Dragonfly

Chapter Four

When I awoke, I felt refreshed as I sat up and yawned before noticing that Lewis had fallen asleep beside me. Carefully, I crawled out of bed beside him, feeling cautious not to wake him as I felt a sharp prickle grow in both of my shoulder blades along with a cold trickle that ran down my back and spine. Slowly, I approached the mirror and turned my back to glance over my shoulder.

There, I saw that the white hospital gown was soaked in blood and swiftly, I glanced to Lewis, hoping that it wasn’t his blood that my gown was soaked in. Once I was certain that Lewis was okay, I lifted the gown over my head and saw what looked to be, two small black thorns poking out of the skin of my shoulder blades.

What the hell? I thought as I carefully reached over my shoulder and touched the thorns causing a sharp pain to shoot up my spine and spread through my back. Ouch! Damn it, Riley! Be more damn careful! My mind screamed as I quickly rushed for some bandages to cover them so that Lewis wouldn’t see. Silently, I hoped that if I ignored them, they would go away though a part of me doubted that they would.

Carefully, I tiptoed out of the room and hid my gown under the drawers in the study before I replaced it for a dark purple, silk nightgown that was far more comfortable. I had always been grateful to my next door neighbour for giving them to me because they were far easier for me to sleep in rather than anything else. The silk felt smooth and soft as it caressed my naked skin with each movement I made as I returned to my bedroom and crept towards the bed.

Don’t wake up… don’t wake up… oh! Please! Don’t wake up… I thought as I carefully crawled on the bed and as Lewis began to stir, my thoughts became far more erratic, Oh! Geez! Don’t wake up! Don’t wake up! Please don’t wake up! My mind screamed.

But then, strangely enough, instead of Lewis awakening. I awoke to find myself alone in the bed, still dressed in the hospital gown I was certain that I had just removed after seeing it covered in blood. Carefully, I lifted my hand to my shoulders and felt no lumps, nothing out of the ordinary. I hesitated for a moment before I slowly stood up and approached the mirror, and leant closer as a cool breeze brushed against my skin.

It had all felt so real but it was obvious that it had all just been a dream. Though I couldn’t wrap my mind around how I had felt the pain, the touch of the silk material, the warmth of Lewis’s body. None of it made sense. Nothing seemed to make sense.

I leant forward and saw yet another white streak had appeared in my dark blond hair and just as I had done with every white streak I had seen, I sighed.

Don’t get me wrong, when I saw the first white streak appear in my hair, I freaked out! I did more than freak out! But that’s a different story...

Twenty-one years old and my hair is turning white… my thoughts paused for a moment as I noticed something in the mirror. I leant further forward and lifted my hair to reveal my ear and the slight point that appeared to have started forming. So apparently, my body decided it was time that I became an elf… again, there was a pause in my thoughts as I sighed for a second time, I guess now is as good as any to start learning Tolkien’s Sindarin. At least it will suit the whole elven look my body has decided to have going on…

I covered my ears with my hair, now a mixture of dark blond and white. It was one hell of a combination at the time and I was beginning to think that perhaps Lewis was playing some form of prank on me. Maybe, just maybe he was dying my hair whilst I was asleep. I could only hope.

Hope is one of the few things we have in this world. Something we always cling onto, right? Well I don’t know about you, but hope is all I have and I will always cling onto it. I have hope for many things, some of those things I will most probably share with you.