Chapter 4

Gwen looked up in a daze, unsure what was a dream or not. Above her was a massive sea of purple that seemed to be pulsating with waves. Maybe not. A breeze brushed over her skin with a cool touch but she was burning through herself. A lump was starting to rise in her throat but between that, the heavy breathlessness and the heat through her body she couldn’t see anything that made sense or hear anything that wasn’t the audible equivalent of a visible blur.
It all grew dark and she didn’t think she could care.

There was a lot of grey, of few gradients. Then, it grew very dark very quickly. There were misty swirls that looked a bit like galaxies and danced around in front of her as if in a stirring bowl and then it all started to arrange its self and somehow white and white made green and red and yellow… Colours were emerging and scenes started to form and some a little more sensible was starting to take shape.
Alex was standing in front of her and there was a sleek black dog next to her, lurking like smoke next to her knees. Her black and red hair was stroking her pale white cheeks. Her eyes weren’t the same light blue they’d been before. They were a vivid red, the colour of blood.
Behind her was the full moon set in a sheet of starless black sky.
The scene stirred again and scrambled into misty blurs and then reformed. Gwynedd was there but all she felt was fright. There was a look in his eyes, the eyes that could not possibly be Gwynedd’s at all. His blond hair was like curtains over his face and his expression was one of shock. There was a dagger in his chest where his heart should be but no poppy of blood flared from the wound. The shaft was shining in dim white light. The smooth blade glittered in her hand so brightly… her hand.
The image blurred in a more frantic fashion as if perturbed by her distress. There was her sister, and her face was beaded intricately with glistening tears over red cheeks underneath her sorrowful eyes. Her hair stuck to her cheeks with what could be rain or sweat.
The image blurred again until all the colours turned to pastel lilac in the same pulsy sea she’d seen before and she realised her eyes were open. The duvet over her was heavy and under it she could barely breathe.

“You’re awake?” Her mothers’ voice quietly asked; such a soothing tone. There was someone else in the room but Gwen couldn’t lift her head to look. There were three other people in the room, three shadows that loomed over her, apart from her mother who was more of a pink and yellow cloud. Who were they?
“No.” She murmured in response. “At least I hope not.” She tried to open her eyes.
“I called the doctor.” Bethan, her mother explained. “Alex and Robin stayed up all night until I got back from Brittany to make sure you were OK.”
“I…”
“Mum.” Robin cut in.
Gwen knew that saying something about Gwynedd when she was completely uncertain was probably going to be a mistake.
“Do you need to unpack? I think Gwen will be fine if I watched her and if the doctor left and Alex went to work then nobody would be wasting their time on something like this. She’ll be OK with me.”
“Don’t make me so suspicious.” Her mother laughed. “Alright, then you sort her out and I’ll make sure Steve and I have finished unpacking. The doctor sais it was a panic attack, Gwen. Ok?”
“Mhm.” Gwen didn’t open her mouth for the answer; in fact she’d barely opened her eyes.
When the door closed behind her mother she suddenly remembered how she needed to hear the truth about what happened. With a giant gasp she sat up quickly and the people around her backed away a little with shock.
“Robin!” She whispered urgently as if the matter could wait no more time.
In only the time it took to breath to start asking questions and questions and questions to realise there was a stranger at the end of her bed and Alex was still stood to her left.
“Gwen, this is the doctor mum called.”
He looked at her rather amused. “I take it you feel a little better.” His smooth voice reached towards her in some unnatural way that made her shiver.
She was utterly stunned. Was this guy a doctor? His eyes were heavily kohlled up in contrast to his fair skin and making his pale, pale blue irises stand out with darker rings of blue surrounding the tantalisingly light shade. He was sitting on her computer chair, backwards, and facing her hugging the back of the chair to his chest. His long hair was blacker than night and didn’t reflect light as if it was just a window into some kind of abyss.
She didn’t feel like answering his question. Instead, her gaze turned to Robin who was to her right.
“I had a dream.”
“No… don’t talk about it.”
“It wasn’t that!” she tried to explain. “That… It was something else… There was a dog… and you were crying… and I’d…” killed my childhood friend, she thought… “There was so much blood. Alex was there, but she’d changed and her eyes were… they were bright red. It wasn’t a dream. I could smell the blood. I could feel the cold. It was so, so real.”
“Tell me that’s normal, doctor, please.” Robin asked, not desperately but politely.
“You had a panic attack. Often you’ll have nightmares about anything related to the cause. Have you ever suffered from haemaphobia?”
“Hee… what-a-phobia?” Alex stumbled over her own tongue.
“Haem means blood, Al.” Gwen said, quietly. “No… I don’t. I’ve never. I think.” What was it about this person that made her not want to look at him but yet not be able to tear her gaze away.
“Oh… there’s miss supernatural being miss science at the same time.” Alex mumbled. Obviously, she hated when she didn’t know something but it, unfortunately, happened often.
“Supernatural?” The doctor lifted his arm and put his elbow on the top of the chair with his fist against his jaw.
“Yeah, she’s a proper occultist.” Alex was being unusually talkative about Gwen.
“I… think it’s interesting, even if half of it is not likely to be the truth.” She was not going to tell Alex that the occult wasn’t exactly supernatural, filtering out ghost hunting Americans and teens with Ouija boards and no idea what they’re doing.
“Hmmm…” He mused and his eyes grew intent on her with a gaze she felt could see through her. “Who knows?” His quiet voice was an unusually clear sound.
Alex and Robin were speaking to each other and she had a feeling they were speaking at her as well but all she was aware of was how wide her eyes were becoming as she stared at his. She could see eternity in his pupils and she could feel her thoughts emptying into that hole. She was completely unable to think or listen but she could definitely taste his breath filtering through her ajar mouth and see the tiny ripples that tendrils of fog made as they crawled over his bottom lip.
As soon as whatever that had tied her, helplessly, to his gaze had broken she fell back on the bed and quickly covered her head in the duvet.
“Eh?” Alex gave out an alarmed yelp. “Gwen? Are you OK?”
“Not… not…” What was she trying to say? Possible? Real? Human? Being polite was not obviously on her agenda. “Not now.” She managed to mumble and didn’t even know what she meant, herself, in the end.
Robin and Alex both glanced over at the doctor who looked innocently worried. He climbed off the chair and the girls noticed he had a trilby hat in his left hand, that he didn’t let go of even when he approached Gwen’s bed.
She could feel someone’s weight next to her hips, making a large dent in the mattress. A hand peeled away the duvet and when she saw his face she covered her eyes with her hand immediately.
“How are you feeling?” He said in the quiet but clear way that people connected with doctors but she didn’t believe that impersonation for more than a second. She felt his hand on her forehead, a light weight. It covered the entire surface but what struck her was the cold.
She froze with surprise instantly. “Di-dizzy.”
“Ok… I’m sure that’ll pass. You don’t seem to have a temperature.” Nor do you! “So, I’ll leave you now. Ok? Go back to sleep.”