Incubus

Chapter 3

You have to decide whether you're going to let your past destroy you, or whether you're going to let it build you into the strongest person you've ever met 

~Sonya Parker

Ever since that strange trip to The Cove, I hadn't been myself. None of my nightmares had come back, which relieved me. But I couldn't shake that uneasy feeling in my gut. I hoped that I would just forget it all, and it would be all right, but I couldn't shake that stare or those eyes. I planned not to run into him again, but it wasn't like I could control whether that happened or not. But I could control where I went. I decided every time Emmalyn called me to go back to The Cove with her, I would refuse and give her a different excuse every time if need be.

The fourth time I denied her offer, she suggested that we could try another place. I even thought about not being so difficult and going out with her again. After all, what were the odds I would see that guy again? And even if I did, would it really be the end of the world? He couldn't be dangerous, if anything, he'd been amused at my embarrassed expression. But then decided it was best not to. I didn't want to test my anxiety any more than I had to. 

Emmalyn seemed to get annoyed with me saying no again, and this time hung up on me. I couldn't really blame her, though.

I preoccupied myself with different things all week, in hopes of trying to forget why that encounter seemed to bother me so much. There probably wasn't a real reason, I most likely only felt so embarrassed because he'd been so attractive. But every time I did try to forget, I remembered his eyes and it all went back to the same thing; my dreams and what they meant.

As a small child, I had always woken up crying in the middle of the night with my mother rushing in to comfort me. She would always have me tell her what the dream was about so that I could get it out of my system. But as I grew older, the dreams worse, and my parents more distant, nobody came running in to comfort me. I had to learn to lift myself up and hope that the next nightmare was far off.

Looking out the window, where the raindrops were splattering against the glass, flashes of the dream came back to me. I shut my eyes tightly, chanting in my head a rhyme to forget.

Forget the past, forget forever 

Don't dwell on dreams or all your endeavors 

Let go of your mem'ries, but don't look down

For someday soon you won't be around

I chanted it over and over, but the visions of my nightmares didn't leave. If anything, the rhyme made it worse. I held my head tightly, pressing my fingers into my head, pulling at my hair, desperately trying to forget. 

A crack of lightning forced my eyes open, and I knew the only other way to help get it out of my system, but no one was here to listen to me vent out my fears. Instead, I ran over to my desk and yanked out a pad of paper and a charcoal stick. Sitting on the bench next to the window, I looked desolately out the window as the flashes of memories came back to me.

In no time, I had drawn so many pictures they were all strayed out around the room. My hand moved feverishly, scribbling more than anything as I tried to get all of my dreams out onto the paper. My hand starting to cramp up, but I didn't stop. My eyes stung, and my head hurt, but I didn't stop. 

I dropped the stick of charcoal, raw from overuse, and clutched my head. I bent over in my seat and shut my eyes again. It worked. I didn't see anything anymore. No more dark alleys and rain falling. No eyes in the mist. 

Sitting back up, I sighed and looked at each individual picture, confused, angry. Why did I keep seeing things that I didn't want to see? I became angry, angry as to why none of this made any sense to me, why I couldn't figure this out. Why did these nightmares keep happening? I seemed to get them more than most other people. Perhaps I had night terrors and should see a sleep specialist. But something told me that a sleep specialist wouldn't be able to tell me why I saw the person who's been haunting my dreams for years in real life.

It was like my head didn't want me to piece this together. I picked a picture up and frowned at it, then crumpled it up. It landed across the room in a corner. I slammed my elbows down on the desk and rested my head into my hands again. A pounding headache was starting to form, and I used my index fingers to slowly massage it away.

---

It was raining, that was all I could decipher through the mist and the haze. Drops were pounding down on my naked body, and I felt utterly exposed. I couldn't see anything, there was no light, just emptiness, and darkness. It consumed me. 

The rain fell harder, and I could hear the drops falling from my wet hair. The cobbled road underneath my palms was ice cold, my fingers were frozen stiff. I tried to move them, but my bones creaked with the effort. 

Where was I? 

I stretched out my fingers before me and tried to crawl forward. A street lamp overhead came on, and my head snapped down, trying to shield my sensitive eyes from the burning light. I crouched close and hugged my knees to my chest as the rain mercilessly came down on me. I felt like crying and screaming, making any noise, to let out the pain and frustration that I was feeling. Would anyone hear me? Would anyone come to my rescue? I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. I filled my lungs with a deep breath, and let the sound rip its way out of my chest. I screamed over and over again until my voice started to crack and I felt light-headed. Slumping down, I let my chest heave as I gulped down lungfuls of air.

Flattening my hand against the cold cobblestones once more, I traced its shape. That was when the sound of scuffling shoes drew my attention. Peering out into the darkness, I couldn't see anything past the pounding of the rain. Like a ghost town, misty fog made its way onto the street, curling and twisting itself around everything it possibly could. Including me.

I frantically snapped my head from side to side to see if there was an escape; I found none.

The sudden silence that I now found myself in was startling. The rain sounded hollow as it landed on the ground, echoing as the drops broke apart with each hit.

Then an unusual sensation overcame me. I felt strange... as if something was off- not that it already wasn't. But it felt like something had just added itself to the picture I found myself in... but what was it? Trying to see through the impossibly thick mist, my body froze.

Staring back at me, through the mist, were two green eyes. The scream ripped out of me once more as I tried to get that gaze off of me. Snapping my eyes shut, I whimpered as I prayed for this to just be over.

Wake up... wake up... wake up!