The Dream

“I had the dream again,” I looked up to see Keely in front of me.

“Yeah?” I ask uninterested, continuing to fan myself with a useless copy of To Kill a Mocking Bird. Netherless, she plops herself on the grass in front of me.

“Uh huh. This time I was in the room. Fire burned all around me. I tried to breath, but all I caught was a lungful of smoke…” She trails off, looking pained.

I bite my lip, hesitant to tell her.

I had the same dream.

The flames circling you, getting hotter each second. The smell of crisping hairs. Trying to breath is impossible with the smoke suffocating you. Attempting to get up is useless; fire lit chains bind your wrists and ankles. Even though you scream at yourself “Wake up! It’s only a dream!” you can’t.

You wait it out.

Eventually I awake with a start, wanting to scream from the searing pain. I know when I look at my wrist the mark is there.

An asterisk, one for each night the dream happens.

I have 7 so far. Seven painful nights over the last 4 months as I try to keep myself together until the summer when I can leave this messed up town full of liars and twofaced brats.

When I notice Keely staring, I realized I must have been zoning out. “Huh?”

Keely sighed, rubbing her wrist. “Auden, can we please go get some food now? They might be out of the fried chicken…”

“You can go,” I tell her with a wave of my hand. “I’ll save us this spot,” I pat the tree trunk behind me.

After a moment, Keely nods. “I guess so.”

When she leaves, I breath a sigh of relief. 32 more days to go.

Nearly a month until Auden Hales is a ghost.