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CHAPTER 1 A WALK THROUGH DEATH
I was dreaming about her again. It was always the same and never changed but I could never quite remember until I woke up. But something felt different this time. I felt myself slipping deeper into sleep and then I forgot everything.
*****
I blinked, trying to force my eyes to work. They blurred as if I were seeing through oil.Where am I?
Cold grass tickled the bottom of my feet and I found myself on a grey plain. Sparse patches specked the landscape, giving variety to an otherwise monotone field. In some areas it appeared like a giant wheat field had been left untended for years. I shivered and not from the cold.
What is the last thing you do in a creepy place? Explore. But my next thought was, “You should look around.” Dumb, I know. What can I say? I’m cursed.
I craned my neck, not able to discern any difference in the landscape in any direction. The air drifted, flat and tasteless. A fine mist hung over the ground leeching everything of color.
Everything appeared colorless, a transparent skeleton of its former self.
Had I been here before? That had to be impossible because here was nowhere. Plus, I was dreaming.
Moments ago, I’d been having a deliciously up close and personal encounter with the crush-of-my-life in the school’s parking lot. Swoon. And a moment like that had never happened in real life. Never. I almost smiled at the thought of it. Therefore, this was definitely a dream. I was not that lucky. Perhaps if I wandered around this place long enough, my subconscious might do me a favor and switch dreams again.
Sighing at the change in venue and picking a direction, I started walking. Since I didn’t really know where I was going, it didn’t matter which way I went. I half-expected a rabbit in a waistcoat with a pocket watch to jump across my path.
Abruptly a section of the mist darkened, giving way to an outline smudged by the fog. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to approach it, but there was nothing else around. There didn’t seem to be any harm in it. As I walked closer, the shape began to form a silhouette.
I was ten feet away, wondering what was going to happen next, when it spoke.
“Lexi.”
I gulped, choking on a gasp. I knew that voice and would have recognized it anywhere. It brought back a rush of emotions I thought I had safely buried.
“Mom?” I asked, incredulous. “But, how…” The question died on my lips as my past resurrected with a vengeance.
“Hi, honey,” Mom said.
It may have been four years but she looked exactly as I remembered. Her rich brown hair was gently swept over one shoulder just as it had been for my entire childhood. She wore a long, plain dress with sleeves that stopped at her wrists. Her ankles peeked out from under the gown. Her warm brown eyes sought mine and I had to look away to prevent emotions from pouring out my eyes.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she said.
I looked to her again, worried that the fog would reclaim her.
“I’ve really missed you, Mom,” I whispered, my voice cracking slightly on the last word.
A sad smile ghosted over her face. Her eyes brimmed with tears.
“I’ve missed you, too, hon,” she said.
Who cared if this was just a dream or not? Seeing my mom again, even in a dream, was like finding water in the Sahara.
YOU ARE READING
Wake Not the Dead
Novela JuvenilAside from the death of her mother four years ago, Lexi Black’s life has been routinely normal. All she wanted was to survive high school and get Dirk to notice her. Ordinary dreams for an ordinary girl. But after being plagued with mysterious black...