Dream in Dragons

The girl looked up, paranoid and shaking, still a kid full of many mistakes and premature ideas, she didn't know how to respond. The ferocious dragon did though, it's slumber had been disturbed and it reacted on raw emotion. Feelings took hold of this untamable beast and swirled around in it's head like a ball of flames. The girl could see it in the dragons eyes, the hate, the desire to get rid of this pest, and trembled in fear. It opened it's mouth and the girl saw death greet her from a distance and slowly walk forward. She curled up into a ball and wished this wasn't happening. For a brief second she convinced herself everything was ok, that she was in bed, asleep and any second now her little brother would wake her up, giggling and tickling her feet chanting, "School, school, school time!" She felt a hot breeze and smoke engulf her. She saw her life flash before her eyes and then she felt it. Red hot liquid fire surrounded her, it was her, she couldn't think, couldn't even breathe, she could only scream. She turned to ash and fell on the floor. What was a beautiful young girl is now only dust. The dragon smirked an evil grin, then laughed a wicked cackle.


Leah woke up drenched in sweat and reeking of smoke. It was only a dream she told herself, just pretend. The smell of smoke told her otherwise though, and she looked down. What had once been her blanket was now a pile of ash. She sighed and got out of bed, this had been happening for too long now she thought, brushing the ash and sweat off of her. Too long to mean nothing anyway. She looked at her pink alarm clock and saw the time flashing 3:33 repeatedly. Of course. She didn't expect any other time in the world, but was really starting to hate that number. Leah was too afraid to go back to bed and decided to cope with her emotions the only way she knew how to, to run from them. She grabbed some sweatpants, a tank top and her sneakers and quickly threw everything on. Then she pulled her hair into a loose pony tail and climbed out of her window. Leah swung her leg on the tree branch and slid the rest of herself off the window sill and onto the branch. Twelve years of gymnastics and five years of dance and track kept her in insanely good shape and more importantly, helped her to maneuver nearly impossible stunts. She craftily climbed down the tree, and slid down the rope of the tire swing. When you do something often, it tends to become second nature, and that's what climbing this tree was to her. She took a sip of her emergency water bottle, usually stuffed into a hole in the trunk, shoved it back in the hole and took off at a quick jog, which turned into a run, then a sprint. It felt good for her legs to stretch, as she pushed her limits, running the city's bike path in the dark. She ran and ran till her muscles cried out in pain. Then she turned around and pushed herself to go even faster on the way back.
She arrived back at home and pulled her phone out of her bra, checking the time, which was 4:21 in the morning. She beat her record timing of 4:38, which was great, and bad. It meant she had that much more time to sit around and think. She pulled out her water bottle and gulped down some more water. The cool liquid trickled down her throat, quenching her thirst. She closed the bottle and shoved it in the hole for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. Then she stealthily pulled herself up the tire swing's rope and clambered back onto a branch. Without even thinking about it, Leah made it up the tree and in the window in a matter of seconds.
For about twenty minutes she just sat and thought about the dragon. Then she pulled out her headphones and iPod and blasted music, trying to block out any thoughts of the fiery beast.
Leah repeatedly drifted into sleep, even while the music from her iPod blasted into her ears. Then, right when she was about to really sleep and not just drift through the land of dreams, she saw bright green cat-like eyes and woke up, muffling her screams with her fist and pillow. Finally at around 5:45 she figured it was a sane time to be awake and started getting ready for school. She showered, attempting to wash the smells of ash and sweat from her skin. Then Leah brushed through her hair, occasionally pulling out noticeable ash from her curly blonde hair. Life sucks when your reality is intertwined with the land of nightmares.