CHAPTER TWO
I’m lost in a forest.
Oh, great. This again.
I’m lying in the middle of a clearing, surrounded on all sides by evergreen trees that disappear into the indigo sky. There’s a light dusting of snow on the ground and coating the needles of the trees. Taking a better look at the sky above me, it’s sometime in the evening based on how deep the color is. There are a sprinkling of stars that appear brighter than normal and provide a fair amount of illumination to the area around me.
I roll onto my side and push up into sitting. My eyes trace the entirety of the space, looking to see if there’s anyone else around, but at first glance, it’s quiet and I’m alone. My shoulders sag with relief at the reprieve from the screaming woman, releasing the tension I didn’t realize I was carrying.
I push to my feet and spin in a circle taking one more look to see if I can identify anything important. A reason why I’d be dreaming of this mysterious forest.
A blur of movement deep in the tree line catches my attention. I whip around in that direction, my shoulders climbing towards my ears with renewed tension. It’s dark so it’s hard to make anything out. I squint my eyes in hopes it’ll makemy vision sharper. It doesn’t work so I take a few steps in that direction.
As soon as I get close enough to the tree line to make out a shadowy shape, it shifts again. I can tell now that it’s the silhouette of a human.
Please don’t be the screaming woman. Please don’t be the screaming woman.
“Hello?” I ask, easing closer.
Please don’t be the screaming woman.
I’m just about close enough that I could almost start making out features when the figure shifts once more and, in a blink, it’s looking in my direction. The starlight catches on piercing crystalline, blue eyes staring right back at me.
My eyes go wide with shock and I stumble back, tripping on a gnarled root, falling. My stomach swoops as gravity pulls me to the ground. I throw my hands back to catch myself on the way down. My hand snags on a branch and I hiss at the sharp pain that flares on my right hand.
“Shit!” I hold my hand out in front of me and see a cut across the center of my palm. It’s broken the skin enough that a slow stream of blood trickles out.
Of course I would cut myself in a dream. But why does it hurt so much?
I look back up to where the figure was tucked into the shadows and see it’s no longer there. I push myself back up and look around the clearing and see I’m once again alone.
“I swear I’m going crazy,” I huff, shaking my head and turning back around towards the center of the clearing.
Standing directly in front of me is the red-haired woman, wearing a devious grin.
“A spark shall blaze at fate’s design,” she whispers before she lets out a wail.
I jolt awake,clutching my hands to my chest.
That was the strangest of all the nightmares I’ve had yet. It wasn’t quite the same, it almost felt calm… until it wasn’t. And again, it felt soreal.
The scent of pine lingers with me which is odd as I’ve never been able to pick up on anything like that in previous dreams.
I lift my hand to rub the sleep from my eyes when a flash of pink draws my attention to my palm. The exact same cut from the dream is etched into my palm, but it’s no longer bleeding.
What the fuck?
I must still be dreaming. Because there’s no logical reason why a cut from a dream would be there when I’m awake. That’s not possible. Is it?
Maybe Samhain made my dreams super intense?
I look out the window of my room and see everything outside appears normal, as if this was another typical day. When I look back at my hands, I notice a slight tremor. I ball my hands into fists against my nightdress and close my eyes, taking deep breaths.
It was just a dream. It wasn’t real. You must have cut your hand yesterday while gathering with Tom and didn’t realize.
It wasjusta dream.
Once I’ve calmed my breathing and the shaking in my hands has stopped, I open my eyes and climb from bed.
