We stayed up until early hours of the morning, watching the rain and trying our best to prevent it from coming inside our house. Watching the rain scared me, it fell from the sky so violently I was surprised it wasn't tearing the concrete to shreds. I have always been a worrier, wasting hours of my life planning and worrying over the smallest silliest things. But this time, it didn't like a silly little fear. Instead, it was a reality. I had never seen rain of the sort; I couldn't help myself from fearing what was going to happen next, and I didn't have a good feeling in my gut about it.

When my mum finally shooed us off to bed, we headed up to my room feeling exhausted. Poppy's big green eyes looked as though they had been deprived of sleep for days. She hasn't spoken much all evening, which was unusual for a chatterbox like Poppy. I leant her a pair of pyjamas, even though they were a bit too big they still did the job. We both pulled back the blankets on my double bed and climbed in. The coldness of the sheets attacked my whole body making a shooting shiver rattle my spine.

I half-heartedly yawned, feeling too tired even to do that properly. I rolled over to my comfortable side and whispered night to Poppy.

"Night Charlotte," she sighed. I tilted my head to listen as she sounded as though she was going to say something else, but must have then changed her mind.

It took me a while to fall asleep, which was not like me being the deep sleeper that I am. I tossed and turned getting more and more frustrated by the second, I looked at Poppy, who was quietly snoring, wondering why I wasn't doing the same thing since I was so exhausted.

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D A Y   T H R E E

I felt as though I hadn't been asleep for even thirty seconds, yet the sun was shining through my blinds, and I was being awoken from my slumber already. I looked beside me, but Poppy was no longer there. Bunching my eyebrows together tightly feeling confused only caused the ache in my head to throb harder. "Charlotte! Charlotte!" My mother was calling with a sense of urgency. But something else was obtaining my attention.

I could hear faint shouts from what sounded like a crowd of people outside. I walked over to the window as I heard the front door slam shut. My eyes snapped open, my jaw feeling as I though it dropped to the floor. I found it hard to breathe. I felt as though I was slowly suffocating. The walls began to close in on me as my vision blurred. I watched the crowd of people from my window, and some stood waving and shouting, but the majority lay on the streets looking lifeless. Thick blue clouds of smog blew through the streets. I watched a man hold his throat and let out a piercing scream. My eyes bulged from my head as I saw my parents join the crowd.

My legs carried me down the stairs quicker than I thought was possible, latching my hand onto the door handle I threw it open, immediately scanning for my parents. People put their hands up to me, waving me back inside. A woman tried to run past me into our house, but the more air she breathed the harder she found it to move, the poisonous air soon taking over her body.

"Mum! Dad! What are you doing!?" I bellowed as loud as my lungs would let me.

"It's going to happen, Charlotte. Sooner or later. There's no point in hanging around," she tried to tell me, having to take big breaths in between each sentence. "They were wrong Charlotte. Wrong. We didn't have thirty days. It's the end of our time already." She clutched her chest and fell back into my dad, who could hardly carry his body weight, never mind someone else's too. They both fell to the ground, the blue smog blurring my vision to see where they fell.

I took a sudden sharp breath, my whole body shaking as I let out a scream.

"Charlotte! Charlotte what's wrong!?" Poppy shouted grabbing my arm and shaking it wildly.

I quickly turned my head to look at her, blinking furiously not knowing whether or not to believe my eyes. I struggled to breathe as I panted heavily.

"I think you just had a nightmare, Charlotte. Are you okay?" She asked looking concerned.

"Where are my parents?" I demanded to know, flashbacks of them lying outside my house amongst crowds played on my mind.

"They're cooking breakfast; can't you smell the delicious bacon? I've been waiting for you to wake up for ages; if you weren't awake in the next ten minutes I planned on going to eat breakfast without you," Poppy giggled, still holding my hand for support.

I sat up thinking for a few minutes, catching my breath and working out what had actually happened. It all seemed so realistic; I felt emotionally scarred from what I thought I had witnessed. But incredibly relieved it had only been a dream.

"So what happened in your dream?" Poppy eagerly asked, moving a fallen piece of hair from my face.

I stared at her excited face as flashbacks of blue smog filling the air made me feel paranoid.

"Nothing," I muttered. "Let's go eat breakfast."

We walked downstairs not saying a word more to each other. Poppy was my best friend, and I did feel a little guilty for not telling her since I told her anything and everything. But I simply couldn't face reliving what I thought had just happened.

"I'm making your favourite breakfast, girls," my mum smiled cheerily. "Are you okay Charlotte? You look rather pale; I hope you're not coming down with something," she asked, quickly dropping the tongs she was holding to feel my forehead. "You're burning up. Are you feeling unwell sweetie?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm hungry," I muttered, looking over at what was cooking pretending I didn't already know what it was.

"It was really hot in her bedroom last night," Poppy said, pretending to wipe her forehead, trying to divert the unwanted attention away from me.

"We'll let's get you some breakfast; hopefully, it'll make you feel better," my mum said, putting the fried eggs inside of the bacon sandwiches and putting a ketchup smiley face on. I've never had it any other way from what I can remember.

I eagerly ate the sandwich, my taste buds tingly as the different flavours mixed together. The mixture of the crispy bacon with the smooth egg was sheer perfection.

"We finally have an explanation! Dr. Reed or whatever he calls himself, there's a news article about his interview," my dad said running into the kitchen waving a newspaper in the air.

"Read it out then!" My mum shouted back. I couldn't decide if they were still taking the situation seriously or not, all social media websites are full of opinions about Dr Austin Reed, and quite frankly no one seems to believe the story anymore.

My dad opened his mouth to begin reading, pushing his glasses further up his nose. I couldn't decide if I was ready to face what he was going to say after my dream.

What if I was predicting the future...

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Authors Note: Here is chapter four at last, I hope you all enjoy it!

My highlight of the chapter: Charlotte's relief when she awoke from her dream, I felt kinda bad for her.

Questions of the chapter: What did you think about Charlotte's dream? What do you think the interview is going to reveal? What was your highlight of the chapter?

Don't forget to show your support through leaving feedback, so I know whether or not you're enjoying it. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to add 30 Days To Say Goodbye to your library to receive update notifications! :)

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