Violet Eyes

4: Nightmare

Nate's Uncle took the lead and led everyone out to his enormous backyard. There were woods off to the left, the rest was just a giant, empty field. Alan went into his shed and came back out with a large barrel. "Nate, come and help me with these." He said as he gestured back behind him into the shed, Nate entered the shed and came out with another barrel. They both gathered a total of six barrels and stacked them in a pyramid. "Alright Nyx, I want you to try and knock down those barrels without touching them." Alan stood next to Nyx and crossed his arms. Nyx looked at the pyramid of barrels, she lifted her hand with her palm facing the barrels and tried to visualize the barrels being thrust away from them all, but nothing happened.

Nyx made an irritated face as she glanced at her outstretched hand. "I'm not sure I can, I don't even know how I did it the first time." Nyx looked at Alan and dropped her hand.

"Well, it seemed to be triggered by heavy emotion, right?" Nate chimed in, "Maybe try thinking about how you felt in that moment?"

Nyx thought for a moment, then raised her hand again while facing the barrels, she thought about that guy approaching Nate with the knife. She visualized the fear on Nate's face and could feel the fear bubbling inside her again, she closed her eyes tightly and concentrated. She heard Nate gasp quietly and opened her eyes, she saw the barrel on the top of the pyramid floating a few inches into the air.

"Woah..." Nate whispered and Nyx smirked a little bit. Then, without warning, the barrel fell and knocked all the other barrels down to the ground.

"Not bad, with enough practice you'll be able to keep it up more." Alan said to Nyx as he stood next to her with his arms crossed.

"But, why would I need to know this? Aren't I supposed to keep it hidden?" Nyx asked Alan.

"That's the point, you have to learn to control it so you don't accidentally have another outburst like what happened at your school." Alan said as he placed his hand on Nyx's shoulder, "But for right now you should rest, I imagine that took a lot out of you."

They all went inside, Alan asked Nate to show Nyx her room, Nate led her upstairs and into a room off to the left of the stairs. When Nyx looked inside, she saw two beds on opposite sides of the room from each other, two windows with the plastic blinds shut and a small vanity next to one of the beds.

"You can have that bed, next to the vanity." Nate's voice was low. Nyx went to her bed and sat on it. Nate looked at her for a few seconds, then he walked over to her and sat on the bed next to her, "Look, I know how you must be feeling right now, I went through the same thing when I discovered my dad was an Odd One, but you are safe here, we will keep you safe."

"Why though? Why even bother? Do you even know how much money they are giving out for me? I don't, but I bet it's a lot." Nyx's voice was hoarse from fighting back tears and her throat burned.

"I bother because you're my best friend, I know you aren't dangerous, I know you aren't going to hurt me or anyone else. I don't care about some reward. I care about my friend being safe." Nate placed a hand on Nyx's knee and smiled at her, "You should get some rest, you've had a rough day, I imagine you're tired." He got up and walked over to his own bed and laid down. He was right, she was exhausted, she laid down in her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.

"Night, Nate." Nyx said quietly as she closed her eyes. She couldn't see it, but Nate was looking over at her with a small smile.

"Night, Nyx." He said barely above a whisper as he closed his own eyes. After a few minutes, Nyx was able to drift off into sleep's gentle embrace.

The embrace didn't stay gentle though. She had a strange dream, she was in a dark room, empty of any windows, furniture, or even doors. She was sitting in one of the corners with her knees tucked into her chest. Nyx lifted her head and tried to take in her surroundings, but there were no lights so she had to wait for her eyes to adjust. She noticed that there was a figure in the corner of the room, out of fear she didn't look at it, she just stared straight ahead with the figure in the corner of her eye. She blinked, and the figure was right in front of her, she didn't dare look up so she just stared at the figure's legs, trembling in fear. She heard a voice. A deep and raspy voice saying, "Don't be rude. Look at me." Nyx slowly raised her head and locked eyes with a man with long silver hair and a doctor's mask on. He looked her directly in the eyes, Nyx tried to say something, anything, but the words just wouldn't come out. The man spoke again, "My my...what a beautiful specimen." She watched in horror as he pulled out a scalpel that was larger than it should've been. Nyx was frozen as the man approached her with the scalpel. Before the metal could slice into her skin, she jolted awake with a yelp and sat up quickly in bed. Her mind was erratic and her heart was racing.