Marked

Chapter Ten

I had another dream. This time, my mom was tied to a chair in the basement with duct tape over her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. Where her wrists were tied to the arms of the chair was blood.

"Mom?" I whimpered.

She started thrashing in her chair. Muffled screams erupted from her mouth.

I felt fear swell up inside me.

I have to save her.

I pushed up the leg of my pants, revealing a knife wrapped to my leg that wasn't there a second before. I dropped my pant leg back down and walked towards my mom. She was still trying to squirm out of the rope. I approached her slowly.

"Mom," I tried to keep my voice steady as my mother's muffled screams rang in my ears. "I'm going to cut the ropes."

I held the knife to one of the ropes on her wrist and started sawing it off. Once I got one of her wrists, she ripped off the duct tape as I worked on her other wrist. I sawed at the rope as she took of the blindfold.

"Scarlett," Her voice was cracked and frightening. "Scarlett..."

I cut through the other rope and looked into my mom's eyes. Black bags hung under then, circles circling her eyes. Her eyes... oh, her eyes. Red. Bloodshot. Wide with hunger.

"Scarlett my dear," Her hands held my chin, her nails long and dirty, practically black. She reminded me of a witch. "Scarlett, you saved me,"

I felt insane amounts of fear when she said my name. I started shaking my head. "No. No, no, no. You're not my mother. NO! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed.

The bare bulb that was providing the only light in the basement burst.

Silence took over, working with darkness to create an ungodly amount of terror.

Through the darkness, I heard my own breaths echo in my head. I heard a scurrying, a scraping, like metal chains being dragged on bare concrete.

I closed my eyes, hoping that all of the darkness would be gone when I opened them.

I opened my eyes and slowly looked over my shoulder.

"Scarlett, my dear... my precious..." I couldn't tell what direction my "mother's" voice was coming from.

I frantically started running to each of the four walls, trying to find my escape. I slammed my hands on the concrete walls, screaming. "HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

"No one can hear you my dear,"

I turned around and started backing up, slowly. "What do you want from me?" I felt hot tears start to make their way down my cheeks.

My back ran into something hard, something tall. Not like a wall, it was too uneven. I felt claw-like hands curl around my arms, nails digging into my skin.

"Good night Scarlett,"

I felt myself screaming but heard nothing.

I jolted upright in the bed, covered in a cold sweat. My face felt drained of color. I looked to the bathroom. The door was open and the light was on but I couldn't see inside. I felt the familiarity of the unknown and froze in the bed.

Chase emerged with a towel in his hand. "Shh," He pushed me back down gently. "Here, keep this on your forehead." He set the towel on my forehead.

The cold felt relaxing.

"Another nightmare?" He asked, sitting down beside me.

I nodded.

He nodded. "That's what I thought..."