Guardians of the Diamond Book One: The Rose

Chapter Five

I had managed to find absolutely nothing about R. K. on the internet. It was as if he didn't exist. I gave up after about three hours of searching.

Learning nothing about him had managed to make me even more uneasy. Jessica and I set up every defense we could think of around the house before going to bed for the night. There were garlic cloves hanging over all the doors, garlic power spread by the windows, we even threw some salt around the vents because we had no idea what else to do. Semi-satisfied with our attempt at household protection, we went to bed knowing that we truly had no idea what the next day held for us.

Within an hour of actually falling asleep, I was awoken by Ashley screaming. I sprang up from my pillow and whipped my head over to Jessica's side of the room. She was rubbing her eyes and sitting up slowly. Jessica looked like she was sore from that day's previous events. She rubbed her shoulder carefully.

"Was that you?" she croaked.

"Nope," I yawned. "I think it was Ashley."

If Ashley waking us all up with screams wasn't such a regular occurrence, I would have been worried. She had terrible nightmares at least once a week. Gilda had tried putting Ashley in therapy for them, however that only made the nightmares happen more often. Gilda, being a therapist herself, was all about the therapy.

I crawled out of my bed and sleepily stumbled through the bathroom that connected my and Jessica's room to Ashley's. Jessica grunted when she stood up to follow me.

Even in the dark, the bold pink of Ashley's walls shocked me. Her white furniture made it seem like I was in a bubblegum palace.

Matt was already in Ashley's room and was attempting to make her relax. Matt looked up at us for a moment when we came into the room and then turned his attention back to our sobbing little sister.

Matt asked, "Ashley, please, tell me what happened? Was it another bad dream?"

Ashley nodded wiping the tears off of her face rapidly in a small attempt to stop crying. "People were coming at me wanting my help. They said they were trapped. They said R. K. had trapped them in another world," she whined through sobs.

"Well," I said with a shrug, "try not to think about it. I mean, it's not like the people were trying to kill you or anything." I turned to Matt and Jessica and told them, "That happened to me once."

Ashley's dream really worried me. She had bad dreams all the time, but they usually involved dying puppies and unicorns with the urge to stab her, never people. I didn't know if it was the lack of sleep I was experiencing or all the outlandish things that were happening in my life, but the subject of the dream made me very nervous. I knew I should have just passed it off as any other nightmare caused by that day's events, but I couldn't help thinking it meant something more. My gut feeling was right the last time, so maybe it was right this time as well.

"She's right, it was just a dream." Jessica said to Ashley, although she was looking at me because I'm sure the worry was showing on my face. She turned to me completely, "Wait a second. Kate, you had a dream where people tried to kill you once?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. A big heard of them were rushing towards me in this ginormous cave. And it was raining, which was odd because we were inside, but you know, dreams are weird."

Jessica squinted at me then rolled her eyes.

Matt, Jessica, and I took our seat at the little table that sat in the corner of Ashley's room. We just looked at each other knowing we couldn't leave until she was asleep. Ashley lay down on her gigantic pink pillow and cuddled her stuffed pig, attempting to fall back asleep. We stayed in her bedroom absorbed in our own thoughts until she finally drifted off.