this love is good, this love is bad [wenclair]

chapter 10: putting roots in my dreamland

TW: mention of self-harm

Enid stormed into the woods and
I just wasn't capable of following her.
"ANTHONY!"
She paused, probably looking around.
"YOKO!"
I finally caught up. We were in an open glade. There was a bench. Enid had tears in her eyes and her underlip was trembling.
"TONY! Where are you? YOKO!"
One gunshot.
A second one.
A third one.

We woke up at the exact same time. Enid was lying beside me on my mattress and had been gripping my arm. She was sweating and her breath was heavy. Which wasn't my case, but I had a lump in my throat. I moved to sit up, freeing myself from her grip. With the moonlight through the window, I could discern her face.
Just like in my dream -or whatever it was- she was on the verge of a panic attack. I didn't think much and reacted by hugging her, making her sit up as well.
"Bad dream?", I murmured in her ear.
She nodded into my shoulder. We stayed like that for a moment until she pulled away and wiped some of her tears with the sleeve of her hoodie.
"I'm sorry", she said, looking me in the eyes.
"What for?"
"Waking you up", she mumbled.
"You didn't, I- Did you- What did you dream about?"
"I don't wanna talk about it."
She put her head against my shoulder like before.
"Was it about a funeral and then in the woods with Yoko and Anthony?"
She pulled away and looked me right in the eyes.
"How did-"
"No idea. I guess the contact with you maybe or..."
"So I did wake you up."
"Ugh, Enid, it's not about that."
I placed my arms around her and she completely sank into the hug.
"I must say that I'm quite vexed, because I didn't even have a guest appearance and Yoko was there the whole time."
That made her laugh. Good.
"Maybe we should try and get some extra sleep", I said.
I felt how she nodded 'yes' as I moved away from her and laid back.
"Can I stay here?", she asked.
"I guess, if you want to. Wait wait, how did you even get down here?"
In the darkness, I still discerned how her silhouette shrugged its shoulders.
"I don't even want to know, but okay."
She put her head on my chest and placed an arm over my waist.
"Is that okay?", she asked, sensing that I tensed up when I felt her arm.
"Yeah yeah", I lied.
Well, kind of lied. It was okay. It just was my first time being that close with a living human being. I tried to loosen up and let my hand fall on her back. To be honest, it's not like I had a choice. Given the position we were in, that was what I had to do to just be comfortable.
"Tell me about your visions", she asked.
"What do you want me to say?"
"How they work, etcetera, you know? You had that one in Crackstone's crypt, but you never really explained what it exactly was. I'm just curious."
She tightened her hold on my waist.
"I don't know that much about them. Except for the part where they seem to be triggered by touch most of the time."
I sighed as I realized that I really should seek some advice on those, because most of them were inconsistent and random.
"This shared dream situation is weird as fuck, though. Even for me", I added.
I heard her laughing softly. Not that much later, I felt under my handpalm that was on her back how her breathing got more regular and deeper, indicating that she fell asleep. She was relaxed. Peaceful. And soon enough I felt myself drifting away as well.

~~~

Spoiler alert: it didn't last long. I maybe slept for a total of two hours before waking up. Enid didn't move that much. In fact, the only time she had a major shift in position, was when she moved her head less than ten inches to the side. It now rested on my arm, where blood didn't circulate properly anymore. Her hand had lowered and was gripping the fabric of my sweatshirt in the area of my stomach. Sometimes she had strengthened her grip under the influence of whatever went through her mind. However, at that very moment, her hand lay almost flat on my stomach. At some point I did place my hand over hers to calm her  down, because she seemed to be having another nightmare. Weirdly enough, unlike earlier, I couldn't know what she was dreaming about.  I could only see how she frowned and slightly smiled at particular moments. All of that made question even more about that shared nightmare and how it was even possible.