Violet

Chapter 14: Nightmare

A noise coming from downstairs woke me up around 4 AM. I assumed it was my dad, so I went down to talk to him. As I walked downstairs, I saw someone going out instead of coming in. The moonlight shining through the living room window was all the light I needed to get down the stairs safely. I opened the front door and didn't see anyone there. The full moon seemed larger than usual and the air smelled strange. As I walked further out into the garden, I had a feeling that something wasn't right.

Everything was the same, yet... different. The trees stood naked as they had before, but their twigs curled in a distorted way, as if the tree itself screamed in pain. The sky was a mass of gray clouds, but instead of letting small shafts of light through, they emitted an ethereal glow. The wind was just as bitter, coming straight from the north, but the scent was something else, metallic almost, with a tinge of burning acid. I turned around and looked at the mansion. It looked farther away now, as though I had been walking away from it for ten minutes.

Was I dreaming this? I wondered to myself.

 I saw my father walking toward the back of the house. I could see him very clearly. Instead of calling his name, I followed him. There wasn't much behind our house except a huge area of grass. I watched as he continued walking. He stopped a few feet from the house. I stayed close to the house, hidden behind anything available, which wasn't really much but some pipes that hooked up to the house and huge flower pots that weren't being used at the time.

My father raised his hands in the air as if he was expecting to catch something. I watched as an orb of light came out of nowhere and hovered over his head. The orb slowly formed into a book that landed in my dad's hand. I had seen many books in my life, but that one made my heart beat really quickly when I saw it. I knew that book from somewhere.

When he opened the book, a head began to slowly rise from the book. I almost lost my crap right there. A full body floated over the book, slowly hovering until its feet touched the ground. The figure was short and I could only see the back of her hair at that moment. I knew it was a girl because of their long hair.

"Isn't it amazing?" my father asked the girl.

She turned around and when I saw her face I knew who she was. Abby. She was smiling ear to ear and looking at the book like it was the greatest thing in the world. "It's amazing!" she said.

Suddenly, both of their heads whipped around to face me in an impossible speed. I mean, I couldn't really explain how their heads faced one direction without effort or them even moving a muscle.

"Join us!" they said to me. "Sacrifice."

I felt my gum hurting again and when I went to touch it, I realized that I didn't have any teeth or a tongue. When I looked up, Abby and my father were in front of me, smiling. Their blank eyes filled me with fright. 

"Join us now! Sacrifice," they said again. Their voices were different and nothing like anything I had ever heard before. 

I started to run but I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. I couldn't run from them. The both of them grabbed me and told me to sacrifice. What they wanted me to sacrifice, I had no idea. Abby pulled at my arm and my father pulled me by the throat. My limbs easily ripped off as they pulled at me. My dad yanked at my neck and his hands went through my flesh. I was still alive when my head fell to the ground. I watched, terrified as the two of them ripped my body limb from limb.

My alarm clocked rang, waking me up from my horrible nightmare. I was looking around frantically. Sweet soaked my clothes. I took a deep breath as I looked around, glad everything was normal. I reached for my alarm clock and turned it off. 8:48 AM. It was time to get ready for my teacher to come.

I bolted to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I looked in the mirror, I couldn't believe what I saw. Printed on my neck in a light purple color was the bruise of a handprint. I choked on a scream and put my hand over the print. It began to fade away again, just like that.

A knock on the bathroom door startled me. I opened it and saw my dad standing there, looking at me while he fixed his tie. "Your mom told me you were having problems with your gums?" he asked.

I couldn't really say anything. I could only nod yes. He finished fixing his tie. "You have to be more careful, hun," he said before walking away, leaving me there. 

Things were weird. I couldn't find any explanation for my gum. If I knew what would was really going on, I would have ran away that day and never ever looked back.