When Nightmares Leave Scars
The moment my bare feet met the moist grass of the forest in my dreamscape, I felt it.
A sentient shift in the atmosphere.
The air felt denser and fully charged with something electric and violent. The trees rustled as they trembled and recoiled from a storm brewing. The usual scent of petrichor and pine was tainted with the acrid burn of unnatural.
And there they were.
My wolf, white fur stained with mud and an onyx liquid, her eyes burning with molten golden fury.
And her opposition. Me.
Or rather, the version of me I had come to fear. My doppelganger, the Melbringer. The last time I'd encountered her in my dreamscape, she nearly killed me with her wrath. It looked like my wolf had now taken my place.
She swung around wreathed in smoke and tresses, flickering between substance and shadow. Her pallid eyes squinted sharp with amusement with lips curled in a delighted smirk. Whatever was happening, she was relishing it.
An opaque filmy force coiled around her fingers, twisting through the air like serpents waiting to strike.
Then they collided, jolting the air between them.
My wolf lunged first, fangs bared, but my doppelgänger was quicker. With a flick of her wrist, shady tendrils shot out, enveloping my wolf’s legs like iron chains. My wolf barked, twisting, resisting, snapping her jaws, but the more she struggled, the tighter the hold became.
My heartbeat rose in pace in fear. She was hurting her! “No. Stop!” I choked out, but they didn’t hear me. Or perhaps, they didn’t care.
My pulse hammered and so did my anger. Why would they hurt each other like that? I rushed forward, hands outstretched, desperate to end it before they did more damage.
I couldn't die in the dreamscape but what said they couldn't too? I had to do something.
As if perceiving my thoughts, she turned. My doppelgänger’s glare met my eyes, and I swore the corners of her mouth twitched in psychotic amusement.
I barely had time to perceive her movement. Before I could move away, a sizzling spurt of discomfort burned through my left shoulder.
White-hot, blistering, as if liquefied metal had been poured right into my veins. I wobbled back, gasping as the pain intensified. My vision fractured into splintered light and shadow. My fingers clutched at my shoulder desperately, but it was useless, the burning spread, like venom.
My doppelgänger suddenly whooshed right in front of me as I fell backward. I pinched up smoke rising from her fingertips, stained with something sickly green.
For some reason, I could tell exactly what it was. Maybe for the fact she was a part of me or maybe for the fact that her powers were mine, but I knew it was Poison.
I fell, my vision darkening, the world folding in on itself and then I woke up with a strangled gasp.
My body jostled and my chest heaved as my lungs fought for air as I held my breath from the pain. The low drone of the plane’s engines roared in my ears, but it felt distant, muffled beneath the deafening pulse of my heartbeat.
For a moment, I couldn’t move, I Couldn’t think.
The pain was still present.
My shoulder felt like it was still burning with an invisible fire tearing through me, mirroring the wound from my dream. My fingers clawed at the armrests, knuckles white with snowflakes on my skin.
I wanted to scream, to cry out but my voice felt caught up in my throat. My vision only continued to waver between the dim sheen of the cabin and the remnants of the nightmare still clinging to my mind.
A hand suddenly grabbed my arm. “Harlyn!”
The voice cut through the haze, grounding me just enough to register it.
Ethan. His presence pulled me back to the plane, to reality. I felt the bed dip under his weight, the warmth of his body close to mine, and slowly the air was returning to my lungs.
Then his grip shifted and his fingers brushed my left shoulder. Fire
A scream ripped from my throat as I flinched violently, pain detonating under where his touch had grazed me. My body twisted away instinctively, breath coming in sharp, uneven gasps.
Ethan froze, his eyes narrowing in alarm. Then his gaze dropped to my shoulder.
I barely felt him tug at the fabric of my top, too consumed by the searing heat still licking at my skin. Tears coated my neck, it flowed down my eyes. I was out of the dream, why did it feel like I had a wound right at my shoulder?
A pregnant silence followed as Ethan stilled.
“What the fuck,” Caleb muttered but I caught it.
I forced my head up, my vision still swimming, and saw them. The others had gathered. Khalid. Tyler. Abigail. Caleb. They were all staring at me. Or rather, at my shoulder.
I followed their gazes, and my breath caught.
My skin. It was an ominously dark pulsing green.
The same sickly, unnatural shade as the smoke poison tendrils in my dream.
“W-what?” I stuttered out of confusion. My wound did follow me out of my dream?
The burn pulsed angrily as if responding to my question. The veins in that ghastly spot glowed faintly beneath my flesh, shifting, writhing as though it were alive under my skin.
Then, just as suddenly, it began to fade along with the pain.
Before my eyes, the unnatural color receded, retreating like ink washed away by a tide. The glow dimmed, the burning dulled, and within seconds, “It's gone?” I mumbled.
Like it had never been there.
A shiver ran through me. My fingers twitched where they rested against the seat, still curled, still shaking, still cold.
Ethan tore his gaze from my shoulder and turned sharply toward everyone else. His voice was steel, harsh, and unwavering. “Secure the plane. Now. Detach the cabins. Check for intruders.”
The atmosphere swerved into deep tension instantly.
Khalid straightened, his playfulness immediately tucked away as it switched into something more alert. He was the first to move forward. Tyler himself had grown serious too, seemingly ready to break into any form of violence necessary.
But I knew, this wasn't something they could fight. I reached out, grabbing Ethan’s wrist before he could move.