BAILE (Where We Come Home)

Chapter 12 Lucid Dreaming

"Don't eat that." I stopped Sir Walter just in time from eating one of my printed photos. He meowed angrily at me, leaping off the bed to start traipsing around my room in a fuss.

I stuck in my photos in the spaces I had left, turning the page to the one where I had written about the Fairy Pools. I shut the journal to stop the images of Eliza flooding back.

I lay down on my bed, my attention drifting to the stars out the window.

Sir Walter jumped up onto my bed, his purring a sign that I was forgiven for scolding him. I moved over to my window looking up at the trillions of stars dotting the sky in the blanket of darkness.

I heard raised voices from downstairs. Sir Walter leapt off the bed and padded to my door, I followed him. I opened the door slowly, looking out to hear my parents having a heated conversation.

"-How dare you take them there. What were you thinking?" My mother failed at keeping her voice down.

"Water cleanses."

"Water cleanses. They could have died."

I stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down.

"You know what your mother said, if you keep making them hide they could die anyway." My father lowered his voice so I edged my way down a few steps to hear more clearly.

"The longer they hide the less people die."

"But there are plenty of families-"

"-Enough, we're not talking about this. Especially while they're here."

I hurried back up to my room, closing my door softly before flicking off the light. I curled into bed facing my window, Sir Walter by my side. Who needed a hot water bottle when you had a cat? I closed my eyes, letting Sir Walter's purring lull me to sleep.

I opened my eyes, sitting up to find myself resting upon a piece of driftwood floating on the sea. It was still night, the sea reflecting the stars above. The sound of a violin caught my attention. I floated towards the land, seeing a woman with hair down to her feet playing the violin, her face shrouded in the darkness of her inky hair. The melody she played raised goosebumps along my skin and made the waters quake beneath me. It spoke of sorrow and pain and made my heart squeeze with anguish.

'People die anyway.' The woman spoke in a haunting voice.

Slippery hands wrapped around my right ankle and I cried out as it tried to pull me off the driftwood. Its hands were blue with elongated fingers. I screamed as more hands shot out of the water, grasping at my skin.

The woman screamed so loud the world shook; I felt my mind shatter as the blue creatures dragged me down into the black abyss.

I sat up with a start, the blood rushing from my head because of the fast movement. I saw a dark figure in the corner of my eye and I screamed, thinking it was the longhaired woman from my dream. But it was Eliza.

"I thought you were someone else." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're wet."

I looked down at myself to see my clothes and sheets were drenched. I sniffed my shirt; it reeked of salt and brine.

"I did see you in the pools." Eliza cautiously made her way towards me. "Your eyes, the right was gold and the left was blue."

"It doesn't make sense, you never get nightmares."

She looked away. "I always have."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Mum wouldn't let me."