Of the Blood

by Joshua Laack

Chapter 26

  The dream began innocently enough in the kitchen. As Andrew stood there, he felt strange. The colors were all wrong and there was a strange buzzing in his ears. He was also confused as to why he was standing there. Something was not right. A feeling of dread infused him. He knew he shouldn't be there, but why? It was his house, his kitchen. He looked around to discover why he felt such fear. Nothing stood out. Then he glanced down at his feet.

  Andrew's mother Mary lay there in a pool of her blood that raced across the floorboards as he watched. The sight of the red liquid sent a chill down his spine. She was still moving, but the movements were weak and the fear and the knowledge of approaching death was in her eyes. Andrew was frozen in his own fear for a moment, then he cried out in horror and reached down as if to pull her away from the blood. Instead of reaching for his help, even in the throes of death, she jerked back from him. The light faded from her eyes and as it did, the scene faded from his mind.

  In that instant, Andrew was standing in a dark room. The room had tall ceilings, at least twelve feet. The walls were a stone material, almost like a black marble or dark granite. There were pillars arranged around the room. His entire house would fit between any one of the pillars. The room felt like part of an ancient temple. The lighting was dim, but everything was still clear to Andrew's eyes. His first assumption was that it was lit by torchlight, but the light didn't flicker, and he noticed that in stark opposition to the ancient feel of the room, there were small electric lights arrayed around the walls with a few on columns.

  They provided enough light to highlight the faces in the crowd of people gathered behind him. Andrew could hear the low hum of the murmurs as they talked among themselves. Arrayed around him were robed figures standing at attention. Andrew glanced down and discovered that his wrists were bound in manacles. To his right, he noticed that Johari stood, surrounded and bound as well.

  In front of the two and their guards was a long table, behind which sat four figures, each looking at them as if waiting to condemn them for something they had done. The one on Andrew's far left was a young woman who seemed to be even younger than he was. The man sitting next to her was older, about forty with just a sprinkle of gray at this temples. Next to him was another woman, older still who seemed to be near sixty. There was gray sprinkled all throughout her hair. The last figure at the table was a man who seemed to be close to Andrew's age or just a little older. It was hard to tell.

  All four of them were olive skinned, with dark hair and blue eyes. A moment later, the older man in the middle raised his hand, and a profound hush fell over the room. Andrew glanced at Johari's face and it seemed to him to be a face devoid of hope. The instant knowledge that he was going to die here today filled him. She looked over with a face of sorrow, not for her own fate, but sympathetic sorrow for his.

  “I am so sorry that I dragged you into all of this.” She mumbled. Her face turned from sorrow and lost hope to resignation with a side of defiance. She stared at the man who raised his hand as if to dare him to do his worst, and somehow, Andrew knew that he would.

  Andrew woke, sweat beading on his forehead. He lay still for a moment, staring at the ceiling, mind replaying the two dreams back. They were a little bit fuzzy, but not fuzzy enough to take away the fear that they entailed. He rolled over onto his side, at least he tried to. He discovered that Johari was still there, lying right next to him, her lithe figure curled around the shape of his side.

  “Hi there.” she whispered. “What are you doing awake?” It's like three thirty in the morning.”

  “I just had a strange dream.” Andrew mumbled. “I'm glad you are here.” After hearing what time it was, he felt exhausted again, and rolled to his side, facing away from the wall. Johari turned as well and scooted in close to him. Andrew felt safe from terrifying rooms and bleeding mothers with her there. He was soon fast asleep and when he woke for the second time, he hadn't dreamed again, not that he remembered anyhow.

  The alarm clock this morning was just as nice as it had been the previous morning. Johari allowed Andrew to kiss her back for a moment after he woke up, and then she pulled back.

  “You are going to have to be careful. I could get used to this alarm clock. Pretty soon you are going to have to do it every morning because the other one won't wake me up anymore.” She smiled at him.

  “I think I could handle that. How are you feeling this morning?”

  “I feel fine. I must have just eaten something that didn't agree with me.” Johari nodded.

  “You certainly don't smell sick. In fact, you smell healthier than you ever have.” She frowned, “Healthier than you should smell.” Andrew shrugged.

  “That's good right?” Johari nodded, but she didn't seem convinced. He kissed her to take the frown from her face. Just as she began to kiss him back, his dad knocked on the door and ruined the moment.

  “You up yet Andrew?” He separated himself from her lips long enough to reply.

  “Yeah. I'm up. I'll be down in a minute.” Andrew heard his dad moving away from the door. He tried to steal a few more kisses, but Johari laughed at him and then was standing up beside the bed, hand held out to help him up. He groaned.

  “Couldn't we just go somewhere together and forget all about school and this human existence?” Johari laughed.

  “Someday, you will be glad that you took the time to finish school. You will want a career where you have something to show for your work. Laying around with me all the time will get tiring eventually, I promise. There isn't that much left to the school year anyway. Just a couple of months.”

  Andrew thought about that for a moment. While the only thing he cared about at the moment was her, there was a part of him that realized the importance of having something of his own to stand on in the future. Not to mention, school had been interesting lately and his new friends were fun to hang out with. Andrew smiled at her and nodded.

  “Okay, we will do it your way.” And that's what they did.