Excerpt: Beneath the Rock

The sky turned the color of blood and screams echoed from the earth to sky. Pain vibrated through my whole body and I started to fall, tumbling out of control. The pain and fear that gripped me wasn’t enough, blood blinded me as I struggled to regain control, but my arms no longer worked. Hope turned to desperation as I knew I would die on impact. My screams joined in the chorus that shook the world.
Screams echoed around me as I sat up in the dark. My bed sheets were wet with sweat and tangled from the battle in my dreams. Looking at my hands, I still shook out of control and tears dripped from my cheeks. I pulled my legs from the sheets and sat on the edge of the bed. I hated this dream and nothing I did made it go away. So much for the money I’d shelled out for the sleep clinic. They’d tried to teach me to focus my dream, but it only worked on the minor dreams and vague nightmares, not the ones that disturbed me most. These dreams repeated themselves, just as terrifying every time.
When the trembling stopped, I dared to stand up. Dreams of falling often left my legs weak. I got up, knowing I wouldn’t sleep again tonight. It was just as well. I should run through all my stuff, make sure I’d closed all the accounts I wouldn’t need, transferred all my funds to my remaining accounts, packed everything I wanted to take with me. In the morning my cousin would come to pick me up, and drop off his stuff. It was hard to get an affordable apartment in New York, so I refused to give it up. Instead he’d rent it, until I decided to come home. It was an opportunity for him, always wanting to give New York Theater a shot. Now he had a cheap place to live while pursuing his dream and I was free to travel.
Travel wasn’t a good word. I hadn’t really considered doing this until recently, until these dreams seemed to push me to go. Maybe it was some deeply rooted sub-conscious desire to find out who I was. That didn’t explain the weird dreams. What did they have to do with exploring Europe? Logically they didn’t, but I knew deep down they were connected, somehow.