Bad Dream

       I opened my eyes slowly trying not to move too suddenly.  Strangely though when I opened my eyes I wasn't greeted by any nurses or doctors.  No, instead I awoke in a what seemed like a dense forest.  The leaves of the trees were so dense I couldn't even see the sky but sunlight peered listlessly through small spots between the leaves.  I moved to my feet quickly trying to figure out what was going on, my body was numb and moved lifelessly as I walked.  I pushed through some brush into a clearing and was surprised to see someone who looked familiar to me. 

       "I see you're awake again."  It was Travis, he was standing in front of a small stream of water.  I guessed he had just taken a drink, his face was moist from the water when he turned around to greet me. 

       "I don't understand, where are we exactly?"  I asked him quickly.  A grin washed across his face.

       "Well, you should already know that."  He told me and laughed quietly.  I shook my head lightly and looked down at the ground.  Instead of grass and dirt we were standing on what seemed like a think plate of glass and beneath the glass was a raging fire.  I looked quickly back to where Travis was standing and the stream had disappeared. 

       "This doesn't make sense, I must be dreaming."  I said quickly, sounding slightly panicked.  I could only think of one other answer and I didn't want to believe it, but, maybe this was some strange twist of Hell. 

       "Oh, this is real.  Well it is for me at least.  We're inside of your mind, Ryan."  He told me, the expression on his face was now a lot more serious. 

       "Your friend Riley is here somewhere."  He said.  I looked around but all I could see were trees and bushes growing out of the ground of glass, nothing here made any sense.  Travis was now walking toward an area of brush.

       "Wait, how do I get out of here?"  I asked him. 

       "I'm not sure you want to leave, but if you decide to, you're the only one who would know how."  He said looking at me with a blank expression. 

       "What do you mean, you're not sure I want to leave?"  For some reason I felt strangely worried. 

       "Someone is out there, and that same person is going to kill you.  But that's not all you have to worry about, because it gets worse."  He told me, his face seemed to be full now with excitement, he seemed all too thrilled about what he had just told me. 

        "What do you you mean, who?"  I asked him as he pushed through the bush he was standing by.  I rushed quickly over to push through and catch up to him.  When I pushed through the bushes and emerged from the other side I nearly jumped back.  A train flew by startling me.  I looked left and right but Travis was no where to be found.  As the train finished passing I could see to the other platform and into the rest of the train station.  I saw a man walking in the distance and yelled "Hey, Travis wait!"  but the man didn't respond.  Another train was quickly approaching, I could hear the horn echoing in the tunnel to my left. 

        My body jumped and my eyes flew open, I was awake lying in a hospital room.  My heart was racing, and I could feel my pulse racing---every beat felt like an animal scratching deep into my skin.  There was a knock at the door and shortly after a male nurse, who I didn't recognize, entered and turned on the light. 

        "You're awake."  he said, and walked over to me to check my bandages. 

        "How long have I been here?"  I asked him quickly. 

        "Well Elisa told us you called when everything happened and when she arrived on the scene you had already passed out.  You haven't been out long though, just a few hours."  He said smiling as he un-covered me.  I wanted to jump when the cool air from the room hit my skin, it felt like snow had just been dumped on me. 

       "How's my friend Alana"  I could hear my voice and had noticed how scratchy it sounded now. 

       "Oh, she's fine we have her all stitched up in the other room.  We tried to ask her what happened, but she says she doesn't remember and that she must have blacked out."  He told me as he lifted the hospital gown revealing my thy and the bandages which were stained lightly with blood from my wound. 

       I watched as he put his gloves on and started to unwrap my leg, he didn't strike me as the male nurse type.  He had an olive-tinted complexion and was rather tall, with dark almost curly hair and a sort of reddish-brown color eyes.  I guessed he was Italian, he certainly was very attractive and that was common for Italian men.  My eyes were glued to him and his movements, which seemed now to be taunting me.  

       I leaned forward, my muscles were tense from lying still in the hospital bed and it felt as though each one tore slightly as I moved.  I had become so accustomed to the sense of normality behind touching with my recent behavior that this pain seemed ridiculously excruciating. 

        "Hey, don't move too much now, you could rip your stitches."  He said sounding genuinely concerned and it was almost irritating to me.  I hated hospitals and the way the doctors and nurses treated patients as if they were incapable of anything. 

       "I'm fine."  I told him quickly.  He finished changing my bandages and started back out of the room, only after telling me to remain in bed.  Before he could leave the room I threw my legs over the side of the bed and pressed my feet to the floor.  When I put the pressure of weight on my feet a pain shot up my legs and across my wound.  It felt like someone quickly ripped all of my stitches out, and my bones felt as though they were about to shatter. 

       "Nurse."  I said quickly, after taking two steps in his direction. 

       "Whoa, what are you doing?  You need to be in bed."  He said and quickly rushed over to where I was standing.  I felt so close to sanity that thinking about what I was going to do made me sick.  It was so easy to hurt people when I was already high from another person's energy, I almost never thought about it unless I was as weak as I was at that moment.

        I grabbed his arm as hard as I could and shoved him into the wall across from me.  His eyes started rolling and I could feel his energy coursing into my body.  It was like perfect bliss, like a complete sense of ecstasy.  As the energy rushed through my body all sense of feeling seemed to disappear and the pain in my leg was gone.  I could feel his pulse and breathing start to slow and I still wanted more. 

       Before I released him I forced forward a thought, something very simple; You don't know me, you never saw me.  His body dropped instantly to the floor and he started to seize.  I quickly opened the door to yell for help, and several nurses ran into the room. 

       "I don't know what happened he just fell out!"  I told them sounding as surprised as I could.  I struggled to hold back a laugh, for some reason in this state things like this seemed silly.  I grabbed my things from the chair beside my bed and exited while the nurses struggled to get their colleague to calm down.  

       "I need discharge papers"  I told the nurse at the closest desk. 

       "You shouldn't be on your feet."  The nurse said looking distraught.  

       "Look, I'm fine.  I just want to go home and get in my own bed, so you can discharge me or I am just going to walk out.  Either way, I am  leaving."  I told the nurse quickly.  She shuffled around through the desk looking for the appropriate papers before presenting them to me.  I snatched them quickly from her and signed across the bottom not even paying attention to a signature line. 

       I walked quickly across the hospital parking lot to the bus stop.  I hadn't used city transportation in such a long time but desperate times called for desperate measures.  I dressed in the bus stop while I was waiting for the bus.  Elisa, I had guessed, had left some shorts and a t-shirt in my stuff when she left me at the hospital.  Before long I was on the bus and then dropped off at the gas station down the street from my house. 

        I thought about my dream, or subconscious reality, as I walked to my house.  I was so confused about the things Travis had said to me.  Who could want to kill me, and why?  I thought to myself.  Was that all real in some sense?  I couldn't seem to steady my thoughts, I still was confused about why Alana stabbed me or why she cut herself the way she had.  I got home and sat down immediately, my bandages were probably disgusting.  I hadn't thought to check before, I was in such a hurry to get home. 

       When I unwrapped my leg to see how bad it was, to my surprise, nothing was there; not a single cut and definitely no stitches.  I could feel my heart beat pounding in my chest, I was certain there should have been a wound.  I heard a loud ringing in my ears, I was sincerely confused.

       My eyes flew open and I sat up quickly, I was in my bed.  I looked quickly over at my bedside clock, it was only two o'clock in the morning.  I heard the lock on the front door turn and the door creaked open.  I rushed out of bed and into my living room, it was Alana. 

       "Hey, why are you still up?"  Alana asked looking startled at my presence. 

       "I couldn't sleep, and you?"  I asked her sounding baffled. 

       "I was out with Elisa, we went to a late dinner and then went out for a few drinks, remember?"  She asked me, she looked at me one eyebrow raised.  "You okay?"  She asked sounding worried. 

       "Yeah, just a bad dream I guess."  I told her. 

       "Do you have a cigarette, because I could really use one right now."  I asked her.  She reached into her pocket and tossed me the box, it was her last one.

        "I have another pack."  She said quickly before I could say anything.  I walked outside and lit the cigarette with the matches that were on the porch.  Curiously, I walked over to where my car was parked to see the "YOU'RE DEAD" scratches still etched into the side.  I quickly finished my cigarette and went back inside with no intentions of going back to sleep.  Between my twisted thoughts, other peoples memories, and my bad dreams, I was having a hard time separating reality from everything else.  

        "So how was work tonight?" Alana said as she rounded the corner entering the living room from the dining room.  

       "It was slow and Anthony called out so I was pretty busy."  I told her quickly.  

       "What about you, how was your time with Elisa?"  I asked her expressly.  She stopped in her tracks and looked at me blankly, and her eyes moved around quickly as she tried to recall her evening.  

       "You know, I'm not sure,"  She said half certain of even that response.  

"I remember I had plans with Elisa, and something keeps telling me that I had dinner and a few drinks with her but I can't remember any of the details."  She went on to explain. 

       "You know, I know exactly what you mean."  I told her, thinking to myself.  I quickly went to my room and grabbed my phone which was lying on my bedside table where I had left it.  I sent a message to Elisa asking if she met with Alana and waited for her response.  My wait was short and as I suspected, Elisa had no idea what I was talking about.  I had dreamed this very same thing and now I was worried that it was more a vision than a dream.  I sprinted back to the living room and Alana was nowhere to be found, so I quickly ran to the kitchen.  Alana was standing over the sink knife-in-hand and she had it firmly placed against her arm. 

       "Alana, stop!"  I yelled at her, but she slowly started to slide the blade across her skin cutting herself just slightly.  I ran over to her and grabbed the hand holding the knife to stop her.  I tried to look into her mind to see what was wrong but it didn't work.  It was unusual no energy rushed forward, no sense of enjoyment or intoxicating feelings, instead I saw nothing just blackness.  

       "Don't touch me!" She yelled and shoved me.  She dropped the knife and started hysterically crying.  

       "Alana what's wrong?"  I asked her.  

       "I dunno!"  She yelled and hurried out of the room.  Something was definitely wrong with her, someone had definitely done something to her and there was nothing I could do.  Whoever it was, definitely had their bases covered, because I couldn't see anything.  Not because I wasn't trying, because I could feel the connection, but because something was blocking me!