For Everything

Failing To See The Truth

The next day I walked to school as usual like all other days. I reached the corner of Salmon Street and Trout Lane like usual and saw the woman with the turquoise hair as usual underneath her hood. I didn't wait to see what she would do so I walked to school. I saw Gale and couldn't help but smile when I did. It was looking like a normal day until I got home from school. Gale and I agreed that he shouldn't come over for a couple days just to let my parents' suspicions die down, so I walked home alone that day. I reached the store and walked up the back door to the housing area. I enter the kitchen to find both my mother and father sitting at the table. They look up as I walk in.

"Hi guys," I say, heading to my room to drop my stuff.

"Hi honey," my mother says, "Um, your father and I, Hunter, we need to talk to you for a minute."

I come out of my room, "Oh. Am I in trouble? What's wrong?"

"We need to see your phone son," my father says, looking serious. My heart flutters and my stomach kicks itself. Oh gosh. I'm busted. Whatever they're looking for they'll probably find. I open my mouth but instead just fish my phone out of my pocket and hand it to them. My father takes it and unlocks it. They scroll through it until they find what they've been looking for. 

My mother takes it from my father and says, "Hunter, what's this?" She turns the phone around so I can see it. My text string with Gale appears on the screen. Shit. It's the first time I texted him, when he told me that he first had started dreaming of me. 

"What do you mean?" I say, trying to play dumb, but my parents are past that. They know something's been going on, and they intend to find out.

"Hunter," my mother says, "What is he talking about?"

"I-uh. I'm not sure."

"Don't you play dumb. We know you know what he's talking about. What does he mean he's been dreaming of you? And you better answer me this time. I know you know what this is."

"I. Gale and I are friends, as I'm sure you know," I start, "When we first moved here, I met a girl named Felicity Lyone. She introduced me to  her friends Alex Greenway and Gale Aftersmoke. I never really became friends with Alex but I was friends with Felicity and Gale. One night as I was closing up the store, I had a vision. A dream. Of Felicity. It was a nightmare."

"What was the dream of Hunter?" my father asks.

"I don't, I don't really remember," I lie easily, "But Felicity and I were somewhere, somewhere bad, and it was terrifying. The next day at school I told her about the dream, and she explained that she has them too, along with Alex and Gale. We didn't know why were dreaming of each other, but one thing was clear. Felicity and I always dreamed of just each other, and Gale and Alex dreamed of only each other. Every day, at some point in the day, I would have the same dream over and over again, and then end up somehwere after the dream was over, not knowing how I got there. This is why I don't remember certain points in the day. It never changed, never skipped a day, never added to a day, always the same."

"But you just said you have the same dream every day. How is it you can't remember what it's of?" my father presses.

"I-I don't know dad. I never remember what it's of," I don't really know why I didn't tell them what it was about, but I had a feeling it would just worry them even more.

"You said that nothing ever changed, that it was just you and Felicity dreaming of each other, but here it says Gale told you that he dreamed of you."

"Soon after we moved here and I met Gale, he told me he was dreaming of me now, and not Alex anymore. I didn't know why, but it was definitely a sign things were changing. A little while after that, I began to see Gale too. It was the same dream, and it still had Felicity in it, but Gale was jsut there too. I started dreaming like this for a while, but then one day I started seeing Alex too. They were all there, and something was changing about the dream."

"What was changing?" both my parents ask.

"I don't know," I really did know. I wanted to tell them about the dream. About the woman with turquoise hair, about the message, about everything, but that wouldn't make anything better.

"This is what she said would happen," my mother whispers.

"What? What did who say would happen?" my heart rate quickens.

"When you were little sweetie," my mother says, "you had dreams. Strange dreams. Every night you would wake up at strange hours and start screaming so we would come into your room. You would always jump as we opened the door, sitting up in the corner of your bed, terrified. We would always comfort you and eventually you would calm down, and then we would ask you what was wrong. You would always tell us about this dream you had while you were sleeping. You would tell us about this, place. This clearing in the middle of the woods. You always started out there, leaning up against a dead tree of some sort. You were never alone, you would tell us. There were always several other children there with you. Two boys, a girl, and a baby." Oh my gosh. That's impossible.

"Anyway," my mother continues, "You would always start out playing with them. You said that you liked the taller boy and the girl best. The other boy was sometimes mean, and the baby always bit you somewhere. You would play at the base of the tree until you heard footsteps. A woman, you would always say, a woman with turquoise hair, I believe, always came at the best times to take you away. You never told us where, you would just say that she took you and the other children to a bad place. A very bad place. Then you wouldn't tell us anymore, and we told you to go back to sleep. Anyway, you always had the same dream every night. We began to get worried, your father and I tried everything we could to help you overcome this nightmare, but nothing ever worked. We took you to all the doctors we could find, but they all dismissed it, saying it was just a recurring nightmare. We eventually took you to a therapist, Dr. Asher. After a while she told us that you had a condition. R.C.A.D. Recurring Compulsive Apparition Disorder. She told us that you were not just having dreams, but communicating with other children that had the same condition. You were in a sense, dreaming of one another. We asked what we could do to help you, and she said there wasn't really a way to cure this. She did tell us though, there was a specialist in Maine who could help soothe these dreams, or visions. She had already been known to help several other children. We didn't know what to do for a while but eventually as you got older, the dreams started getting more, intense. We got increasingly worried and eventually we moved to Blackburg Maine, in hopes of finding this specialist. Dr. Asher told us before we left to give it a little while after we settled down to get used to things, to see if a new start helped at all. She also said that being closer to the specialist and these other children like you would in a way, change these dreams. She said that you would possibly start having these dreams during the day, and it would possibly lead to memory loss during the vision."

I sit there after my mother finishes talking in awe. They knew all along. They knew why I've been so weird lately. My parents knew everything, they know everything, about me, about Gale, about all of us. 

"We tried giving you some time to see if the dreams would eventually go away, but they got worse, and we post-poned seeing this specialist for a while, but seeing now what's happened we think it would be best if we went to see this woman."

I didnt know what to think, and I didn't know who this woman was. I had a feeling like this woman and the woman with the turquoise hair were somehow linked, and going to see her would only lead to chaos. This specialist would be the downfall of me, and I knew at that moment I wouldn't see her, I couldn't.

"No," I say, 'I don't want to see this woman. I'm fine guys, I really am. I just need some time."

"Hunter," my father says, "You're not fine. You need help. We can both see that."

"No, I don't need help, guys, I'm fine. Thank you for caring and all but I'm good."

"Hunter, you're not going to argue yourself out of this. It's been long enough. We're taking you to see Dr. Amber as soon as possible." I tried fighting them, but just as my mother said, I couldn't argue myself out of this one. Before the conversation was done, I was going to see Dr. Amber at 10:00 a.m. next Tuesday. That was four days away, I still had time, but not much. I felt trapped, like the woman with the turquoise hair had me pinned in a corner, and I couldn't get out of it. Soon enough she would have me, clawing and scratching my way out, but failing at the same time. Failing to stay alive. Failing to protect those I loved. Failing to see the truth. The real truth.