Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 12: "Let me Go"

Chapter Twelve: "Let Me Go"

The dream had come again.

The same disjointed dream that had appeared to him every night, since the moment Ella had been taken from him... he could hear the singing voices... could see bits and pieces of color... then bright lights... and smiling faces.

Dancing... a play.

He was just starting to see the wavering images... they were clearing up... and the muffled sound of the music was starting to make sense.

However, before it could happen... before he could finally see the dream, just like always, a scream of terror broke through the muffled voices, clear as a bell. He heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire.

More screams broke through, each sounding different.

Then, as it always did... the small dream world abruptly imploded, twisting into a gnarled blood stain that crumpled towards him in an unbelievably rapid manner. Concrete covered in blood closing in on him from every direction.

Then... nothing.

There was only darkness left behind.

The inside of his heart... beating slower and slower... red... all over his hands, and...

"No..." Xaphile spat, forcibly dragging his brain out of the nightmare and bolting upright. "No more..."

His long hair was plastered to his skin and he was breathing heavily, muscles quivering.

I hate this, he silently muttered, rubbing his face. Fucking nightmares...

After blinking the spots in his vision away, he realized that his ears were ringing. Xaphile slowly rubbed his aching head, trying to figure out where he was, but his brain felt strangely fuzzy... almost as though his thoughts had been muffled with a blanket of cotton or elastic tape. 

Nothing seemed to make much sense to him.

This wasn't his bedroom...

Or a cage...

It took a moment for it to come back, but once it did, he glanced down at the wrinkled blue robes he'd been given and a surge of depression washed over him. He buried his face in his hands, fighting back an extremely powerful urge to start crying.

Only one thought came to him as he sat there, quivering all over.

I want to leave.

Before he could stop himself, he slid out of bed and walked over to the door, gently opening it and peering out into the hall. 

Everything was dark, but after a moment his vision cleared up in a fairly startling manner, as if someone had thrown a blue-tinted light switch and illuminated everything. The light in the hall almost seemed to have adjusted itself, which was one of the strangest things he'd ever seen.

He didn't know what time it was, but it was obviously night outside since all of the windows he passed in the hall were pitch black. Feeling a little disoriented, he made his way towards the only source of light he could see, which was coming from the kitchen.

Upon entering the room, he spotted Amelia sitting in a rocking chair in front of a fireplace with an open book in her lap, head tilted back. She was breathing deeply and evenly, long-lashed eyes closed, and for a long moment he merely looked at her beautiful face.

She obviously didn't have a clue just how simple her life was.

In fact, nobody around him knew how easy they had it, and sometimes he really wished he didn't know, too.