Into The Dream Scape

Part7: Dusty Doors

      Nate's POV

    I certainly am looking forward to Zoe graduating, she'll be able to actually start her business. I look down at my watch, it's hard to read in the dark, but I make out the hands and directions, looks to be about 3:45 in the morning. I look up at the sky, taking in every last speck of light. I look back in front of me and keep walking, i forget about everything, I take in the silence, the thing crushing thoughts into my head that I have to keep forcing away right now. I keep walking. The chilly wind slaps against my face, nearly knocking my over, I snap from my reverie, looking around, it look like I've made it onto one of the hiking trails near campus. I keep going, I glance at my watch again, 4 AM. Not much time has passed, but it feels like I've been up for an eternity. I can't quite put my finger on what is bothering me, but I keep going back to the conversation I had with Venus the previous day. I stop, finding a good tall tree, and though it cause me a lot of pain, I climb. As high as I can, I can see out of the top, and I sit down on a sturdy enough branch, lodging my cane in next to me for when I get down. I let the thoughts consume me. Their hungry, dark voices, filling my ears and head to the brim. It isn't an uncommon thing for me to do.

    I wait, eventually they die down and I stare as the sun starts bring light over the mountain. I feel tied down, even though all my limbs are free. I let my emotions go, I don't need to be crying when I show up at Zoe's graduation. The air freezes, and so my vision, stuck on him, he's right there. I can't move, I can't breathe. And when I see something else, it is no longer the sunrise, but four, dark, damp, dingy walls. A window blacked out with 2x4 planks of wood that you'd find at a home remodeling store. The lighting is from an old broken chandelier, hanging by a chain that's rusted and bound to break at the moment it's touched. It is turned off. I hear shuffling and I stand up, only to reach for my cane, which isn't there. I land a hand on the wall for support, it's disgusting, it feels covered in years of neglect and dust. The door open from behind me, and light fills the room. I can make out a bed, dresser, closet, rug, table, and a cedar chest. 

    The cedar chest stood out from everything, I recognized the smell within the mustiness when I first woke up, but now I know why it was there. It was in pristine condition despite it's obvious age.  The finished wood had a red tint. A large, silver, lock held the lid down and in place. I look back over at the door as Venus walks in, of course, it's him. He's the only one who's do this. and today of all days. I look down to see my watch, and it's gone. He's holding it in his hand. I look at my wrist again, and further along my body to find my shirt and joggers gone. I stand only in my underwear. Looking around the room I find them stacked and folded neatly on the bed. 

"I washed them for you." He says, my eyes and head snapped back towards him.

    I hurriedly go to put them back on, the bed not being that far away from me, but I'm forced onto the floor, which compared to everything else except the cedar chest, it clean along with the soft, fluffy, baby blue rug I'm forced onto. I'm turned to face him, my back to the floor. My eyes grow wide as memories I had long blocked off flooded into my mind, I began to feel my chest tighten, my vision is blurry and I can hear is the pounding in my chest and Venus's voice, but it's jumbled, everything is jumbled, and he lets go. I scramble to my feet and back away from him, after a few minutes, my vision and hearing clear. He looks hurt, in a way. H

    He takes a few steps forward, speaking a manner of sorrow and frustration: "You're not supposed to freak out. It's against the rules!" Before I can figure out what's going on, and what's going to happen, I feel the weight against my body again, I feel the pressure of someone against me. I feel the pain shoot through my skull as it hits the metal bed post, and it's over, I hear the door slam. I feel the thick, wet, sticky substance run from where my head was thrust upon the metal. I take my shirt and rip it into long strips, better to keep it clean as much as possible than wear a shirt and get an infection. I press one of the strips against the bleeding wound, and attempt to find a way of having light. I find a small lamp that's plugged in and has a bulb in it, I find the switch and turn it on.
    It's not quite as dingy as I thought. I run a hand along the wall, taking off some of the dust and seeing the floralish pattern in white and blue on a pale pastel blush pink. Like something you'd see on a female teen blouse. The trim was in the same blue as the stem and leaves of the small flowers. I grabbed a blanket off the bed and started to work at tearring it apart to make a shirt and some rags to clean the room a bit. I've no perception of time right now, but I manage to find a way to get through an edge of the wood, it seems like it is day light outside, in the middle of the woods.  Great.
    It seems like it's been an eternity, and the thin, tall door creaks open again.