Chapter 4 - Beware an Enemy is Near

“It’s the necklace!” I yelled to Josh.
“What is?” he replied. So once again I found myself spilling my guts to him; following my train of thought back to beginning.
“How does it work?” he asked when I was done explaining. I shrugged, clueless of what to do next.
“Maybe we open it?” he suggested, sounding hopeful.
“Tried, the thing seems glued shut,” I said feeling hopeless and dejected. Pondering this we walked back to his room and I perched on his bed. Suddenly it felt like I had hit a wall of exhaustion. Yawning, I laid back and Josh came around to lie next to me.
Next thing I know I’m in a lush green meadow with wild red amaryllis and gorgeous purple monkshood all around me. The sun is shining and the meadow’s lush grass is tickling my toes. I flopped on the ground to look at the clouds rolling by in the perfect blue sky. A rabbit here and a rose there, the clouds seeming to make whatever I thought of and this dream was just so perfect.
Slowly though the scene was getting darker and darker as if a giant cloud had passed over the sun. Looking up I could tell that no such thing had happened and that the sun was still shining just as brightly if not brighter. I had a gut feeling that I was being watched so I started running, trying to escape from the dream-turned-nightmare. The monkshood flowers started shifting and changing slowly from the beautiful purple flower to a sickening fleshy tone. That started morphing and growing until fully grown necrolancers surrounded me on all sides. As they started to close in I tried to run again but the meadow’s lush grass had turned to quicksand slowly swallowing me whole. I opened my mouth to scream but got mouthfuls of sand. Not only could I not scream but now I couldn’t breathe, the sand just kept pouring into my mouth. As I was slowly suffocating images were flashing before me: my grandmother’s locket, Josh in the hospital. As the last breathe escaped my lips I saw the necrolancer coming for me.
And then I was awake. Tears were flowing down my face and I was covered in sweat. “Aslynn are you okay?” Josh asked in a groggy voice, indicating he had fallen asleep too.
“Yeah, fine, it was just a nightmare,” I explained as he rolled over to face me. His gaze captivated me, his sapphire eyes, I noticed for the first time, had specks of black scattered throughout. He must have moved closer because our bodies were suddenly touching. Uncomfortable I hopped off of the bed and started pacing. I immediately regretted it because, even though Josh had his best poker face on, his eyes held a little hurt deep within them. Coming up to me, he put his hands on both of my shoulders to stop my pacing. I tilted my face towards his and looked him in the eyes. The little emotion that had shown only seconds before had been snuffed out and his eyes gave away nothing.
“You’re a terrible liar,” his voice held a note of concern but a smile tugged at his lips and he leaned down. Our lips met and I melted into him. Suddenly it was just the two of us and the whole world had disappeared. He put his hand on my lower back and drew me closer. All too soon the kiss ended and he buried his face in the arch of my neck, lining it with kisses. I arched my neck wanting more but once again he pulled away too soon. We stood there for a moment, me in his arms and just enjoyed the peace.
All of a sudden Josh’s body went rigid and I saw the necrolancer float out of the room, dripping blood behind it. Everything happened in slow motion, I looked up and Josh’s eyes had rolled back into his head. As his body went limp I caught him and slowly laid him on the floor. Blood had started to pool around the back of his shirt so I rolled him over and took off his shirt to get a closer look. A deep wound near the base of his spine was oozing fresh blood.
Going into autopilot and running on pure adrenaline I balled up his shirt and put it on the wound. Determined not to leave him, not even to get help, I lugged his still bleeding body to the desk chair. I laid the back down as far back as it would go and I laid him on his stomach. Rolling him to the door I unlocked it and pushed him into the hallway; temporarily forgetting I was in nothing but his t-shirt.
 

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