Dream Killer: Book One in the Nadia Chronicles
Chapter 24: Mine, Not Yours

What do you mean?” Dimitri said, rigidly over his shoulder to Astrid as he quickly walked a few steps in front of her. “Where did she go?”

“I’m not sure,” Astrid said visibly upset trying to keep up with Dimitri’s much longer strides. Astrid had been searching for Dimitri for only a few minutes before she found him. He was dragging his feet as he crossed the camp after a long night as a member of the watch. He still had Nadia’s book in his hand. Dimitri could tell from Astrid’s face that something was wrong before she had even told him that Nadia was missing. They were both crossing to Nadia’s empty room as Astrid tried to explain. “Her room is a mess. It was almost as if she was in a fight.” Dimitri entered Nadia’s room and took in the knife marks, the scattered clothing and the dent near her bed. He threw the book and left the room again without a word. Astrid sent out a silent prayer before following Dimitri from Nadia’s disheveled room.

“We need to look for her now,” Dimitri said loudly descending the stairs a few at a time. “Do you have trackers among your people?” Dimitri impatiently waited for Astrid at the bottom of the stairs before throwing open the doors onto a bright, beautiful morning that was lost on both.

“Yes, but,” she began winded, but was swiftly cut off by her son Kieran running up to them.

“There is something wrong with Nadia,” Kieran said wide eyed and breathless.

“Have you seen her?” Dimitri questioned kneeling to Kieran’s level and grabbing his shoulders. “Where is she?”

“I will show you,” Kieran said, brushing Dimitri’s hands off by turning toward the northern part of the village. “But I do not believe she is alone.”

“What does that mean? Who is with her? Could it be a trap?” Dimitri said, standing once more. Dimitri caught up with Kieran in a few steps. “Has she been taken?”

“You could say that,” Kieran glanced up toward Dimitri. Before Dimitri could respond, Kieran held up a hand and said, “Please, just let me show you. It will all make sense once you see with your own eyes.”

Dimitri did not like being told to do anything by a child as young as Kieran, but Dimitri had grown to respect Kieran a great deal. “Very well,” Dimitri replied and they jogged to the northern outskirts of the village.

They found Nadia curled up and sleeping in the burned down hut next door to Dimitri’s old home. She was covered in a dingy old blanket that had many holes in it and she was trembling from the cold. She was wearing an old weather stained apron over her typical blue jeans and t-shirt and was clutching a bonnet of sorts that had long since lost its structure. Nadia was covered in soot and dirt as if she had tried to clean the ruined shell of a house before deciding to sleep in it.

“She is surrounded in darkness,” Kieran said matter-of-factly.

“What kind of darkness?” Dimitri heard Astrid ask her son as Dimitri approached the sleeping Nadia. Dimitri stepped over the broken door frame and carefully moved aside

an unrecognizable piece of furniture. He gently touched Nadia’s hand, feeling how cold she was.

“Nadia?” he questioned softly, kneeling close to her. She yawned widely and sat up.

“Tre-Tre? What are you doing here so early,” Nadia said stretching.

“Nadia?” He questioned again. “What did you just call me?”

“Don’t be smart with me Tre,” Nadia said standing up. “You love it when I call you that. What did you call me?”

“Lenora?” Dimitri whispered shocked.

“No, that is not what you called me,” Nadia responded then shrugged putting the tattered bonnet on. “Well, what brings you over? If you’re looking for Godric, he is not here.” After tying the bonnet Nadia started to clean up again, folding the blanket despite the holes and deteriorating edges. “I swear you boys would lose each other in a room with no doors.” She chuckled to herself.

“Lenora?” Dimitri whispered again. He stood up and watched Nadia cleaning with a look of painful disbelief.

“Yes, honey?” Lenora responded.

Dimitri flinched when Lenora confirmed what he had already known. Nadia was being possessed again. “Why are you doing this?” Dimitri asked crossing to her. “You can’t stay in Nadia.”

“Oh, Tre,” she said laughing. She found a broom with very few bristles left and began sweeping as if the broom was whole. “Did you have one of your bad dreams again? It is okay dear. Come and sit and tell me all about it.” She glanced around really looking at the room for the first time. “Where are all of the chairs? Momma?” she shouted over her shoulder. “Momma, where did you move all the chairs to?”

“Lenora,” Dimitri said with a great deal of sadness. “The chairs were all burned in the fire.”

“What fire?” Lenora asked, visibly shaken.

“The fire the militia set after,” Dimitri hesitated, swallowing hard. “After they killed everyone in the village. Including,” he looked down reaching for her, but stopped letting his arm fall back to his side. “Including you and your family.” Lenora stared at him without understanding. She took a stumbling step away from Dimitri shaking her head. “Lenora, you are dead,” Dimitri whispered, before taking a deep steadying breath. “You are using the body of another to talk with us, but she can’t stay out here in the cold. You cannot stay in her.”

“The village,” Lenora said, having heard but still did not fully understand. Then, she looked up at Dimitri with tear filled eyes, trembling all over. “I remember.” She looked around the room slowly, seeing the past unfold before her eyes. “It was so long ago. We were all asleep when two armed men burst into our home taking my mother by the hair.” She abruptly smiled slowly sliding her bonnet off her head once more. “She had beautiful hair, my mother, do you remember Tre? Long and soft.” She was ringing the bonnet in her hands. She considered Dimitri’s pained eyes. She was smiling through her own pain like a child at the memory of a favorite, long dead pet. Then, she threw the bonnet on the ground and gripped her hands into fists fighting back tears. “They dragged her outside screaming about how they would kill her if we did not follow them. What choice did we have?” Lenora whispered, with tears streaming down Nadia’s face washing some of the grime off. “I grabbed my baby brother and held the hand of my sister, my three-year-old baby sister. We followed the men as they dragged my poor mother down the street. She was so strong.” Lenora stopped, almost smiling as pride filled her voice. “My mother was always so strong. She tried so hard not to show the pain she had to have been feeling by the way the soldiers were treating her. My father kept telling us it would be all right and to stay quiet and together. He never looked at us when he said it, but he said it over and over. When we all got to the City Center, they asked my father if they had seen,” she stopped and searched Dimitri’s face. “You.” She took a step toward Dimitri. “They were looking for you and Godric. None of us knew where you were. I could not even remember having seen you at all that morning or the night before.” She stopped and rubbed Nadia’s hands down the dingy apron, collecting herself. “My father was a brave man, maybe too brave.” She looked up at Dimitri with stubborn pride before continuing. “My father told the short man that even if he had known where you were he would not have told them. The short man turned to the soldier next to him and nodded. A simple nod to a rather honest and average looking boy of maybe eighteen was what would seal my death. I didn’t even know what was happening until he was pulling the sword out.” She looked down at her abdomen remembering the exact position that sword had entered. A thin line of blood appeared on the apron and Dimitri took a step toward Nadia.

“No, stay back,” Lenora said, with a fierce determination as she grabbed Nadia’s freely bleeding abdomen. “My mother was screaming when I fell to the ground. She tried

to throw herself on top of me, but a soldier grabbed my brother and held a knife to his neck. I watched as they slit his throat. I remember hoping he could die quickly and not suffer as I was. When death finally came to me it seemed so peaceful, but I could not leave. I had to do something to save my family, something, anything. Instead, I witnessed all of them get killed and then everyone else in the village, except you.” She stopped pointing at Dimitri with Nadia’s bloody hand. “You,” she screamed as she ran at him pounding on his chest.

“Please, Lenora,” Dimitri said allowing her to hit him. “Let her go.”

Lenora stopped hitting him staring at Nadia’s bloody hand, fascinated by the warmth of the blood. “I was screaming and screaming for people to run,” she said in a quiet voice as she stood inches from Dimitri. “I ran at the soldiers. I tried to stop swords. I even tried to hit the Dream Killer. Nothing. Nothing worked. There were bodies everywhere. My family and friends, killed and I could do nothing, but watch. After the soldiers burned the village, I didn’t know how to leave. I was stuck here and for what?”

She stopped and looked up at Dimitri. She stared into his eyes as she slowly wiping Nadia’s bloody hand on the apron. Dimitri, however, was looking at the wound that was bleeding sluggishly on Nadia’s abdomen.

“I saw you and your brother when you came back. I saw you burn the bodies. We all did. Some were grateful they could leave, but,” she gestured around, taking a few steps away as Dimitri reached for Nadia to heal her. Lenora also looked down at Nadia’s abdomen. Almost at once her head snapped back up.

“Dimitri?” she questioned, as she looked around. She staggered toward him and then screamed, “No! There is more I need to know.”

“What?” Dimitri asked.

“Stop this, Lenora.” Nadia said. “You are hurting me like you were hurt.”

“I don’t care,” Lenora yelled at Nadia, not willing to give up her body. “He caused this, all of this.” She said swinging her arm around. “And I want to know why.”

Dimitri hung his head. “You’re right, Lenora.”

“No,” Nadia said, taking a step toward Dimitri. “Lenora, does not blame you Dimitri. She is only upset and very scared.”

“Stop talking for me,” Lenora snapped, as she pulled Nadia a few steps away from Dimitri.

“I will stop talking for you when you give up my body. Only then will you truly have a voice anyway. Let me help you.”

“Ha,” Lenora said harshly. “How?”

“Any way I can.” Nadia whispered with her eyes closed.

Nadia knew she could not keep the tug-of-war for her body going. She was cold, tired, and in a great deal of pain. While Lenora possessed Nadia, Nadia was unable to use her gifts. Nadia didn’t blame Lenora, but she also knew Lenora’s determination to stay was going to kill Nadia.

“There must be some among the Prestarian’s that can help me to help you,” Nadia began again. “But even if there is no one, I promise I will try. Lenora, I promise.” Suddenly, Nadia bent forward clutching her stomach. “Please, Lenora, I can’t help you if I die the same way you did. Please.” Nadia whispered the last word wrapping both her arms around her midsection as she fell to her knees.

“You must keep your promise, you must,” Lenora whispered for Nadia only as she left her body.

“She is free of the darkness,” Kieran said.

“Nadia,” Dimitri said rushing forward. “Nadia, stay awake.” He placed a hand on her stomach and back, healing the wounds. She gasped and considered his worried face.

“She lived for several minutes,” Nadia said, in a hushed voice. “She really did witness her family being brutally murdered and she was only twelve. Her whole family, her whole life.” She stopped, unable to keep talking because she threw up violently with tears streaming down her face. When she finally stood up she rocked on her feet exhausted. “Lenora wasn’t the only one, Dimitri,” she said clutching at his chest. “There was a man, another ghost. He was so angry, because he received a Dear John letter or something. I thought I was only seeing his memories, but then my room was really messed up, so it must have happened with him too. I don’t know how to stop them and they are everywhere.” She glanced around the area looking at other ghosts that had drawn closer to watch.

“Please, Nadia,” Dimitri began wrapping her in his arms. “Shhh, please stay calm. Astrid, is there some place safe outside the City Center she can rest for a few hours?”

“Yes,” Astrid nodded. “She may rest in my tent. Kieran and I will fix it up for her.” Astrid took Kieran by the hand and they hurried off.

“There was so much death,” Nadia whispered, as Dimitri led her out of Lenora’s burned down home. “So much death in this place and for what?” She continued mumbling to herself, clinging to Dimitri’s arm. As they walked, the ground started to tremble lightly.

Clouds were rapidly filling the bright morning sky and there was a threat of a massive downpour.

“Nadia,” Dimitri said, as he stopped and forced her to focus on him. “Please Nadia, please calm down. You are making the ground shake.”

Nadia considered Dimitri’s blue-grey eyes, took a deep breath and the shaking stopped. She closed her eyes and the sky cleared. Keeping her eyes closed she said, “I’m sorry Dimitri. I’m sorry for everything. I’ll try harder to control me gifts, but the death, the needless death is everywhere.”

Then, she gently laid her head on his chest and fell sound asleep. Dimitri sighed before swinging her into his arms. He was worried. Really worried. But she had been through so much already, he thought. Coming to my world, entering and leaving the dream realm, dying or nearly dying, and now ghosts. She is strong and she is not alone.

“I will help you fight, Nadia of Earth,” he said softly. “You will win. You must, for all our sakes. But for now, you shall sleep safely. For now, and for as long as I can keep you sheltered, you are free of your burdens. But I fear that will not be for long enough. A war is coming.”