EIGHT MONTHS FROM NOW

I didn't just fall. I crashed.

For a moment, I melt into the moist soil, back wet with moisture as the sun beats down on my face from above. Fear invades my stomach in the form of gargantuan moths that house sets of razor-sharp teeth, tearing away at me from within. I fight the urge to lurch, knowing that the pain will only intensify if I start moving.

Something very, very bad has just happened. I reluctantly look at my body.

Everything rational sprints from my mind. I can only stare, horrified, as the implications run rapid behind my skull.

It was supposed to be me. He was supposed to...I just thought...

My head throbs as if saying, How foolish...you thought, you thought, you thought.

I fill my lungs with the bite of wet leaves and damp Earth.

And I scream.

❀❀

How long have I been laying here?

My options are thinning, along with my vision. I try to focus on a flying black bird high above the tree line in the small clearing of yellow and red above my head, and the winged form goes in and out of focus as I blink, two wings becoming four, then disappearing altogether.

❀❀

"Look at me."

In all the blurriness, he's as clear as the water in a fast-moving stream, one with small pebbles at the bottom.

I gaze at him. "You...You're not real."

"This is only you," he promises. "This is you."

"I'm hallucinating."

"You have to get up, Ember."

"Why..." I struggle to breathe now. "What's the point anymore?"

He shakes his head, a soft, warm gesture. "You are not weak. You're just a little tired."

For a moment, I close my eyes and feel only the numbing of my toes up to my ankles and calves. In a whisper, I admit, "It would be beautiful to think so."

I don't think I want to, is the last partial thought to take form in my head. I don't want to...

A/N

Welcome--officially--to We Dream at Midnight.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here <3

-Laurel