The Dreamer Part 2 by J.M. Hurley (affordable ebook reader .TXT) 📖

began filing paperwork. She gave me a quick smile and then quickly got back to work. What a hard working little women,

I thought to myself as I abandoned the cool office air for the warm hallways, then quietly jogged till I reached my room.

As I flung the door open I noticed that Sierra was still gone and the Kyle had left. Good

, I thought to myself, I want to be alone anyways

, but as I flung myself down, onto my bed, I knew that was a lie. I wanted my friends to be there with me, I wanted Zane there, and I especially did not want to be alone. I curled up into a ball and pulled the covers up as far as they’d go. It was still early, 6:00 P.M., but I was so exhausted that I forgot about the time and gave in to the drowsiness that was taking me over.


Chapter 18

When I opened my eyes I was laying a green meadow. The ground beneath me was covered in beautiful flowers and bright green, grass. I laid there basking in the warm sun and almost drifted off until I heard soft footsteps in the plush grass surrounding me. I quickly sat upright and found myself staring at a beautiful little boy. He had dark hair, and beautiful, familiar looking brown eyes. He looked about 5 or 6 years old, and his face held a very white smile, teeth and all.

He raised his tiny hand and waved at me. I laughed joyfully and picked the little boy up and spun him around until we were both dizzy and doubled over in laughter. ‘Such a cute little boy,’ I thought to myself, ‘with his soft black, his perfect features, and his eyes, deep pools of chocolate.’

Now where had I seen those eyes before? Just then he laughed and his laugh, a sweet, innocent, little kid laugh, sounded very familiar also. Then suddenly it seemed as if the little boy was laughing at me, and not with me anymore. Her smiled, as if he was in on some private joke.

Then a thought occurred to me, “Where are we?” I asked and the little boy smiled a devious smile as if he’d been waiting for me to ask this. “The land on eternal youth,” He replied and then motioned for me to look down. “We become children again when we enter this realm,” He said and then, after he motioned again, I looked down and gasped. I was looking down at the tiny fragile little girl’s body of my younger self. I was wearing a frilly dress and my tiny feet were covered with white buckle shoes. I raised my hands and saw that they too were small and fragile looking. I looked even younger than the boy sitting next to me, which made another thought occur to me.

“So what do you really look like?” I asked and as soon as the words escaped my mouth, I knew I was going to regret asking. “Another good question,” The boy said in that terribly familiar voice and then his face began to contort and transform itself. I screamed not because of the gruesome sight but because as I got up to run away, I felt my own skin begin to bubble and transform. I saw the beautiful meadow slipping away and it was being replaced by a terrifyingly familiar all stone room, lit only by the torches the hung on the walls, and the candles that surrounded the slab of concrete in the center of the room.

My screams echoed off the walls as the little boy I’d just laughed with transformed into someone I’d hoped I’d never have to see again. Even though standing next to me was the man from my reoccurring nightmares he wasn’t the one who made me scream. I screamed when I caught sight of the person who was standing in the corner. Zane’s eyes sparkled under the light of torches and I could’ve admired his beauty all day if I hadn’t been terrified, he hadn’t been yelling.

“Get out!,” I screamed at him, wanting desperately for him to leave before he got hurt, but Zane continued yelling at the man, as if I wasn’t even there.
“I thought I told you to stay out of her dreams!” Zane shouted.

“Guardians are supposed to protect and educate, no chastise and endanger. I must say, you’ve done a rather poor job,” The man replied in his usual cold tone and as soon as he got the words left his mouth Zane tackled him to the ground and they began writhing and rolling around on the stone.

By now my age transformation was completely done and I was myself again. I wanted to run, yell scream, do something, but I was frozen in place. All I could manage to do was clamp my eyes shut and as I did so I began to feel the room around me, yet again, slip away. I didn’t want to open my eyes but I forced them open and when I did, I fell into black nothingness.

Chapter 19

My eyes flew open and I sucked in air. At some point during my nap Sierra must have come back because I could make out her soft snores from underneath me. By now my breath was coming in short, uneven gasps and my room seemed to be spinning. Once I had taken enough calming breaths, had plenty of oxygen flowing to my brain, and could see straight again I grabbed my phone and checked the time. It read 11:30 P.M.

I took another deep breath to try to steady my shaking hands and began my text message to Zane.

Look, we need to talk. ASAP. –S

I quickly hit send before I could change my mind and then set my phone back down near my pillow.

I need answers

, I thought to myself, I need the truth. Why am I having these dreams? If they are even considered dreams… What’s Zane hiding? Who is that creepy reappearing guy?

I let out a sigh of annoyance and blinked back tears of frustration as Sierra began to wake up.

“Summer? Was that you?” She asked then seeing the tears in my eyes, which I was trying(unsuccessfully)to hide. She quickly got up out of her bed and began climbing up onto my bunk. “What’s wrong? Did you get hurt again? Or was it just a bad dream?” She asked as she positioned herself at the foot of my bed.

“Well,” I began but was interrupted by my phone ringing. My heart leapt and Sierra, who must’ve seen my excited face, quietly mumbled something about having to take off her make-up, then got down and walked into the bathroom we shared to give me privacy.

“Hello?” I asked when I was finally able to speak.

“Summer, It’s Zane, I got your message,” He said and there was almost a hint of precaution in his voice as he continued, “but I can’t meet with you.”

I frowned when I heard that and couldn’t help but feel my anger from beginning to rise again. “No? Well I’m pretty sure you can talk,” I replied, and even I

shivered at the ice cold tone of my voice.

“Look, can you drop the attitude? It’s not like I don’t want to talk. I’m in detention and we aren’t even supposed to have phones in here but the teacher walked out so I figured I’d risk it.”

“Detention, huh? For what?” I asked and as soon as the words left my mouth I realized why he was there and felt like a complete, utter moron.

“I’m in here for punching a guy who threatened to hurt this really amazing girl. I never would’ve guessed that I’d be the one to hurt her,” he said his words felt like blows to my heart and normally I would’ve been flattered by him calling me amazing, but tonight it just annoyed me.

“Well the ‘amazing girl is looking for answers and, though she may be mistaken, she thinks she deserves something that starts with I’m and ends with Sorry,” I said and then remembering my dream I added, “You could start by explaining yourself.”

“Look, I want to talk Summer, really I do, but I can’t do
this right now, and I’d rather we talked about this face to face, anyways,” He said an I felt my rising anger begin to slip away piece by piece as it always did when I listened to his soothing voice.

“Meet me outside under the big oak at 6:00 A.M. That’s assuming you’re not in detention then?” I asked and I felt a pang of heart break as I remembered when we’d sat by the oak on our first date.

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” He said pulling me out of my flash back.

“See you then,” I said and was about to push End Call when
Zane said, “And Summer?”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“I’m sorry.”

I took a deep breath and replied in a calm, even voice,” We’ll talk later.” Then I hung up on the only guy I’ve ever loved and for the very first time in weeks, fell into a dreamless slumber.


Chapter 20

"Need to talk?” Sierra asked as I curled my hair and got ready for me and Zane’s meeting this morning. “Yeah, I do,” I said, turning to face her. “I’m sorry; I’m probably the worst roommate you’ve ever had. I’ve been super messy, I’m always running out, and I’ve managed to make you want to leave the dorm instead of hanging out with me. I’m really

sorry,” I said and as I finished my apology I noticed she was smiling.

“Look Summer, when I left yesterday morning, I got breakfast and then I went to the study session I go to every Saturday, I wasn’t leaving to get away from you. If anything I think I should be the one apologizing. Even a blind person could see you’ve been living Hell since the first day of school and I should’ve been nicer to you. I guess I just didn’t want any more complications in my life,” She finished and then we sat in silence for awhile until she added, “but then I realized the I’d sacrifice an easy life any day for friendship.”

I turned to face her and saw that she was smiling so I ran over and gave her a hug, which she squeezed back at. “Thanks, that really means a lot,” I said and then I broke the hug to go change into the skirt and tank top that I had set out on our bathroom counter.

I wasn’t really sure why I was getting so dressed up just for a talk, or why I’d gotten up at 5:00 so I could curl my hair before I had to meet with him. Sierra had only woken up around 5:30 when my nervous, shaking hands accidently dropped my make-up case. After seeing my flushed, nervous, face she promised that she’d stay up and keep me company until I had to leave.

As the time ticked away my palms began to sweat and my pulse stared to speed up. What am I going to say?

I thought nervously. I had no idea how to approach the subject of my dreams with him, but I knew that it had to be done.

When I checked the clock, for what seemed like the 25th time in the last ten minutes, and it read 5:53 A.M I decided it was time to start walking