Authors: Shelly Crane
I took another sip of the bitter coffee and tried not to grimace as the tasteless flavor slid down my throat, warming my body as it traveled down. I used the coffee as a distraction, something for my hands to do while I waited, but the more I forced myself to drink it, the more I regretted not just getting something off the laminated breakfast menu. The waitress sauntered over to me just then and presented me, what I was sure her most flirtatious smile and stuck out the pot of coffee in offer.
“Can I get you anymore coffee there?” Her voice was syrupy sweet and that combined with the question of coffee made my stomach hurt.
“No thank you.” I said just as sweetly and returned the smile. I could have been a complete jerk and I had the feeling she still would have swooned.
“Well then stranger, can I get you anything else??” It was hard to miss the invitation in her question, but if I had she made sure her point was made with her body language.
“No, but thank you. I’m just waiting for a friend,” her face fell slightly, but picked up when I added. “He shouldn’t be much longer.”
“Well if you need anything, you just holler for me.” She smiles again and turned. I could help but follow the swish of her hips as she walked behind the counter disappearing into the kitchen. I shook my head and tried to grind away the image from behind my eyes lids with my fists.
Turning I looked outside the window, it was pitch black outside with no light to be expected for months. Big billows of angry clouds covered the sky with promise of stormy weather for the people of this small town. It was the middle of the year on this side of the world and the middle of winter as well. They had been sunless for months and expected to be sunless for a few more as well. After almost 12 years of this pattern, it wasn’t a big fuss anymore. If scientist couldn’t explain it, then a town of less then 5000 people didn’t have a chance either.
I looked down at the table and began to skim over the outdated article that had been cut out of a deteriorating newspaper that was smashed between a thick piece of glass and the booth table, dated 10 years ago. It went on about how the town looked to be left without any sun for the second year in a row. The previous year the sun had just disappeared for nearly 7 months and that was left in its place were stormy clouds. No one could explain why this had happened how far how long it would continue.
It was an epidemic of chaos after the first month with no sun. Crime in this small town and the towns around who were also affected by the missing son sky rocketed to an alarming high. You wouldn’t think so much violence couldn’t exist with only a few thousand people, but it was there. Everyone swore it was the end of the world, an omen for the sins of all the wrong doers. Stores were raided and houses were broken into, people spent weeks underground expecting the unexpected. Reinforcements were finally called in and eventually everything started to calm down enough that it was safe to go out without being harassed.
After almost 8 months of no sun, the towns people had awaken one morning to find the first sunrise. Again nobody could explain what made it reappear or why any of it had happened in the first place, but with the ever changing environment people considered it a sign and a blessing when it returned, but when it happened the next year and the year after that, no one knew what to think anymore.
No one except for me.
I knew what caused the sun to fade and hide for months at a time, depriving the earth of its warmth, but I didn’t know
why
or
how
it happened.
I took another sip of my cooled down coffee and made a face of disgust.
Blah!
I don’t know why I continued to drink the stuff. I pushed it to the other side of the table so I wouldn’t pick it up again out of pure distraction. I waved off the waitress when she started to work her way towards me again and she put on a full pout, but turned around. I looked at my watch and realized it was just about time to get moving again. We still had another day or so of traveling and I wanted to get out of here before we got hit by this storm.
I decided to wait or Aaron outside and shifted out of the book reaching into the back pocket of my jeans and throwing down enough cash to cover the coffee and tip. As I passed the counter I tried to ignore the look of invitation in the waitress stare down as she drew lazy circles over the top of the counter with her red finger nail. With a nod of my head I pushed my way through the door of the coffee shop that tingled as it closed.
I stood off to the side, knowing he would be back anytime now. I shoved my hands into my pockets and rocked on the balls of my feet to keep myself occupied. It was cold for everyone else, but it didn’t seem to bother me, I kind of liked it or at least I had adapted for it.
This would be our last stop before we finally reached them and Aaron needed to get some last minutes supplies before we headed out. I just wanted to be there already, I was anxious and that feeling was getting stronger, which was a good sign I guess. I just wanted it to be over already, everything I had been through had been put in fast forward, literally, for this moment and now everything seemed like it was going in slow mo.
I saw Aaron come around the other side of the diner and I pulled my hands from my pockets and cupped them around my mouth blowing hot air into my hands, which also filled with the smell of coffee.
I was going to have to brush my teeth before we left,
I thought to myself.
He walked up to me nodding and I took a deep breath.
“
Let’s go get ourselves an ice Princess.”
Chapter Two: Ripple Effect
Sara
I couldn’t remember exactly when I had become aware of the fact that I was in a dream.
I couldn’t remember anything actually.
It was so dark I couldn’t tell at first if my eyes were closed or not and I blinked rapidly trying to see if I could distinguish a difference between the two. This type of darkness was intense and it immediately had me feeling claustrophobic. It didn’t help that I felt almost complete restricted, but by what?? My breathing came in harder and faster and I tried not to freak out.
I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, everything seemed to be pretty fuzzy in the when and where department. The more I realized just how little I could remember, the more the tiny pin needles of panic started spreading throughout my body, making my fingertips and toes tingle with numbness. I desperately tried to construct up some memories of where I had been or even what I had been doing last, but everything seemed to blur in my mind - as well as in this dream. I knew it had too be a side affect from still being comatose somewhere and honestly that’s all that kept me from going into full on hysteria.
I hated the kind of dreams where you knew you were in one, almost like looking into a window at yourself, but no matter what you did you just couldn’t wake yourself up from it. Sub consciously, you knew when you were dreaming, there is always that lingering nagging feeling deep inside sending out alarm bells that something just wasn’t right and I was experiencing those signals loud and clear right now. Everything inside me was screaming that something wasn’t right and it went a lot deeper then merely being held hostage inside a dream.
Scratch that, this was definitely more like a nightmare.
Dreams, at best, were something that you didn’t mind sleeping through or getting woken up from at the worst possible moment. Nightmares on the other hand were trapped doors, dead ends around every corner, fear gripping suffocation, and no matter how terrifying they seemed to be, it was almost impossible to be woken up from one when you wanted nothing more.
I hadn’t actually stopped to let myself think about the
nightmare
itself, I had been more absorbed with the distraction of the temporary memory loss I seemed to be struggling with at the moment, but now I was starting to feel…cold?? And that had me distracted in another direction. It occurred to me then that I was trapped and for the first time since becoming aware of my hallucination, I realized I couldn’t move anything. Why would I be standing??…or was I lying down?? I didn’t even know, but the fact that I was doing either of the two in this nightmare and I was just now realizing it, had me freaking out more.
Trying to focus, I pulled in all the corner of my concentration and tried to figure out my surroundings. I couldn’t see past a few inches from my face, so trying to squint to see a few feet in front of me was going beyond out of the question. My eyes had adjusted towards the pitch black I had been surrounded by earlier, it was almost dim now, but I still couldn’t seem to put into words exactly what I was looking at right in front of me. It also didn’t seem to help that my vision was completely clouded over. Whatever I was surrounded by was solid and not entirely clear either and whatever it was had a good grip on every inch of my body, the only thing I had any room to move was my head and neck and not by much.
Trying to analyze my situation inside my dream could have easily been hands down my
worst
idea ever. At least I thought so, I still couldn’t remember past memories so trying to remember past bad ideas or decisions was probably not going to happen at the moment either-
Ugh
, I scolded myself. I was getting side tracked again.
I currently had bigger problems to sort through. Starting with, why couldn’t I wake myself up?? Maybe I was just in too deep a sleep that it was going to take a while to coax my brain to finally react.
I knew that I had to be in some kind of…
What??
I in fact did not know what I was in. I couldn’t seem to feel anything around me, and even though I wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, the simple fact that I seemed to be snugly enclosed in something was extremely off putting. Breathing seemed to be next to impossible and I tried dragging small amounts of air in through my nose to keep from passing out, not only from lack of oxygen, but from the frightening unknown.
Could someone pass out in a dream??
I didn’t know.
I tried to focus on what my fingers could feel, but they were numb to the touch so the attempts were useless. I also wasn’t exactly sure where they were, it felt like my entire body had fallen asleep. I didn’t know if I had clothes on, but I couldn’t feel anything anywhere so there really was no way of knowing. Instincts automatically had me attempting to look down, but I was drawn up short, the tip of my chin rubbed up against something smooth…cold and…wet.
I shivered.
Just like that, the memory was there, flashing in my mind like big bright neon lights blinking
remember me, remember me
and instantly I was able to breathe just a little bit easier. It was as if the chill had triggered something inside my head and I remembered being sick, extremely sick. Two weeks had gone by with my intense flu like symptoms, if flu symptoms could be on steroids, mine had definitely taken a few hits. I remembered having a high fever, cold and hot spells - I could be burning up one minute and completely drenched within the next. Horrible headaches had attacked me as well as a dull ache that settled into my bones had also been among my symptoms. That’s what this was, I had obviously gone delirious, most likely from the high fevers and now they were messing with my mind.
I could feel it again, my body was starting to shiver from the coldness I had felt earlier and I prayed that this would be enough to awaken me. My breathing started coming out faster and I could see the small vapor clouds it left in front of me in the small cave that surrounded my head. Suddenly everything seemed
so
real to me, I was starting to see things clearer now and the edges around my dream no longer seemed to be blurred out. It was almost like someone had struck a match and instantly the small area I was in was bathing in a soft golden glow of light. I still couldn’t move my head to look down or even around me really, but my now perfect eye sight could finally focus on what was surrounding me.
No, trapping me
, I thought.
I blinked several times and squinted, my brows pulling together in confusion and I shook my head in denial.
This wasn’t real, I had I had to be dreaming
, my mind argued against the unfeasibility of my entire situation.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and dragged my teeth over the bottom of my lip and as hard as I could stand it, biting down on my lip. I waited a couple of seconds, waiting for me to wake up, but nothing happened. I opened my eyes slowly and instantly wished I hadn’t, the light around me had grown brighter and there was no mistaking it this time.