entered an entire parallel universe. But the thing that terrified me the most was how nearly every premonition, every horror I envisioned in my dreams would find it's way into reality. Superstition couldn't even be considered as a possibility - I refused to believe I was some clairvoyant magical being - despite the mind - blowing images I had witnessed, I wasn't crazy. Simply "special", he called me.

But my abilities couldn't even compare to his.

Time lapsed as I plummeted to the ground, pain searing through my spine. He broke my fall; solid, muscular arms clamped around my torso and the familiar sensation of chilling breath aroused goosebumps on my neck. I trusted him. God knows why. In one swift movement, with one breath, he could cease my heart's pulse. Send me into an agony so unbearable that my arteries would burst. Yet I knew he wouldn't. It was abnormal to feel such a bespoke sense of loyalty to someone who had refused to show me anything but the cool outer shell he portrayed to everyone around him. There was more to him than that. A sombre, sensitive heart blackened by the fear of abandonment. Betrayal was the thing that had driven him to becoming so cold, so hateful, a fossil of the person I knew he was beneath. But if I persisted hard enough, the cracks would start to show. If I trusted him with the ghosts of my past, he would trust me with his. And that was what I had planned. Until now, when the melancholy pain inhabiting my body told me that I was minutes away from death. Yet this wasn't a dream. I couldn't simply turn on the light and escape the world I had been transported to. This was the harsh, crippling reality, no matter how It had exhilarated my entire world.

And then he kissed me. Bold, ice cold lips wove into mine, yet an overcoming warmth rippled through my blood. My senses were sharpened, my pulse doubled in speed, and my brain was exhilarated with a tangle of emotions I'd never felt before. And it was that simple. I had healed. He had saved my life, but I didn't even know his real name.