Wake Me

Chapter Sixteen

Dani's eyes were full of tears while recalling the horrid memory of how she must've gotten stuck in her unreality. Jules, her best friend since kindergarten, was dead and it was all her fault. She listened to the serpent, and fell under his spell. She was no different from Eve, she thought; easily beguiled.

Hopeless, she dragged her backpack behind her as she walked toward to her mother's headstone. Her heart and mind were heavily laden with guilt and shame, knowing Jules's parents must've buried their daughter in the very grounds she walked upon. And yet, she couldn't build the nerve to seek out her best friends final resting spot in her unreality.

She stared at her mother's headstone, wishing she could wake from this blood-chilling nightmare. Her life was just beginning, she thought, knowing she'd just learned that Gunner loved her as much as she loved him. Her heart ached within her soul.

"Where are you, Gunner?" She pleaded in a haunting voice.

Her body slowly sank to the ground, her back scraping down her mother's headstone. She folded her arms around her legs, resting her forehead upon her knees. Without a care of who maybe watching, she began to sob. And it wasn't just any sob; a mournful, purposeful cry that filled the air around her. She cried so hard that her chest hurt. And her warm tears didn't help relieve her hot, sticky face.

"There, there." A calming voice broke through her pity-filled sobs. "The hardest part of falling is the landing."

"Go away!" She commanded, without raising her head.

"Well, there's much to do now. And from what I'm looking at, you haven't the slightest clue where to begin."

"I want to see Gunner."

"Ah, you have motivation. This is good."

She sniffled, wiping her nose on her sleeve, staring at the stranger sitting cross-legged in front of her, tugging at the grass with his strong fingers. "My best friend is dead and you're keeping me from Gunner. I don't trust you! I don't like you! I hate it here!"

He pouted, "I never said you had to be my friend. In fact, I make it a working policy to not have friends. They are...impractical and inevitable victims, as you have experienced."

"The thought of family must disgust you, as well. I mean, if we're being crass and heartless, right?"

He batted his pale blue eyes several times, "When you decide that you're ready to do something about your predicament, I will muster the strength in my cold, unfeeling heart to help you." He stood and was about to leave.

"Do you still have my locket?" She asked, recalling that she actually didn't get it back when the serpent tricked her before.

He held out his hand and the locket dangled in the air by the chain. "This isn't really here, you know that, right?"

"But, I gave it to you!"

"Look around you, Dani. None of this is real. When are you going to wake up?" He dropped the locket, but it vanished before hitting the ground.

"Fine!" She huffed, "HELP me wake up!"

His eyes bore through her, "Open your mind. Broaden your perspective. Leave this morbid existence. Do something other than walk the steps of death, feeling sorry for your demise."

"But, I tried leaving once. That's when I ran into...Satan."

He looked at her like she had punched him in the gut. "Satan?"