Awake | Book 1 of the AWAKE Series | (BWWM)

Chapter Eleven

Dylan

            Every night for the past few days I’ve had the same dream.

I’m standing alongside the edge of a beautiful river, the sun is shining brightly in the sky illuminating the earth around me, setting everything off with a glow so bright I almost shield my eyes. I can always feel the warmth of the sun on my skin as I stand there soaking up the rays. It isn’t until a slow darkness creeps around me, so subtly I don’t notice until everything around me is shrouded in it.

            When I look up at the sky I can see it’s taken on such a dark gray hue, it’s almost black. Suddenly, as if on cue with my line of sight, everywhere my eyes touch the living thing that’s there begins to wilt and die. The grass turns a pretty pale green before turning brown then gray and black before crumbling and blowing away in the wind. Trees take on the same characteristics and collapse right before my eyes, some almost falling on me but I can’t move from the spot I’m in.

            I feel the winds pick up and they’re so strong they whip my hair all over the place in a dizzying array of directions before I finally feel the pain. The hair, my hair, is being blown from my scalp in patches. The sting is excruciating and yet I can’t force my legs to move, I can’t even use my hands to try and hold on to the few strands I have left. Searing hot pain shoots through my entire body and without looking I know the wind is blowing my skin off as well. Blood is pouring from my body like an open tap and I know it won’t be long before I collapse from the loss and die. It’s in this moment that I prepare myself. I can physically feel the pain and I just want it to stop.

            It isn’t long before I feel my eyes get heavy and I know I only have seconds before I’m gone. In a twisted final goodbye to myself I look down into the river. What once was a crystal clear rushing body of water is now a nearly dried puddle of murky green liquid. Although the conditions are as they are, I use the slight reflection and take my last look at myself.

            My skin is falling off in chunks, I possess one patch of hair, and there’s blood surrounding a face that isn’t my own. Even in the state the skin of the face is in I realize it’s not my skin that I’m in. The urge to clean whomever this is up, maybe even try to help them hold on to what little life they have left is overwhelming. I feel protective of this woman, as if she’s my sister. And under my watch she won’t go out this way.

            Determination drives me and I force the woman’s hands to dip into the puddle. Although it isn’t sanitary, I need to get the blood off to help her. The second her hands dip into the water I feel the burn but continue to splash the water onto the face we share. One look into the reflection the puddle gives is enough to know I went the wrong route. Every ounce of skin that remained is now gone. I look down at our hands and the skin there is gone too. Nothing is left but bones.

            I wake up with a start. Breathing hard and trying to calm myself. It’s the same thing every night. I know it’s a dream. I know that the woman in the dream is not me or anyone I know for that matter. And yet, I can’t help but feel an attachment to her. The more I sit and try to catch my breath the more the dream replays and I force myself out of bed and into the shower. I can’t stop from doing a full check in the mirror to make sure everything is where it needs to be.

            Work was easy and went by surprisingly quickly today. Reed and I hung out and he forced me to pinky promise that I would go bowling with him soon. As much as I don’t want to set foot in those stinky shoes a promise is a promise.

            I take the time out after work to stop by my favorite boutique downtown and pick up my outfit I had on hold for tonight. Karter is coming over after he hangs out with his family for his birthday. He thinks we’re just going to chill at my place for a while but I have an entire night planned. After stopping by the dry cleaners to get the suit I purchased especially for Karter tonight, I head home.