Deadly Night Shade

Chapter 4

Chapter four

When I woke up, my eyes were heavy and I had the weird sensation that something was missing. I looked myself over, once, twice. Nothing. I sat up, my joints stiff after the long night but, still nothing. I looked up at Shadow, then a sudden flood of realization took over me, there was no pain.

I looked down at my side and lifted my shirt a little to reveal a large pinkish scar. It went through my side and came out the other end, as if something had been stabbed through it, but no, it couldn’t be… my dream. I shook my head hastily and dismissed the thought.

I stared at the scar. It was in the exactly the right place to be the stab mark, and it was the same shape too. My gaze went up to Shadow, "What happened to me" my voice slightly shaky and uncertain. He looked at me with a simple, yet concerned stare, "You had a nightmare." I stared blankly at him, "yes, but how does that explain this," I gestured at my scar.

"Like I said, you had a nightmare." his voice made me slightly scared, as if I had missed the "big picture," that the answer was so obvious, that it were as if it was a giant pink sign yelling "I AM THE ANSWER," but I still could not see it. I asked once more, "What happened to me."

He stood up walked over to me and sat right beside me. He put his arm around my shoulders and explained. "Claire, you are not like other humans, you are created of the darkness rather than the light." I looked at him, stared into his eyes, "I know. I have always known." he stared back. "to you the darkness is more true and more real than normal people can perceive, you can see the life in shadows and feel the warmth of the dark, and when you close your eyes, the world in your head is alive." I lay my head gently on his shoulder and listened, hanging on to every word. "there is no light in the human mind so it is a place for the people to be whoever they want to be, it is a place where darkness is free and people  can create whole worlds, but since your mind is already filled with this darkness, the power of your dreams is almost real."

I looked at him in disbelief. "What do you mean almost?"

He pinned me down with his kind stare. "It means that things that happen in your dreams will happen in real life. The people from your dreams will stay in your dreams, but they are equally as deadly as they would be in the true world." My thoughts turned to the one thing that was troubling me at the moment. "What happens if I die in my dreams?" He turned to me with a grim look on his face. "You die in reality."

A tear went slowly down my cheek. "How did I survive being stabbed?" Shadow put his arm tighter around my shoulders, "the darkness can heal you, but it cannot resurrect you." I looked at him directly. "How?"

He thought for a moment, pondering how to say something, opening his mouth a few times then shaking his head and closing it again. He looked altogether confused. "It just does." he smiled, proud of his answer, like a seven year old.

I smiled softly and rested my head gently on his lap. I closed my eyes and almost fell asleep. But before I did I heard Shadows soft voice saying "sweet dreams."

***

The snow blanketed the landscape, and I felt a terrible sense of de ja vu. I felt at my hip and the reassuring feel of the snake-grip of my sword comforted me. I swung around, and as I did the skirt of a beautiful, silken black dress pin-wheeled around me. I had no idea why I was wearing a light spaghetti-strapped dress in the middle of the snow, it seemed impractical, but evidently I was.

I saw the boulder, on which Jason was sitting last night, and the red stain of blood was still colouring the snow at its foot, but there was no Jason.

I heard soft breathing, I looked left and right, but there was still nothing there. I got momentarily frantic because I knew that something was about to happen, something bad. Then I saw him.