Escana (Mature/Fantasy)

The man caught up with her and tackled her to the ground. Janette was pinned beneath him because he outweighed her. She tried to move anyway and let out a scream...but nothing came out. He roughly dragged her off the ground, twisting her arm behind her back and she could feel the tip of the blade on her lower back. "You made it worse for yourself." The man told her, in sort of a mocking tone. She was led into a building and thrown onto what was suppose to be a bed. The man grinned to himself before pinning her down, his legs keeping hers down and one of his hands holding both of hers above her head. She couldn't let this happen. She then realized he had tossed the knife somewhere on the floor. He kissed her again, his breath rancid. She kept her eyes open to see if he closed his and he had. One of her hands slipped out of his grasp to skirt across his chest and down to the waistband of his pants. She could feel him smirk and he let go of her other hand. She reached down, and found the handle of the knife. Without doubting it, she stabbed him in the chest and got out from underneath him. Then...everything went blank. She woke with a start, fighting the urge to scream. She rushed to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She tilted her head and gasped. There was a cut on her neck like the one in the dream. But it was exactly that...a dream!

Alex heard the screams and beating before he opened his eyes to see them. He was always beaten by his rather as a child. His mother wasn't home to do anything about it and he was told not to say a word otherwise the next beating would be worse. He had scars on his back from one such beating. He shuddered as his younger self cried for his father to stop, huddled in a corner, not knowing what he did wrong. "No...no, no, no!" Alex yelled and tried to move closer but something was stopping him. He couldn't move at all. He was forced to watch and relive this. Before he realized it, the figure of his father stood behind him...except as a corpse. He turned around and faced the skeleton grinning at him, "Hello son..." It greeted him mockingly, it's boney hand stretching out to touch his shoulder. "I'm not afraid of you. You can't hurt me." Alex stated confidently, looking into the skeleton's empty eye sockets. "You should be, boy." It replied, it's hand creeping up to his neck and tightening. Alex opened his eyes to find himself in his room. His hands immediately went to his neck and he took in a breath. "What the hell?" He muttered, rubbing his sore throat. What was that?

Rain kept running faster and faster, until he came to a cemetery. Where there he saw what he thought was his younger self crying over a tombstone. A tombstone that belonged to his parents. There he saw the boy left, tears stricken his eyes. Rain then walked closer to the gray slate where his parents resided, when he heard footsteps. He then saw a man, a man in a black trench coat. And he was laughing at Rain. "What do you want?" Rain asked, taking a step back as the man came closer.
"You." the man replied, he then pulled out a gun. "Say hi to your parents for me." A flash of white came before Rain's eyes and he heard a gunshot. He jolted awake from his bed, feeling like his chest was crushed. He was back in his bedroom. But how?

Emily curled up into herself as she heard her younger self being beaten. When she then heard someone open the doors behind her. She turned around. And saw her adopted parents. She ran towards them, calling out "Mom! Dad! Save me!" But then the doors closed, and she was left to face the Mistress alone.
"Get your ass back over here, Emily!" she heard to the Mistress exclaimed, when she turned around she saw a cleaver in her hand. And she was coming towards her.
No!
Emily then woke up back into her bed, no Mistress, no cleaver, nothing but her and her fabulous room. She pulled the covers over her head like a child. Scared and wishing that she wouldn't have to go back to that dream.

Janette grimaced, still wondering how that could be possible. "Just a dream." She whispered, shaking her head as she returned to her bed. No way she was going back to sleep again. Not after that. She laid awake in bed, and sooner than she thought, it was morning.

Alex glanced at his clock. He was late for work! He rushed out of bed and got dressed before running out of his apartment, not bothering to eat anything. He was already screwed but he didn't want it to be any worse than he assumed it was going to be. He muttered a string of curses on his way there and he forgot something. He didn't tell Emily when he wanted to meet her. Idiot.

Rain looked over at his clock and saw it was time for work. He took a shower to calm his nerves and then went straight to work. Hoping Janette would be there like promised.

Emily stayed up all night since she had her nightmare. She then got dressed in the morning and went to the coffee shop that Alex and her talked about the other day. Though she didn't know when he'd be there, she did have shopping to do around that area.

Janette eventually got up and took a long, hot shower before heading out of her house, thankful everyone was still asleep. She didn't want to talk about this to someone who would say she was crazy. She needed to talk to Rain, and soon, so she walked a little faster to the coffee shop than yesterday.

Miraculously, Alex didn't have any clients today, but he was lectured by his boss about the importance of punctuality and responsibility. He was too tired to care, really, and just nodded his head every so often. After that was suffered through, he noticed he needed something to wake him up, and the coffee shop wasn't too far away.

Rain continued to do his daily work until he finally saw Janette come to the coffee shop. She did seem to be in a bit of a hurry. As soon as she walked through the door, he let someone else take over the counter and met up with her. "Are you okay, Jan?"

Emily finished her shopping and got herself a small mocha frappe at the coffee shop where she finally met Alex. She gave him a small smile and waved him to come over.

Janette shook her head as she sat at a nearby table. "Honestly, no." She replied and then added, "I think you can guess why if your dream was anything like mine..." Her nerves still hadn't calmed down completely. It was like...it actually happened.

Alex returned a smile of his own, actually forgetting how tired he was as he joined her. "Hey." He greeted her simply, unsure what to say. His thought process was still a little slow. He wasn't really a morning person.

"You had a nightmare?" he said, noticing that she had a scar on her neck, "Did you get that scar from the dream?!"

Emily smiled at him, yet she was still a little cautious. Why, she didn't know. But she assumed it was because she was still weary or not this was a dream too. "I'm guessing you had a bad dream, huh?"

Janette nodded and looked at him, "Yes. I don't know how, but I do know..." She pursed her lips and closed her eyes for a second before opening them as she continued, "It shouldn't even be possible, and yet, here it is."

"Oh, yes..." Alex replied, the words drawn out slightly. He looked at her and stated more than asked, running a hand through his hair almost nervously, "You had one too?"

"That's odd." Rain replied, scratching his head with confusing problem in front of them. "Do you think somebody in real life is doing this?"

Emily nodded her head, showing him that she too had a bad dream. "It's weird, isn't it?"

Janette thought about that a moment and asked, "But wouldn't we know if we were awake or if it was real?" She bit her lower lip lightly before asking, "I mean...I don't know what you saw, but could it actually happen?"

Alex nodded his head as his lips pursed slightly in thought, "Very..."

Rain shook his head. She did make sense. "Argh, this is so confusing!" He then thought about it for a moment. "Do you think there's something that's taking over our minds or something?"

Emily took a sip of her coffee, trying to think of a reason why they were having these dreams. "Why do you think we're having them?"

"It sounds like something out of a messed up horror movie, but yeah...maybe." Janette replied after a while. Her hand absent-mindedly traced the fresh scar on her neck, still wondering about it.

Alex shrugged, but offered anyway, "I'm not sure but for some reason it feels like someone's toying with us or something...I could just be paranoid though."

Rain nodded. "But why would they?" He then dismissed the question and rubbed the back of his neck. "Is your scar on your neck okay? Does it hurt?"

Emily looked around, wishing that some sign of what was going on with them would appear in front of her eyes. "This just doesn't seem to add up. I mean, why would anyone toy with some random person?"

Janette nodded in response, finally realizing what she was doing and she set her hand down on the table. "It's fine...I just don't like how I got it." She answered quietly.

"Well, there are some twisted people..." Alex offered, "They don't care who they mess with, just that they have to." He honestly wasn't sure, but he was going to say any idea that he came up with.

"I'm sorry," Rain said softly, still thinking about reasons why this was happening. "do you think that we'll have another nightmare or another dream?"

Emily nodded in agreement. "I just hope I don't have to realive my nightmare again. Do you think we will?"

"I hope it'll be a dream." Janette answered and then wondered aloud, her fingertips tapping on the tabletop lightly, "It might follow some pattern...like dream, nightmare, dream, etcetera."

Alex shook his head simply and looked at her with a small but assuring smile, "I don't think so, at least not for a while."

Rain thought about it for a minute and then came up with a plan. "That's it! A pattern! We need to follow that pattern, maybe we'll figure out who is doing this. What do you think?"

Emily smiled back and took a sip of her frappe. "Well, we'll have to experience it again eventually. Maybe even have to face it."

"That seems like a good idea." Janette replied with a small smile and then thought, What if that doesn't happen? But she didn't say that out loud. It would. She felt it.

Alex nodded slightly in understanding and stated assuringly, "I think we'll be prepared when and if that happens."

Rain seemed pretty confident in his idea, but something about Janette's expression it didn't seem that she didn't. But he shook off the thought, they would have to think about this later. He had to go back to work. "Well, we'll talk about this later."

Emily looked down at her feet, closing her eyes as she spoke. "Nobody's ever fully ready to face their fears."

Janette gave him a smile, escaping her negative thoughts. She was just worrying too much. "All right." She glanced at the clock, surprised at what time it was. "I should get going anyway."

Alex leaned forward just slightly as he said, "Yes, you're right...but eventually, you notice you're not as scared of it as you were before."

(Time skip again?)

Rain nodded in understanding, he had to go back to work again anyway. "Yeah, see you later."

Emily looked into his eyes, not totally believing in what he said. How could she be not as scared of her past after living it over again. She looked over at the clock. "Well, I need to get home now. I'll see you tonight hopefully."

((TIME JUMP~))

Janette flashed him a smile and gave him a half-wave before leaving the shop. She did some errands and such before going home. Her parents were arguing about something and her brothers were most likely out. She ignored them and went upstairs. She laid on her bed, slightly hesitant about going to sleep but eventually exhaustion took over her body. She blinked, and reached out next to where she was laying like she did the first time she was there. Grass. She let out a sigh of relief as she sat up. No nightmare this time.

Alex nodded, feeling a bit like an idiot for saying what he had. Was he trying to be a philosopher or something. "See you later." He said before getting up and leaving the coffee shop. He went to his apartment after driving the taxi cab around town and finally going to the grocery store. He put everything away, and too tired to make it to his bedroom, he collasped on the couch and fell asleep almost instantly. His hazel eyes opened again to see the same huge den as before with the gigantic mantle. He smiled involuntarily. He was in the mansion again.

Rain waved back and went to work. When that was over, he came back to his apartment and went to sleep. He then woke up and saw that he was back in the meadow again, now all he had to do was go look Janette.

Emily waved goodbye to Alex, She then went home and did absolutely nothing until it was time for bed. When she did she woke up bad in the similar bed with the similiar clothes as her dream before.
Good, now where's Alex?

Janette looked and saw the same tree she had before. She decided if there was any way for her to find Rain, if he was there, he would probably go to the tree seeing it was the only thing different from the rest of the meadow. She made her way over to it, extremely glad she didn't have to relive her nightmare two nights in a row.

Alex stood up and this time, he ignored the butler as he made his way up the grand staircase and down one of the hallways. "Emily? Are you here?" He called as he strolled past some of the rooms. He really hoped she was there, somewhere in the mansion.