Dream #16

"Hey..." Kaiden said in a very weak voice while smiling a bit.

We stayed in the grass of La Mercia. It was so quiet in here. When I looked around again, the flowers had all dried out so quickly that the petals fell to the floor one by one until they were all gone, and it was only the green grass we were lying in that was alive.

I sat up and watched as the Carter family's massive castle-like mansion began to crack, from a few spots, there begins a huge crack as if you just threw a rock into a glass door and then it runs through the entire screen. It was happening with the walls of the massive mansion in front of me, and it's still happening.

I looked at Kaiden as the mansion crumbled around him, he appeared weaker and weaker with each passing minute. He still had a small smile on his face, but he was pale and looked very ill.

"How are you feeling?" I asked after recovering from the disaster and chaos that had engulfed us.

Despite all of the damage that continues to occur, we remained lying in the grass. I sat up straight, while Kaiden remained in the grass, his hands in his stomach and his head turned toward the dark skies.

I shifted my gaze to the sky. When the mansion began to crumble, attempting to fall apart, the sky darkened, and it appears that a storm or possible rain is on its way, but I doubt that it will arrive anytime soon. I'm not sure, but I know it won't happen.

"Never better—" he coughed, pausing.

It started out as a simple cough, as if he was clearing his throat, but his coughing became more severe as the minutes passed. I didn't do anything, I just felt sad looking at him like that.

"I'm sorry for—" He stopped again to cough. "—not stopping by at your house after your mom caught us."

"Why?"

"Why?" He asked too.

"Why are you sorry? Why didn't you show up for a week? I was waiting for you..."

"I was also waiting for you, Kei," he said, pausing to fix his gaze on me.

He lifted his hand to reach for me, but because he was weak, his hands fell to the ground after only one attempt. I didn't move from my position and just stared at him. There was plenty of space between us.

"Why?"

"I was ill..." he said, finally breaking the smile he'd had on his face since we arrived. "I thought this would only last a day and I'd return to your house, but my illness worsened day by day... So I kept waiting for you, hoping you'd come here to see me."

I didn't notice that tears were falling from my eyes, but I didn't move. It started with a couple of tears, but it quickly escalated.

"Stop crying, it makes me want to cry," he sighed. He has stopped coughing, but he appears worse than before.

"I'm not sure... I'm sorry..." was all I could say.

"I'm not blaming you, Kei. You don't have to apologize, I understand if you were busy-"

A bolt of lightning struck the mansion, causing some of the structure to crumble. The house has a black and smoking area, which is where the thunder struck.

The place became fogged up, and some of the dust got into my eyes. I wanted to drag Kaiden away from there, but I didn't...

I was about to call Kaiden when another thunderclap ripped through the mansion, this time targeting the mansion's weakest point. It also targeted the mansion's support.

It looks like it was about to fall down, and I didn't even moved a muscle. Despite the fog of La Mercia, I kept staring at it.

Kaiden remained lying in the area's destroyed grass. Due to the dust, his eyes were now closed. He began coughing once more.

We stayed in our positions until the fog cleared.

"There isn't much time, Kei," he said weakly.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, finally approaching him.

I took his hands from his stomach and moved them to my face. Water was falling down into his chest from my eyes, and I realized it was tears from my eyes.

"I'm going to rest. Don't forget to wake me up, okay?"

"But—"

"It won't take too long, though. Just enough for you to go on with your life, focus on your dreams, and be you again..."

"What do you mean, Kaiden? I—"

"I'll just rest, nothing more, nothing less, you can wake me up when you've completed your tasks."

"What should I do, Kaiden?"

"I'm not sure... What were your main goals before meeting me?"

I pondered his question for a while.

"I always wanted to graduate from school, to pursue medicine."

"That's nice... Listen, I want you to do that, okay? After that, you can wake me up, but for now, just let me rest."

I let go of his hands and reached for his face. I examined his face, he has traces of dust and dirt on his face as a result of the disaster. I held his face and stared at him, hoping to remember every detail.

I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on his. His breathing became much faster than usual.

"After you finish what you need to finish, come back to me... I love you."

"Kaiden, you're the man of my dreams," I said as I kissed his lips.

After the kiss, I opened my eyes and hugged him for a while, and when I let him go, his heavy breathing stopped, and he didn't open his eyes again, indicating that he's already resting, as he kept saying earlier.

I stood up and slowly let him go. I walked away without looking back. I took a look around La Mercia's destroyed gardens. The mansion was almost completely demolished. Because of the thunder that keeps targeting that area, the top floor was already on fire.

The flowers that give off an amazing fragrance in the air were all gone, and even the stems were gone. All I can smell is smoke, and it smells like an electric wiring fire.

I walked away from that place without looking back.

After waking up from that horrible dream and gasping for air, I immediately stood up. I was drenched in sweat, which was falling from my forehead to my body.

I looked around my room and opened the lampshade beside me.

After some time, I realized what I had dreamed. I burst out crying, completely unconcerned about how loud I was. I couldn't stop crying, the tears wouldn't stop falling. I was crying so loudly that I was sure my neighbors could hear me.

As I cried, I tried to remember every detail of my dream.

Kaiden... He died! He really died from my dream! La Mercia was a mess, the place died as he died.

He left me. I left him to die there. I did nothing and walked away as if nothing had happened.

I kept crying my heart and eyes out, not knowing what time it was or what was going on around me.

"Kei? Kei!" My mother dashed into my room.

I didn't pay attention to what she was wearing or saying. She embraced me tightly while whispering in my ears.

But it didn't stop me from crying. It made me cry even harder. My breathing became heavier as I cried.

"Kaiden, Mom... Kaiden is—"

"Snap out of it, Kei!" my mother exclaimed. "Kaiden doesn't exist! You made him up! Stop it right now and relax!"

Despite her yelling at me, I was unfazed. As everything replays in my head, I keep crying and muttering Kaiden's name. Every single detail was etched in my mind like a broken record, and it made me sadder, and I let it out by crying.

Mom stood up and said, "I don't know what to do anymore," she pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

"Layra, are you still awake? I need you!"