The Middle

Chapter 5 - Present

A/N: A little bit shorter than the normal ones, but not by much.Also, I wrote this one tired. For the entire day, a fire alarm was malfunctioning in my house....all.............day................

So if there's mistakes in it, I'm sorry. Let me know. I'm extremely tired.

The dream I'm currently having is a pretty odd one. I'm running throughout the forest next to the "Big bad wolf" I saw in Luna's memory not too long ago. It seems angry. I seem angry. To make things probably worse, I'm holding a shotgun in my hands. With the context I've been given, I think dream me wants to shoot something.

At some point, I get to a guy holding onto his ankle and groaning in pain. In front of him is a jutted root. My first instinct while meeting him is to point my shotgun at him.

"Nowhere to run now," my own voice sounds older and shaken, "You need to pay for what you've done to her."

The guy holds up his hands in surrender, "Look man, I know what I did was wrong now. Please, don't shoot me. I don't tell anyone about your crazy family or what you guys do for a living. I promise, I won't tell!"

"You think an apology will fix what you've done?" I ask him, "You've ruined her life forever! No amount of apology will fix that. You've made up your mind. This is the result."

The guy's face suddenly calms down as if he realizes that there's no way out of this, "Fine, then just do it. I made a huge mistake, and now it looks like I'm paying for it."

Just as I am about to pull the trigger, a splitting headache hits me. I groan as I watch my hand lift up to my nose. When I pull it away, it is covered in blood. I can hear the dog growling again, but this time it's looking at me. It lunges at my leg, making me fall over and drop the shotgun. I attempt to get up, but I feel the dog's large paw push me back down.

I take one look at the guy and he starts backing away, "I'm sorry."

The guy runs off as the dog bites down on my right arm. I see the shotgun out next to me and reach out for it with my left arm. Awkwardly, I take it into my left hand and shoot the dog in its stomach. It jumps back while also yelping. It doesn't appear to move afterward. I hold the shotgun into my right arm which is slowly covering itself in red blood. I run throughout the forest, despite my limped leg. Eventually, I can see the silhouette of a guy running away from me. I point the shotgun.

And shoot. The last thing I can see is the man falling down.

*****

I jolt awake with a gasp. What kind of dream was that? I don't know if I hit the guy.And if I did, I don't know where. All I know, is that this was probably the weirdest dream I've gotten in the longest of times. And I've gotten pretty weird dreams.

I sit up in the cave hearing the soft rain on the roof. I rub my eyes and stand up. I walk over towards the entrance and let the pouring rain run down my shoulder. As I stare out at the forest, it seems to go one forever. I keep on thinking that I hear the faint sound of a dog barking. But, I know that this time is really is my imagination. Right?

God, please don't let it be an actual dog. I don't have a shotgun like that other guy.

"What was that?" I hear a soft voice come from the dying fire, "Did you see that too?"

I turn to Luna and nod, "And I don't know what that was. I think it was just a nightmare from the earlier memory."

"I can try and show you a better memory if you want," Luna says after hesitating, "If that one was keeping you up. Keeping us up."

I look back at her, "Why'd you even show it in the first place?"

She shrugs, "I don't know how it works. It's never happened to me before it happened to both you and Ella. But I can try to send you a better memory if you'd like. Better than Mr. Wolf. I mean, maybe it's just a more complex way of sending thoughts. I know how to do that, obviously."