Nightmare

The Beginning

Everything seems so foggy and distant, like a disconnection from reality. "Don't come any closer or I'll shoot!" a rough low voice growls. I feel them pull me by the waist closer to them followed by the cold placement of a gun resting on my temple. I try to run but my body doesn't let me, it refuses to move a muscle. I try to shout but no words come to mind. No words leave my mouth. Not a sound. I look up and my vision clears for a moment letting me see the person who has the gun on my head. Bright green eyes, brown curly hair, and freckles splattered across his face, Ash? My vision blurs as fast as it cleared but I know that kid's face from anywhere. I mean, he's my best friend after all. He's emerald green eyes that were once hopeful and heart-felt are cold and harsh. What happened to him for him to change like this? Questions flood my mind drowning out any outside noises. I try to close my eyes but, I can't. I feel like I'm fading, falling out of the universe.

Darkness.

I open my eyes in a panic as my breathing loses control. Looking around I see a familiar setting. Not daring to blink from fear that it will disappear I start walking around. Trying to retrieve a distance memory, just out of reach. A wave of realization hits me. My bedroom. Memories all attack me at once.

Emma, my older sister runs into my room her blonde hair in a tight braid flowing behind her."Amber! There you are!" She rushes over to me picking me up off of my bed hugging me. I smile and look up at her, her bright blue eyes sparkling screaming the words, I love you. She tucks my brown curl behind my ear and smiles looking down at me, "I love you" she says with no hesitation, full of honesty.

"I love you too"

I was about 6 in that one, Emma 13. She just got back from her trip to Florida. She was gone for a whole month.

The feeling of sadness takes over my body. Shaking me, screaming at me, attacking me. I'm not crying if anything I seem emotionless. If only they knew, not that anyone is with me. My parents...I miss them already...How could they leave me like that?

They left me alone...

"You're not alone." I hear a soft low voice gently say behind me followed by a light touch on my shoulder. Emma. She sits down beside me and I lean in to her as she wraps her arm around me, pulling me in. I start to sob yet I find comfort in her arms. I feel protected.

When I was 11 after my parents died.

"This is stupid" I mumble scribbling onto my paper. Math homework.

"You have to do your homework Amber," Emma says sternly yet gently with a hint of a laugh.

"Ugh." I look up at her and smile, "Can I at least take a break? I've been doing homework for the past two hours! My brain is about to explode!" I say pleading. "Please" I beg and look at her with puppy dog eyes.

Emma smiles too and breaks into a laugh, "Alright. How does ice cream sound?"

"Perfect!" I jump out of bed and sprint out my room and straight to the freezer.

13.

"Hey, Emma!" I yell trying to get her attention.

"What?" She yells back from down the hallway.

"Could you bring me my charger! I left it in the living room!" I shout already knowing her answer, no.

"No, you didn't!" She yells back and I hear footsteps getting louder and louder by the second, walking to my room. "What are you up to?" Emma asks looking at me suspiciously as she leans in the doorway.

"Nothing" I smile sweetly at her.

"Somehow, I don't believe that.." She walks closer to me cautiously, each step slower than the last.

Once she reaches halfway to me a skeleton swings out from my closet and attacks her knocking her off her feet and onto my bed. Instead of screaming as I expected, she's laughing. Her blue eyes barely open as she laughs. I join in not even knowing. Soon, in a matter of seconds, I'm on the ground in a fit of laughter. Her laugh is contagious and that's one of the things I love about her. She can make anyone laugh, because her laugh is a weird hiccup. She has the type of laugh that is funnier than the joke but, funny is funny.

Yesterday. I'm 16 years old now.

My bedroom.

I slowly walk back towards my bed and climb in pulling the covers over me. I look over at my clock checking the time, 3:32am. Great. Suddenly the dream comes back to me, start to finish. The cold feeling of the gun to my temple. Chills run throughout my body, more specifically down my spine. I tightly shut my eyes as if to turn off my brain. It didn't work, shocker. Stupid brain. Somehow, after re-living the dream what seems like five thousand times I drift off to sleep. A peaceful sleep? No. A bone-chilling nightmare that I have yet to remember.

I wake up to the smell of pancakes. Still half asleep I trail out of my room and down the hallway into the kitchen following the smell, my nose as my guide. There I see Emma, her silky blonde hair tied back in a high ponytail working away at the stove. Pancakes are the only food she can make, everything else comes out so burnt it looks and tastes like coal. She has a skill for burning anything that isn't a pancake.

"I see you're making your famous pancakes," I say leaning against the wall.

"As always" She turns around and places a plate with two huge pancakes on top. Yum.

I walk over to our cabinet and grab one of the many bottles of maple syrup and pour it on top of the pancakes. "Thank you," I say looking up at her flashing a smile before I start to eat them.Soon, after getting ready for school I walk out the door yelling "GOODBYE I'M LEAVING" to Emma. I start walking to school. The nightmare still lingers in the back of my mind fighting for attention to be remembered. Chills send throughout my body. The gun.

-Author's note-

If you got this far thank you so much for reading and giving this story a chance! Please vote if you enjoyed and comment about the story, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Also do you like these little notes at the end or would you rather be not do them at all?