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Untitled Part 7

That smile...

That smile is so—so familiar.

It's so familiar.

That's right, his smile is only something I have ever seen in dreams.

He turned towards me, smile faltering as he looked at me closer. Gai seemed to panic as he started to back away but I grabbed his hand. Don't go.

Don't go.

My cheeks felt strained as I realized I was smiling. That's right, I am smiling because I am happy. I'm happy.

Salty tears tried to blind me, but I blinked them away as I kept him from leaving. From taking that familiar, so familiar, smile away. My voice was rough and sounded so different but I couldn't stop talking now. The sentence that flew out of my mouth felt so random but...it felt right.

"Have you ever had a dream where you seem to know someone for what seems like your entire life, but when you wake up. You realize they never existed?"

My voice hiccuped as I indulged in that little weakness shown. His eyes were wide as he continued to stare at me. There was a hint of hysterical relief as I distantly remembered that he's being too nice but perhaps this is just a dream.

A weird dream but a nice dream. It's okay if I tell Dream Gai this right? That he looks so familiar to somebody I know but don't know.

My head hurts now.

"You remind me of someone I saw in a dream, but you're real. You're real. You're real and not fake. Not fake, please don't be fake."

My breathing seemed to jump and speed up as I held tightly on to him. Don't leave, I don't want to wake up. My lungs hurt as tears started to prickle my eyes. Soft sobs trickled up my throat as I leaned into that warmth.

That soft warmth that promised safety and home.

He seemed odd as he started to try and coax me, calm me down from my hyperventilating. As though I were crazy but his eyes showed that he had no bad intentions.

"Don't think to hard..."

— #%&^%$ —

"Yes I'm real..."

— #%&^%$ —

"...my little songbird..."

— #%&^%$ —

Unintelligible words caught my attention. Turning to that warm presence questioningly, he was suddenly missing but I could still feel the lingering warmth of his hug. His absence surprised me as confusion and sadness was etched into heart.

Yet those words played over and over in my head as warmth filled my heart.

My little songbird.

Blackness encroached on my vision as my head throbbed. Dizzying blackness blurring the world as burning light burned but a blanket of darkness fell back over as my vision focused. This—this only happens when I'm waking up.

But this place was real? Right?

His voice throbbed in my head as the second voice overlapped his. Poisoning his words as the dark whisper hissed.

My little songbird. — #%&^%$ —

His voice overlapped with another voice. One dark and chilling, another voice that I knew so well.

I #%-hat-&^%$-ou! My litt—bir—

I-#-ha-t%-&-y-^%$-ou!—y—b—

That voice was ingrained into me, I knew who it was because it was mine. It was me who hissed out so venomously.

"I hate you."

Those words that echoed so deeply inside me. The voice that was so familiar, so warm, so much like home, faded away as it was drowned in my own voice. My chest trembled as I screamed, head hurting as salty tears burned.

"I hate you! I HATE YOU!!!!"

My head hurt. It hurt so much and...

...and shut up shutup shutupshutup...

Over and over I screamed. Shrieking and hoarse as my head roared and it HURT. Hate and anger filled my chest as that warmth melted away into a coldness. A deep coldness filled my chest as that warmth faded away into a deep chasm of blackness.

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up..."

A soft squeeze around my hand jolted me as I remembered that I was dreaming and I WOKE UP.

My heart clenched as my head jerked up. Sitting right beside me was my dog, she was sitting worriedly beside me. Softly whining as she licked me, sticky saliva messing up my hair. But...who squeezed my hand and woke me up?

Who?

A soft whisper brushed across my ear as a soft breeze. Soft and almost silent. His familiar voice warm as he chased away my nightmare.

"Don't think to hard, you'll hurt your head."

"Yes I'm real, I'm real because I'm right here my little songbird."