Flamed

Nightmare Before Sunrise

I was walking. The sun began to rise behind me, this gave the pavement an orange glow. All around me there were houses, the picture-perfect kind you see in movies with red doors and white picket fences. There was nobody in sight, not even my friends. I was truly alone and it felt good for some reason. I kept walking until I met a dead end, suddenly the feeling that I didn't have anywhere else to go crashed into me. I turned to meet a wave of blood oozing towards me, it was coming out of the houses as if a hundred murders had been done at once.

"You're all alone Paige...." a cold voice whispered in me ear. "You have no where to run.... Come and join me, I promise to keep you safe" I turn in horror to look at my enemy in the eye and there was... nothing, just air. The voice was just besides me but nowhere at the same time.

"I am not alone" I growl back. "Get out of my head"

"Join me" it whispered. The blood was reaching my ankles now.

"Never" a sudden pain exploded into my head, making me crash to the ground and soak in blood.

The voice gave a wicked laugh "I will be back"

I woke up with a start, I was in the same office where I fell asleep last night. Everyone else was asleep. The sun shined brightly through the glass windows. I felt as I was being watched, but we were alone. Part of wanting to sleep on the floor was so that Brian could sense if there was any movement on the ground, the other part was because there was nowhere but the ground. I just couldn't shake the feeling off, I patted Lizbeth awake.

"We have to leave"

She opened her eyes and squinted at me "Why?"

"I just have a bad feeling"

"Go back to sleep, idiot" she turned her back at me.

"I'm not kidding, let's leave..." I thought for a moment. "I had dream. There was blood, and a voice telling me to join them, and houses--"

Lizbeth stood up abruptly "A voice, as in 'the voice'"

"Yes" I answered quietly. She stood up and moved her arms in a circle motion, conjuring water I guessed. A loud splash echoed through the room followed by a loud "What the fuck?!" a millisecond later from Brian. Andrea gathered her long black hair to the side and wrung it out.

"Was that really necessary?" she asked still groggy.

"It was certainly easier than waking you up individually" Lizbeth said with a smile. I quickly explained my dream and the bad feeling I had, we were out of there in less than ten minutes. We waited patiently at the bus stop hoping to catch one to the city of Aires. At the moment we only seemed to be moving from one city to another and not making any progress, we were just giving them time to finish us off.

A bright red bus approached, on the side it had an "Eddie's Pizzeria" advertisement displayed. I climbed on with the others right behind me. Placing a few quarters in the slot, I found a seat in the back. It was mostly empty except for an old couple and their grandchild. Andrea took the seat next to me, Lizbeth and Brian taking the seats on the left side. I turned my phone to check the time, 9:00am. Sighing I faced Andrea.

"So, have you lived in that town you entire life?" I asked.

"I grew up there along my brother" she answered.

"You have a brother how cool, how old is he?"

"Was. He passed away, car crash. Twelve" she looked sadly at the kid a few seats in front of us.

"I'm so sorry what happened?"

"Drunk guy hit our car on the side my brother was sitting on."

"Did your brother have, you know, powers?" I asked carefully.

"Not that I knew about, I seemed to be the only one in my family"

"How did your parents deal with that?"

"I kind of never told them, I was afraid they were gonna throw me out" she laughed "Hey, I never asked, how old are you guys? Or do you not age or anything like that?"

"We actually do age, I'm sixteen. I wish I didn't age though" we laughed together. For the first time I had the chance to talk to her, it felt as if she could be a very good friend of mine. I didn't say that very often, trust me.

"I'm sixteen too" she smiled.

"Wow, you look much older. In a good way though! I thought you were twenty something"

"I get that a lot. Do you think it could have something to do with the time control thing?" at first I thought she was kidding but then I saw she was dead serious.

"It could be a possibility. Maybe its part of your powers, like you can change ages"

"I wish I could learn how to use my powers..." she looked at me "Do you think you could train me?"

I smiled "Of course". And like that an instant friendship was born, with three hours and forty five minutes to spare. Aires here we come.