The dream
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
Ollie breathed water. It was refreshing and felt strangely good as it filled his lungs until he was so far under the ocean his feet could almost touch the bottom.
He was drowning, dying- moments passing by him in an uncomfortable blur.
a tremendous weight sank him further, as if rocks had been tied to his ankles.
In the beginning he had struggled against the weight, he had thrashed and fought ,but every time he had done so, the weight only seemed to get heavier and he sunk further.
instead now, his mind raced, clawing and searching for an impossible escape - it was a wild surge shoving him forward and forward, breaking the waves and tearing them apart.
He hurtled blindly through the ocean losing the weight ,only feeling the urgency to move and breathe again.
as his body tore through the surface, coldness hit his face. wind stung his cheeks;wind so vicious and bitter it ripped tears from his eyes.
For a long time he couldn't move. couldn't breathe.
Ollie became aware of the soft surface beneath his still body. It didn't feel like ground, it felt light, like a cloud or a soft duvet.
Where was he?
He opened his senses a little more feeling a pressure, a warm, almost feverish pressure closing around his left wrist, and there was something else..
a presence.
Ollie's eyes snapped open.He coughed, sputtering salt and sea and sat up in shock.
Everything started to fall into place.He saw that he was no longer in the ocean but laying in the middle of an empty beach.
Soft sand surrounded him, and pebbles and shells brushed against his bare feet.
It was dark and windy where he was , a thin silver moon rising and glinting across the ocean. the cold licked his arms and the wind fluttered against the simple white, linen trousers he wore.
His eyes focused in on a face; a face next to his, warm and close and shadowed.
a girl's face.
'Ollie' The girl whispered his name.
The stranger appeared to be about his age, maybe even slightly younger- with cheeks the colour of candy apple and a soft sulky mouth. The wind blew her hair around her shoulders like sunlight, the golden of it almost matching the sand around them. kneeling next to him , she held his wrist.
Ollie opened his mouth to speak and question but no words came out. A voice built up in his throat and died there.
A sudden sharp stab of pain ran up the length of his arm, a flower of alarm beginning to blossom in his chest.
'Don't worry, you'll not be silent for much longer.' the girl smiled knowingly.
she was wearing what Ollie assumed were her nightclothes; a pair of light loose fitting Pyjama shorts and a simple white t-shirt. Intricate curling silver patterns made their way down the neck of her shirt. He had seen those designs before.
Images, knowledge and memory flit around his head like a caged bird.something streaked hot down his backbone as the realisation sunk in. ollie knew who this girl was, or at least he had heard stories of those like her.
Iced to the spine, he grabbed a fistful of her shirt with his free hand. The girl dismissed the frantic gesture, calmly unclenching his fingers from her shirt with strength that was not human.
No he wanted to shout. This was a mistake , this wasn't for him, it wasn't time...
He was not evil. He had made one mistake. One.
Ollie could feel the pain, growing, clawing away inside him -the weakness suddenly spreading from his arms to his legs. The veins in his arms stood out prominently; within a few minutes his whole body would become immobile and he would be unable to stop what was happening.
He looked down at his hand. The mark was already planted, the number of how many days he had left to live inked into his skin. his fate was almost sealed with this sinful black number, only one more step to go..
No.
As quickly as the desperation and fear had come, it evaporated and was replaced by newly found concrete anger and determination- survival instinct.
Ollie's muscles surged forward all at once and all those years of forced training kicked in. In one fluid motion he thrusted his forehead towards the girl's face.
Bash, Something cracked.
she hadn't seen it coming and recoiled, her hands letting go of him and flying up to her bloody nose. He didn't have time to feel guilt over destroying a face so pretty.
scrambling to his feet, he ran from death.
He ran blind, stumbling and scratching his feet on shells and rocks. seconds later he could already hear her behind him, the heat of her rising like an angry mist. She was fast like him, possibly faster.
The pain from the mark echoed throughout his body, the blackness seeping further inside his veins like a poison, claiming him.
The wind hummed past his ears as he forced his legs to run. To move just even a little bit.
That was when he felt the warm hand at the back of his neck, fingers trailing over the delicate skin. The chase had stopped, he found he could not move, not even to shudder.
Of course she would've used her magic against him. That's what they did, the pure were notorious for bending the rules for a 'good cause '. It was absurd of him to think this might've been a fair fight.
hot breath pressed against his ear, the girl's calm had turned to rage.
'You killed an innocent ' she hissed, grabbing the back of his collar so that his shirt cut into his neck.
'You think you're a damn god ? There is no god for you, none that would take pity for your cause.' The girl spat, her voice now icier than any ocean.
Blood pounded in ollie's temples as her hand guided it's way to his abdomen and fear stroked harder than before because he knew exactly what was going to happen .She would kill him to complete the mark.
she pulled his head up closer, her fingers brushing his throat, lingering there.
'100 days for you, more than you deserve. Goodbye Ollie '
At first he didn't feel it, but then the nausea and pain came down on him in whirlpools. He saw the glint of a blade and felt his mouth open as he cried out.
He remembered the girl's words : ' you won't be quiet for long'
blood seeped through his shirt, trailing down and turning the sand around him a crimson red. The colour of crimson and the thunderous blue eyes of the girl were the last things he saw before darkness swallowed him whole.
Ollie awoke in a rapid sweat. His soaked pillow pressed up against the back his neck,his mouth dry .he saw nothing but the subtle moonlight that peaked through the blinds of his window....
YOU ARE READING
100 Days
Teen Fiction'You look up. And you can't help but smile when she barely conceals her flinch. They always seem to flinch and you wonder why. You've never seen yourself before. You know you're young, but perhaps you're scarred, terribly disfigured or maybe just...
