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Her breath evens out and I know she is out. I can feel my own exhaustion settling in. My eyes are heavy and I shake my head back and forth. I need to stay awake to keep the demons away.
I’ve got to fight sleep. She can’t know…
CHAPTER 11
MIND TRICKS
Adam
“Look at how far I can kick the ball! Look!” Khalil yells to me.
“Well done!” I give him a high five.
Khalil is running back and forth with a new ball I have given him. Ever since I taught him how to kick the ball properly, he has been working up to be a professional in no time.
“You are here!” Daya yells from inside their small house. She comes running out with a bowl of burned rice and her face holds a huge smile.
I push my palms together and thank her for her generosity. I take a bite and fight not to scrunch my face. She giggles, knowing how bad it is.
“It’s okay. You can spit it out. My father won’t even try it!” She continues to laugh. “I snuck some under Khalil’s bed so he won’t be able to sleep because of the awful smell,” she whispers.
I chuckle at her innocent defiance.
“Daya, you will become the most spectacular cook this village has seen!” I try to be positive.
She runs back into the house when the gunshots ring in the air. A grenade falls just enough in front of me to give me time to duck before it explodes.
“Khalil?! Daya!” I scream out. Khalil is nowhere to be seen, and I know Daya is in the house.
“Aaaaahhhhh!” I scream out in pain. A bullet fills my chest. The light in the sky quickly falls black all around me. Bullets explode in the air and eruptions light the night sky for a moment. I radio my station, notifying them of the attack, giving them anything I can. There isn’t much. I can feel the heat piercing my skin and it burns like fire, causing me to beg for a cold shower. The next instant, I find myself lying in that corner Khalil left me in. I quickly stand tall, looking around. Gunpowder smell reeks in my nostrils and I can taste my blood. Wiping my lip dribbling with blood like drooling over a steak, I look down at my body and see the bullet holes and scrapes with debris, but no pain.
“Khalil?” I call out. “Daya?”
No response.
I walk out into the home, and it is bare. The smell… the thick smell of burning buildings and dead bodies fills the room like a cloud of smoke. It encourages me to exit the home. The fog continues to pour over the scene in front of me. There are no bodies. Where is everyone?
“John?” a sweet voice carries to my ear.
I remain still as the voices overlap. Laughing, crying, screaming, then… hers. “John.” It’s whispered more carefully.
I look down and see my hands are clean, confusing me further. I look up and there Reese stands in a pale-yellow dress. Smiling at me. I look her up and down, then her scent hits me like a brick in the face. That sweet, strong coffee smell that I love so much.
“John?” she asks again.
My eyes blink open, and I am now face to face with Reese, who looks over at me with concern. An icy breeze crosses my body and I look down to see I am covered in sweat. I just had a nightmare, and she witnessed it. I tried to stay awake as long as I could, but her body against mine was everything I could’ve wished for.
“Are you okay?” she asks with concern.
I sit up and lean over my knees, catching my breath. I feel disgusting just sitting here.
“Yeah,” I say between heaving breaths. “Mind if I use your shower?”
She nods, jumping off the couch. Speed walking through the small house, she is trying to tiptoe over the creaking wood floors. That noise makes me smile, giving me hopeful thoughts that haven’t seen my brain since before…
“Here.” She holds out a towel and a change of clothes. I look at the clothes, then my eyes meet hers. “They are Kevin’s.”
This devil read my mind. I grab the items and walk to the spare bathroom. Turning the water on and quickly shedding my clothes, I feel so fucking dirty. Stepping into the shower, the water cleans my skin, trying to seep into my soul. I cannot cleanse this soul. The visions of horror the devil gave me won’t let me breathe.
