Dream Killer: Book One in the Nadia Chronicles

“I know that you saved her and I am grateful, but I am sure we are keeping you from something. You should get going now.” Dimitri’s voice sounded defensive and almost rude to Nadia’s ears.

“Nope,” the other said casually. “I have no where I need to be right now, but if you need to go then, by all means, leaves.” The other voice was female and unfamiliar.

Nadia opened her eyes slowly allowing them to adjust to the gloom. She was in a cave. She wondered idly if it was the cave Dimitri was talking about earlier. It was damp, smoky, and musty smelling. The only light source was a blazing fire not far from Nadia. She could not see the cave entrance as she blinked her eyes into focus and assumed it was blocked by the light of the fire. She tried to sit up and gasped with the effort. Her body felt like she had been beaten. Then she remembered she had, by rock after rock in the river.

Dimitri saw her stir and was at her side in seconds. He helped her to sit up, gingerly grasping one of her elbows. When Nadia could hold up her own body weight, he released her swiftly, but continued to hover around her. Nadia looked up into his frightened and angry eyes and tried to reassure him with a smile. She didn’t realize that she had bruises on her face until she was unable to do more than grimace. Dimitri sighed, sounding almost as if he were growling, as he plopped down beside Nadia.

“As far as I can tell,” Dimitri began business-like. “You, miraculously, have no broken bones, but you are one giant bruise. I also think you have some internal bruising, maybe even bleeding on the right side of your rib cage and in your lower back. You ripped your shirt open across your shoulders, but the gashes are not deep. You seem to have hit your head pretty hard. Please answer a few questions. What are the names of your sisters?” He asked very clinically.

“Um,” Nadia started confused by his tone. “Cassandra and Hazel, but how does that help?”

“I am simply checking your memory,” he said coldly. “Your eyes are clear. Though you are going to have a painful bruise around a nastier cut on the back of your head, I think you are free of brain damage. Of course, I am not a healer, so I don’t really know if any of your injuries are serious. What can I do, but hope for the best? I mean, I guess I could have been there with you so that you didn’t get any of these injuries at all. But I wasn’t and you got them. What’s done is done.” He got up suddenly and started pacing.

“I think I am going to go collect more fire wood,” the stranger said nonchalantly. Dimitri acted as if she had not spoken. Nadia nodded to her with the best smile she could muster through her pain. The stranger walked past the fire and out of Nadia’s sight before Nadia noticed that Dimitri was mumbling to himself.

“Dimitri,” Nadia tried not to allow her pain to color her voice, but her head had really started to pound. Dimitri didn’t seem to hear her and he continued to pace.

She got up very slowly sensing Dimitri would continue to rant and pace all night given the chance. The smallest movements hurt her ribs and standing was not a small movement. She also had to allow her head to stop spinning before she could take a step. Once she put weight onto her left foot she had to bite back a shriek of pain. She only allowed a raspy gasp to escape her lips. There was an injury Dimitri had missed and she just found the hard way. She clearly had a broken or badly twisted ankle. She put all her weight back on her right foot and tried to breathe normally to lessen the pain in her ribs.

“Nadia,” Dimitri sounded irate. “What are you doing up?”

Nadia would have looked at him, but she was afraid if she opened her eyes she would fall over from the room spinning too much. She was also afraid he would see how much pain she was in and freak out more. She knew that he wanted to get to his people, where ever they were, as soon as possible. But with all her injuries they were going to be delayed. She was desperate not to show weakness and let him down any further. She wasn’t sure how she could hide the fact that her pain was growing. As it was, the pain was threatening to overwhelm her senses and send her into a dead faint. It probably would have been a welcome reprieve if she was sure she would not be attacked in her dreams. Finally, she said without opening her eyes, “Dimitri, I am sorry.”

“For what?” concern colored his words. “Why are you sorry?”

“I know I let you down,” she whispered with pain evident in her voice. “It’s just that.” She barreled into the story of the bear and running into the river to escape it. She even told him of all the rocks she hit and her last thoughts before she thought she was going to drown. She told her entire bone breaking story as fast as she could with her head down and never once did she open her eyes. I deserve this pain, she thought savagely when she was finished.

“No, Nadia,” Dimitri’s voice was full of concern. “You did not let me down. I should have been there with you. I should have been the one to pull you from that river or scare off that bear. If it were not for me, you would not have all of these injuries.” He was shouting by the time he ended his statement. Nadia was so surprised that she finally opened her eyes. Dimitri was ridged with anger and self-loathing, but then he softened with a sigh, “thank the gods and goddesses that you are okay.” He would have embraced her but was afraid to hurt her so he took her hand gently into his. “You scared the life out of me again. You travelled over two miles in the water. Two miles. You could have been killed by many things. I should have been there, but instead she was.” He put his balled-up fist to his forehead, clenching his eyes.

“Who?” she began, but then caught sight of Dimitri’s pained expression. She placed her hand on his cheek, “Dimitri, you had no way of knowing just how foolish or clumsy I am. Please, do not blame yourself for anything that has happened to me or will happen to me. It kills me to see you this upset over a couple injuries. I mean they don’t even hurt that bad.” She lied with a weak giggle. He looked at her with doubt-filled eyes, but did not interrupt. “I used to fall all the time back on Earth. Now I have all these cool new gifts and I still fall. I mean why did I not think to use my gifts? No one knows. Seriously, I might just be helpless. You may have just bet on the wrong horse with me or maybe you don’t bet on horses here.” He shook his head with a little smile and she continued in a whisper. “Dimitri, I am afraid for you because you are near me. I mean, I have lit on fire several times now. Simple activities, like washing dirt off my clothes, turn into epic disasters. Please, don’t ever blame yourself for my bad karma. Please.” She pleaded to him with her voice and her eyes. He could only stare back at her, overwhelmed with an emotion that only she has ever made him feel.

“We are a pair, aren’t we?” he finally said, looking away. He was shocked by the force of emotions that he felt. He wanted to take her into his arms and never let go. The only thing that stopped him was her injuries and right then the stranger came back with an arm full of wood. As she dropped the wood into a pile near the cave wall, both Dimitri and Nadia turned swiftly to look at her. For Dimitri, this was not a problem, but for Nadia it was a bad decision. She turned at her waist to look over her shoulder at the new comer and screamed out in pain. She would have crumpled to the cave floor, no longer in control of her broken body, if Dimitri had not caught her. The stranger ran to Nadia but Dimitri stopped her a few feet away.

“Wait, Althea,” he sounded terrified, but in control as he lowered Nadia to the floor. “Nadia? Nadia, please look at me. Nadia, where does it hurt?” Slowly, Nadia looked at him and smiled while her entire body was clenched in pain. She tried to comfort Dimitri but instead of words she groaned before her eyes rolled back into her head and she began convulsing. “Nadia!”

Dimitri’s scream rang in Nadia ears reinforcing the idea that the place Nadia was in was wrong. She was walking without pain or injury into a two-story building made of black granite, polished to a perfect shine. She stopped before oversized double doors, made specifically to intimidate any who passed through. Nadia turned slowly on the spot to take in her surroundings before she entered the building. Behind her was a long staircase made of the same materials as the building and shined to perfection. The staircase descended onto nothing as far as Nadia could see.

Whoa, she thought. This is either a dream or I am about to enter some sort of heaven. I never thought the afterlife was entered through a building that looked a lot like the American Museum of Natural History. Where am I?

She took stock of her body to see if she was still sporting any of the injuries she had received in the river. She was just stalling for time as she tried to decide what to do. After a few minutes, Nadia decided she had no other choice than to enter the ominous building. She pushed open one of the doors just enough to admit herself.

She immediately felt small and insignificant in such a grand room. The floor was large two feet by two feet black and white tiles that reminded Nadia of a massive checker board. The floor also gave a Willy Wonka or Alice in Wonderland feel to the oversized entrance hall. As she took a few more steps, eyes were drawn up to the ornate ceiling reminding her of something Michelangelo may have painted. She couldn’t be sure, because of how high the ceiling was, but the painting actually may have been created by individual glass tiles. In the center of the room, 30 feet above the checkered floor, was an enormous ornate chandelier that spanned at least twenty feet across. The hundreds of individual candles were burned to different levels and the wax pooled, gently spilled over the candle holders slowly making wax stalactites. Just in front Nadia were two massive, gleaming, pale marble staircases. Fifteen people could stand shoulder to shoulder on the bottom stairs, but as it ascended only about five people could fit at the top. Nadia crossed to the staircase on the right and noticed doors that lead off the hall with beautiful, museum-worthy paintings lining the ornately carved, wooden paneled walls. Everything in the room was in perfect order, so clean it felt sterile and unused. It was as if no one lived there, but someone came and cleaned every day.

Nadia didn’t like a room to be so clean that she was afraid to use the hand rail for fear of leaving a smudge. She liked a little clutter. As a matter of fact, she was happiest among organized chaos. Her room back in Gilbert was proof of that. After she cleaned it she couldn’t find anything for weeks, but at its messiest it was rare that she couldn’t instantly find what she was looking for. A door banged open on the second floor somewhere and it interrupted her musing.

“Hello,” she called out. Her voice echoed oddly around the room, making it sound weak and sad. She heard rushing footsteps and suddenly had the urge to hide.

“Who are you?” came a voice from above. “And why are you here uninvited?”

“Nadia,” Nadia stammered. “My name is Nadia and I don’t think I had much of a choice to be here or not. You see I had a little accident in a river.” She began to ramble more out of nerves, but decided to change course. “Really, that doesn’t matter now. What does matter is who are you and where am I?”

“Do not presume to ask anything of me, girl,” the voice boomed forcing Nadia to take a step back.

Nadia wasn’t sure if the speaker was male or female, but she was sure that it was older than her, probably by several decades. Nadia also knew that she was not a big fan of this speaker or the non-welcome she was given. She wanted to put her hands on her hips and throw a witty come back at them, but before she did anything rash Nadia wanted to see the speaker. She didn’t like this ‘I can see you, but you can’t see me’ nonsense.

“Listen,” she tried and failed to say without attitude. “I don’t mean to offend you and I would leave if I could, but it seems to me the stairs outside open onto nothing. So, let’s cut the preliminaries and get to the face to face meeting. What do you say?” She finished with her arms open as a gesture of friendship. All she heard was quick steps fading away from her as a response. “I guess not,” she mumbled as she turned to explore the rest of the room. She was caught off guard by a woman standing directly behind her. The woman was beautiful. She was a perfect blend of the most perfect mortal women like movie stars or singers and goddesses like Athena or Aphrodite. She was so beautiful it was hard to look at her and even harder to look away.

“Nadia, why are you here?” the woman’s voice was quiet to hear and yet it resonated through Nadia’s body. Nadia wanted to fall to her knees, but was rooted to the spot by a mix of awe and fear. It was a few seconds before she even understood the question and a few more before she could voice an answer.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “But I don’t really know why I am here.” She finished lamely and finally looked away out of embarrassment.

“Nadia, look at me,” the woman ordered and Nadia had no choice but to obey. “When last we spoke, you were injured but you are beyond injury now. If you do not see a healer, you will die. My son, even now, is discovering the truth of the situation and I, in this state, am unable to help you.” The woman never broke eye contact with Nadia.

Nadia was confused. When had I spoken to this incredibly beautiful woman and why does everyone seem to know my name, Nadia thought. Then she suddenly understood. “Gaia?” she asked. “So, this is one of your other forms. You’re the mother of Dimitri and I am dying.”