𝐒𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ ; sʜᴀᴅᴇᴅ ʀᴇᴅ

"Sweet dreams are made of this." 

Her voice rebounded in Tempest's head, calming her mind. Her eyelids began to close over her strange ice-blue eyes, darkness meeting her in silence as the hand lifted from her shoulder. Tempest didn't dare open her eyes again once the door creaked shut, not wanting to see the shadows reach out with their spidery hands toward her. It happened every day and night and it never changed; neither did the temptation to look.

And it was forcing her eyelids open. Tempest couldn't resist. They shot open and she awoke in a dark place, a faint light glowing over her head. She had woken up here for the past week and the fourteen-year-old was scared to think what it meant. It was like she was lucidly dreaming. The darkness was like a silky curtain that blocked Tempest's path... but she could see so many things happen here.

It was creepy, creeping, but it was also magical, strange and her freedom from the real shadows that plagued her house, one of the only places that she had ever seen. Tempest wandered what she would see tonight. Abuse? Death? A kidnaping? Anything she saw here meant something important; she could feel it, like she was drawn to them. The loud bang! of a gun enchanted the strange girl. She twisted swiftly, her ice-blue eyes wideneing as she laid eyes on another teenager aiming a gun into the distance.

Kayla.

The gun released another bullet and a small puff of smoke erupted from the tip. What was she doing? Tempest slowly crept toward her in the darkness, the sleeves of her camo-green jumper pulled over her finger tips. As she neared, the triger was pulled once again, forcing Tempest to jump out of her pale skin. Another bang. She scrunched her eyes up tightly until she felt a sudden cold wave of shock fall over her.

When she opened her icy eyes, she was back in her room, Kayla's hand on her shoulder, the last place her mother had touched. Tempest lifted her head slowly from her pillow, noticing that the curtains where drawn against the blinding, yellow sunlight. Kayla's soft hand slithered away from her, sliding against her side.

"You okay? They said you were sweating," Kayla said, speaking in a soft, hushed voice. "And muttering." The door stood ajar, a sneaky eye peering around the side of the white door. It hardly matched Tempest's dark grey room.

"I'm fine. But-"

"You had another?..." 

"Black Vision." Tempest finished it off quietly, sitting up. She'd felt it coming before she'd fallen asleep, that's why she'd forced her mum to sing her that song... Sweet Dreams. It allowed her to enter her awaiting Black Vision.

Kayla stepped back as Tempest hoisted herself out of the bed, pulling down the sleeves on the jumper she'd been wearing, even in the Black Vision. Kayla was wearing the same thing as she had been in the dream; grey track-pants and a red jacket with a grey shirt underneath. Tempest didn't dare meet her friend's leaf-green eyes but instead scrambled to her bare feet and stalked past her silently toward the door. She inched it open and barged past it, Kayla following curiously behind her.

She winded through her house, mute, trying to avoid the distracting rays of afternoon sunlight bursting through the open windows. Tempest finally arrived at the front door and reached out toward the handle, although Kayla's hand darted forward and snatched her friend's wrist.

"What are you doing?" she demanded in a whisper, twisting the pale girl to face her. Tempest blew her dark brown hair out of her eyes before responding.

"Get off." Tempest shook her off roughly, her lip curled into a snarl. She burst through to door into the chilling breeze. It was the early stages of winter, meaning snow had not yet fallen. Tempest rearely went outside. It wasn't that she chose not to, she couldn't. She was forbidden. She went out, anyway. Who needed those stupid rules?

"Tempest! What are you doing? Get back inside!" Kayla barked, rushing forward to yank her up the three steps and into the safety of the house. "If someone sees you out here, they'll-"

"What? Throw me in an asylum? Come on, Kayla, you don't believe that's what actually happens, do you?"

Tempest let a hand slide over her lightly freckled face to force her hair behind her ear. She didn't care if she was forbidden to step outside her doors. She didn't care what her mum told her about her wicked appearance. She didn't care about the fairytales her mother used to tell her about the odd ones out getting carried off to asylums until they went crazy and soon perished with the rest of their kind. Tempest was sure that rarely happened. Besides, she wasn't that different, was she? Well, she had pale skin, which was never a good sign and blood sometimes leaked from her nostril and the odd thing about it was that she could never wipe it away.

No. It stayed until it was ready to just get smeared away. 'It wasn't normal,' her mother had told her countless times and countless times she had obeyed the rules. She was sick of that rule. Stay inside the boundaries and don't leave the house. Don't do this, don't do that. Tempest unstood That her parents just wanted to protect her, but it never made her happy. Couldn't she just see her little town... once? Couldn't Kayla just give her a tour? Then she'd be happy and stop complaining all together.

But a tug on her sleeve brought her back to Earth. Kayla was staring at her angrily, her long red-brown hair blowing across her freckled cheek. Her eyes softened to a pleading look, as if she didn't want to watch Tempest see the town and cringe as the strange girl got hurt. But all Tempest wanted to do was explore and find out more about her Black Visions. Maybe someone out there could help her understand them.

"Kayla, I have to go. Don't you understand? If we just stick to the shadows and alleyways-"

"No! I'm sick of this crap! Recently, all you've wanted to do is cause trouble for your family and me! How do you think Reed would feel if he knew about all this?" Kayla interrupted roughly, her voice crackling.

"Please Kayla, it'll only be for a little! And since when was Reed involved in this? We haven't talked about him in weeks!"

Kayla glanced back at the open door of the house, releasing a loud breath. She rolled her eyes and let go of her companion's sleeve, softly closing the door before ushering Tempest on toward the shadows of buildings. Excitement burst inside Tempest's chest, finally! A chance to see what everyone else got to walk through every day, unprepared for a strange girl like Tempest to approach them. Kayla plucked her hand and dragged her along, the strangest of the two giggling quietly. 

That's when a warm, trickling sensation filled the left side of Tempest's nose. The girl paled, pulling back against Kayla's hand as blood began to drip from her nose. Great, just great. Kayla's eyes filled with fear as the two fled down an alleyway, sticking right against the buliding despite the trash cans and rubbish that floated around.

"Okay, okay, um... I just have to remember what your mother taught me," Kayla whispered, begining to pace as Tempest kept a hand against the darkly shaded red blood pouring from her nose. "Just, get on the ground before you - oh crap!"

Tempest's eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body trembled tremendously before her legs gave way and she stumbled slowly to the ground, unconscious and unaware of everything as her shoulder grazed the unforgiving concrete.

She forgot about the part where could potentially die.