The nightmare had me waking drenching in sweat, but I couldn’t remember what it was. I could only remember the fear of being paralysed, unable to move…but nothing else. X was still deeply asleep and for once he looked almost peaceful, despite being cramped on the bed. I try not to wake him as I move from the tiny hospital bed and manoeuvring around the fat cat who was still asleep on the ground. She moved into a weird sleeping position on her back, stretching out her back legs and her front paws up like she was doing a piss-poor attempt at playing a dead cockroach.

The headache was still there like a dull ache in my head as I move for the shower to shake off the dreamless nightmare. I quickly undress and head into the lukewarm water. Pressing my forehead against the tiles, I feel a little relief with the water rolling down my back with my eyes shut tight.

Damn it. I was really hoping the headache would disappear if I slept through it. But at least It’s at a manageable level.

Just rather I didn’t have it.

Am I dehydrated or something?

I eventually convince myself to leave the warmth of the shower and quickly dry off and get dressed in the comfortable sweatpants, shirt and hoodie range that I always seem to find myself in. Getting out of the bathroom, I see that neither of them were disturbed in their sleep.

Even though it was a little wider than a single bed, it was still tiny and X always contorted his body to fit both of us onto it. Even though he’s taller than me, neither of us were particularly dainty in build. He still required way more room than he allowed himself but he has never complained. I don’t think he even knows how to complain, while I basically made it an artform.

I let out a breath, I haven’t had a forgotten nightmare in a while. I walk back over to X as quietly as I could, my feet barely making any sound on the cold glossy floor and my hair still slightly dripping. We really needed to go back to a bigger bed of some description pretty soon. I should be pretty much ok now to wander around again…as long as Seth’s cut the bullshit.

As I move the blanket to hop back in, X’s eyes open and were glassy with sleep. Looking like he was under a spell, he pulls the blanket wider and makes room for me to hop back in again before wrapping himself around me like I had never left. “Your…sleep is troubling?” his voice was hoarse…and I hate to admit, sexy, first thing in the morning.

I smirk at him, “Just the usual. Go back to sleep.”

He didn’t need to be told twice but I could feel him pulling on me tighter like a stuffed toy. I swear my eyes will bulge out of their sockets if he keeps squeezing.

I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, looking at the shadows and light formed from the dull orbs built into the ceiling which had come on during my time in the shower. My mind wondered towards that other me…what was it even? Was I some sort of Hexer with something that’ll eventually control me completely? The thought made me shudder. …it…was scary

‘Dreamy Eater not bad’. Lady tries to reason.

So she was awake…and still in that silly pose…but, she didn’t say he wasn’t scary.

‘Dream Eater scary but not…bad. Dream Eater is Dreamer. Dreamer is Dream Eater.’

It’s like I have a split personality.

It’s probably a makeshift way of looking at it…It was something so…I don’t even know a word for it…surreal? …and I’m scared of it taking over. I already experienced it taking over while I was still ‘awake’. Inside Rain…it was raw and so hard to contain and so sure of itself as it mixed and messed with me that when I ‘woke up’ it left me feeling so small…like I was a tiny, rusting gate on a damn wall full to the brim. What if I lose it…what then? It was scary to think what ‘Dream Eater’ could do. I was literally a tiny pebble on the bottom of the ocean, blocking a drain or something. I look at my hands, they were shaking slightly. What am I supposed to do?

----

I wake to the sound of someone calling my name, squinting hard as the lights were completely on now. I thought X was wanting something but when I look up, I see him staring at the doorway with a bit of annoyance. Something wasn’t going the way he liked it. I turn myself back over towards the doorway and see a smug looking Seth. My face is probably mirroring X’s right now.

Seth chuckles, “Wow, you’re basically a married couple at this point. Anyway, this is your fault, X. If you didn’t want to see my sweet face, you shouldn’t have crushed the earpiece. You know how Siem gets.”

Crushed? I only remember him chucking it…?

I look over at X, a little confused.

“I stepped on it,” X said simply. Though I didn’t hear a hint of remorse. He did it on purpose…

“Well, don’t matter to me,” Seth shrugs, “You explain that to Siem. Come on, the sooner you go see him, the quicker I’ll slink back into the shadows to sulk about my bruised jaw.”

As he said that, I took notice of the dark bruise emerging from the bottom of the right side of his face. I feel a little guilty but at the same time I was vindictive enough to think he deserves it. Besides, my knuckles were also bruising, so I should have the evidence shown somewhere on that clown’s face.

I move like a tired old lady for the door, Lady and an unwilling X not far behind. Seth steps to the side and follows behind us, his whistle echoing down the hall and out into the tunnels.

“Do you have to?” I mutter.

He stops mid-tune with a tossed out, “Yep,” as his reply and starts up again in a heartbeat.

The worst thing was -he actually sounded like a fucking bird singing a little merry tune.

He finally stops when we get onto the elevator. Lady still had her ears flat against her skull as she entered the damn thing but she didn’t give off a single complaint as she marches on like it was a mission to laugh in death’s face.

‘You’re braver than most, Lady.’ I rub her head gently, her ears half flicking up at the feeling.

‘Lady must.’ She replies, leaning deeper into the petting, almost knocking me into the elevator’s wall.

The elevator stops at the midway point to an unknowing onlooker who’s eyes bulge out of their sockets when the doors open up onto us. They simple froze on the spot while the doors shut again and we keep heading up.

Seth chuckles, “We must look a real ragtag bunch.”

All we need is the shitty elevator music and we’d be set. But luckily the elevator didn’t have a tune…I don’t think Siem would have the patience for it.

Sing.

It was at the point, reaching Siem’s level that with one sudden heartbeat, my headache changes from a dull throb to a sledgehammer against my skull. I almost topple at the force, X catching my arm as I lean over, almost half collapsed to the floor.

“Oi kid!?’ Seth’s concerned voice was off in the distance as I put a hand to my face, trying to stop myself from choking on vomit. Another deep pulse in my brain shook to my spine as I try to hold on.

What’s happening?

I look to my hand and notice blood. Blood? I felt the heat drain from my face, leaving a cold sweat as I reach for my face again. A nosebleed? I look up at X, who’s eyes were bright, the pupil’s fully slit.

Another throb smacks my brain and I feel my sight blur around the edges while I brace for another wave of nausea.

Twisted. Putrid. Call.

Not this shit again.

“What the fuck is happening?” I manage to yell at empty air, while X drags me out of the lift and into the hallway, sitting me down by the door. Seth disappeared like smoke down the hallway, probably to find Siem or worse…Hanna…I inwardly grown.

Hear the Song? Sing to me!

Oh shut up. Go away. I don’t need this now.

“Stop listening,” X grabs my head, tilting it down as he leans up into my face. He had managed to kneel in front of me, between my legs.

“It’s not like I have a choice here!” I snap back at him while pinching my nose. I wince as another throb pulses through my skull once again, I try to hold me head but X was in the way.

He shushes me like I was a child while pressing his forehead against mine, his eyes closing.

He’s done this before.

The last time this happened was…near a Hexer Nest.

…Is there another one?

The thought slips from me as the headache rips it apart. It was becoming more difficult to keep my thoughts together long enough to form a coherent sentence.

I could even taste blood.

I’ve never had this reaction before. It’s scary.

And then…

Nothing.

I freeze in place as I feel…nothing.

The headache suddenly disappeared like it was a lie.

What the fuck?

The weird thought thoughts stopped whispering as well. I press on X’s shoulder with a free hand, he looks up at me, still so fucking concerned that I wanted to cry for making him even feel that way. But all I had on me was utter shock.

“Kae!” Hanna came running up, her eyes locking onto me as she miraculously pulls out a long white cloth from god knows where as she runs up at full speed, Seth and Siem not for behind.

I want to groan but instead I plaster on the fakest smile I could manage as she pulls up to me, “Hello Hanna…”

She half smirks but her eyes sure as didn’t hold any of her usual mischievousness in them. She instead gingerly holds the cloth or whatever it was to my face, I was think she was going to go for my nose, but instead, she wipes under my eyes. I gawk as she pulls the once pristine white cloth away from my eyes as it was smeared with a weird black substance.

“Are you ok?” she half whispers, her concern was genuine but I’m now freaking out that I cry black goo.

“What is that?” I ask pointedly at the black stuff.

She looks a little uncertain but she still opens her mouth, “I think it’s from your other side.”

Dream Eater. What, it’s crying now?

Siem comes up to us, “Kae…”

But he never got to say whatever he wanted as he was disrupted by a weird noise…then the building trembles to its very foundations. Then….

Silence. The lights go out. The hum of electricity dies into that ear-piercing silence.

A few seconds later, the lights flicker back on. All of us staring at each other in stupid surprise.

Seth opens his mouth, “What the fuck was that?”

Then an unnatural piercing, deep roar sounds out from out, somewhere in the city.

Zoe’s words of warning ring out in my head, stealing the last bit of warmth from my body, replacing it with dread.

‘Oh, and the ‘Storm’s Eye will open’ soon’.