And Then You Found Me

Warmth

It was dark, my eyelids heavy, my limbs like lead. I could feel my chest rising and falling softly.

'Where am i?' I tried to open my eyes, the lids squeezing as my finger twitched. I felt the muscle in my shoulder spaz from my attempts to move.

A warm was suddenly wrapped around me as a voice made shushing sounds in my ears. "Go back to sleep."

'Sleep? Sleep sounds nice.' I relaxed against the body that held me as I began to sway as though I was on a boat. I was warm, so warm.

Flashes of lightning had me twitching and my head jerked at the image of a tree. With rapid breaths my eyes flew open to an open meadow.

Soft, green grass tickled my skin as the sun lightly shinned down on me to be my blanket. A butterfly sat on my nose as ants lightly marched across my hand.

'Nick? Nick!'

'Emily?' I rolled over slightly to see Emily running towards me. Her long, blonde hair bounced with each step as she grinned at me. Her chocolate brown eyes seemed to melt in the sun as she looked down at me, "its lunch time. What are you doing all the way out here?"

'What does she mean? Am I not always out here? But where is here?' My mouth moved but no sound escaped making her giggle, "what, cat got your tongue? If you keep gapping like that old man Myers may mistake you for a catfish."

The butterfly took flight then and covered my eyes long enough for a gun shot to sound out.

I swatted the butterfly away as a warm liquid splattered against my cheek. My eyes widened at the hole in Emily's chest. The tears in her eyes hardly had time to escape before the life left her.

"Emily!" I reached out for her to only be blinded by the dark wings of the butterfly once more.

With quick movements, I shot up to find myself inside a building. The funeral house.

Shadows of people, drenched in black whispered lies beneath their breaths like knives in their sleeves.

'Poor thing'
'I hear she had it coming'
'She was seem in the woods at night, making such an awful racket I heard.'
'Hush hush, her brother may hear you.'
'What do I care, he'll no doubt follow.'

I covered my ears. I didn't want to hear them slander her name as though she was a common crook.

I shut my eyes as their whispers seemed to encircle me. Then silence.

Slowly I pried my eyes open as my fingers released my ears from their death grips.

I sat in a meadow, the sunbeams strong as it gave a yellow tinted haze to everything it touched. It was blurry though. I rubbed my eyes to try and see but it proved to be fruitless.

An arm encircled my abdomen as the voice began shushing again, "Again. Try to sleep again." The blanket was pulled further up on me as I leaned back and closed my eyes.

They opened to me sitting in my home. Birds chirped outside the old window with the ragged, green, plaid curtains. A soft breeze fluttered through to caress my cheek.

It was dark as I looked around our kitchen. Shadows creped behind every crevice and seemed to shade my world.

A quiet thumping sound seemed to echo from outside. Like that of a hatchet cutting wood.

"Dad?" My voice glided through the kitchen before collapsing into a hush in the hallway that echoed back at me like a taunt.

The scrape of my chair was like a hiss that crawled under my skin. I felt in that moment like a little kid looking at their dark closet and wondering when the monster would grab them.

One step. Two step. Three step. Each step was heavier than the last with a scream each as the wood strained to hold me. Shadows crept along the walls with forms impossibly larger than my own and claws that swiped at my feet. 

At the end of the hall the sound grew ever louder as the light of day leaked from the bottom of an old door. Slowly I turned the cold, iron knob and opened it to the sound of a riot. People screamed and threw what rotten food they possessed at the person of the platform.

'No.'  One after another I shoved the shadows away to only be greeted by the steady 'thump, thump, thump,' of my father's head rolling to my feet. His eyes were empty of life as blood pooled around matted brown hair. A hand on my shoulder had me turning sharply back to the meadow.

I took deep breaths as sweat began to pour from my brow. A light squeeze of my fingers had my head turning to only be stopped. A hand covered my eyes and pulled my head back gently as the blankets was pulled further on me. "Just once more. For me?" The voice whispered tenderly and I gulped before nodding. The hand pulled away to reveal the meadow once again. I stood in the center and to my left was a great oak. It's trunk was two men wide and it's canopy towered above me at an impossible height.

"I remember this oak." Slowly I approached and placed my hand on the rough bark, the same place my mother once had when she brought me here. She loved this oak, had ever since she was little.

My moment of peace was shattered at a women's scream from the other side. I rushed past it and found my limbs bound together. Shadows formed a barrier on all sides of the carriage I sat in that bumped along the road, their faces set in anger and snears. 'What's going on?' A strip of cloth gagged my tongue of any words that may have saved me as they tied me to a cross. Dry hay and twigs were placed as a cushioning for my feet but did no comforting as I watched.

A single light lit up the clearing. A single torch. The red painted the moon in blood as the yellow mocked the sun. The shadow that held it smirked at me before a simple flick of the wrist had the hay catching light.

I watched as the flames licked the soles of my feet and crawled up my body. My screams went unheard behind the gag.

"They burned me?" I whisper in disbelief that gave way to burning fury, "They burned me!?" Fire engulfed my memory and the meadow I had been sitting in. It set fire to the stars and shattered my reality. "How dare they!" I screamed and heard no response as I was left with my anger and the dying embers of what had been.