Broken Nightmare

Chapter 29

  I had a hard time focusing. I couldn't see. I felt detached from my own body, as if I was nothing but an observer.

My body lay limp on a rocky outcropping. Pine and fir trees huddled around the rocks I lay on. A thick blanket of snow covered the ground and accented the sharp lines of the rocks. Beyond that, a mirage of rocks and trees are displayed before me, white sprinkled around them.

What's happening? Why am I here?

A cold wind whipped through the woods and sliced through the branches like icy knives. I couldn't feel the cold. I was numb, dulled, trapped in my own body.

My mother. My mother was at the party. Yeah, that's right. She was hurt. Wait, but then she disappeared?

The bright full moon highlighted some shadows as I tried to make out my surroundings. A movement from feet away caught my attention and I swiveled my lead-filled head to look at it.

A young man's body sauntered toward me, but instead of a face, a disoriented beast sneered back at me. The hideous maw with sharp, knife-like teeth opened menacingly. Green and black eyes narrowed and focused on me while sharp teeth glared at me. His monstrous face was too clear, now too close. Its musty odor was lined with such a putrid stench; it churned my stomach. I tried to move my thoughts to something else, but when I did, I realized I recognized this creature.

It was Dimitri.

He glared at me with such hatred I wanted to crawl under a rock and stay there until the day I die.

My tongue felt numb, but I had to try something. "What are you doing?" My words came out slurred, but they were still understandable.

His wicked smile dissolved before he responded. "You killed my father. What do you think?"

Confusion settled over me. Gavin wasn't dead. "What are you talking about?"

Dimitri's sneer faded as his horrible face came even closer, "Don't even play with me! You're the reason he's dead, so I'm gonna get my revenge on your little buddy Nate," he yelled, spit landing just under my eye before he backed up a little. Not enough.

My mind yelled in disgust as my aching arm slowly moved up and I wiped his poisonous saliva from my face. "I'm not the one to get if you wanted to get back at Nathan." My mind drifted back to the party. My throat burned with oncoming tears as I replayed the event yet again. "He hates me." Nathan told me nobody got killed that day.

Dimitri closed in again and opened his mouth as if to say something, anger shining in his eyes. His wretched breath was stinging my eyes, so I closed them in protest.

An ear-splitting laugh penetrated the air. I peeled my left eye open in curiosity to see Dimitri's head yanked back, howling in laughter. "He still hasn't told you? Well, this is gonna be fun."

In a flash, he was in front of me reaching for my heart. He gripped the skin just below my neck and an excruciating pain ripped through my body, rushing down my limbs. Pain—so much pain.

Fear entered me and I flew my eyes open. Everything was sideways and blurry. I couldn't feel my body again and wished this would just end.

Dimitri's hand lost contact, but the pain didn't go with him. My veins burned along with my lungs and arms. I closed my eyes for a moment as the pressure in my head became too much.

"You wanna know why that hurts so much?"

I opened my eyes to see the bright full moon shining its light on us and I silently wished it was a spotlight coming to save me instead.