Jake flashed me a twisted smile and turned back to Adam, pushing Rhi to the side. Hurt crossed the other girl's face. She'd probably hoped she could spend time with Adam, much like I hoped I could with Jake. I didn't think it was particularly working out for either of us. Jake was behaving like a jerk, and Adam wasn’t much better.
Topher sidled over to me. "How did you know that spell was coming?" he asked, genuine interest in his voice.
"I don't know," I answered honestly.
"Has it happened before?" He brushed his scruffy dark hair out of his eyes. The stubble on his cheeks only accentuated his jawline. While I wasn't used to seeing men without clean-shaven faces, I found it suited him.
"No. This is the first time." Other than my dreams, that was, but I wasn't about to talk about them with anyone after my father's reaction. Besides, I needed to hold onto the idea that what I was seeing in my dreams wasn't going to come true. The last thing I wanted was to have to see my Mother like that.
"Seeing the future is a rare gift indeed. Very rare. Hmm. If it happens again, will you let me know?" Topher asked.
I nodded. "Sure." I wanted to ask why, but that wasn't polite.
"I'm going to practice more," he said uselessly.
"Have fun." I waved him off, leaving Rhi and me alone.
"You alright?" she asked. "Jake really is a horses ass sometimes."
I gave her a grin. Horses ass suited Jake right down to the ground. Now, if only I could get my heart to stop doing the conga every time he glanced my way. I'd never had a proper female friend, but maybe Rhi could shape out to be one.
Her eyes strayed back to Adam. She had it bad for my cousin. I started to wonder if there was anything I could do to help her get what she wanted. If I could figure it out, then I'd certainly do it. She'd been nothing but nice to me since we'd met.
"It'll work itself out," she said softly.
"I hope so,” I said. But did I? Jake had treated me like crap from the start, so why was it that I wanted him so badly?
11th October
The trees around me groaned, and the wind whistled. I closed my eyes, wishing myself away from the dream world where I knew I'd find my mother's almost dead body lying in a coffin again.
I opened them slowly only to discover myself still on the path through the woods. This time, the stones on the path dug into my feet. If this was real life, I'd have cuts all over the soles of my feet by the time I'd made my way to the clearing.
The memory of yesterday's stray spell and how I'd known it was coming flashed through my mind. This wasn't the same. I needed to remember that. There was no fuzzy edge like the premonition, This was only a dream.
The stones crunched, and I tried not to wince as I walked over them. The trees continued to wave, and the wind carried on howling, each of them clearer than they had been the night before. If this was going to keep happening, then I was going to become exhausted. Maybe there was something I could take to ease me into a sleep with no nightmares.
When the clearing was in sight, I sped up. Or I tried to. The dream didn't seem to want me to control it, though, and I approached it just as slowly as the last couple of times.
Dread swirled in my stomach. What was I going to see this time? Mother had already been motionless and had already aged. What could be worse than that? Did it bear thinking about?
The clearing arrived just as it was supposed to. As much as I was relieved that the dream was nearly over and I could get back to a more peaceful sleep, I didn't want to see what was lying in the coffin in front of me.
I took a steadying breath, though it changed nothing in this dreamland. It was never going to. As far as I could tell, nothing I did would change anything in the dream.
I peered over the side of the coffin and felt some kind of relief pop up beside the constant fear. Mother was no worse than she had been the night before. The only difference I could see was a rosy red apple in her left hand. It wasn't that the whole dream sequence didn't worry me. It did. But I felt that if it didn't get worse, then there was less to worry about. My theory was flawed, that was for certain.
"I'm sorry this happened to you," I whispered to Mother. Feeling brave, I reached out a hand and stroked it down her cheek. Her skin was warmer than I expected, almost as if she wasn't dead. Hope bloomed within me, even though this was a horrible situation. "I'm going to figure out how to stop this," I promised her.
A woman’s voice called out to me. Not my mother’s, but someone else’s. Her words were too distant for me to hear her, but it sounded like she was calling for help.
The dream faded, not as suddenly as it had the other times, maybe my acceptance of it was starting to help.
My eyes snapped open moments later, and I stared up at the ceiling through the darkness in my room. My heart raced, and my feet ached as if they really had been sliced open by the stones.
"It's just a dream," I reminded myself in a whisper. "A dream."
Sleep returned, and this time, the blackness was a welcome respite from the horror of my dream.
I sighed and pushed away the stack of papers I was working on. I rubbed a hand over my face. I might have managed to fall back asleep for a few hours, but I still felt
