Before Brooks could comprehend the words, piercing pain lanced along his spine and infiltrated his mind like a lightning strike. He screamed as the nightmare attacked with veins of shadows flowing from his hands.
“Do not deny them,” it said. “We are ready. It is time.”
Brooks clawed desperately at himself to dispel the inky stains before they soaked into his skin and tainted his blood.
Darkness shrouded his vision as he choked on the shadows invading every orifice. The pain increased in intensity and Brooks dropped to his knees as he fell in and out of consciousness.
His skin was on fire, his body convulsing as the darkness invaded.
“Embrace your chaos,” it whispered.
“Brooks?Hey,areyouawake?”
There was a warm hand on his cheek with a thumb tracing slow, reassuring circles around his knuckles. A quick body inventory revealed that everything was too heavy to function, including his eyelids. He mustered what strength he could find, lifted one eyelid and was both relieved and concerned to see the broken girl by his side.
“Lytta?” His voice was a raspy whisper, like he had been screaming for days.
Whack!
“Oh my God, Lyt, what the fuck?”
Had she just slapped him?
Pain reverberated through his sore muscles as he tensed to deflect any other swings.
“What the hell was that for? Are you crazy?” His eyes most certainly couldn’t open by this point and his hands were having trouble finding his face to hold his stinging flesh.
“Seriously?!” Her hand shot out quick as a viper toward his arm and left a sharp sting behind.
“Ouch!” Did she just pinch his arm?
“Jesus, Lyt, stop! I feel like I’ve been hit by a train and you’re not helping.”
She stopped her advances, but he could tell that she was still fully tense beside him. She was probably waiting for him to say something stupid enough to allow her to continue beating the shit out of him. Her breaths were coming in ragged huffs that echoed in the small space.
He wasn’t sure where he was, but he didn’t want to take his eyes from the spitfire sitting beside him.
“What did you think you were doing?”
He peered into her eyes and was shocked to see the gleam in them. It reminded him why she was in here. The display of psychosis was only fitting, he supposed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lytta.” She drew her arm back fast and violent. He barely raised his own arm in time to block the potential strike.
“Lytta, I told you to fuckingstop!“ Ice flashed through the room, and he lunged for her, wrapping his hands around her throat and pulling them face to face. What he saw reflected in her surprised eyes made him cringe.
Hastily, he released her and sat back in the bed. His passenger had come out to play and that was way too fucking close for comfort after last night.
Fuck, last night.
He released a long sigh and closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Lyt.” He slid his hand toward hers as an offering; a white flag. “All I remember is falling asleep in my room. I had a nightmare. I wake up and you’re pummeling my ass.” He smirked at her, or at least what he hoped was a smirk, to try and ease the tension. Those muscles hurt too.
“Brooks when I found you last night, you were lying in a pool of your own blood screaming and clawing at yourself like you’d been dipped in acid.” Her features were weary, her eyes unsure.
He really didn’t want to get into any details right now, mostly because he still wasn’t sure himself. He hadn’t been totally honest with her, but hadn’t lied either. He remembered the dreams vividly. He remembered Xia and her ominous words as well as the passenger suffocating him with shadows.
“Well that explains why I feel like absolute shit,” he sighed.
