Free Shattered by Sophia Sharp Page B

they stopped, and Laura found herself standing with Logan before a beautiful lake. It was hidden deep in the crest of a mountain, the far side cradled by cliffs of ragged stone. The water was crystal clear, casting perfect reflections of the sun’s rays, and the shore contained only the smoothest blue-gray pebbles.
    “I found this place once after walking for an entire day through the dream world,” Logan explained. “I come here sometimes to think.”
    “I can see why,” Laura said. The air here felt even fresher than at the lake they began at. A bird sang in the distance, and the rustle of trees came from behind them. The only thing that foiled the il usion was the slight edge of fuzziness that lay upon al the items of this world.
    Logan let go of her hand, and strol ed up to the lake. He bent down to dangle his fingers in the water, then, picking out a round stone, got up and skipped it across the lake.
    “Can you skip rocks, Laura?” he asked.
    “Uh… no, not real y,” she admitted.
    “Come on over, then. I’l teach you.” He smiled at her. “It’s easy, real y.”
    Laura walked to him, but as she got closer, that feeling of being watched returned. She glanced back, but, on seeing nothing, continued on. Logan tossed her a stone, and she stumbled catching it.
    “Come on now, that’s the easy part,” he teased. Laura grinned at him devilishly, and chucked the rock as hard as she could into the lake. It fel lifelessly into the water without a single skip.
    “Wel , you sure have the strength for it,” Logan laughed, and threw another rock himself. His skipped five times before sinking. Then he came over to help. For the next twenty minutes, Logan tried teaching Laura how to duplicate his feat – without much success. Stil , they was having fun, and they both laughed at her attempts while playful y poking fun at one another. By the end of it, Laura’s arm was absolutely exhausted, and her shoulder kind of hurt, so she col apsed, defeated but laughing, onto the ground.
    Right when she fel , that feeling of unseen eyes returned, stronger than ever before. This time, she was sure somebody was there. Just as Logan threw one last stone across the water, she looked back –
    and froze as she saw a man, dressed in al black, peek out from a faraway tree. Their eyes met for an instant, and then the man disappeared.
    Suddenly Logan was at her side. “What’s wrong?”
    he asked.
    “I just saw somebody.”
    “What do you mean?” His tone was grave, and his face serious.
    “At that tree, over there,” she pointed. “He disappeared right when I saw him.”
    He relaxed visibly. “Sometimes people drift in here, coming to places they know,” he explained.
    “They only stay a moment, and then return to their regular dreams.”
    “This man was looking right at me, though. I felt his gaze.”
    “What?” His eyes became laser sharp, and he focused on her. “Are you sure?”
    “Yes. I felt it before, too, but I didn’t think anything of it.”
    “This man,” Logan said, “what did he look like?”
    “I didn’t get a very good look at him,” Laura admitted. “And he was far away. But he had a black coat on, and a black hat. Everything about him was black. Except his skin, it was pale white, much like…
    yours.” Laura gulped the words.
    “What?” Logan demanded. “Are you sure?”
    “Yes.”
    “Shit.” Logan got up, looking over his shoulder, looking al around. “Take my hand,” he said to her urgently.
    “Why?”
    “We need to leave. Now.”
    Laura reached up to grasp his hand. On contact, a blast of cold jolted through her bones, and everything around her turned dark. She felt herself fading away, felt her body begin to disintegrate as the world around her started to crumble. The only thing she was sure of was Logan’s hand, gripping her own tightly. Then she felt heat, the flare of molten-hot rock churning down a river of lava, and she started to fal . Direction became meaningless, and