Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 34

"...."

"Asher? Are-Are you okay?" Clara asked worriedly as she moved towards the boy to check his temperature and even his eyes, as if she were a nurse.

Asher blinked.

His mind was still in slight disarray as he tried his best to come back to reality.

Still breathing heavily, he looked around the room.

"Ye-yeah. I fee-feel okay. I guess."

Then he lifted an eyebrow on seeing how much his mother’s hands were shaking.

He quickly reached out and grabbed them, holding them tightly in his hands as he tried his hardest to stabilise the woman.

"Wh-What happened? Why are you all here?"

Then he frowned at how wet their clothes all were.

"And why are you all so wet?"

Jayden sat at the edge of the bed with a heavy sigh of exhaustion.

His bulky shoulders fell at the thought of how helpless they all were.

"We-We-We had dreams. Strange distorted visions and dreams that seemed too surreal, and it felt like we were just mere moments from death."

’Strange Visions?’

Jesse’s lips were still quivering in fright and, as if reading her brother’s mind, she replied.

"Ye-Yes. I was the first to wake up with a scream when Mum and Dad rushed in to check up on me.

Even Brother Jayden screamed loudly upon waking up."

"...After sharing what we had experienced, we realised that you haven’t woken up, hence we rushed up here to check." Jack continued from where Jesse stopped.

Clara stared at her son worriedly, with tears welling up in her eyes.

".... When we came here, you were still sleeping, but you kept mumbling inaudible words. You were sweating like crazy, with your hands holding your bedsheets so tightly and refusing to let go that you even accidentally ripped it."

As she spoke, she pointed at some spots.

Asher followed her gaze and, behold, his bedsheet was so scrunched up. The wet side had been in his clutches, and with his long nails, he had accidentally ripped it open.

He frowned.

His hand reached up to his head as he massaged his hair with a deep thought, his mind reeling back to what he had just experienced in his sleep.

And truthfully, he couldn’t explain a thing that he had seen.

It was like seeing two nightmares in one.

His mind couldn’t come up with concrete explanations for what the dreams meant.

They were all too strange and didn’t seem like revelations.

Then, a few seconds later, he froze.

Due to the trouble the nightmares posed and his still disorganised mind, it had taken so long to click.

Slowly lifting his head to look at his family, his lips cracked open.

"You said; everybody had strange distorted dreams?"

Jack nodded in affirmation.

"Oh God. Oh fuck no." Asher muttered in horror, his hands shaking.

Jayden slowly turned his head in Asher’s way.

"We are cooked, right?"

Asher gulped. His eyes still bulging in horror.

Jayden sighed.

"Yup. Guess I’m right."

Clara looked at him.

"So-So what does this mean?"

"...."

Asher’s throat was parched at the moment, and so were his lips.

So, licking his lips, he answered his mother’s question.

"Before an individual goes into a Nightmare, they have distorted dreams and visions just like we just had. This was supposed to happen a week to the end of the month when the Nightmare curse usually activates.

But since the Shadow God decided to accelerate the curse in our family, we are having these dreams two days before the Nightmare begins."

"...."

There was a moment of silence in the room as everybody genuinely tried to understand what the boy was saying.

The weight of Asher’s explanation seemed to settle over them, leaving the entire family unusually quiet.

".... So you are saying that we still have today left to have such dreams before one of us goes into the Nightmare?" Jayden questioned with a thoughtful look.

"Apparently. But I think we will keep having such dreams until one of us succumbs to sleep and goes into the Nightmare.

Even then, it’s not guaranteed that the others would stop having these dreams. But maybe we still have a chance."

"...."

There was another round of silence as the whole family looked at one another, fear visible in their eyes at the thought of what could happen within just a few hours.

Nothing was said for a while as they genuinely tried their best to process everything they had been informed about.

The silence was heavy.

Every one of them was now painfully aware that their lives had a countdown attached to them.

"So what next? I don’t think it will be wise to get those Pills anymore. If what you said is true; until one of us makes the sacrifice and goes into the Nightmare, we would keep having these distorted dreams." Jack spoke with utter defeat in his voice.

The words the Shadow God had uttered the night before suddenly replayed in Asher’s mind.

— Save your family if you can.

The odds were totally against him.

The game was rigged right from the start.

What was he going to do to save them all?

The whole situation was bad and crazy at the same time.

His family was counting on him, yet he didn’t even know where to begin.

Then, a thought appeared in his mind.

’Yeah. If anybody can know how to save my family; even though she wasn’t of help properly, with enough persuading, I could get her to speak. Yeah.... Anything, even if it’s just rumours, something that could help me. I need them.’

Jayden heaved an exhausted breath again before rising up and stretching tiredly.

His movements were sluggish, his body clearly still affected by the strange dreams they had all experienced.

"Well, I guess I will go have a calm, proper shower before the day of my death arrives. And in the meantime, I would go out once more to look for a job."

And then, he was seen walking out.

Jack hesitated for a few seconds before uttering:

"We can’t put our lives on hold because of this. We are the Dawson family. If the people of this city can continue living out their lives and not abandoning it all, then we can too. We will surely find a way to survive this.... together."

The man forced out a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, no matter how hard he tried.

It was the kind of smile a father gave when he was trying to convince his family that everything would be fine, even when he wasn’t convinced of it himself.

He thought for a few seconds before adding,

"... And since we have no choice, till we figure out what to do; I will get those pills on my way back from work today."

Asher looked at him, then gave a calm nod with a small smile.

One by one, the rest of the family began exiting Asher’s room, leaving him deep in his thoughts.

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