Read E Page 19


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  For the first time, I have a different nightmare. I'm on a wide, broken street, with tall buildings rising on either side. In the distance is the single white spire of a skyscraper. There are others around it, but I focus on this one. I start walking toward it. Start running. I hurtle myself down the street. All the while, something is behind me, but more than that, I know that if I don't get to the white spire, I'm lost. It's not exactly that something terrible will happen, but I need to be there. Every second that I'm not is like someone is chopping random body parts off of me. Soon, there will be nothing left. Just sausage.

  I run until my body shuts down, my lungs bursting and muscles melting into disobedient puddles of flesh. The spire is still just as far away. Around me, the buildings have not changed. I try to start running again, but my feet won't move. I’ve become part of the concrete. The cracks run right up my legs. I scream, and jerk, trying to free myself. But I can't. I'm trapped. Everything goes black. As the box encloses me again, I'm sure I'll die from the terror.

  Then I'm being shaken awake, the fingers pressing into my shoulder. "It's alright," Jonas voice murmurs sleepily, breaking into my nightmare. I open my eyes and peer around in the darkness, disoriented as usual. At first I think he's in the box with me. Then I realize where we are. I take a deep breath.

  His arm goes over me, and a flash of anger seers through my brain. I want to push him away, throw his arm back at him. But I don't. I let my breath out, close my eyes. My body relaxes and sinks into the mattress. I pull his arm closer, snuggling it like a child's doll. Somehow, as I drift into the land of dreams, I no longer feel the need to go anywhere.