CHAPTER 8: Dream

After dinner, everyone had gathered round the TV watching itflix’s latest children’s movie. I looked around the room, and everyone was asleep; good thing I brought out the extra mattresses and blankets. Talking about Aria earlier was a mistake, she’s been lingering in my mind since.

“Maybe I’ll just give her a quick text...” Layla whispered to herself.

“Hey Aria, just checking on you. I know we had that argument the last time we talked, but you’ve been MIA for the past 2 weeks and everyone is worried about you. Give me a call or just text me back when you see this message.” Layla hovered over the send icon, contemplating whether it seemed like she cared too much.

She realised her overthinking even a single text was enough to speak for itself. She’s not over her yet, however, she’s the only one that knows about these feelings. She never told anyone, she’s never acted on how she feels, and most of all Aria never actually said she likes her. There was nothing for her to get over but her own delusions. Irritated and worried Layla switched off her phone and put it to the side.

“What am I even so upset for... we were always meant to be just friends...” she dejectedly whispered to herself. Tears began welling up in her eyes and she let out a silent sob. Her eyes slowly began to grow heavier as she cried, forgetting the long day that had just passed, and her eyes shut joining everyone else on the couch.

As her eyes opened Layla found herself sitting at the beach, with no recollection of how she got there or why she was there. The endless blue sheets of water calmly turned and crashed into themselves, as the clear blue sky reflected its light onto the waves. She felt at peace as the salty breeze penetrated her nose and filled her lungs with air.

She closed her eyes to absorb her surroundings, but in the far distance towards the east she could hear slight rumbling, and a sharp cold breeze stung the right side of her arm. She opened her eyes and the once calm waters turned violent, and the salty breeze began to smell of heavy rain. Towards the direction of the clouds, a dark eerie mist began approaching, it seemed to almost consume anything within its path. As soon as Layla took notice of the mist it began to move faster, Layla’s body jumped up and her flight instincts took over.

As Layla ran on the beach, the sand caused her to constantly trip, leading her to panic even more. She frantically searched for an area to take shelter in from the dark mist, where stumbled into a dark cave just a few meters from the shore. As soon as she stepped in, the dark mist rapidly whooshed passed and the strong winds pushed her deeper into the cave. She walked up to the cave’s entrance, and it seemed like there was an invisible wall preventing the mist from getting in.

 She let out a sigh of relief as she caught her breath from all the running and slowly began to take more awareness to her surroundings. A candle appeared in front of her; she picked it up and walked around examining the cave. Strange intricate symbols covered the caves walls, all drawn in black charcoal. Or was it paint? Candle first, Layla’s curiosity led her to one specific symbol, it’d appeared the most frequently out of all the other ones she’d seen. She smudged it and rubbed the unknown substance onto her fingers; trying to determine what was used to draw them, she lifted it up towards her nose and smelled it.

“Hmm... it’s charcoal but I’ve never seen this kind before.” Layla said to herself.

Suddenly the air within the cave became still, the candle she held in her hand began to vigorously flicker. Layla began to panic wondering if the mist had followed her into the cave. The flame grew still.

* Huff *

Almost like she could hear someone blow, the candle went out.

“Leave.”

A whisper brushed passed Layla’s ear. She turned to see where it came from, but it was too dark to see anything in the cave.

“LEAVE!”

The whisper turned into a yell.

“LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE!”

Echoes of the word leave began to fill the cave, bellowing and bouncing off the cave walls into her ears, almost piercing them. A loud and forceful ringing welled up inside her head, making it unbearable to stay in the cave any longer. Layla heeded the words of the unknown voice and began searching for a way to exit the cave, she didn’t care if she was consumed by the mist; nothing felt more dangerous than this.

* Gasp *

Layla woke up gasping for air from what seemed to be a nightmare. A cold sweat and drenched her entire back and dripped from her forehead. Besides her was her sketchbook sprawled open filled with what seemed to be scribbles, but on closer inspection, it was the same symbol she saw in the cave! Her heart sunk to her stomach as she held her breath. ‘How did my sketchbook get here? Did I draw these?’, those were the only two questions that filled her mind. Layla could feel rustling next to her, she flinched, panicked she was still in a dream. Evey had heard Layla waking up next to her and woke up in turn.

“What’s wrong? You okay?” Evey mumbled as she was till half-asleep.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just thirsty. Go back to sleep.” Layla affirmed Evey. Evey nodded and returned to snuggling with Lisa next to Layla on the left end of the couch. Layla decided to also go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning. She closed her sketchbook and laid back down, though her mind was racing with all sorts of questions.