In Our Hands

01

The air was crisp as Jennie inhaled deeply through her nose, feeling her lungs expand to their full capacity before letting a long sigh escape through her lips. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back to feel the sun's warm rays shine down on her face, unable to resist the gentle smile that graced her lips. The sky was a lovely shade of brilliant blue, only a couple fluffy clouds scattered in sight. She wiggled her bare toes on the fresh, dewy grass as she inhaled another deep breath, savoring it a little longer than the last breath she took before releasing it back out into the open air. She slowly opened her eyes and took a good look at her surroundings; she was in a wide meadow, surrounded by the simple beauty of nature, of tall trees and active wildlife. A thick forest seemed to surround the entire meadow and was just as breathtaking itself as the meadow was. There was a sizable pond several yards away, a small family of ducks wading on its surface as two other colorful birds sang as they cleaned themselves on the other side of it. A monarch butterfly fluttered in front of Jennie and she instinctively raised her hand up, allowing the winged creature to land on her index finger.

"Jennie!"

Jennie leisurely turned her head towards the direction where the voice came from, carefully keeping her finger still enough so she wouldn't scare the butterfly away. She could barely see a shadow coming towards her from the forest until a boy burst out from the trees. Jennie gasped upon seeing his face. It was him. She smiled brightly and waved with her free hand, but noticed something was wrong. He was sweating profusely, his features laced with pain as he drew closer, one arm grasping his abdomen. She could see that he was panting, but remained determined to reach her. With every step he took closer to Jennie, she noticed bruises and scratches appear on his previously flawless face as he struggled to remain upright. Just as he was almost within arms' reach of her, he suddenly doubled over, falling onto his hands and knees. Jennie gasped as she watched him cough and struggle to breathe, but she couldn't move, as if something was holding her back.

Slowly, the meadow seemed to melt away right before Jennie's eyes and turned into a desert. All forms of plant life disappeared, the pond evaporating, and she was soon surrounded by dust and the sun was no longer soft and comforting, but was now scorching her skin as if she was going to get cooked alive. The butterfly that had been on her finger lost all color and began to fall towards the ground, turning into dust before it could even get halfway down. She averted her attention back to the boy who was crying out in pain, her eyes widening in horror as he was sinking into the ground in a pool of quicksand. He began to cough and blood stained the sand in front of him as he looked back up at Jennie, trying to free himself. However, his efforts were futile as he sunk even faster. His entire body was engulfed and his neck was quickly disappearing into the sand.

"Save me, Jennie!"

Jennie gasped as she jerked herself upright, breathing heavily as she looked around her. She was comforted when she realized it was only a bad dream and rubbed her face with her hands, groaning softly to herself. This had to be the fourth night in a row where the same boy showed up in a dream of hers, but she didn't even know who this boy was; all she knew was that he liked to appear in her dreams and every time, it ended horribly. Whether it was gruesome, heartbreaking, or both, he always seemed to disappear just as Jennie wanted to reach out to him.

"It was just a bad dream," Jennie mumbled to herself as she slowly laid back down. She stared up at her ceiling with wide eyes, unable to fall back asleep. She tossed and turned all night, but sleep evaded her.

When the morning came and sunlight creeped into her room, Jennie was exhausted. She hardly had gotten any sleep since the dream-turned-nightmare, and if it weren't for the fact that she had made plans for the day, she probably would have just closed her eyes and chase after the sleep she was robbed of last night.