Bad Dream

The dream started off pleasant enough for Iesha, she was with Miss Narraine, holding hands together at the beach after swimming with her friends all day. As she looked back though, she was shocked to see the mangled froms of her mother, her sister, and her friend Armen standing along the edge of the beach. Iesha was so taken aback that she momentary let got of Miss Naraine hand. As Iesha's hand searches for Narraine's arm, it instead grabs something solid and cold. When her head jerked back, she was alarmed to see the was suddenly in metal cage holding an iron bar. Between the spaces she could see other cages lined in perfect rows all stacked up on each other. She tried to scream but no sound came out, she wanted to pry apart the bars but she was too weak.

She closed her eyes, telling muttering a prayer and opened her eyes. She was still in her cage but now only darkness surrounded her. And from this darkness, a ball of smoke. Her eyes widened, she tried to pry the bars once again but it was useless. As the smoke ball approached, its amorphous mass congealed and swirled into a large face made of long bearded man with wearing sunglasses all make of smokey fumes. She she recognized that terrible face. The face of the man who was in charge of the operation that had killed her family and kept her as slave. She never learned of his name but she always refereed to him as Waistirahat Aldukhkhan; the smoke breather. She tried to look away but she could hear him taunting her in Arabic, belittling her for thinking that she was ever free and reminding her how much money he was worth to him alive. The cage around her suddenly fell apart and ghostly hands made of smoke grab her arms and stroke her tail. Laughter could echoed all around her as she resisted but there was almost more hands grabbing her. She wanted to scream, to tell the hands to not touch her but her lips were sewed shut. She wanted to cry but tears failed come out as smoke envolpes her... and then she at last wakes from her nightmare.

——-

Iesha tumbled off her bed, fighting the bedsheets that were suffocating her. She gasped desperately for air, flailing her arms wildly at empty air until she realizes that she was back in her room... that it was all but a dream. A bad dream. Iesha looked around, worried that somehow hands made of smoke would suddenly grab her and steal her away at any moment but none game. She... she knew that she had every reason to be safe but... she didn't feel safe any more in her room all alone.

After shedding her bedsheets, she slithers past the curtain and into the living room. Timidly looking around, as if the check the coast is clear, she darts into Narraine's room. She hoped not to wake Miss Narraine with her sudden entrance... she just wanted to be in the same room as her so that she felt a little safer in the night. Miss Narraine was... the person she was most comfortable with and felt the most protection with. Yet know that she was here... were would she sleep? On the floor? Would Miss Narraine mind if she slinked in the bed with her? Maybe she should just slip back past the current and coil herself just outside the doorway. Iesha wasn't sure what to do, the bad dream has left her unnevered and she probably looked more scared than usual.

@Narraine Arore

Iesha instinctively stiffens when Narraine called out to her, like a deer caught in the headlights. She instead of a response, she could only stare back at Narraine unable to speak. She had not counted on Narraine being awake and thus had thought of what she should say. After what felt like a minute of silence, she finally found the strength to speak again.

"I... I had... I had bad d-d-dream!" squeaked Iesha as she continued to ramble on "A-and... I... c-couldn't s-sleep... I... I was t-t-trapped a-and... t-there smoke and f-faces and..."

Iesha stops her, she could feel her fingers shaking as if the room had suddenly gone frigided. She hugs her hands with her arms to suppress the shacking while her eyes gazed down to the floor.

"I-I'm... I'm sssorry for disstrubing y-you...." apologized Iesha, hanging her head low for a moment before braving a loo back up to Narraine "C-can... can I... sssleep on b-bed... w-with you M-miss Narraine?"

Iesha nods, slithering her way to Narraine's bed. One on the mattress, her body coils tightly around herself so that she takes up as little space as possible while bed. She listened to Narraine's words of comfort be she couldn't bring herself to speak of her nightmare at first. She just stared at her fidgeting hands. Then words suddenly started to flow from her mouth, as if her voice was possessed and compelled her to speak.

"I... t-there was... w-we were at the beeeach a-and... I... I s-saw them a-asss we were l-leaving. T-their bodies... b-broken... c-crocked. T-their faces hallow b-but t-they stand there! W-watched me from the g-gentle waves I... I l-let go of your h-hand for a mo-mo-ment. But, when I... when I... tried to r-reach for you... I... I grabbed bars. Cold cold bars."

Iesha grimaced as she stared down to her hands, her fingers interlock with one another. Her body seems to rock back and forth against her own will.

"I was... i-in my cage... I couldn't move...i-it was tight... m-my scales b-brushed against metal. I... I b-begged for... for o-one of t-the gods to h-hear me, to l-let me f-free but-" Iesha crosses arms, her torso rocking back and forth, continuing to speak every word she says leaves her with little breath and panicked hiccups "-b-but he c-came a-as sssmok! M-many hands w-wrasping me l-like a... *hic* l-like a... I... I dunno but t-they wrapped around me. Suffocating me... chocking m-me a-as hands... hands o-of of burning smoke feeling skin and scale! I wanted t-them to stop... I wanted t-the *hic* gross *hic* hands *hic* o-off b-but m-my ssscreams drowned i-in their e-echoing laughs! And... and then darkness... a-and..."

Her entire body freezes, she inhales a deep breath of fresh air before exhaling. She looks to Narraine but avoid direct eye contact with her, as if she was ashamed.

"I'm... I'm s-s-sorry... I... I... ssshould not... b-bother y-you." apologized Iesha, feeling that she was at fault for disturbing Miss Narraine like this. It... it wasn't right of her to disturb her like this.