A Rose With Teeth and Claws

Dreams or reality?

As Talia walked into her small apartment, she didn't even have time to take off her coat before she collapsed onto her small, uncomfortably hard brown sofa and groaned out her displeasure. It was now four in the morning since she had stopped to get fast food from the first place she saw.

Sighing at the pleasant heat of the room, she sat up to kick off her boots and take off her stifling coat. She was extremely tired but she couldn't find it in herself to go to sleep just yet. Something about tonight just sang to her and made her feel more alive than she had been in a long time. She thought back to what Mary had said. It was a full moon, so it looks like she wouldn't be getting any sleep for a while if she wanted to stay how she was at the moment.

So Talia got out her journal, paint supplies, and pencil. Her journal was full of ideas for books and pictures and she flipped through it until she found the perfect one. A wolf in the woods surrounded by other wolves. They were snarling and hunching and growling at the poor loner but it stood tall, and though it was outnumbered, it was not outmatched and its stance told the viewer that it was aware of its soon to be victory. So she sketched her picture on her canvas and got to work.

Hours passed and she was finally finished with her masterpiece. She thought it was pretty good but to a professional artist, this would look like child's play. But that didn't matter to her at the moment as she was singing another song, another Twenty One Pilots song, and twirling around her apartment.

"Don't for-get a-bou-bou-bou-bou-bout me..."

She was only happy that she had again created something of value and importance to her that no one else would understand. To them, it would have their own meaning. That was the beauty of the things she created, every person took it in a different way and made it their own.

As the sun came up, she started feeling faint. The burst of energy from the night before was gone and she was ready to hit the mattress and catch some Z's. She hung her picture on the wall by the bed and stared at the brave little wolf until her eyes closed and she entered the land of sleep.

She was running. Running faster than she thought she could. But where was she headed? Was she running from something? Running after something? She can't remember. All she knows is that she must keep running and don't stop until she reaches....... a place?

The wind howling in her ears was like a call. There was something on her face, in her mouth, on her hands, some uncomfortable, some not as much. Her breathing gets harder but she doesn't feel winded. Faster and faster and even faster. Something rustles in the bushes to her right. She glances long enough to see a huge shadow lunge at her-   

Pitch darkness as she struggles to escape that which haunts her every thought.