I was running. I knew I was running from someone, but I didn't know why or from who. I kept glancing behind me as if I was expecting someone to be running behind me, but there was no one. It didn't matter though, I kept running.
It was night and I was in a forest somewhere. Moonlight shone on the ragged path that I ran on. It wasn't much of a path however. Twigs and branches kept scratching me as I ran, but I couldn't stop now and I ignored them.
I knew I was going to tire out eventually. I had never been much of a runner, but I just couldn't stop now. I couldn't.
A scream tears through my throat as I trip over a tree root. I crash against the ground my forehead hitting something sharp and pointed. I moan as I lay there in a daze. I knew I had to get up and run, but I wasn't sure which way was which. Finally my head started to clear and I slowly stood up. My hand touched the spot on my head which I hit. There was something warm and wet on my head. Blood.
I try and shake it off, telling myself I needed to get running again. I hadn't taken two steps when someone grabbed my hair and pulled me back. I would have fallen down but instead they caught me and I fell against a body. I turn around quickly seeing who it was. Ashley.
I try to back away, but he had grabbed my wrist with a grip that was painful.
He chuckles as he looks at and before I knew it his lips crashed down against mine. He kissed me rough and hungrily as he wrapped his free hand around my neck pulling me closer to him and making escape impossible. I pushed against him with my free arm trying to pull away, but it was useless. He was too strong. After a moment he broke it off but his face was still millimeters from mine, his eyes were still closed. He then opened them and stood up. He was several inches taller than me, my eyes meeting his neck. His arm moved away from my neck as he reached for something in his pocket. My eyes widen as the moonlight gleams on something shiny and sharp.
I tug at my wrist trying to get it free but to no avail.
"Struggling will only make it more painful." He breathes into my ear.
I scream as he takes the object and instead of stabbing me he takes it and starts drawing something on my bare skin, right above the heart and just below my collar bone. It felt as if he was carving and burning something into my skin at the same time.
After several painful seconds he was done. His icy blues eyes looked up into my own and he smirked.
"Now you're mine and only mine. Nothing can take you away from me. Not even yourself." He whispers into my ear and then he's gone.
Before I could look down to see what he had done, darkness wrapped around me.
I woke up screaming and in a cold sweat. My eyes opened and I was in my room safe and sound. I sat up in a daze. Everything in the dream had felt so real, so painful. My breathing was hard as I sat there my mind racing over the dream. I put my hands in my head and scream again when I felt the sticky substance stuck to my head in the exact spot where I had hit it in the dream.
Then I felt it. The burning sensation on my chest. My eyes widen in shock as I dart up and make my way to the bathroom. The light was bright and it took mea second for my eyes to adjust to the light. I stumble to the mirror and look at myself. My eyes glance at my head first and there was blood covering the top left of it. My eyes were also wide in shock. Then I looked at my chest. In the exact place where he had marked me in the dream, there was something black. My hand covers my mouth in shock as I read it.
It was only one word, Ashley.
I rub my hand against it, trying to rub it off. It didn't even smudge. I then take the bar of soap on the counter and scrub until my skin burns a raw red color. It was still there as clear as ever.
"Now you're mine and only mine. No one can take you away from me. Not even yourself."
His words burned in my mind. What had he done to me? How had he done it?
Then I remember something I had been taught at school. I was only ten at the time.
"There are stories saying that the Ungarians can travel through people's dreams. Though they're just rumors and can't be true. People can't get inside other's heads."
But he had. He had entered my dream and he had done something to me.
I started feeling queasy as I fell to the ground. My stomach lurched and I crawled to the toilet and threw up what little I had in my stomach. After I was done I sat leaning against the wall. I felt slightly better now, but I still felt wrong. That's when I realized my heart ached. It wasn't aching horribly, but it was still there a steady throb. Almost like a very intense heart ache as if it wanted someone.
There was no question that Ashley had done something horrible to me. I decided to try and ignore it as my head had started to throb a bit.
I stood up and took a small towel and started to gently wash my cut on my head. As the blood disappeared I was shocked to see no cut lay underneath. Just the shadow of a throb and a bloody towel told me I had cut it.
Then the exhaustion hit me hard. It took all my strength to walk to my bed and lay down. Before I knew it I was in a deep dreamless sleep and I welcomed it.
"Never say never, darling. I'll get you to love me. For we have forever together, don't we?"
I do not own the pictures.