Forever

Chasing Dreams

     Hazel's breath came out in labored gasps as the words made a home in her shattering heart. They were so foreign, like another language entirely. This couldn't be real, none of this could be real. Her dreams were just that; dreams. Images she turned into paintings to cope with her own nightmares. They felt more real than her life sometimes, but she removed herself from them onto paper. Brush strokes of madness from a tortured mind. The only thing that comforted her after restless nights and mornings avoiding her drunken father.

     She frowned at the word now, a sour taste in her mind. The man she'd called family for eighteen years, the man she feared. He was gone. Declared a demon by this boy who seemed so determined to protect her from something. This boy she barely knew. How could she trust anything he was saying? Something was wrong with him, that much was obvious. But how did she know his intentions weren't to harm her? Drag her out to God knew where and murder her quietly? Like he murdered her father. Bury her body where no one would ever find her. No one would look anyway.

     But she couldn't shake the tug, the feeling like she was missing something. Something just out of reach. Buried under all the panic a small sense of safety with Jayden. His name had rooted itself into her core, demanding answers. She wanted to run from all of this, but she couldn't. For whatever twisted reason her mind had decided to trust him. To follow that invisible string he seemed to be apart of.

     But the so called truth he threw in her face, it was ludicrous. If she wasn't human she would have noticed by now. Sensed something off if nothing physical. Nightmares hardly merited something otherworldly. He was either wrong or lying, he had to be.

     "Hazel?" Jayden's cautious voice interrupted the crazed thoughts circling in her head.

     She drug her eyes over to him, her swollen eye partially closed. "I'm not a demon."

     He let out a short laugh before he could stop himself, embarrassment blooming across her features. Immediately he looked guilty, biting his tongue and bringing his apologetic eyes to hers. 

     "I'm sorry, it's all so normal to me. No, you're not a demon Hazel. I promise."

     She swallowed hard, glancing down with watery eyes towards her trembling hands. "Then what am I?," Her voice barely came out above a whisper.

     He was fighting that unseen war again, eyes raging as his mind fought with itself. "Maybe you should take this in steps..."

     She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, tears leaking out and trailing down her cheeks. "Please," she choked, "I need to know."

     He sighed, running his hands though his hair. She barely noticed as he stepped closer to her, his pale hand hovering by her trembling body. "You're a seer," his voice was gentle, quiet.

     She hugged her arms tightly to her body, the word triggering something deep inside herself. The tug pulled at her very core. The demon voice she heard in her room echoed throughout her mind, bouncing against her barriers the harder she fought to block it. She could still feel the chains rattling harshly on her skin, cold and heavy. The image seared in her mind, the moment taking hold into a form. The feeling all too familiar. Despite everything her fingers itched for a paint brush, anything to remove this horror from her mind.

     "What does that mean?" Her tongue was heavy in her mouth, the room spinning horribly.

     His blue eyes studied her trembling form, seeing right through her. "You need to sit down Hazel, your heart is beating way too fast."

     Digging her nails into the skin on her arms she glanced at him. "I'm fine. How do-"

     "I can hear it," he interrupted guiltily. "Please sit down, I swear I'll explain."