Love Denied Vol.1 Of The Love Trials Trilogy

Chapter 25 "The nightmare..."

(Minori's POV)

I awoke with a sudden panic!

"Huff..." I breathed out heavily as I held my hand over my frightened heart.

It was beating like crazy!

I looked at my clock, and saw that it was just barely 3:37 a.m.!

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed feeling suddenly freaked out.

I had just had the worst nightmare ever!

Tori and Hikaru were in the same golden field as before... Only this time the beast wasn't there. The dream frightened me because Tori and Hikaru wanted me to choose between them.

Not only that...

They had both suddenly disappeared from sight when I said I couldn't decide. And then a horrible dark cloud covered the sky! I started running, trying to look for them but I could not find either of the two!

Then I had woken up. I happened to be a firm believer that dreams actually meant something, and couldn't help but feel the fear rise up in my mind. So I did the only things that came to mind, I scrambled to grab my cellphone and speed dialed Hikaru's house...

"Please, pick up! Pick up!" I whispered to myself furiously, and when he didn't pick up, I began dialing Tori's home phone.

"Hello, this is the Saul residence." A gruff voice answered with a stifled yawn.

"Hi, Cole! Is Tori there?!" I asked with a sigh of relief, since someone had answered at least.

"Ah..." He paused on his side of the line, "Hold on let me check..."

I heard him put the phone down on the counter with a clank, and held my breath as I waited for him to come back on the phone with either Tori at his side, or at least the reassurance that she was there.

"Hey, Minori?" Cole's asked hesitantly.

Hesitantly?!

"Yeah, I'm still here!" I answered quickly, dread gripping at my throat.

"Tori isn't home right now." Cole said and then quickly added, "She went out for a morning walk, ah, I don't know when she'll be back."

"Oh." I said dumbly.

"Umm...do you need to leave her a message?" Cole asked.

"Oh no, just tell her to call me as soon as she's able to, please?" I said reluctantly.

"Alright-ah...Minori?" Cole asked.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Is everything okay?" Cole asked, and then he added, "Because if it's not, you can tell me whatever it is. I may not be a girl, but at least I can keep a secret."

I sighed as I debated whether to tell him or not...

"Fine. I'll tell you because you're Tori's cousin and I can't help but worry!" I said quickly, "But the thing is, you really can't tell Tori, or anyone else for that matter! So promise me you won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you?!"

The line on the other side was silent for a moment before he answered.

"Okay, I promise not to tell a single soul." Cole said firmly.

"Okay, good, thank you Cole!" I sighed out in relief.

"No problem, listening to problems is what I'm here for." He said steadfastly.

"Alright, the thing is... Ever since I turned nine, I would have these weird dreams, and at first they didn't seem so significant." I started out, "But then, they started coming true in a manner of speaking."

"How?" Cole asked softly.

"The dreams were like codes that I had to figure out, because if I didn't... Something bad would happen." I let out hoarsely.

"Does something bad always happen?" Cole asked.

"Yes, if I don't decode it and stop the event from happening, it normally does." I stated, "And right now, I just had a dream about Hikaru Garth, my best friend, and Tori! What should I do Cole?!"

"You. Will. Stay. Put." Cole emphasized each word, "I'll go out and look for Tori, is that understood?"

I was frozen in shock.

"Minori?" Cole stressed out with an impatient edge to it.

"Yeah, I'll stay put, but you actually believe me?" I asked softly with hope.

"Yeah, I believe you." Cole stated, "Now I have to go out and find Tori, and maybe you should try calling your friend Hikaru again?"

I nodded mutely to it, but then realized he couldn't possibly see it... After all we were on the phone.

"Yeah, okay! I'll do just that, but please, find Tori?!" I pleaded.

"Tori's my cousin, of course I'll look for her." Cole said with conviction.

For a moment, I could swear there was a sadness that underlined his conviction, but that wasn't possible... Was it?

"Okay, thank you again Cole." I said grateful.

"For what, I haven't done anything yet, just thank me later when I've found Tori." Cole said, then without so much as a good-bye, he hung up.

The dread that filled me was eating me alive. All I could do now was hope that Tori was okay. Now I just had to find a way to contact Hikaru...

Suddenly, I came up with the brilliant idea of going to Hikaru's house!

Surely I would find him there...

I hope.