Falling with Angels (1)

1

Nightmares?

Jessica was in a dark room. There was no light, just a void of darkness. But she could feel the floor beneath her feet and the walls and her fingertips. The room was about as big as her bedroom, but by the feel of things it was empty.
No, wait. There was someone else in the room. They were close. Very close. Jessica felt her way around the empty room, her arms stretched out in front of her. After what seemed to be forever, Jessica's fingers landed on something soft. Feathers! Jessica felt around more. The feathers were attached to wings. They must have been black wings. White ones would have glowed, right?
Jessica felt up the wings, they were huge! Maybe about as long as both her arms combined. She was expecting the wings to be attached to some huge animal, but she was wrong. The wings were attached to the bare back of a boy. Jessica felt around over his shoulder and moved her blind self to stand in front of the him. This was the person she had felt in the room earlier. She traced her fingers down his arm down to his hand. It was so cold, but in some odd way, comforting.
A strange realization came over Jessica then. She knew someone that knew who this hand belonged to. But how would she know that? How could she? The hand moved, along with the rest of the boys body. He embraced her, holding her close. Like she was a long lost friend he had just found. His body was cold, but she welcomed his embraced. She felt so safe in his arms. "Come back to me Aciaj. Please come back to me. I miss you so much. So much....." He whispered into her ear softly, sadness thick in his words.
Jessica was confused now, who was Aciaj? Was he talking about her? Jessica did not get the chance to find out as light flooded the room. The boy disappeared in the light as a vampire would. "Wait!" Jessica called after him, but he was gone.

Jessica shot upright in her bed "Wait!" she called again, panting. She looked around, she was on the floor, tangled in the sheets. "Not again...." Jessica mumbled, standing and removing the sheets from her body. This must have been the fifth time she had this dream. Or was it a nightmare? Jessica always woke up in fear after that dream. She could not put her finger on what kind of fear, but fear it was none-the-less. "I should tell Thane. He might have some idea on why I keep having this dream-nightmare-thingy."
Jessica threw the sheets back on her bed and walked into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror. "God, I look horrid." she commented on her tangled red-mahogany hair and sleep-deprived green eyes. Her nightshirt was also sticking to her back from the sweat. " I need a shower....." Jessica noted to herself, pulling off her nightshirt and shorts.
After a long hot shower and recount of her nightmare-dream, Jessica pulled on a t-shirt and some jeans. She walked downstairs to the kitchen. She could smell sausage wafting her way. "Morning." Jessica said, walking into the kitchen. Thane turned around. "Well your up early." he said, smiling and pulling a chair out for her. "Care to tell me why your up so soon?" he asked, sitting next to her. Jessica sighed. "Well...." she hesitated. "I had this really odd dream last night." that caught Thane's attention. He was always one to jump in if the topic related to dreams. "Tell me?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.
Jessica told Thane what she saw in the dream and told him of the fear she woke up in. She also told him that she had this dream before. "Hrm....." he ran his hands through his golden-blond hair. He opened his mouth to say something when the oven timer beeped. Thane got up and took the sausage out of the oven and served them, hot and sizzling. "Now, back to your dream." he said, cutting himself a bite of sausage. "Balck can be a symbol of darkness or evil, and wings tends to mean an angel when attached to a human being. So I guess black wings means a fallen angel. You said that he embraced you? Like a hug?" Thane questioned. Jessica nodded. "He told me that he wanted me to go back to him, that he missed me. But what was really weird was that he called me Aciaj." she said. Thane dropped his fork. His expression was like that of a person who had just seen the end of the world. "Thane!" Jessica yelped, standing up. Thane held up his hand to show that he was alright. Jessica sat back down. "What did I say?" she asked, scared now. Thane was not the kind of person to do that. He was always bright and happy. An expression like that on his face worried Jessica. Only when things were really bad did he ever even hint had being worried. "Aciaj." Thane said, a odd feeling in his voice that Jessica could not understand. It sounded like a mixture of hate and fear. "Aciaj is......" he sighed, rubbing his temples. "Aciaj is the sister of a previous friend of mine. A friend that did many wrong things." he was holding back his words like he was talking to small child. "Then why did the boy in my dream call me that?" Jessica asked. Aciaj was such a strange name. Like Thane's last name, Anquel. "Because you look like her." Thane said, still his voice was far and distant and filled with that weird emotion.
Jessica and Thane finished their breakfast in silence. Jessica had never seen Thane like this. He seemed to be deep in some horrifying thought. Jessica cleaned up the plates and put them in the dishwasher. She tied on her boots and grabbed her purse. "I'll be at the park!" she called behind her. "Alright!" Thane called back, still broody.
Jessica sat on the swing trying to wrap her head around what Thane had told her. "Aciaj is the sister of an ex-friend of Thane's. That boy in my dream seemed miss me in that way a older brother would miss a younger sibling." she said to herself jumping off the swing and heading towards the path that circled the little park. "So that makes me the sister, the boy my brother and Thane's ex-friend. So Thane was the person I know who knew that boy. If what I just said was correct...." Jessica stated. She walked slowly on the path around the park. Walking help her think. Moving in general helped her think. "But I never had a brother. Just mom, dad, and little Lilly. So where did this boy come from?!" Jessica was getting frustrated. All this was making sense and not making sense at the same time and it was confusing her. What she was thinking was not possible unless she had a older brother that her deceased parents put up for adoption before she was born. But then, wouldn't have Thane known about him and told Jessica?
Jessica shook her head. "I needed something less troubling to start my first week off from school." she grumbled. Jessica went back to the swings. "Maybe this ex-friend really hurt Thane and hearing that a boy called me the ex-friend's sister's name in my dream was unsettling. Yeah, that must be it....." Jessica didn't really feel sure about that statement. But she had to think about something that wasn't confusing. She had enough confusion during the school year.