Page 31 of Forever Only Once

Chapter 7

Hazel

I ran,my feet slamming into the ground, slapping against the pavement since I was barefoot, rain coating my hair, my shoulders, forcing my silk dress to cling to me.

I didn’t know why I was barefoot, nor why I was wearing a dress, but I ran.

I ran.

My heart thundered in my ears, and bile filled my throat. It was so real, I could taste it. Everything was just so real.

The terror in my heart, the fact that I could barely catch my breath, all of it told me that this wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t a dream. This was real. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t breathe.

A dark laugh slid along my skin, deep as if it were from hell itself. I screamed, but no sound came out. There was nowhere for me to go, no one for me to run to. No one could hear me scream, just like in the horror movies that I refused to watch anymore.

I found myself in a forest, lightning flashing brightly amongst the leaves as I ran, twigs digging into my feet, leaving a trail of blood. A branch slapped me in the face, a thin one so it only left a bloody line down my flesh, but I kept running. Mud slid between my toes, and I slipped, slid. But I kept going. I had to.

The laugh was closer now, and I could feel his breath on my neck.

I kept running, kept fighting, and I found myself in front of a house, one that was so familiar.

I slammed my fist against the door, screaming. “Let me in! Help! Please, help me!”

The doorknob twisted, and light blinded me, but I could see the shadow within, and I knew it wasn’t the man who laughed. No, it was something far scarier.

I looked at a face that was my own, the visage of the unknowing, someone who had thought they knew everything.

I looked back at myself in my cardigan and soft cashmere pants. And I saw the bruise on my cheek, the innocence gone from my gaze.

I saw myself, the person I had once been, the moment everything had changed.

And then the laugh came again, and we both screamed.

I woke up, my body shaking, but I was fine.

I was alive.

I was whole.

And I was safe.

I ran my hands over my body, checking to make sure nothing was wrong. I noticed that I was sweat-slick, but that was fine. I was always covered in sweat when I woke up from those dreams.

Of course, the twisted ending of that particular dream had been new, as I had mixed two night terrors that I normally had. However, I wasn’t too surprised by that. After all, knowing that he was out of jail meant that these dreams would keep coming, even if he wasn’t anywhere near me.

It had just been a text, a taunt, but he wouldn’t come near me.

He knew that if he tried, he would end up in jail for longer than the four years he’d already spent there.

That would be the third strike, and there was no coming back from that.

And if I kept telling myself that, that I would be safe because of the legal system, maybe I would one day believe it.

Thomas was not going to hurt me. I wouldn’t let him.

I slid out of bed, my pepper spray in one hand, my phone in the other, and walked around the house in my panties and a tank top, ensuring that all the windows were locked, all the blinds were shut tight, and my doors had all of their locks engaged. I went through my video surveillance system, ensuring that nobody had come around creeping when I was asleep. I found nothing.

I was as safe as I was going to get—except for when I slept.