Free Beautifully Ruined by Nessa Morgan Page A

for you in the real world, why not in your dreams, you know?”
    No. I don’t know.
    “Maybe we should be a bit honest here, huh, Noah?” The voice behind me surprises me. I turn. Ivy is standing behind me, her hands folded in front of her. “This isn’t exactly a dream.”
    I look back to Noah. His eyes narrow as he stares at Ivy.
    “Then what is it?” I finally demand. I want answers and this little back and forth between them is not giving me any. “ What is it? ”
    “That,” Noah starts, stepping toward me, “well, we can’t tell you, little sister.” His eyes lock on Ivy behind me. I turn, spotting her glare, arms folded along her chest. There’s a bite to his smooth voice. There’s a bit of aggression that wasn’t there a moment ago. It’s reminding me of the little boy who used to pull my hair, pelt me with hot wheels cars and place single Lego pieces around my room for me to step on.
    “I feel like we should,” Ivy argues, stepping toward us. “She’s our sister, and—”
    “We can’t, Ivy . You know that,” Noah says. “They’ll take us back instantly. She needs us here. Joey needs us here right now.”
    “That doesn’t mean we can’t help her while she’s here, Noah . We still have the chance.” Ivy drops her arms, placing her hands on her hips—a stance of defiance as she stares at her younger brother.
    “That’s exactly what it means,” he argues. “For her, this is a dream.”
    “This is a dream,” I state matter-of-factly, a little uncertain now. “Right?”
    “Right,” Noah answers while Ivy says, “ Wrong .”
    That isn’t confusing at all .
    Noah stalks over to our sister. “You can’t tell her anything,” he says, leaning closer.
    “I know that,” she snaps, turning away until she stares off into nothing, her brown eyes vacant. “But I want to try , she’s our sister.”
    Noah crosses the distance separating them and grabs her arm, tugging her closer to him so he can whisper. It doesn’t work as well as he hopes, I can still hear everything they’re saying.
    “She’ll always be our sister,” Noah starts, his thumbs smoothing over the skin of her arm. “We’ll always love her and want to help and protect her, but we can’t. We can’t tell her what’s in her future, you know that.”
    None of that makes any sense.
    “What’s in my future?” I blurt out curiously.
    Their heads snap in my direction, almost as if they forgot I was here, standing no more than five feet away from them.
    “You shouldn’t have heard that,” Noah says.
    “But what do you mean?” I beg, walking up to them. “About my future?”
    “I can’t tell you, Joey.” A tear rolls down Ivy’s cheek as she stares at me, sadness in her eyes. “Remember how much we love you.”
    “Is this real?” I ask, holding my hands out to my sides to feel the wind blow and graze my skin. Suddenly, I can feel the grass beneath my bare feet. I can feel the blades brush against my bare legs, the petals graze against my skin. What wasn’t real before is real now and it surrounds me endlessly.
    Noah stares at Ivy whose mouth drops open, as if to say something, but quickly closes. The brother and sister share a look between them before turning their twin eyes back to me.
    “We’ll see you again, Joey,” Ivy tells me as a promise, slowly fading from sight.
    “We promise you, little sister.” Noah fades from sight just as slowly, leaving me standing alone in the field.
    The wind rustles the grass and flowers around me, swaying the blades and petals against my legs, tickling my senses.
    I am alone. I am alone in a place I don’t know.
      
    By the time I wake and my body emerges from its sleepy abyss, I’m shaking. My body won’t stop. It’s as if a cold breeze swept through the room, leaving a trail in trembling limbs, but my window’s closed and locked—has been for weeks now—protecting me from anything and everything on the other side of the glass or the other side of