Dream Bound: Book One | ✓ [COMPLETE]

Dream Bound - Chapter Nineteen

                                           Dream Bound

                                       Chapter Nineteen

                                            day twelve

    “Damn it, Ivy, answer me!” Colton’s voice shook loose fragments of my clouded thoughts. I was lost somewhere inside my head, tied down by that creeping, crawling, horrifying feeling. It slinked along my skin, scratching and tearing at me from the inside out. A few frightening seconds earlier, I’d cried out, shrieking something along the lines of Colton’s name.

    Lifting my head, I forced my gaze to meet his. The moment they connected, a dull ringing sounded at the back of my mind. My senses began to clear--one by one. His knuckles had gone white--hands gripping my shoulders. I took a deep breath in, a deep breath out.

    “Something happened here,” I said in a low voice, twisting and untwisting my hands.

    “We covered that the first time around. Was it a vision? A feeling?”

    “A feeling,” I recalled, cringing as the residue of it clung to me like spider webs.

    “Details, Ivy.” He appeared patient, but I could see the underlying anticipation.

    I shook my head, lips pressed into a taught line. “I can’t.”

    “Why?” he groaned, exasperated.

    “It was so horrible...it was just this feeling. It felt like not being able to breathe, spiders crawling all over me, flames licking my skin.” My explanation was extremely blunt, and probably made no sense, but it was the best I could do. Colton didn’t say anything for a moment. I could picture the gears turning in his head as he processed this information, trying to make sense of it just as much as I was.

    “And it happened as soon as you came in here?” He cocked his head, eyes jumping all around the walk-in closet.

    “As soon as I knelt down here.”

    “Did the feeling lure you in here?”

    I shook my head again. “I actually came here to look at that dress.” My lips cracked into a fabricated smile. “You know, the one I wore when we went dancing?”

    “I remember.” A short nod, unfocused gaze still trained on the space around us.

    “I knelt down here...” I continued, dragging my fingers over the carpeting. It was white, soft and worn. “It just sucked me right into a ball of...hatred.”

    “Hatred? You felt...angry?”

    “I felt a whole boatload of things, Colton. I’m trying to piece together a logical explanation, but it’s like the explanation walked out the door with my memories.” My memories of you, I wanted to add.

    “I can,” he said, sitting back on his shins. “It’s simple. Whoever lived here before, didn’t live here very long. I can assure you that we’re the first ones to live in here after that...incident.”

    “How do you know that?” I swallowed, skin prickling again. I rubbed at my arms, wishing he would just drop it so I could get out of here.

    “For starters, that pile of ‘do not cross’ tape is a dead giveaway.” He directed his gaze to the far corner of the closet. “And I feel it, too.” Caught between staring at him in awe and grabbing the tape, my neck craned painfully. I pinched the tape between two fingers, examining it through narrowed, speculative eyes.