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She lowered her hand back down to the dirt floor and climbed her way entirely out of the hole. On her hands and knees, she started to crawl toward me with her mouth hanging open, spiders falling out along the way.
"No," I screamed. "You're not real."
I sat up straight on my loveseat and looked around in terrified confusion.
In my dream there had been angry shouting and I didn't think it had actually been part of my dream, but something I had picked up going on around me in the real world.
My head jerked around the room, looking for the dead, sightless bodies trying to climb out of the earth that I had been dreaming about, but I found nothing. I flopped back onto the pile of pillows I'd propped up behind me last night in a huff. It was only a dream. A horrible, hideous nightmare.
I needed to take a shower because I could feel disgusting things crawling all over me, even though they hadn’t touched me once in my dream but, for whatever reason, their phantom touch had followed me back to reality. I knew scrubbing my body thoroughly until my skin was a freakishly pink color would be the only way to get rid of the feeling of those creepy crawlies.
I refused to think about the woman I'd seen crawling out of that hole. She was long since dead and, according to Julian, entirely gone. The ghost of her would not haunt me for forever, or so I hoped.
I looked over at my bed longingly. If I hadn't fallen asleep watching television on the couch last night, I would have slept in bed underneath my dreamcatcher and this garbage wouldn't be happening to me. That sucker wasn't only pretty to look at, but also never once had it let me down, and every single time I'd slept underneath it I never had a bad dream to speak of. Really, it was because of Tyson, who'd never let me down with that one, because he's the one who'd put the whole thing together and even used blood magic to make it safe for me to go to sleep in my bed at night.
I groaned as I tossed the throw blanket that covered me to the side. It was a pretty shade of yellow and was incredibly soft and fuzzy. It had been a Christmas gift from Dash and I absolutely loved it. It was a really sweet gift and I dragged that thing everywhere with me. When we watched television downstairs in the living room it came with me. When I went to watch movies with Damien I brought it along. I fell asleep there once, and he'd carried me to the car and put me in my own bed, and he'd made sure to bring my fuzzy blanket back home with me because he knew how much I loved the thing.
I stood up and moved to the dresser where I always charged my phone every night. I left my phone plugged in as I pulled up my texts. Quickly, I sent off a text to Julian.
Ariel: I dreamed of dead things, namely people. Thanks. You're a dick.
I frowned down at my phone after hitting send. That wasn't exactly fair of me to send him that, but I did blame him all the same. Which wasn't fair either, because I had agreed to go over there of my own free will and had even thought it was a good idea at the time. I’d thought I needed closure. Instead, I'd gotten nightmares. And I really had no one to blame outside of myself.
Guilt ate at me but I refused to send another text, an apology one. Julian never got to see this side of me, maybe it was his turn, and Uncle Quinton deserved a much needed break for a while.
Nah, maybe they both deserved it for whatever reason. Goodness knows I had enough attitude to throw around at more than just one of them for a while, Marcus hadn't been wrong on that front.
I sat the phone back on the dresser and pulled open my top drawer. I dug around in my dresser until I found some clothes to put on after I got out of the shower.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I heard Dash shout angrily from the hallway.
I dropped my clothes to the floor and ran toward the door. Dash never raised his voice, ever, and something seriously had to be wrong in order to have him doing so now.
"She's sleeping," I heard him snarl. "You're not going in there right now and waking her up. Go home and call her later like a normal fucking human being, and get your assthe fuckout of my house."
Oh shit. This was so not good. There was only one person I could see Dash talking to like that and it was Rain.
I whipped the door open and stumbled out into the hallway. What greeted me had my breath catching in my throat.
Dash stood tall at the top of the stairs with his arms spread wide, stopping Rain from coming up all the way so he could get to my room.
"Get out of my way, boy," Rain snarled in an ugly voice. "How dare you stand between me and my daughter. That's the stupidest thing you could ever do where I'm concerned and you damn well know it."
Rain put his hands on Dash's shoulders and shoved. Dash stumbled back a step before righting himself and getting back in Rain's face.
Shouting was coming from the bottom of the stairs, but I couldn't make out the words because the world had come to a screeching halt for me the moment Rain put his hands on Dash. Out of all my boys, Dash was the one I had the biggest connection with. He understood me on a different level than everyone else, because of the physical abuse we both suffered as children. We'd bonded over blood and scars, and to see anyone get physical with him with the intent to harm him threw me into a bit of a rage. It didn't matter to me that it was my father who'd touched him.
I lifted my hand and poured my intent and will into my actions as I flicked my fingers in Rain's direction.
His eyes rounded comically as he flew back, slamming into the wall. The shouting at the bottom of the stairs died off as Rain slid down the wall and crashed to the floor in a heap.
Immediately, I felt contrite and wanted to apologize for my actions, but I knew for everyone else's sake that I couldn't tell Rain I was sorry. He was a damn bully and nobody was willing to stand up to him. It was up to me to put him in his place, otherwise he was going to continue to treat the people I cared about like garbage, and I couldn't stand to watch it anymore.
Rain looked up at me with bright eyes that didn't shine with accusation like I'd expect, but with pride instead.
"Don't touch Dash," I ordered in a hollow voice. "He's officially off limits to you and I don't ever want to see you put your hands on him again. I'm not joking, Rain. If you mess with Dash again, I can promise you that you'll live to regret it. Oh, and another thing, this is his house, when you're here you need to treat him with respect or don't come here at all."
I looked at Dash to check on him and see if he was okay, but he wasn't standing where I'd last seen him. He was completely gone.
