Forbidden Darkness (The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles, #1)

Four

After we finished eating and I showered, brushed my teeth, and threw on my pajamas, I went into my room to lie down, and within seconds I was out.

The dream began differently than any other dream I'd had before. This dream seemed more alive and more real, more dangerous than anything else I'd ever discovered.

I was sitting in a cave on a rock, and felt like I was supposed to be waiting for someone. Up above there was a hole, like some sort of opening to the outside world, and I felt trapped beneath the earth. There was so little light that was coming in and I wasn't really sure what I was doing there. I wanted to leave but knew that I couldn't. I was brought here for a reason, but I couldn't figure out why.

From behind me, a voice said, "You were able to be summoned this time. Very well."

I turned around and standing right behind me was a guy. The glimmer of flames that seemed to radiate off of his body was the only thing that allowed me to see him in the black. His voice was dark and he almost sounded like a man, but I realized he couldn't have been any older than me. His hair was shadowy and beautiful, not too long and not too short, just falling right before his bangs. His eyes—that was what I noticed the most because they were a silver gray and they flashed when they saw me. His skin was pale, almost like paper, but he couldn't have been any more attractive.

And that was when I knew I needed to fear him.

My heart began to race as I asked, "What do you want? Why am I here?" I couldn't let him know that I was afraid, because if I did, it'd be easier for him to take me down.

He smiled and the whitest teeth I had ever seen flashed before me. His smile was beautiful and seductive. "Those questions will be answered in time, Little Heather. But you're not so little anymore, are you?"

My insides felt as though they had been turned upside-down. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, you don't remember?" he asked and shook his head in sarcastic disappointment. "Some things never change with you."

"Excuse me?" I demanded. "Is this your way of trying to antagonize me? Because it's just pissing me off and that's probably not the best of ideas."

He held his hand against his heart and gasped. "Oh! It hurts so bad that I'm pissing you off!" He fell and pretended to have a heart attack on the floor.

This was getting old real fast. "Give it a rest. Can I at least be given a name?"

He stopped his fake heart attack and looked up at me, smiling. "My name is KAH-deen, spelled K-A-D-I-N. It's Arabic and it means companion, but companionship isn't really what I'm looking for right now. Not from you, anyway." He jumped off the floor and into the air, almost two feet high, and floated—yes, literally floated like a feather—back down to the ground. "Now, tell me, Heather. How's little Kristen been?"

If Kadin could have said anything to give me a heart attack of my own, that was surely it. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Wow, you have so many questions, too, just like your mother."

Oh my God, he heard our conversation earlier? But then I had to remind myself that this was a dream—but if it was a dream, would I be thinking it's a dream? "Who are you?" My astonishment must have been clear in my voice, because there was no holding back right now.

"Kadin," he said with a smirk.

"No shit, Sherlock. I mean...what are you?" It was a weird question, but this guy couldn't have been anything human, not in the least. He was beyond creepy, apparently all-seeing, and floated in the air.

If I did drugs, I would have sworn I was tripping out.

He shrugged and said, "You used to know when you were little. I guess age started getting to your head. And you never answered my question—how's Kristen doing?"

He knew. Just by the smug look in his eyes, I knew he knew what happened and I didn't want him to know. "She's doing fine, thank you. Now do me a favor and get out of my face, stop asking me a bunch of questions, and go to hell. What is this, Ask Heather Day?"

Kadin's eyes, I kid you not, flashed like fire, and his fingertips seemed to glow. He glared at me but smiled. "I can ask whatever I want. You see, this is my house, Heather, and everything I say goes. Do you understand that yet?"

This guy was really beginning to creep me out and this whole "I'm so much better than you, this is my house" act was so old right now. "No, I don't understand that. Can you stop talking to me like I'm five?"

His smile—oh God, I was hating that smile—twisted sideways. "Awww, you don't remember, do you?"

I really didn't know what to do it this point. Kadin wasn't like anyone or anything else. He was strange, dark, and exotic, and I knew that I should fear him. But knowing I should fear him and actually doing it are two different things, so I said, "No, I don't. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to wake up now."

That was when I saw real confusion, not the sarcastic kind, flash across his face. "You...really don't remember, do you?" He ran his fingers through his hair and said, "You can't wake up unless I want you to. I thought you'd remember that of all things."

"I don't know you," I replied. "You must have the wrong Heather."

He shook his head. "Something has happened. It's not meant to be like this. Why can't you remember?" At his fingertips, I watched in amazement as black vines curled around his fingertips, seemingly alive, and it seemed to be feeding off of him. It was something evil, but I couldn't pry my eyes away from it. It was too beautiful to look away from.

Kadin backed away from me and said, "I'll see you soon, Heather. This isn't over."

The ground beneath me began to shake and I stood up from the rock, fear coming over me as Kadin vanished from site. The walls around me were cracking and rocks began to fall from above. The cave was coming down on me and my only hope was gone.

"Help!" I screamed but there was no one there except for me.

As the rocks fell on top of me, I felt the pain, and I needed to get out.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't escape this, and Kadin left me here to die. Why? I wish I knew the answer. As I was knocked to the ground even more, by a rock falling right on my head—

I woke up. I nearly jumped out of bed, with sweat pouring down my face, and my heart rate was going a million miles per hour as I realized it was just a dream. My room was not a cave like I was afraid it would be, and my bed wasn't a pile of rocks.

"It was just a dream," I muttered.

My mom suddenly burst into my room and said, "Honey, are you okay?"

"Okay" wasn't the word I would have used to describe how I felt, but I nodded anyway. "Was I screaming?"

She sighed and wiped sweat from her forehead. Standing there in her robe, she replied with, "Yes, and I thought something was happening to you. You're okay, though, right?"

No. The dream felt way too real, but it couldn't have been. My creativity was really starting to get to me in my sleep as well. "No worries, mom, I'm fine. Go back to bed."

But as she left the room, I couldn't help but wonder if I really would be okay.