Before I Rise
The Nightmare

Em’s POV

There was excitement in the air surrounding us in the pack dining hall. Perhaps it was due to the fact that we managed to capture a rogue and obtain a sample of his blood. Many pack members felt a sense of peace as now we had a way to protect ourselves from the rogues. Well, I guess I didn’t necessarily have to worry about it.

We were all extremely perplexed on how I managed to walk away unscathed from my encounter. Some of us were convinced it was because I was human. However, Elder Morgan quickly shot that idea down. She states that in her books it says all living beings were affected by the alternate blood. Marcus didn’t care what the reason was, he was just happy it didn’t affect me. I, on the other hand, was more confused than ever. I wondered often if I would ever figure out what or who protected me in that moment. I guess I was adding it to my never ending list of questions.

“Oh come on Dave, I’m injured. Help a friend out.” Jensen said, trying to convince Dave to feed him.

He had been trying to get him to do it for the past five minutes. It had all of us at the big table laughing, even me. Jensen was clearly capable of feeding himself, he was just simply trying to see if Dave was gullible enough to do it.

“Dude no, you burned your forearms not your fingers. I don’t feed anybody else except my mate or myself. It’s not going to work on me, try someone else.”

Jensen pouted and continued to look at Dave. After about a minute or two, he finally gave up and fed himself.

“Wow, it’s a Christmas miracle!” Dave sarcastically shouted out. Jensen rolled his eyes and laughed with the rest of us.

Dinner time was always entertaining. I loved to be surrounded by everyone and hear them catch up about their day. Especially since this dinner was the first dinner Alicia and Alexis have been to at the same time. They didn’t come together, nor did they sit next to each other, but they did cordially say hi to each other. It was slow progress, but it was progress. I wasn’t sure if they had had time to speak to each other since Alexis and I spoke yesterday.

“Are you going to be okay tonight without me?” Marcus asked.

“Where are you going?” Dave asked Marcus before I could respond to him.

“Today was the switch for patrol. My group is doing night patrol now.” Marcus explained to him.

I felt my heart fill with anxiety as he talked. I hadn’t slept alone in a while, I wasn’t sure how I would be able to even sleep tonight. Marcus suggested that he switch with Jacoby so he can remain on days. I told him no, as I didn’t think that was fair especially to Jacoby and Jules. I thought about maybe staying up all night and sleeping during the day with him, but I had commitments during the day. I was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.

“Oh that’s right! You going to be okay without Marcus?” Dave asked me.

I nodded my head and mustered up a smile. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. It will be nice not to have the blankets stolen from me.” I jokingly said with a wink in Marcus’s direction.

He rolled his eyes at me. “Yeah right. I’m the one that wakes up in the middle of the night freezing cause someone wrapped themselves in the blankets.”

My face heated up as Dave let out a gut clenching laugh. In my defense, it has only happened a few times since Marcus and I started sharing a bed. Most of the time, I wake up wrapped up in Marcus’s arms. There have even been a few times where he’s practically on top of me. I don’t mind it though, I always wake up feeling loved and safe even if I am sweating profusely.

After dinner Marcus had only a few minutes before the night patrol started. He walked me to our room and watched me get ready for bed. He insisted that if he couldn’t sleep with me, that he could at least tuck me in. I didn’t mind, I was glad we would get a few minutes together before he had to leave.

He pulled back the covers for me and covered me up as soon as I got comfortable. He brushed some hair away from my face before kissing my forehead.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” He asked me for the hundredth time. I couldn’t tell who was more nervous between the two of us.

“Yeah, I promise I will be. I’ll probably watch some TV before falling asleep. Just promise me that you’ll be safe.”

He leaned down closer to me. “I promise.” He whispered before giving me a deep and long kiss. The sparks erupted between us causing a shiver to run down my spine.

“Goodnight, get some sleep, Love.” He pulled the covers up a little more before placing one last kiss on my forehead.

“Night Marcus, be safe. I’ll see you in the morning.”

He gave me a smile before shutting the door and leaving me alone. As soon as he left, anxiety hit me like a freight train. I’ve been anxious on and off since he told me this morning that he was going on nights. I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this level of anxiety. I figured I would be a little bit anxious and nervous, but this was just ridiculous. I felt like I was on the verge of having a panic attack.

I put on a movie that I barely paid any attention to. Instead, I laid on my back and focused on my breathing to attempt to calm myself down. It seemed to work as my eyes began to grow heavy. Within minutes I was finally asleep.

I felt like I was swimming in thick darkness. I was cold and felt extremely alone. This was not one of my typical dreams. I usually dreamt about Marcus or even Jules and Alicia. But this was different. I felt almost like I was being watched, but I couldn’t see anyone near me.

Suddenly a dim light appeared a few feet in front of me over something that I could not see. The closer I walked towards it the more details I could see. It was a black mirror aligned with intricate gold designs. It stood in a puddle of dark water. I stopped walking, feeling very afraid of what I might see if I got closer.

However, an invisible force pulled me to it. I began to hear whispers when I touched the water. They were so faint I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I once again looked around, to see where the voices were coming from.

Something in the mirror caught my eye. I took a step closer to see what it was. Suddenly, the mirror rippled as though it had waves inside it.

A soon as the ripples stopped, my reflection appeared in the mirror. After glancing at it, I realized very quickly that something was off about it. It looked exactly like me and even had what I was wearing. However, the eyes were different. Instead of green, they were the most piercing shade of blue I had ever seen. It looked like they were staring straight into my soul. The reflection began to smile at me, almost in a sneering way.

The hair on the back of my neck stood to attention. Every nerve in my body was screaming at me to run. I tried, but I couldn’t move. Something was holding me there. I tried to shout, but nothing came out.

Suddenly the reflection in the mirror lifted their hands. They grabbed ahold of me by the neck and began to squeeze. I was finally able to move my hands and tried as hard as I could to get it off of me. The more I fought back the harder it squeezed. An evil laugh echoed through the abyss as I started to lose consciousness.

I sat up immediately in bed, coughing and trying to take in as much air as I could. I was shaking and tears were running down my face. My whole body hurt due to how tensed up I was. My heart was beating so loudly I swear everyone in the house could hear it.

I got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face. My hands were shaking so badly that I could barely open the bathroom door. Once I did, I immediately went to the sink and turned the faucet on to the coldest setting I could get.

I looked up into the mirror scared that I would see that same reflection. Instead, something entirely different caught my eye. Something that made me question everything.

There, in the bathroom mirror clear as day, were dark markings on my neck. I could see the outline perfectly. They were hand prints.