Discovering the Moonlight

7

Chapter 7

My heart thudded in my chest so loudly that I thought it would explode. The smell of fresh blood and flowers filled the air. The sun was shining out brightly above my head. 

A distant scream echoed in my ears bringing me to my knees. I looked up to find the girl from earlier. She stood frozen with her hand on her neck. Blood squirted out in all directions as she screamed. She turned to face me and reached slowly out with her other hand towards me. I couldn’t move, I felt as if my feet were incased in concrete. 

She was dying in front of my eyes. I was confused, why was this going on? Her eyes had widened and you could start to see the life flee from her body. It was as if time was moving in slow motion. Her body had begun to slowly fall backwards on to the wet ground. Her expression would haunt me for the rest of my days. 

The smell of blood was overwhelming. Saliva began to run down my face until it wet my shirt. I was drooling. The smell was driving me crazy. 

What was going on? The only thing running through my mind was images of blood and her flesh. I wanted to run and lap up every drop of spilled blood that came from her lifeless body. I wanted to scream but nothing would come out. God please be a dream.

The sound of crackling grass shot my attention towards a dirt pile off in the distance. Something large and black was watching me. Was it the thing that killed the girl? A strong breeze blew the grass back a bit exposing amber glowing eyes and black matted fur. A low snarl erupted from the things chest as it continued to watch me. 

I closed my eyes and began to pray. I prayed that I was dreaming. This couldn’t have been real. I had seen this girl just a few hours ago and watched as they zipped her up into the body bag. Why and how was I seeing her death? 

”Claire,” A familiar voice echoed through my head.

I opened my eyes and found my father sitting at the edge of my bed. His hands were touching my leg.

“Are you alright sweetie?”

His eyes showed a hint of concern. He reached over and tucked a strand of fallen hair behind my ear. 

I was sweating profusely. A bead of liquid ran down the length of my jaw and dropped down onto my hand. I quickly wiped it away because it reminded me of the drool. My nightgown that I had fallen asleep in was completely soaked and was clinging tightly to my body.

“Claire? Sweetie you were whimpering in your sleep. Were you having a bad dream? He stood up from my bed and walked over to the wall to flip the light switch on. 

I felt as if I was in a haze. The dream was still fresh on my mind and it’s all I could think of.

“I’m fine. It was just a bad dream dad.” I was not about to tell him what it was. He would probably think I was nuts and never allowed me out of the house again.   I looked over at the alarm clock and it was almost three in the morning. 

His face was still showing how he felt. He knew that I was hiding something but didn’t want to dig to find out just what that was. 

“Ok, try to get some sleep. Try to think of nice things and maybe you will have a better dream this time.” He looked down at my from where he was standing and bent down to plant a kiss on my wet forehead. 

I smiled sweetly at him and nodded. I slid back down in my bed and faced the opposite direction and waited for him to leave my room. 

That dream had felt so real but it was after all just a dream. I had seen something traumatic and my mind was making up things to cope with the situation.  I tried to close my eyes and think of nice things but all I kept seeing was those amber eyes that were hiding in the bushes. God help me I don’t think I can ever sleep again.