In Your Wildest Dreams

Chapter 1 ~ The War Zone

The last thing Cletus Ashby can remember is the smell of lemongrass that filled his bedroom when he decided to call it a night and get some sleep. That night, however, was particularly strange. The room did not smell of lemongrass. His bedroom did not feel like home. He was not warm under the toasty, blue comforter he slept under. He felt alone. He felt unsafe. Cletus was not phased by this, however. He was a tough 15 year old boy. He had an abundance of other things to be thinking about. School, schoolwork, crushes, his friends, stress, drama. That was all about to change. He closed his heavy eyelids and slowly fell into a deep slumber.

In Cletus's dream, he was in the middle of a war zone. He could hear explosions piercing his ears every couple of seconds. The room he was in was completely dark. He then heard a cry coming from a room in the vicinity. Cletus had absolutely no clue where he was going. The only one of his five senses that were working was his hearing. The cry sounded as if it was coming from multiple people. One cry was infant-sounding. Cletus was mortified that a baby would have to go through such horrific events. He heard a few other cries- or was it just one? He had to find out. He had to help whoever they were.

All of a sudden, as if Cletus was once blind and just regained sight, the lights turned on. He could see the full damage that had occurred on this building. The walls were oddly discolored brick blocks stacked on top of each other in an uneven pattern. Cletus turned his head slowly to the left and saw a large gaping hole where a wall once stood. Rubble was piled just a few feet from where he was sitting. His curiosity took over and he slowly walked towards the hole in the wall. It seems as the explosions have ceased. The view he saw was amazing, however. The city was bursting with extravagant colors and lights. It seemed as if it was once a beautiful place.
"How sad," he thought to himself.
The city was never to be the same as it was. You couldn't see a block of houses without seeing smoke or rubble. Then, everything went black. He woke up.
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Cletus felt consciousness creeping up on him and immediately woke up. "What an upsetting dream," he thought to himself, "Thank God it wasn't real." That's when he heard the crying. His heart skipped a beat. Or maybe it was two beats. He slowly and anxiously opened his eyes to see the hole in the wall and the rubble. Cletus become very dizzy. He lost his balance and fell. He couldn't believe it.
"This MUST be a dream!" He said.
Cletus hit himself on the head. He pinched himself. He kept closing his eyes yelling "WAKE UP!"

"Hello?" A voice asked. "Is anybody there?"
Cletus looked in the direction of the sound. It sounded like a teenage girl. Her voice seemed sweet and gentle, it calmed him down in a way. It was no surprise when a girl walked into the room. When she saw Cletus, she was startled. She was speechless.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"My name is Cletus. Cletus Ashby."
Looking confused, the girl said, "Nice to meet you, Cletus. My name is Zaida. Zaida Bousaid."
Zaida. What a pretty name. Cletus took a moment to study her. She was tall with green eyes and a beautiful, majestic sunset-colored hijab. Her smile lit up her whole face. She had dimples that made a beautiful indent on each cheek. She had thick eyelashes and a perfect olive-colored skin.
"Excuse me?" Zaida asked, "Why are you just sitting there staring at me? Are you having a seizure? Should I be concerned? How did you even get here anyway?"
Cletus realized that he had been staring at Zaida for longer than he thought. Blushing, he said, "I'm fine, sorry. I'm not having a seizure-" Cletus paused for a moment. He didn't know how he got there. He didn't know what to believe.
"And I have no clue how I got here. I just woke up here."
Zaida seemed very suspicious about Cletus's appearance. Cautiously, she nodded her head and said, "Come follow me! I have no clue why you would want to stay in here."
Cletus followed Zaida through a small opening where it seemed a door used to be. They went down a narrow spiraling staircase into an open area that didn't have any rubble. Cletus noticed a mahogany crib over near the southwest corner of the room. A couple of yards away from the crib, there were several air mattresses. On the air mattresses laid five young children.
"These are my siblings." Zaida stated.
"How many siblings do you have?" Cletus asked.
With a sigh, Zaida said, "I used to have ten siblings, but sadly, three of them were captured by the military."
Cletus didn't understand.
Zaida continued, "My older brother, Zeno, the only one that hasn't been captured, is fighting against the regime."
Still clueless, Cletus asked, "What exactly are you fighting for?"
Zaida seemed shocked that Cletus didn't know, because it seemed to be a given fact of life for her. Staring out the window, she said, "We have been fighting for years. My family is part of the resistance against an evil regime that seized our empire. The regime did terrible things-" Zaida paused as if she needed to compose herself to go on. Continuing, she explained, "They tortured entire blocks of people at once, they stoned them, they'd cut their arms... They'd even... If you didn't give information.... They'd...." Zaida lost control. She tried to act as if nothing was wrong but you could see the tears building up in those abnormal but beautiful lime-green eyes.
"It's okay," Cletus comfortingly said, "I understand. You don't need to explain."
Cletus went to go hug Zaida, but then a boy in his late teens walked in. He had hair darker than the night sky when you can't see the moon or the stars, and extravagant aquamarine eyes. He was quite tall, definitely taller than Cletus and Zaida and had a muscular body type. He was wearing a t-shirt without sleeves, it seemed as if they were cut off. He was wearing blue athletic shorts that seemed pretty small on him.
"This is my brother, Zeno, that I was talking about before." Zaida exclaimed.
In a deep, manly voice, Zeno said, "Who is this boy?"
"My name is..." Cletus paused. Had he really forgotten his name? Of course he remembered his name but he couldn't focus. In a shaky voice, he said, "C-Cletus! My name is Cletus. Nice to meet you." His attempt of being "cool" seemed to have been a failure.
Zeno didn't seem phased at all. He held out his hand for Cletus to shake. It took Cletus a moment to process what was happening, but after that, Cletus grabbed his hand and firmly shook it.
Zaida was standing there watching as her brother and this random boy who just appeared in her house being complete idiots. "Boys," she said under her breath as she rolled her eyes.