Warped, My Vision

Chapter Five

A/N: Oooooh, look! It's another short, only-slightly-revised chapter of WMV! All we have left are chapters 6, 7, and the epilogue. Hope you're ready for the end, loves <3 JK I still have to write the prequel, but that's almost unrelated to the rest of the series. Ha, don't you just love me? You won't at the end of this. >.>

My eyes sting, but I'm not sure if it's from lack of sleep or from the irritating lights in this diner.  No one has said a word with any meaning since we decided that we were going to the barn.  Our waiter walks by to take our orders, all cheap, bland, nondescript items from the menu.  He looks just as tired and bedraggled as the rest of us. The lights in the building don't treat his kin well, and they make him look sickly pale. 

    "I'll be right back," Miss Light says, walking quietly towards the women's bathroom. A beat of silence follows.

    "Are you okay, Zach?" I look up at Carrie in surprise.  I had almost forgotten I wasn't alone.

    "I don't know. Are you okay?"

    "No." The word left her mouth with a sort of obviousness.

    "I...I just don't get why he would do this..." I trail off, unable to completely voice my thoughts.  Is he playing with us, just luring us in until he can kill us again? Did he cast his humanity aside when he ran? Why did he run, or rather, what is he running from? He can't be running from us, and what good would it ever do him to run from himself? That's like trying to wash away your shadow.

    "He?" Carrie asked, sounding slightly confused.

    "Aaron."

    "Oh, right."

xXx

We stopped for the night in another small, out-of-the-way motel, and I can't sleep.  I try all the things I've been told; I shutdown my phone, do breathing exercises, clear my head...But there's nothing strong enough to restrain the rush of thoughts still trying to smash my skull to pieces. 

    It's somewhere around 2:53 AM according to the clock on my nightstand.  I'm not sure how accurate that is.  I can hear Carrie's even, deep breaths from across the room.  She's been sleeping better since we started this damn quest. I'm not sure how.

    Ever since we left I've been having the same dream. It's in the middle of the night, and I'm standing in a large grassy clearing somewhere in a forest I don't know.

    It's completely silent, and I'm alone.  I look around my surroundings, and try to walk towards the treeline, but no matter how far I walk, I can't bring the trees any closer to me, so I give up.

    Then I hear a voice. I can never make out what is says, but I know it's Aaron's voice. I hear the words from behind me and I spin around, trying to find him. When I don't see him, I never do, I fall. All the strength leaves my body and I collapse in the grass. I lie there for a few moments, and nothing happens, no sound, no movement, no change.

    Then I see him.  He's completely different, so different I wouldn't have known it was Aaron if it wasn't a dream, or if it wasn't for his voice.  But there are certain things that you know when you dream, and with every fiber of my imagined body, I know that it is Aaron I see before me.

    He turns around, pale skin, long hair, red eyes. His body is elongated in ways that send shivers through my spine and are completely unnatural to human anatomy.

    The Aaron-creature fixes his eyes on me, and raises one arm. His fingers are like knives, and his elbows biological spikes covered in glistening translucent skin. He raises his arm, thrusts his fingers through my neck, and picks me up like a ragdoll. 

    "Who is it you're looking for?" he asks, his voice hissing out of a disproportionately large mouth with rows upon rows of gleaming teeth like steam.

    I awake then, still alive to pull my shattered mess of a mind back into something other people can call sanity.

xXx

We stop at a McDonalds for some cheap, greasy, breakfast food, and continue on our way.  My hands are shaking, and I can't get them to stop.  Every time I see my reflection, it startles me. My eyes are glassy and ringed with dark purple smudges; scars from my mental battles.

    Aaron's mom continues driving us further and further into parts of the country I've never been in. It's so strange. I never would have thought I would just drop everything and jump into someone's car who I've only known for a few months.

    She mumbles something about having seven more hours, but my mind is already drifting further into sleep.  I let my eyelids droop shut, and this time hope for something other than the nightmare my mind plays like a broken record.

xXx

Carrie is shaking my shoulder. I crack open my eyes and look at her blankly.

    "You were mumbling and squirming in your sleep. Are you okay?" Am I okay? How many times have we asked each other that question, gotten the answer we knew, and dreaded, and had absolutely no ability to change the situation?

    "I'm fine." I had the nightmare again. Each time I have, it gets more real and more enthralling, and the harder it is to pull myself out of it. Carrie pulls away, and falls quiet.