BLACK

(31) Lucid

EDITED

Heat bugs, all around me, buzzed and buzzed so my ears rang with the hot summers day. There was no break from the sun in the clear sky, not a single breeze to bring aid to my scorching skin. I stand on a wooden dock, the wood adding some discomfort to the soles of my feet.

Wincing from the light, I glanced down with the idea to remove my shirt or pants, just to discover them already gone. Somehow I wear a two piece bathing suit, with something else. A bump. In the center of my stomach, huge and bulging.

"Ajax?" I mumble with confusion, moving a hand to soothe over my gigantic state.

"Mommy! Mommy!" A child's voice alarms my motherly instincts as my gaze shoots down the long dock, to the very end." "Look! Watch this!"

He stares right at me, a blessing of a beautiful smile over his cheeks. Another figure holds him in a super man position, his arms thick and bronzed. Slowly the man begins to count down from three, swinging the little blond boy back and forth. On the third count, he releases him into the water surrounding the dock, and his head disappears for seconds. As the time passes, I begin to worry, rubbing my belly for comfort.

Though eventually his head pops up, that gorgeous smile still over taking his lips and he swims steadily back onto the dock. His wet feet leave foot prints on the warm planks, sprinting towards me with his blond curls flicking droplets every which direction.

"Mommy!" He shouts running straight toward me, and I stay frozen waiting for him to pass me and go to his mother. "Did you watch? Did you see me?"

He doesn't run past me. He doesn't make any indication there's anyone else here but me. Instead, he stares straight up at me, his height making him no bigger than four or five years old. I don't answer, my jaw slacking at the sight of him. He was a model child, with perfectly gaped white teeth, his button nose, bright blond curls slicked back with water. And those eyes.

I squinted, trying not to make my observations more obvious as I stared at him without response. I knew those eyes, from somewhere. My brain hurt with all of the thinking. I looked behind me, to see no figure or mother to this boy.

With worry, I started to kneel down to ask him where his parents were, but his hand stopped me. Five, tiny little digits expanded over the girth of my stomach. Still, the young boy grinned like a champion.

"I can't wait for sissy to come out." He says, stroking his hand over my stomach with surprising gentleness. "I'm going to teach her all about the lake and how to swim. And how to cannon ball, and how Daddy throws me in —"

Those eyes. Shining with so much life, so much excitement.

"Noire," I couldn't help the shocked expression at the face I saw next. "Noire, what's wrong?"

Those golden eyes.

My body heat focused on my arm, where a sudden comfort blanketed me and circulated through my body from only my left shoulder.

"Don't touch me," I shoved his hand off after realizing it was the effects of the mate bond, and turned further into the couch. My head hurt with that dream. That memory. My face skewed at the feeling. It wasn't a memory. But it wasn't a dream, either.

"What's wrong?" Dark, monotone voice. Black.

I don't look at him, mumbling into my shoulder as I rubbed my sweating forehead. "Too hot."