I’m King

1) The Dream

Gianna shot straight up. Panting and drenched in sweat she clamped her hands around her mom's arm holding onto her tightly. It was just a nightmare. The same horrible, recurring nightmare.

It always started the same way: she was lying in a massive bed and woke up warm and wet. Drenched in blood. The white sheets, her clothing, her hair. Her skin slick with it. Paralysed for a moment, her eyes dart around the room to see her family's' heads on wooden pikes lining the walls of the room like some sick arrangement of paintings. She would scream and try to get out of the bed only to be weighed down by their decapitated, still bleeding, bodies. Once she managed to scramble out of the sheets, she ran to the wooden doors. Bursting into the passage, she found herself in her schools main building corridor. The plush red carpet under her bare feet, blinding light through the front door and the boardroom doors open. She always felt drawn to the boardroom. After the first few dreams she ignored her surroundings and stumbled into the cosy room. Sitting at the head of the table was always the same hooded figure. Every encounter with him was different. Each time he told her something different.

Every encounter with him was different. Each time he told her something different. He normally had a lot to say, especially if her parents did not wake her. But this morning he simply said, “it’s time” before her mom pulled her from the dreamland.

Gia glanced at the clock on her bedside table. 04:57. There was no point in trying to go back to sleep.

“At least you slept through the night,” her mom gave her one last squeeze and kiss on the head before starting to stand, “Same bad dream?”

Gia simply nodded while running a damp hand through her hair.

“I think it's time we book you into that psychologist. If you won't talk to me maybe you'll be able to talk to her?” Her mom knew she wouldn’t get an answer out of Gia so left it with that.

Gia flopped back down on the bed. She had 3 minutes before her alarm would go off. 3 minutes to think about what he’d said.

Its time

Time for what? She sincerely hoped it wasn’t what she thought. It couldn’t possibly be. She was crazy. The dreams were crazy. And he was a figment of her imagination so nothing he said could possibly filter into reality. Right?

But Something was off at school today. The normally peaceful grounds had a charged energy to them. The students could clearly feel it too. Everyone seemed on edge, anxiously waiting. Waiting for what, they did not know. Even the calmest students picked up an anxiety vice on the seemingly normal day.

By the time house meetings rolled around at 09:45, everyone was ready to burst. Gia felt oddly calm though. The strange words running over in her head. “It’s time” He said them so calmly.

Seren fiddled with her blazer button next to Gia.

“Would you stop that?” Gia finally snapped, “what is going on with everyone today?”

Seren didn’t stop what she was doing but checked her watch. “I have no idea but it’s making me nervous. Tell me one of your stupid stories. I need a distraction.”

“When you call them stupid it makes me not want to help you.”

“But you love talking so you’ll do it anyway.”

“Fine.” Gia glared at Seren. “And I don’t love talking. But I’ll do it to help you.”

“Whatever excuse helps you sleep at night,” Seren was always good at snarky remarks.

“Again, that makes me not want to tell you,” Gia paused but Se looked up at her expectantly so of course Gia caved, “I had a weird dream last night.”

“Oh?” Seren was barley listening.

“I suppose it was early this morning. And it wasn’t a dream but more of a nightmare. One in a series of nightmares actually. And I was talking to a demon, my demon I suppose, but he looks like a human. And before you say it, the demon is a he. He’s my demon and I say he’s a he, probably because he had a really deep voice and is kinda arrogant but that’s besides the point. Anyway, he said that it was time which normally I take everything he says as nonsense but … I don’t know. Something about today makes me want to believe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Right? Everyone is acting weird and I can feel the energy today. Something must be about to happen but he’s not real so can I just feel that something isn't normal or is he actually real and everything he’s said is going to come true? I hope not because otherwise were all in deep shit.”

“That was a whole bunch of absolute word vomit,” Seren looked over at Gia with one of those your-such-an-i***t looks only Se could do.

“Well, I haven't exactly spoken to anyone about any of this and it feels good to get it off my chest.”

“So, what else has this demon said to you that could possibly be true but probably isn’t?” Se asked.

“A lot,” Gia sighed, “and hardly anything. Doomsday prep stuff mostly. I think it's just with matric that I guess my brain is trying to prepare for next year.”

“That prep could come in handy one day,” Seren tried to reassure.

“Really?”

“Probably not,” Se chuckled through the statement.

Mrs Wood gained everyone's attention and began her greeting before jumping into her announcements. Netball trials and Grade 8 bags cluttering the halls. Normal Thursday morning stuff. The same stuff Gia had heard for the past 5 years.

And yet the closer to 10:00 it got, the more anxious all the girls became. Like a clock was ticking on a bomb. And as 10:00 hit it might as well have been a bomb because the world went dark.