It happened again.Melinda jerked awake, sweating and shaking. '
Not again...' she muttered. She only came here about a week or so ago, but ever since she moved to Nevermoor she has been haunted by a nightmare. Every night, or more like every time she tried to sleep, she saw the same thing:
It starts out with her in a dark room. She would look around, silently noting the strangely moving walls surrounding her: oily, black vines moved and jittered all around the walls like worms in the ground. The ground beneath her hooves is always darl dirt, not something you'd usually see in a room.
She'd note the lack of a door, the panic then slowly starting to creep up her spine.
It always feels so real. Too real for her liking. If you'd ask her, she'd probably be able to tell you that the room is quite humid and warm. She'd recall the wet feeling of the ground, and would cringe again at the disgusting sound of the vines sliding and crawling on one another.
A short time would pass before she'd see nine figures rise from the ground around her. They're all black except for their eyes: a number of white dots with a faint glow, staring almost lifelessly yet full of strange curiosity. They all have a different numbe rof eyes: one has only one, the other has two, the third has three, and so on with the last one having nine.
They would stare at her, then turn to each other, whispering things she can never understand. And she'd see them all reacting to what the other whispers, reach out to her, or just point at her.
She always wants to run away. To hide from these... whatever these things are. But she couldn't go anywhere anyway; there is never a door in the room.
And when the whispering would finally get to an unbearable volume, she'd finally wake up.
Her eyes started getting teary.
This can't go on like this forever...She needs to find a solution to make this stop, and she really would not like to move out. She just moved here and she likes this town already! And she likes the mayor as well; the smug gentleman of a raven, Vincent, always tries offer her help with everything every time they meet. And every time she thinks of moving out of town she sees how happy he was when he first heard she'll be moving in! Melinda jist can't help but feel bad for the guy. That lonely raven... What did he say, he's been here for a year now? she'd remember, That's a damn long time to spend alone...
She just can't leave her friend alone again now. She'll get through this, one way or another.
Melinda rubbed her eyes. She felt a strong urge to cry, but instead of giving in she took a deep breath, and another, and got our of bed.
I need some air...The deer picked up her favorite hoodie and out she went into the night.
Fortunately, it wasn't too cold. As soon as she stepped out of the old little house the scent of heather and lavender hit her nose. She'd be lying if she said she disliked it. With heather being one of her favorite flowers, the big amount of them was one of the reasons she liked Nevermoor. It smelled like home to her already.
She walked down the path leading to the lake.
~×~
It took her some time to get to the edge of the water. Melinda loved this lake; she didn't know why, but the sight of the mist slowly rising from the black abyss that it was at night made her feel relaxed. Was it scary? Probably. But not to her.
She sat down on the bench but quickly jumped back up as it was quite cold and wet from the humid air. She'll just stand then, she decided.