The Licensed Mage

19 Dreams

        Claire curled up into her chair with Emily’s diary propped on her knees as she sipped champagne back in her loft. She and Raven spent hours at the office tracking Emily’s last moment on Earth during her first week missing. They were able to get in contact with her school friends and her BFF Ashley Campell. They all said the same thing, Emily was a good girl, more mature than her peers but not snobbish about it. She did her work quietly and helped her classmates with tutoring. It was only in the last couple of months she seemed to have changed. She kept her grades up but she continued to be more and more reclusive.

        Raven had gone home to dinner, giving Claire a chance to head home herself. She brought Emily’s journal with her in hopes of finding some clue in it. They both figured someone had to get close to Emily, close enough to understand and know what she was going through. To know her daily routines and habits but everyone they talked to said she hasn’t hung out with anyone lately, not even Ashley and there was no boyfriend or girlfriend to speak of. Claire was hoping to find some clue of a secret boyfriend or something within the diary. She fell asleep with the book hanging from her hand and her glass empty.

She was cold. So cold. Her arms shivered as she cradled herself. Her breath clouded her vision as it fogged the air. Her bare feet stung as she walked on the frozen ground. She was in a frozen barren wasteland, wearing nothing but a thin button down long sleeve shirt. The wind howled as it cut her legs making her cower. Her freezing hair sliced her cheeks as the wind whipped it across her face. She looked left and right, seeing nothing for miles but pitch black overhead and frozen black below. Her feet caused tiny micro fractures in the ice and her eyes followed the cracks to a hole in the ice. She blew cold breath onto her fingers trying to warm them and felt her lips crack open. Cradling herself tighter she slowly crept her way towards the hole, careful not to step on any already made cracks. The only sound she heard was the cracking of the ice. The wind made no noise as it whipped her hair away from her face and even her breathing was silent. She slowly crept her toes to the edge of the hole feeling the icy air cut into her lungs as she breaths hard. Down into the hole it was nothing but black liquid. Her nose twitched as she sniffed at the air above the hole. Her gasp was soundless as her shaking frostbitten hand went to her mouth. It was blood. The black liquid that was as still as glass inside the hole was blood. Tears froze in her eyes as the wind continued to howl soundlessly. Suddenly the world became still. The wind stopped, her hair felt weightless and even the air all around her stood still. Her eyes widen as fingers begun to emerge from the pool of black blood. A solid black hand came out of the hole, slick with blood. It made no sound as the hand silently plopped on the ice. It pushed itself down, pulling its arms out. Her scream was silent as she backed away, trying to run. Her feet slipped and she fell. The noise of the ice cracking was earth shattering as she landed on the ice. She was dazed as her eyes spun. Her whole body shook from the cold as she tried to prop herself up. She turned her head and tried to scream again as she saw a shoulder and head attached to the arm, puling itself out of the pool of blood. Blood curdling horror filled her veins as the blood soaked being pulled a torso out of the pool. She tried to crawl away but her skin had frozen to the ice, trapping her in place. Her eyes were covered in a thin layer of ice as they widen, seeing the being pull another arm out of the hole. Her jaws were frozen open in a permanent silent scream as the arm reached over for her ankle. The black blood dripped from its fingers above her ankle burning her skin with ice.

        Claire gasped as she shot up straight in the chair, “What the hell was that?”

        Crystal was sleeping on the bed when she heard Claire waking up. She flew into the room and landed on Claire’s lap, “What’s the matter with you?”

        Claire panted as she closed her eyes placing her hand on her face, “I have no idea.”

        “What happened?”