SURVIVE (THRIVE: Book Two)

Chapter 3- Dreams and Reality

"Ouch! Who left their shit on the floor?" I hear Aria say as she trips over something in the darkness.

"Shhh! You'll wake everyone up!" Pearl whispers as I hear the bedroom door close behind them.

"Too late," I say snarkily as I roll over and sit up in bed. Suddenly, they both freeze as they look across the room at me "It's gonna be light in like two hours, what the hell were you guys doing all night?" I ask as Aria lights a candle beside her bed. The slight brightness hurts my eyes, but they quickly adjust as I blink rapidly.

"You would never guess who we saw heading to the south end of town," Pearl says excitedly.

"Probably not, I'm too tired to even try." I sigh as I rub my eyes "Who?"

"Desire and Phoenix," Aria answers excitedly, and suddenly, I begin to perk up.

"Seriously?" I say in disbelief "What would they be doing in that part of town this late?"

"Beats me," Pearl begins as she lays back on her bed. "We followed them for a while until they disappeared in a random alley. It was really strange."

"What do you mean disappeared?" I ask curiously as I comb out my hair with my fingers.

"One minute, we were trailing them, and the next... they were gone without a trace." Aria explains as she climbs onto her bunk "I swear, the Eternal Family must have some freaky teleportation abilities or something." she says as she crawls onto her stomach, nearly bumping her head on the ceiling.

"I mean, considering everything that we know they're capable of, I wouldn't be surprised." I laugh "Although, if they could do that, they wouldn't have had a reason to be in town." I explain.

"Damn, you're probably right." Aria says as she buries her face in her pillow, muffling her voice "Still, it must be nice to cast fireballs and shit."

"That's what impresses you?" Pearl says as she peaks above her bed, batting at Aria's arm.

"What's it to you?" Aria asks as she swats her hand away.

"What about all of the stuff Aurora can do? Looking into people's souls is way cooler than any amount of fire could ever be." Pearl explains as she pulls her blanket over her face.

"Whatever," I sigh as I roll over to face the wall "I'm going back to sleep before you guys get into another fight about this."

"Hey!" they both shout simultaneously, then suddenly realize that they were just proving my point. The last thing I hear before dozing back off is Pearl blowing out the candle.

Despite sleeping peacefully until the girls returned home, my nightmares seemed to return again. They were always the same ones, trapped in the dark feeling afraid and in pain. Tonight was no different:

"Oh, not now. Won't you learn to behave yourself, dearie?" I hear an irritated man's voice say as I feel myself thrown into a wall.

"Don't hurt her." I hear another man say with determination, but it's no use.

"You son of a bitch." I hear myself say, but at the same time, it doesn't feel like me.

"Well, that's a lovely surprise. I guess we all learned something new today." The twisted man laughs sadistically; there was no use in fighting.

"I suppose we have." I suddenly hear another man's voice "How-...- been, -?" he asks politely.

"As well as always, I suppose." the man says irritatedly "I can assume your reason for being here, D-?"

"Yes, you're undoubtedly right about that." the new man sighs "But I'm not an idiot. I know you could easily take me out with your hands tied." he explains. The first man laughs at this.

"That much is true. But even so, I'm impressed that you've made it this far. My people aren't weaklings after all." he explains in admiration, clapping sarcastically.

"Centuries of practice," the new man laughs quietly "You may have missed a few things in your absence."

"And yet you all seem to have learned nothing." the twisted man begins, but the other manages to stay perfectly composed.

"Apparently, neither have you,"

When I finally wake up, I'm sweating and shivering. I quickly jolt up and start hyperventilating, this had been the worst one that I had in months. As I try to calm myself down, I look around and realize that the sun is up, and Pearl and Aria are gone. It was our day off, they must have gone out without me.

"It happened again, didn't it?" I suddenly hear Brendan from the doorway and try to focus my vision forward.

"Yea, it did." I sigh as I roughly rub the palm of my hand into my forehead. "Same one from a few months ago, but it hurt worse this time."

"I'm so sorry," Brendan says kindly as he sits down on the end of my bed "You know, you are welcome to talk to us about these when they happen. You don't have to go through this on your own." he offers politely, but I shake my head.

"They're just dreams." I state as I wipe the sweat off of my face "Once I wake up, they can't hurt me anymore." I explain, and Brendan looks disappointed, but it isn't his fault. I've never been comfortable talking with anyone about this. It's too strange, and sometimes it can feel embarrassing.

"Alright," Brendan says as he reaches out and gently squeezes my knee. "Alex, Aria, and Pearl went down to the beach. They wanted me to let you know when you got up," he explains as he begins to stand up.

"Got it." I smile as I pull my blanket off of my legs and start to stretch.

"Have fun today, you've earned it." Brendan winks as he leaves.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, suddenly confused and embarrassed. He quickly stops and turns back around, glancing down at my bandaged leg, then back at me.

"We aren't stupid, you know." Brendan starts to crack a smile "I was young and reckless once too."

"...what?" I ask, trying to figure out what he's getting at.

"Tessa, tell me; did you at least get proper payback this time?" he asks curiously. I can't help but smirk as I nod my head.

"For once, I did." I smile, and suddenly his grows just as wide.

"Keep up the good work, kiddo," he says proudly as he turns and walks out. I could never lie to them, and Brendan didn't like to play around when it came to asking important questions. I at least owed them that much after trailing blood through the house last night. As I look down at the bloody gauze I sigh, hoping that that would be the last time that they come after me like that. There's no way to be sure of anything, so there was no sense in overthinking it. Right now, I just want to head to the beach.