Truth or Dare

Chapter 9: Face The Consequences

I warned you about the consequences of ignoring me". He looks at me with eyes almost as cold and heartless as his voice and I can't help the tears from falling down my face.

"No", I whimper, "no, no, no. Please. I'm sorry." My bottom lip is trembling and my hands are shaking in fear and cold, yet I can't seem to figure out why my whole body suddenly feels so cold.

He smirks at me, a cruel and wicked grin which sends chills down my spine, and slowly take a step forward. I instinctively back away from him, although I do not tear my gaze from his dark orbs. The grin never leaves his face and as he continues to walk forwards, I continue to walk the opposite way until my left foot suddenly stumbles over some kind of solid object, causing me to wave my arms into the air as I loose my balance and falls backward. I await the hard impact of my body hitting the ground, but all that leaves my lips when I do make contact with the nature underneath my feet is a surprised "oh".

It's cold, and I can feel my hands penetrate a thin layer on the ground as I put them out by a reflex in the fall.

Snow. I think as the cold immediately increases. My hands are naked and as I look down on myself, I notice I'm only in my pajama shorts and t-shirt, which explain why I'm so cold.

"You're pathetic, do you know that?" he says again as he stares down at me. I try to focus on his facial features but although I can see them all, I can't seem to grasp the whole picture of how his face looks like. I can see it in front of me, it's crystal clear, but as soon as I try to connect the dots and paint the fully picture in my head, it feels like my brain shuts down completely.

It's not until now that I notice the splashes of blood on his gray shirt and hands but the realization causes the heart in my chest to skip a few beats.

My eyes glance over the winter landscape in search for the source of all the blood. I catch a glimpse of something blonde behind his broad body and despite the fact that he is covering most parts of the small body, I get an idea of who it might be.

"M-move", I demand, trying to sound harsh and strong, but he only chuckles at my weak attempt and crouches down to my level.

"It's okay", he smiles wickedly, "it was for the best anyway. We're alone now."

I tilt my head to the side, trying to confirm my suspicions about the small frame behind him, but he grabs me face between his hands and forces me to look at him.

"Linnea", he says in a sickly sweet voice, "don't mind her. It's your turn now."

"M-my turn?" I stutter as his grips get even tighter and tighter. His cruel grin gets wider and wider as he hushes me before telling me to close my eyes.

"It will only hurt for a second", he whispers softly, "then it will all be over."

I can feel the tip of something sharp being placed against the back of my neck and the scream I am about to make gets cut off by the blade in his hands.

* * *

I open my eyes with a silent scream on my lips and immediately sit up and clutch the bed sheets for comfort before throwing them off of my feverly hot body. My heart is beating at a rapid pace in my chest and I can feel beads of sweat on my forehead. Breathing heavily, I focus on calming myself down.

It was just a nightmare.

It wasn't true. It was just my imagination playing a prank on me.

I keep telling myself that it was just, in fact, a nightmare but it still takes me a good ten minutes to calm down. I know that I haven't had the best start here in L.A, but I usually never have nightmares and especially not now when I thought that everything had turned around. Ever since I got the creepy phone call where my stalker told me that I had yet to face the consequences of my previous mistakes, everything has been alright and that was around two weeks ago. For two weeks, I've lived my life as normal with no sign of my stalker and I've just started to tell myself that it is over. Maybe it still is, but I don't like the thought of my subconscious remind me about it. I just want to forget about the threat because it's keeping me on edge at all hours and minutes of the day.