Smoke and shattered mirrors

Chapter fifteen: Along came a nightmare

"Merci? Merci, are you alright?"

A shrilly, peppery hoarse voice said from the consuming darkness around me.

"Topher? Kylie?" I called out.

All at once, a hand grabbed my arm. I turned to see the hooded figure with a knife hoisted high.

"No!" I shriek struggling to lose the hard painful grip only to have myself threwn with much force unto the wet grassy land. 

Where am I? Why is there grass? 

Without another second to spare, the hooded figure kicked me into a pit. I winced and cried out loud as the impact on his feet connected painfully with the side of my ribcage.

I was moaning inside the deep pit. Trying to claw myself out only to have dirt raining on me. I heard heaving noises from above.

A shovel was raking.

Another rain of loam was thrown at me. I couldn't see because of  the darkness. The rains of dirt and loam were continous.

"Please." I pleaded, but my voice too hoarse. "Ple-ase s-stop!"

Before I knew it, I was getting buried alive. Rory's face came into focus as a last shovel-ful of soil would finish me off, my face was poking out, begging for oxygen.

Rory was wearing a white overall. He gives me that devilish smile and says, "I told you so. You've been a very bad girl, Merci."

With that, he grabs the shovel from the hooded figure and throws dirt on my face.

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I shrieked and stood upward suddenly, gulping heapings of air as if I've never breathed before. I was suddenly thirsty, my mouth felt like sandpaper.

A hand caressed my arm and I shreiked once more. 

"Shh! Shh! It's just me."  It was Topher.

He hugs me and cradles me for a while. It took me some time to realize that I'm sitting on the ground. A panic stricken Gretchen was on my side. Crying.

Rory and the girl with blue streaks that Kylie called Jules were both clutching ice buckets. Kylie was just behind Topher.

"Merci was just standing there! She was just standing there and she just fainted!" Gretchen sobbed.

"I'm o-okay." I said in a shaky voice, trying to avoid Rory's eyes. "What happened?"

Topher sighs and removes an ice pack from my head. "You fainted and hit your head hard."

I touched the left side of my head. Sure enough, there was an unmistakable faint lump hidden beneath my hair. I wince.

"Then I heard Gretchen screaming like an idiot from the parking lot." Kylie inserts.

"It was really scary, K." Gretchen defended. "You could have peed your pants if you saw!"

"Here," The girl named Jules offered me a silver thermos. "This would make you feel better, Merce. I'm Jules. Jules Bower."

I drank from it because I was so, so thirsty.

"Do you want me to take you to the hospital?" Topher said, still caressing my arm as a sign of comfort.

"I called Mom, by the way. She asks if you're alright and that she's coming here now." Rory said, checking his Iphone.

"No. I'm fine now, really." I said, thankful that it was just a dream. "How long was I out?"