Dream Killer: Book One in the Nadia Chronicles
Chapter 4: Decisions Must be Made

She flung herself from the room running hard for a group of trees that she could just see in the distance. Of course, she thought, why would it not start to rain? Nadia was only wearing her blue jeans and a thin t-shirt and the rain soaked her to the bone within minutes. She threw herself at the trunk of a tree to try to get a little protection from the storm. She looked back to where she had just come from and took comfort in the fact that she could no longer see the house.

For a few peaceful moments, Nadia sat in comfort against the large tree and simply listened to the rain falling all around her. Then she looked down at her hand and saw that it had started to bleed again. She curled up under the tree wrapping her arms around her legs to try to stay warm. She was thinking about everything that had happened to her. She was confused about why she had not woken up and Nadia felt so alone. She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there before she faced the reality of the situation. Maybe this isn’t a dream, she thought.

A chair that can speak without a mouth and fairies locked in a chandelier? No, this must be a dream, she nodded, agreeing with herself. But, how do I wake up? Earth shaking thunder and lightning interrupted her wondering while it controlled the night’s sky.

Usually Nadia loved a good thunder storm. Watching the lightning was a thrill, but the storm seemed menacing and dangerous. The lightning lit up the sky with such force that it looked like the sky was on fire. After each lightning strike, the thunder roared through the sky as if it were a mythical sky creature. The storm raced toward her causing the rain to pound harder and the trees to scream with wind. While Nadia listened to the storm, she thought she could hear voices through the storms howls. The voices sounded very old and very powerful, but terrified. She was just starting to make out what they were saying when the tree, she had taken shelter under, was struck by lightning. The power of such a great tree getting hit by such a massive force caused Nadia to be thrown several feet. She scrambled even farther away when the tree burst in flames. Nadia jumped up and watched helplessly as the tree burned with a fury that could not be quenched. She realized then that the voice she heard in the wind moments before were the trees and they were screaming. They were calling out to her to do something and Nadia desperately wanted to.

“But I don’t know what to do,” she yelled out to them.

She looked to the rain to douse the flames, but the rain missed the trees altogether. She began to weep tears of pity watching the flaming tree sway violently in her direction. With one last longing glance, she ran from the tree that had protected her from the storm. The storm began dictating where she was going, but she didn’t notice nor did she care. Her heart ached for that magnificent tree. She thought she could still hear its howls before she realized the howls were her own. Nadia had slowed to little more than a walk. She sobbed as she balanced on the edge of a huge cliff. She glanced over the shear drop and watched a rough sea tripping and crashing over jagged rocks and an unforgiving rocky beach. Nadia was not afraid of heights so standing on the edge didn’t cause her any fear, despite the ground being made unsafe by the rain. As she walked slowly the rain lessened and all but stopped. The world seemed to hush as if to wait to see what she would do. She stopped and just stood, trying to pull her exhausted mind together, staring off into the black horizon. She was lost in her own thoughts, until she jumped at the sound of a voice.

It simply asked, “Why are you here? You are in pain and lack the conviction to go on, so why do you bother?”

She could not deal with anymore disembodied voices. But Nadia did agree with the voice and told it so. She didn’t know why she was there. She felt so empty and alone causing her not to care about whether she was going to wake up or not. She looked down at her still bleeding hand and noticed her own shadows. Nadia looked up to replace the source of the light and saw not only one moon, but two. One was as round as a spot light sending its protection to her and the other was smiling at her. She felt a little bit of resilience return as she always did when she saw the moon back home. She took a deep breath and steadied her breaking heart so she could have relief from her tears. With the warm light of the moons keeping her company, she felt less alone. She knew deep in her heart that she would be okay.

“I choose life,” she whispered as she glanced around, “and I am going to see this adventure to the very end.”

A scream pierced the empty night and Nadia felt as if she had been slapped across the face, slipping a few inches toward the edge of the cliff. She looked up slowly through her half closed, watery eyes and saw a man standing a few feet away from her. He was in a dark hooded cloak, but she could see his fiery orange eyes were full of resentment, rage, and a small amount of curiosity.

“She may have passed through the storm,” he said to someone standing close by Nadia. “But I have seen into her soul and she will fail you. She will fail everyone.” He was closing his hand slowly and smiling but his smile did not mask the fear in his eyes. Nadia felt all the strength she was barely grasping on to edging away from her. She stared straight into the light of the full moon struggling for breath feeling her consciousness slipping. In her own mind, she screamed with fear and anger. She had come too far in this damned dream and was not going to die now even if it meant she could finally wake up. She wasn’t even sure if it was still part of the panther dream, a new dream or maybe neither was a dream. She didn’t know, nor did she really care because, dream or not, she was not going to go down without a fight. She struggled to stay conscious by using the moon as a visual anchor and sheer will to stay awake within her dream. I’m not going to lose to some orange-eyed freak, she thought. She felt extreme exhaustion throughout her whole body and there was still an agonizing pain in her left hand. Yet, she focused on the discussion going on around her.

She heard with growing conviction, “If you truly believed that then why is there fear in your eyes? Even now, through injury and loss I am still fighting against your power and I am winning.” The cloaked figure turned back to look at Nadia with shock and amazement on his twisted, grotesque face. Nadia was as surprised as him that she had joined the conversation and was pushing herself up. “I have passed your test, so leave, because I am done playing your foolish games.” At that moment, he screamed out and vanished. Nadia nodded up to the moon and thanked them for their help and ever watchful light. She then collapsed.

She gasped reaching out into the darkness as she sat up. She was near the same large rock she had tripped over. She was tightly cocooned in her sleeping bag and felt claustrophobic. She struggled to unzip it before she remembered her wounded hand. Nadia saw that it had been wrapped, but the coarse cloth was stained with fresh blood. A man was sitting next to her with his arms wrapped around his legs and his eyes closed.

“Hello?” Her voice was horse.

“Nadia?” The man was wide awake in a split second and worried something had happened while he was quietly meditating. He noticed her blood-stained hand. When he reached for it he saw that she was trembling from the cold and pain. He reached over to a tea kettle that was sitting on the small fire and poured her a glass. She was already losing her battle to stay conscious when he turned back to her. “No, Nadia, stay awake just a little longer,” he pleaded with her. “You must drink this. You do not have the strength for another dream tonight and I think it will help stay off the cold.”

Somewhere in her mind she agreed with him and almost laughed, but lacked the strength. How could this man know of all the crazy dreams she has had? She wasn’t even sure if the last one was a dream. Either way, she did not open her eyes when he pressed the cup to her lips, but she did drink. It tasted awful. It was like bitter, coco-flavored grass with a shot of nasty. She didn’t mind, because she was freezing to her very core and the helpful man’s horrible flavored drink was warm. It calmed some of her internal shivers, falling asleep as soon as she stopped swallowing.