Chapter 16: Nightmares
I wake up with a start, my breath ragged, my body drenched in sweat. My heart pounds violently in my chest. My skin is clammy, my sheets twisted around me as if I'd been fighting something in my sleep. Maybe I had. The fear still clings to me, a suffocating weight pressing down on my lungs.
The nightmare lingers, vivid and raw.
My parents stand in front of me, their eyes nothing but empty voids, black pits that swallow everything. Their lips move in unison, whispering something to me, but no matter how hard I strain, I can never hear them. I try to step forward, to reach them, but the world twists violently, pulling me away.
Then I'm in the square again. Back where it all ended. Back where my world ended for the first time.
The nooses hang heavy from the execution platform, the air thick with voices of anticipation. I recognize the place instantly, yet something is wrong. The faces of the people around me are nothing but blurs, shifting like smoke. And on the platform, my parents stand with ropes around their necks, but they aren't afraid. They aren't pleading.
They're staring straight at me, their eyes piercing through as if they see into my soul.
Their hollow, black eyes bore into mine, their lips curling into twisted, mocking smiles, it was wrong. My breath catches, my limbs freeze, and the executioner steps forward. The trapdoors swing open.
Their bodies drop.
And their smiles never fade. Their eyes never blinking, never moving off me. The same knowing look stayed on their faces the entire time.
The disturbing images linger in my vision. Those eyes, those smiles stretched into perversion. I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing air into my lungs, trying to remind myself that it wasn't real.
But deep down, I know it was. Maybe not in the way dreams are real, but in the way nightmares never truly leave you.
I force a slow breath through my nose, pressing the heels of my hands against my eyes. My heart is still racing, my skin still damp, but I focus on steadying my breathing. In. Hold. Out. Again. After a few minutes, the raw edge of fear dulls. My body is still wound tight, though. Sleep is out of the question now.