Home
The forests were deep and cold. Bitterly grasped in the chilling pull of winters’ merciless reach, it brought little comfort to the one running in the dead of night. Muscles on fire, and lungs burning, breath rose in the mists in fast fluid pants, leaves stirred and branches snagged holding, tearing, cutting, denying the journey of haste that consumed the runner. They ran, fleeing as if from the very night itself, they would not be denied their escape, pale moonlight slipping between the frozen clouds only lending the eerie light to the cold world bellow, making the runner run with more urgency. The silence broken by the thunder of pounding feet digging into earth, digging in the effort to stop short before the welcoming abyss of the cliff bellow. Chest rising and falling with the rhythm of their heart they turned sharply upon their heel, cloak cascading around them, giving that last breath before the ear splitting howl as the light was snatched by the growing shadow that fell upon them. The only witness the reflection of something forever stilled in two colored blue and green eyes.
“NO!” The darkness gave to twilight and the normalcy of a teenager’s bedroom. Its occupant bolt, upright, in bed and breathing as if they had run for miles, shivering in the figment of cold. Yet there was no cold here. Arctic blue eyes made grey scanned the shadows of the room as eyes focused. Making out her dresser, the book case, desk, and posters, she breathed out a hard shudder. Then she fell back and swallowed hard, turning her head to stare at the moon and all its light. Sweat glistened across pale skin; she pulled the covers more securely around her to fight the chill of the dream. Damp bangs sticking to her forehead or streaked haphazardly over across one eye and cheek.
“It was so real this time,” she whispered but only heard by the room she lay within.
‘They’re always getting more real lately,’ she mused to herself, breathing in a slow deep breath to calm the thundering heartbeat in her ears and the ache in her chest, making it ease even if just a little. Glancing to her dresser and seeing herself in the mirror. The dark blue grey pools set in the pale face stared back.
“What is with you Embry-Rose?” She asked herself.
As if it would and could answer her back. Embry-Rose was eighteen and about to graduate, she had spent most of her thanksgiving break going over and visiting family. This Christmas break however was going to be devoted to going through and looking at the different colleges she could attend after graduating. She was just glad she got her two scholarships to do so because without them she wouldn’t be going anywhere. She didn’t give it anymore thought, thinking on the dream or nightmare, she couldn’t decide.
She tried to clear her mind or just stay blank as she stared at herself. Em, as was her nickname, had pale fair skin, making it almost like alabaster in this kind of moonlight that had spilled into her room and played in a caress across her skin. Her arctic blue eyes looking like a darker shade of grey but they wouldn’t be once she got into brighter lights. The funny thing was one eye seemed always lighter than the other; Em had a straight nose and almost oval roundness to her face, her chin ending up in a flat point. Her long auburn red hair was in a bit of disarray, and she mentally groaned at the thought of it. Of how much of a pain it was going to be to brush out all the tangles, tangles that surely hand ensued in all the tossing and turning she had done in her sleep.
Rubbing her face with a final yawn she turned over and pulled the covers tighter around her. Hopping sleep would take her and be dreamless for once. Staring hard at the off white paint that she wished she could have painted over, worrying her bottom lip out of habit. Trying to ignore the sounds of the wind and the outside world, making branches brush and tap against the glass window pane of the window. She frowned hard making her slightly delicate brows furrow.
‘Stop it. Stop it, stop it. There is nothing there or in here.’ She chided herself, feeling as if she were being watched, closing her eyes harder. She tried to listen to anything else, ‘anything’ at all other than the wind and its indiscriminate teasing. Eyes snapping open she heard the groan of a floor board, not daring to swallow let alone breathe as her eyes stayed staring intent upon the single spot on the wall. Frozen, ears straining to hear, anything, even the slightest noise, her senses a rush of now hyper awareness. She heard it again but it wasn’t from her room or her parents’ room. She was the only child in the house, looking up at the third creak that groaned across old tempered wood, it was coming from the attic. Swallowing now and hard she sat up slowly feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
Not taking her eyes off the ceiling she slipped from her bed, wincing at the cold feel of the floor boards beneath her bare feet. Wishing she had gone to bed wearing socks, she pushed the thought from her mind and bit her bottom lip, trying not to cause her own floor to creak beneath her weight. She didn’t stop looking at the ceiling even as she opened the door to her bedroom, as if perhaps the very foundation would give to the one that made the noise, grabbing the flashlight she kept behind her books on the desk. She had never put it back after the last storm that had knocked out the electricity. At least the grip of the flashlight gave her a better feeling like the weight of it gave comfort. Gripping it harder and feeling more secure that her knuckles turned whiter than snow, willing herself not to tremble and be more steady. Approaching the hall she debated if she should turn it on or to wait, pulling the stepping bench carefully across the hall runner she couldn’t help but swallow again. Feeling like at any moment her heart would be in her throat if it wasn’t already, she stepped up slowly as she felt her eyes sting because she hadn’t blinked, Embry didn’t want to. No she didn’t dare to, the next few moments in this world felt dependant on her next doings, letting her tongue glide across suddenly dry lips, she reached out slowly. Shivering to the call of strange whispers like the wind, but there were no widows or scrapping branches now, fingers branching out and feeling the texture as they took the cord to the attics folding stairs and door. Fingers trembling, the feeling of when some one’s hair standing on end sweeping through her body.
‘What the hell am ‘I’ doing?’ her mind screamed as she mentally berated herself, but it was too late to go back now, she pulled as her curiosity nagged to do so, but would she regret it later…not facing up to this had to be more unbearable, right? Letting out a shaky single breath as she gripped the other cord that pulled the stairs, pulling as she turned the flashlight, stilling herself, the light shinned into the darkness but nothing rushed out at her. She hesitated but stepped up slowly onto the steps. Straining with every fiber to listen, peeking over the edge of the doorway in the floor, feeling herself tense up, not breathing as she scanned the boxes and objects. Nothing. Embry stepped up and into the room, thinking she heard the creaking coming from the darkest corner, she whirled around where the window cut off any light. She had heard the creak and strange dullness of a voice long lost. Licking her lips again as she gripped the flashlight hard enough to hurt, she took a step toward it, then another. Wondering if she should have put new batteries into it, because the darkness just wasn’t giving way to the light. She felt her breathing start to get just a little faster and stopped, seeing it rise like mist, mind flashing back to the forests of the dream. She silently bit her tongue to mentally snap herself from even daring to go that route, reaching out to the sheet that hung there, delicate fingers curling before starting to pull, the cloth fell away…
“NO!” The darkness gave to twilight and the normalcy of a teenager’s bedroom. Its occupant bolt, upright, in bed and breathing as if they had run for miles, shivering in the figment of cold. Yet there was no cold here. Arctic blue eyes made grey scanned the shadows of the room as eyes focused. Making out her dresser, the book case, desk, and posters, she breathed out a hard shudder. Then she fell back and swallowed hard, turning her head to stare at the moon and all its light. Sweat glistened across pale skin; she pulled the covers more securely around her to fight the chill of the dream. Damp bangs sticking to her forehead or streaked haphazardly over across one eye and cheek.
“It was so real this time,” she whispered but only heard by the room she lay within.
‘They’re always getting more real lately,’ she mused to herself, breathing in a slow deep breath to calm the thundering heartbeat in her ears and the ache in her chest, making it ease even if just a little. Glancing to her dresser and seeing herself in the mirror. The dark blue grey pools set in the pale face stared back.
“What is with you Embry-Rose?” She asked herself.
As if it would and could answer her back. Embry-Rose was eighteen and about to graduate, she had spent most of her thanksgiving break going over and visiting family. This Christmas break however was going to be devoted to going through and looking at the different colleges she could attend after graduating. She was just glad she got her two scholarships to do so because without them she wouldn’t be going anywhere. She didn’t give it anymore thought, thinking on the dream or nightmare, she couldn’t decide.
She tried to clear her mind or just stay blank as she stared at herself. Em, as was her nickname, had pale fair skin, making it almost like alabaster in this kind of moonlight that had spilled into her room and played in a caress across her skin. Her arctic blue eyes looking like a darker shade of grey but they wouldn’t be once she got into brighter lights. The funny thing was one eye seemed always lighter than the other; Em had a straight nose and almost oval roundness to her face, her chin ending up in a flat point. Her long auburn red hair was in a bit of disarray, and she mentally groaned at the thought of it. Of how much of a pain it was going to be to brush out all the tangles, tangles that surely hand ensued in all the tossing and turning she had done in her sleep.
Rubbing her face with a final yawn she turned over and pulled the covers tighter around her. Hopping sleep would take her and be dreamless for once. Staring hard at the off white paint that she wished she could have painted over, worrying her bottom lip out of habit. Trying to ignore the sounds of the wind and the outside world, making branches brush and tap against the glass window pane of the window. She frowned hard making her slightly delicate brows furrow.
‘Stop it. Stop it, stop it. There is nothing there or in here.’ She chided herself, feeling as if she were being watched, closing her eyes harder. She tried to listen to anything else, ‘anything’ at all other than the wind and its indiscriminate teasing. Eyes snapping open she heard the groan of a floor board, not daring to swallow let alone breathe as her eyes stayed staring intent upon the single spot on the wall. Frozen, ears straining to hear, anything, even the slightest noise, her senses a rush of now hyper awareness. She heard it again but it wasn’t from her room or her parents’ room. She was the only child in the house, looking up at the third creak that groaned across old tempered wood, it was coming from the attic. Swallowing now and hard she sat up slowly feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
Not taking her eyes off the ceiling she slipped from her bed, wincing at the cold feel of the floor boards beneath her bare feet. Wishing she had gone to bed wearing socks, she pushed the thought from her mind and bit her bottom lip, trying not to cause her own floor to creak beneath her weight. She didn’t stop looking at the ceiling even as she opened the door to her bedroom, as if perhaps the very foundation would give to the one that made the noise, grabbing the flashlight she kept behind her books on the desk. She had never put it back after the last storm that had knocked out the electricity. At least the grip of the flashlight gave her a better feeling like the weight of it gave comfort. Gripping it harder and feeling more secure that her knuckles turned whiter than snow, willing herself not to tremble and be more steady. Approaching the hall she debated if she should turn it on or to wait, pulling the stepping bench carefully across the hall runner she couldn’t help but swallow again. Feeling like at any moment her heart would be in her throat if it wasn’t already, she stepped up slowly as she felt her eyes sting because she hadn’t blinked, Embry didn’t want to. No she didn’t dare to, the next few moments in this world felt dependant on her next doings, letting her tongue glide across suddenly dry lips, she reached out slowly. Shivering to the call of strange whispers like the wind, but there were no widows or scrapping branches now, fingers branching out and feeling the texture as they took the cord to the attics folding stairs and door. Fingers trembling, the feeling of when some one’s hair standing on end sweeping through her body.
‘What the hell am ‘I’ doing?’ her mind screamed as she mentally berated herself, but it was too late to go back now, she pulled as her curiosity nagged to do so, but would she regret it later…not facing up to this had to be more unbearable, right? Letting out a shaky single breath as she gripped the other cord that pulled the stairs, pulling as she turned the flashlight, stilling herself, the light shinned into the darkness but nothing rushed out at her. She hesitated but stepped up slowly onto the steps. Straining with every fiber to listen, peeking over the edge of the doorway in the floor, feeling herself tense up, not breathing as she scanned the boxes and objects. Nothing. Embry stepped up and into the room, thinking she heard the creaking coming from the darkest corner, she whirled around where the window cut off any light. She had heard the creak and strange dullness of a voice long lost. Licking her lips again as she gripped the flashlight hard enough to hurt, she took a step toward it, then another. Wondering if she should have put new batteries into it, because the darkness just wasn’t giving way to the light. She felt her breathing start to get just a little faster and stopped, seeing it rise like mist, mind flashing back to the forests of the dream. She silently bit her tongue to mentally snap herself from even daring to go that route, reaching out to the sheet that hung there, delicate fingers curling before starting to pull, the cloth fell away…
