Lost Souls

45

Christopher was running. He was being chased, but he had no idea as to what was crashing through the forest behind him. All he knew was that his legs were burning, his head throbbed, and he was having difficulty breathing.

    Pushing branches out of his way, he broke through the dense woodland, and desperately tried to stay upright as his feet slipped and slid across wet moss covered stones, as he tried to blot out the snarling and loud gnashing of teeth he could hear growing ever closer from behind.

    He winced as a thorn ripped across his cheek, barely missing his eye, then he cursed loudly as his head connected with a low branch he’d been certain he could avoid hitting.

    He could feel the beast behind him now. Hot, foul stinking breath, like a sewer, filled his nose and burned against his sweat covered skin.

    This was it. Christopher knew he would soon be ripped to pieces.

    Somehow, this came as a relief. He could stop running, he could try and take in some of the clear, cool, refreshing country air, and he could allow his battered exhausted body a brief interlude of calm before he met death.

    Any such thoughts were shattered when a hard blow landed across the bridge of his nose, and as he screamed, he realised that he wasn’t in a forest, nor was he confronting a mysterious beast. He was lying on the floor of the study at Dovecot Manor, heavily wrapped in covers, sweating from the heat of the log fire, and with Katie’s outstretched arm resting across his face.

    Christopher let out a long sigh of relief, and sniggered to himself. He couldn’t begin to explain just how happy he felt to have been bashed by Katie, than the monster in his nightmare.

    Gently, he lifted Katie’s arm, and placed it across her chest. She was sleeping deeply, but mumbling  incoherently as she did so. Christopher sat up, and moved even closer to the couch, trying to make out the odd word, or if he was lucky, a sentence or two. He wondered if she was having the same dream he’d just had, and if so, what did it mean?

    As he bent over her face, Katie’s breathe tickled his ear, and he shrugged to scratch himself. His shoulder accidentally bumped Katie’s nose, and she woke with a start.

    Katie sat up quickly, causing both their heads to clash loudly in the glow of the fireside, and the pair groaned as they separated to rub their brows.

    “What the heck were you doing Christopher?” Katie asked, as she rubbed tears of pain from her eyes.

    “I’m so sorry Katie. I was trying to hear what you were muttering. I thought maybe you were dreaming, and I’d just woken up from a nightmare. I wanted to try and hear if you were having the same dream.”

    “You could have just woke me up and asked me.”

    Christopher shook his head furiously. “No. That’s supposed to be dangerous,” he replied worriedly.

    Katie smiled at him. “Where the heck did you hear that?”

    “I think it was on the Discovery Channel,” Christopher shrugged. “Maybe I read it somewhere though?”

    “More like you made it up,” Katie teased, the pain in her head retreating slowly.

    “Maybe,” Christopher agreed. “Anyway, what were you dreaming about?”

    Katie turned towards him and lifted herself up onto her arm so that she was leaning on her side and only inches from his face. “Jimmy,” she whispered, as if he was in the room with them.