Dreams

Chapter 3

Zephyair was there again, in the dream world. This time, though, she appeared in the place it last left off. Amarith sat on the couch. He patted the cushion next to him. She walked over and sat down on the indicated seat. "Zephyair," he said, in a casual tone, "I was waiting for you and beginning to wonder if you were an insomniac. I have a lot to tell you. Mostly about these dreams."                       

  "Really you found something!?" she said excitedly.

  "Well, kinda. This place is another dimension. That is, too a certain extent. Only us nosferatu can be here and actually interact with each other."

  "Nosferatu? Is that a word meaning vampire? ‘Cuz I think I’ve heard it before."

  "It is. It’s kind of the technical word for vampire. Something in our genetic make-up made us turn into vampires when the sun turned black and the sky red. But, with us also came zombies."

  "Ha! With the abilities I’ve found, we could kill them easily!"

  "You’ve only barely scratched the surface."

  "There are other abilities!?"

  "Each vampire has an ability that no other has. Mine for example is light. I can create it and diminish it at will. Also, I can summon sword, or katana to be more exact."

  "Cool. How would I go about finding mine?"

  Amarith stood up and held out a hand too her. "I’ll show you."

  They walked out of the dark portal and into the light. Wind tugged at her, bringing the scent of wildflowers and pine trees. Zephyair walked over the edge and looked down. It was a long way. Amarith came up behind her. She turned around to face him.

  He hand shot out, pushing her out over the edge. A scream escaped her lips as she fell. She closed her eyes, fearing the pain of impact.

  Nothing. No pain came. She opened her eyes, or so she thought. She only saw more darkness. She heard Amarith, "Darkness and shadows. Defiantly one of us."

  The darkness was penetrated by light. It fell away in wisps and strands, as id it had woven a shadowy cocoon around her to shield her from the fall.

  She was lying on her back, in the grass, looking up at the cliff she’d just been pushed off. Amarith looked down at her.

  "Take that smirk off your face," she hissed at him. He shrugged and moved away. She got up from her mossy bed and looked at him.

  "You’re one of us," he said.

  "And what are you?" she asked.

  "There are six elements in this world and out of all the people chosen to be nosferatu, only six can control one of them."

  "So, light and darkness are elements?"

  "They are just as natural occurrences as any other element. Thus, in my mind there are several other elements too."

  "Easy enough to understand."

  A howl from afar told Zephyair and Amarith they’d been found by the shadow beast. Others howls sound from all around them. It brought friends.

  "There’s more this time," she whined, stepping closer to him.

  "Apparently," he replied, conjuring a portal. "Let’s go."

  She walked toward the portal. A black shape moved beside her, then she was surrounded, by seven of them.

  "No! Zephyair, turn into mist," Amarith cried.

  She willed herself into her misty form. She could feel herself changing, but not fast enough.

 

  Again she woke with a start. ‘Damn!’ she thought. ‘I was sure her was going to tell me something important.’ She flopped back down onto her pillow, frustrated.

 

  Not far away Amarith had woken in a similar matter. "Zephyair you’er so oblivious to your surroundings! You have extremely sharp senses and yet you don’t use them. Perhaps that’s just your charm," he said.

 

  Zephyair spent the day toying with her new found ability to control shadows. She wanted nothing more than for night to come and to speak with Amarith again. A million questions went through her mind. Who are the other people? What are those damn shadow beast things? Many other questions came and went. She sighed as the questions became more and more complex. She began too feel as if she’d been forced into something and yet left out. She had no clue what was going on anymore.

  She gave up on improving her shadow skills and went upstairs to the living room. Once more a news bulletin was heard, "The transport will be here. There is no need to worry. The walls are holding and zombie and ghouls will not be getting through anytime soon."

  "They say that but they don’t mean it," she commented from the wall way, leaning against the doorframe.

  "I wish this hadn’t happened in the first place," her grandfather said.

  Willow said nothing, that was nothing new to her. Her grandmother’s death was finally affecting her. But not Zephyair, o she had given up on her. She didn’t care anymore.

  They’re family wasn’t a family anymore.

  She laid down on her bed, her looking up at the ceiling, music blared in the background. She was thinking but the time and her mind told her it was time to sleep.

 

  She smelt pine and flowers. ‘I’m in that place again,’ she thought, summoning a portal to the room Amarith had taken her too before.

  She came through and right were she wanted. Amarith paced back and forth, then spotted her. He ran over too her and hugged her tightly to his chest.

  "Stupid. If you had noticed the shadows beast sooner I could have told you so much more," he whispered urgently into her ear. He an his fingers through her hair.

  "Tell me what you need too. Have a million questions to ask," she said.

  He moved away and sat down on the couch. She followed and sat next to him. Then he began his explanation. "Those things that are chasing us, they’re being created. They’re in the real world too and they’re hunting us down.

  "If you can’t use your improved senses here, then you stand no chance out there in a battle with one." His voice became urgent. " I may have gotten rid of a few, but it’s not enough. As I said, someone’s creating them and at a faster rate then I can get rid of them. I can’t always protect you."

  Zephyair looked at him, her eyes fierce. "I don’t need to be protected by someone I don’t know," she yelled. He clamped his hand over her mouth.

  "Shh. They’re close by and I don’t want our meeting to be interrupted again."

  "Then keep going," she hissed.

  He nodded. "About the protecting thing, I just feel I need to protect you. I can’t help it." She frowned not liking that fact. He continued ignoring her expression. "I’m part of a group that’s researching the occurrences that have been happening. So far we’ve found three of the six elemental controllers. You, myself and Tori, you’ll meet him later. He controls fire, I control light and you control shadows or darkness. Out of the six you and I are the strongest.

  "I don’t live in Shore City, but I’ll be there soon. I’ll tell you more when I see you."

  "Right," she said, slightly nervous about seeing him face to face. He took her hands.

  "After this is all over, the zombies and ghouls and shadow beasts, what do you think will happen to us, the vampires that is?"

  "I don’t know. Maybe we’ll just sorta continue to blend like we do now."

  He smiled. "I’m creating a cure for the vampirism."

  She jumped up. "No! I don’t want to go back to be human!"

  "Why not?!"

  She felt angry. "I’ll go back to being the ugly thing I was before. I’ll teased and tormented again. At least like this they don’t!" Tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. Amarith wiped them away.

  "Please don’t cry," he whispered. "I don’t want to see you cry."

  She smacked his hand away. "Leave me alone."

  He stared at her, his eyes sad. They betrayed his feeling for her. She turned to leave, but her vision became distorted and blurry.

  "Your waking up naturally this time," he said.

  Then everything went dark.

 

  Zephyair had awoken to hear screams. From the small basement window she could tell it was still dark, early morning. She jumped out of bed and ran upstairs, bursting through the front door and into the cold winter night air.

  A blizzard greeted hr with snow and sleet. She could hardly see in front of her. She stopped a person and asked what was happening.

  "A driver lost control of his car on the icy road and ran into the wall. There was an explosion only moments ago and the wall went with it. Zombies were attracted by the sound and are coming in droves, so are the ghouls," they said hurriedly and ran.

  ‘S**t,’ she thought. ‘This isn’t good. I hope those shadow beast things are around.’ she ran back inside to grab a jacket and to see if her grandfather and sister were okay.

  Willow sat on her bed curled up in a ball. Her grandfather was nowhere to be seen. ‘He went to help,’ she thought and went outside. She followed the sound of screams to the crash site only a few blocks away. People and zombies were everywhere. Ghouls chased them left and right.

  Zephayir summoned her shadows and sent them after them. The tendrils ensnared them like vines and cut them into pieces. Blood mixed with snow.

  The scent of human blood tempted her. ‘Aven’s must be wearing off,’ she hissed. She recognized his scent in the air and followed it. She found him, or at least his head.

  Anger welled up inside her. "You’ll all die!" she shouted. Another scent came too her. Aya’s, she ran too it.

  Zephayir found her too late. A ghoul had just finished her off. She stiffened sensing a presence behind her. The sound of foot steps told her the person was only twenty feet away and closing in. She turned to face it.

  She wanted to run away.

  She wanted nothing more than to run away from him, from Amarith. He stood looking at her. Eyes fierce and solemn at the same time. He closed the gap, walking slowly. She stepped back. "Go away," she screamed at him.

  "This isn’t a dream, Zephyair," he said quietly. He was only a few feet away now and he held out his hand. "Come with me." His voice was laced with sadness and love. "I’ll protect you from them."

  "No! I’ll protect myself,"she whispered spitefully at him. She turned to search for her grandfather. She picked up his scent and followed it. He, too was dead. She fell to her knees. She had lost everything, two of her friends, her grandparents, all in one night. She cried. Amarith had followed her in her frantic search and she felt his hands on her shoulders. He picked her up in his arms and carried her. Too where, she didn’t know. She was dazed and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

 

  "Zephyair. Zephyair. Wake up," came a voice. She cracked open her eyes too see Amarith looking down at her. She closed her eyes.

  "Go away," she whined. "I don’t want too see you."

  "Be nice. I carried you here," he said. She sat up and looked around. She was obviously in a hotel. The generic and repetitive patterns on the wallpaper and flowery blanket gave that away. She closed her eyes again and saw Aven’s face, then Aya’s and her grandfather’s. She felt sick, the dead look in they’re unclosed eyes.

  Another guy entered the room. His hair short and black. He was extremely tall. Just like Zephyair and Amarith, he had crimson eyes.

 

  He looked at her. "Good morning," she said with a wide, cheesy grin.

  "Morning," she managed to mumble back.

  "I'm Tori by the way," he said cheerfully.

  "I’m gonna hate being around you,"she complained.

  "Why? I didn’t do anything."

  "You’re too cheerful."

  "Is that a bad thing?"

  "Right now it is," Amarith butted in.

  "Um..Where am I? And am I still in Shore City?" she asked.

  "Your in a hotel."

  "‘Bout two hours away from Shore City," Tori added.

  "WHAT??!" Zephyair jumped out of the bed and grabbed Tori by the collar of his shirt. "I’m I really that far away?!"

  "Yup," he shrugged and forced her hands too let go. Amarith came up behind her and sat her down on the small couch on the other side of the room.

  "It’s dangerous to be there now," he whispered gently to her.

  "My sister is there."

  "The entire city has been taken over by zombie and ghouls. If zombies didn’t get her, than the ghouls did. Not only that but I saw a few shadow beasts lurking around too."

  Tori tossed a tissue box onto her lap. She grabbed it and threw it back at him. It narrowly missed. She got up and stormed out of the room.

  In the living room sat an older man. His short, dark brown was tinted and his green eyes shone. "Ah, your awake now," he said as he looked up from his newspaper. "You seem very distressed. I guys Tori and Amarith told you the news. Not very gently either. Please sit down. I’m Doctor Smayal Nightling."

  "Pleased to meet you Doctor Nightling," she said poliety.

  "Just call me Sam. I’m guessing you dislike Tori and Amarith?"

  "Is it really that obvious," she said sarcastically.

  He laughed. The other two entered the room. "That’s not nice," Tori said. "Amarith’s the one who told you about Sam and his experiment and brought you here."

  "You," she pointed at him, "Are too cheerful. My friends and family are dead!"

  "We’re still not sure about you’re sister."

  "But’s its more than likely she is," Amarith added.

  "Shut up, both of you," Samyal shouted, angrily. "You’re not making her feel any better by doing that."

  Both of them quieted and sat down. Amarith sat next to Zephyair

  "Go away," she hissed at him.

  "I feel inclined to apologize for my bluntness," he said.

  They sat in silence. It was awkward, how closely he sat to her. His arm sat on the back off the couch behind, as he absent mindedly played with her hair. Tori fummed in his seat and sam sat on the opposite couch. The silence dragged on.

  Zephyair glanced at the clock, ten o’clock, "Are we waiting for something, or someone?" she asked.

  "Sam’s friend, Tanser, will be coming in about twenty minutes. He’ll take us too Toronto. That’s our head quarters," Amarith answered.

  "If’s he’s coming here, then how did you get here?"

  "He drove us here and left. We were going to convince you too join us when you woke up out of the dream state. I forced myself to wake up, you woke up at about two in the morning. That’s not usual for you. So something had to be wrong.

  "I told Tanser to hurry up and when we were only ten minutes away, he stopped and I got out and ran the rest of the way."

  "That’s a more detailed explanation than I was hoping for."

  He shrugged. "I thought that’s what you were looking for."

  "Not like that, but it works." She shrugged. He smiled at her. "Why do you want to protect me?" she asked quietly.

  "It’s more of an instinct to protect you than anything. I think I’ll follow what it says,"he whispered back too her. He continued to play with her long hair. It was starting too make her blush.

  Even though he had been in the dreams, she never really got a good look at him. His hair was black with light streaks and long, hanging down his back and around his neck. His crimson eyes obviously outlined in eye liner. He seemed to her, about sixteen, maybe seventeen.

  He noticed her staring. "Something wrong?" he asked.

  "No, nothing....Um...How old are you?"she inquired shyly.

  "Seventeen."

  Tori stood up suddenly, the movement made Zephyair’s eyes go to him. She noticed that the tips of his spiked up hair had fiery red. ‘How could I have missed that?’ she asked herself, as he crossed the room to the small half sized fridge.

  "Hungry my friend," Amarith stated rather more than asked.

  "Aren’t you? The last time we ate was yesterday morning, before we left to go get this girl. Who by the way is still in her pajamas,"Tori replied.

  "I completely forgot about that," Zephyair said looking down at her clothes. Amarith laughed.

  "Throw me one," he said. "Are you hungry?"

  "A little.."

  "How ‘bout we share one then?"

  "...Okay..I guess." She was hesitant about sharing food with other people. A bag flew across the room and Amarith caught it easily. He pulled it open and offered it to her first. She drank a little, savoring the flavor.

  Samyal put the newspaper he was reading down and looked t the clock. "More than fifteen minutes late," he said quietly. A knock at the door startled him and Zephyair. Her jumpiness made Amarith laugh.

  Tori went to the door and opened it. "Hello, Tanser!" he greeted.

  "Hi, there Tori! You guys ready to go? After what happened back at Shore City people are wanting to get to bigger cities and better protected areas. This is becoming a hot spot a the moment," said the person Tori blocked out of view.

  "Yes, lets check out and get out of here. The traffic coming this way will attract those shadow beasts,"Samyal said standing up.

  Amarith stood as well and held a hand out for her. She stood without his help. He shrugged off her coldness and grabbed her jacket. She took it from him. The less people realized she was in her pajamas, the better.

  It was a long six hour drive too Toronto. Especially when your stuck in a car with four other guys. Even when that car is a lambragini. Zephyair had stood in the parking lot, jaw dropped and eyes wide, looking at the black car with its red decals.

  The car really didn’t match the driver. Tanser was normal in height, but his blond hair was spiked out in random directions and his hazel eyes were behind black rimmed glasses.

  To Zephayir, he had the overall appearance of a "emo" poser, wannabe j-pop singer.

  She hated people calling other people "emo". She yelled at them for it, saying that it’s a style of music and a clothing style. Her sister, Willow used the term "scenester", to describe her style.

  Tori snored loudly to her right and Amarith played with a long strand of her hair to her left. Samyal and Tanser talked in the front seats as the car flew down the road at almost ninety miles an hour.

  "Welcome to our headquarters," Samyal announced when they drove up to a large mansion. ‘Holy s**t!’she thought. ‘Tanser really does like to flash around the cash.’ She learned from Amarith that Tanser was the financial sponsor for the group and that the too were really good friends, even if Tanser was three years older.

  They stopped at the large double front doors. Amarith smiled to her gently and led her inside. Tanser walked in behind them. "Ah, the luxuries of being rich and an only child," he said stretching.

  "His parents were both killed by ghouls," Tori whispered as he walked by.

  "So this," she said moving her hand to indicate the large mansion, "Was all inheritance?"

  "Basically," Amarith answered.

 

  News channel had gotten their hands on the Shore City zombie take over. The broadcasters left Zephyair knowing that only a handful of people actually survived.

  Ghouls and zombie were everywhere. Camera crews stayed within armored vehicles and anyone who left them became fair game for the ghouls. They even said so in the bulletin, telling everyone that what they were doing was stupid.

  Samyal put the newspaper down, he’d found another one. "Aren’t you glad we found you when we did?" he said.

  Zephyair looked at him. "Yeah, but....Couldn’t you have done something?"

  "Tori and I were busy at the hospital."

  "Doing what?"

  "You’ll find out in time."

  She sighed, tired of not getting any straight answers. She wanted to talk to someone. Amarith came to mind, but he was nowhere to be found. He disappeared after showing her a room in the large mansion. She figured he’d cling, guess not. She had questions and wanted to ask them to him, he’d answer them for her.

  Ten minutes turned into twenty and twenty into an hour. She found her way back to her room and collapsed on the bad. ‘This suck,’ she thought. ‘Maybe I’ll see him in that dream thing again.’ She rolled over and it finally dawned on her that the room had no clock and she was still in her pajamas. ‘Damn it when will I invest in some clothes.’

  There were two dressers and a closet in the room. She eyed them closely. Then jumped off the bed and ran to the closet first. She closed her eyes, hoping for clothes that would fit her and hopeful be in her favorite style too.

  The smiled widely and ran to the dresser on her right. Her smile became somewhat cheesy and she dove to the other dresser. She squealed loudly. Not only would the clothes fit her, they were in her favorite style too.

  She located the drawer with pajamas in them and tore off her own. She had the pants on when the door opened. She turned to glare at the person, forgetting she had no shirt on. Amarith blushed brightly and turned around. Zephyair did the same, while slipping the shirt over her head.

  "I was just about to tell you that the dressers and closet had clothes for you. I guess you found out on your own," he said with his back still turned to her. "Sorry I barged in like that."

  She turned around. "You can look now," she said. He turned to face her. His face was still bright red. She laughed and he turned an even brighter shade.

  She sat on the bed and looked around. "Hey, Amarith, what time is it?" she asked. "This room has no clock."

  "It’s about twelve," he replied "You should sleep now you’ve had a long day"

  "Is it really that late?" She stifled a yawn.

  "Yeah."

  "Wow."

  "Go to sleep. If you have need anything ask later."

  "Okay." She yawned again and fell back to the bed. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow. Amarith smiled and closed the door behind him.

 

  She didn’t recognize this place, not in the least. But Amarith was there, perfectly content sitting in a chair in front of a small café across the street. He wasn’t alone however.

  Tori sat on the other side of the table. She’d never seen him in the dreams, but she guess that since they knew each other or were close enough, she could. Both he and Amarith looked at her. She walked over to join them.

  People walked this way and that. Several walked through her.

  She took a seat, one closer too Amarith than Tori. He smiled and Tori pretended to gag. Zephyair took notice.   "I just like him better than you," she said.

  "Right," he replied sarcastically.

  Amarith sighed and shook his head. "Be nice. Both of you. This is the first time the three of us have been here together," he said. "I have no clue where this is thought."

 "I know!" Tori exclaimed. "We’re in Detroit. My home city."

 "We’re in the US!" Zephyair said. "I’ve never been there before."

  Amarith laughed, "You’ve lived a sheltered life."

  A loud crash drew they’re attention to the street. A car pile up and a shadow beast at the midst of it.

  "Shadow beasts are the only thing other than us that can use this world. To bad they can be in both at the same time."

  "Really, I’ve noticed the first part. I didn’t know about the second one though."

  "Oh, shut up. I’ll handle this," Tori said, jump up from his seat. He ran to the crash site.

  The shadow beast saw him and leaped to meet the challenger. Tori stopped and held out his hand, flames appeared in his palm. They grew larger, until they encompassed his whole hand. The beast landed only a few feet away and began to circle him.

  He smirked and threw the flame at the beast. The movement made it lunged toward him. The flame hit it squarely in the face. It stopped its charge and was suddenly surrounded by a spiral of fire.

  The space between the beast and the fire grew smaller and smaller until the fur on its back went up in flame as well. It roared in pain as it became nothing but bone and ash on the ground.

  Amarith clapped his hands and Zephyair stood wide eyed with her jaw dropped. He looked at her and put his hand under her chin, closing her mouth. She blushed.

  Tori walked over and rolled his eyes. She glanced at both the guys and sat back down. Amarith laughed, then sighed. Suddenly he disappeared. So did Tori.

  ‘Great I’m here alone now,’ she thought. Then her vision blurred and became distorted. ‘Oh, so they wake me up too now.’

 

  Tanser looked down at her. She opened her eyes. "You’re the last thing I wanted to see when I woke up," she grumbled sleepily.

  He chuckled, "Were you expecting Amarith?"

  "No." Zephyair pushed him away and sat upright. "Go away."

  "Be nice this is my house."

  "Whatever."

 

Author's Note

Fixed somethings, but some problems remain. Besides that tell me about spelling/grammar errors.