Free Dance Of Desire by Sweet and Special Books Page A

bed.
    Curious and anxious to prove to herself that she did not just urinate in her sleep, she reached out to touch an edge of the stain. She pulled her fingers back as soon as she was able to. Not only was the bed wet, but the spot was warm to the touch.
    “No. No-no-no-no-no!” she said to herself over and over.
    Her face was a mixture of disgust and embarrassment as she bent over the bed. She inhaled and immediately felt relief wash over her for a second when she determined that she didn’t pee on herself while sleeping. Still, the volume of the liquid that took up her bed sheets was very unsettling.
    She shook her head as if to clear her mind of the incident and move on.
    “Okay, Cassie,” she started telling herself aloud. “It’s there. It’s done. Better to just clean up, grab something to eat and down a couple painkillers. Might have been a hot night but who knows and who cares. Let’s just get on with the day.”
    Her pep talked cheered her spirits a little. And then flashes of horrible, half-remembered memories resurfaced in her mind. She recalled her wrists being bound over her head. She remembered the absolute terror that she was feeling.
    She stared at the disgusting wetness of her bed and rationalized that it was the clammy wet spot in her bed that had caused her inner fears to run wild in her dreams.
    “Ach, I’m disgusting!” she admonished herself.
    She made her way to the bathroom. A quick shower would snap her out of this funk. Right, it’s just what she needed. And she’d have a good day.
    The water was delicious, running from the top of her head and down her body with soothing freshness. It felt like her worries were being washed away. It felt so good that Cassie even began humming. Then when she felt a twinge somewhere, she looked down. She gasped at what she saw and finished her shower as fast as she could.
    She wiped the mist off the mirror and stared in horror at the reflection.
    “Oh my God…”
    Large circular bruises dotted every inch of her upper torso, her front and her back. These new ones weren’t even a bit subtle. They looked too perfectly round to be hickeys.
    “Damn.”
    There was no running away from it. Something was wrong with her nightmares. But they couldn’t be real… yet… of course… something must explain why when she was tortured by monsters in her dreams, marks were left on her body when she woke up. She supposed she should be grateful that she even woke up. She felt lethargic. Even her brain felt rustic. But somehow… somehow she knew, if she even dared think she could succumb to the monsters when they say surrender, she would be in a lot more trouble.
    Like not waking up?
    This is impossible, she thought as she shook her head. This must be psychological, a reaction of her brain to the new changes that were happening to her life.
    But if it were so, weren’t they too much? Like… like it was almost paranormal. Like she was being hunted?
    Again, she remembered that menacing presence she felt when she woke up after a forgotten nightmare two nights ago. She closed her eyes very tightly, and convinced herself that it was impossible. There couldn’t be supernatural creatures in a building built just recently.
    But her body had started to shake uncontrollably. Same thing as happening to her hands even as she put on her clothes. She needed to get out of here now!
    Without checking what she’d grabbed, she stormed off for school, slamming the door behind her.
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    CASSIE was earlier than usual, hoping she would find a temporary relief in the logic and clarity of class by being among other people. The normalcy was a far cry from the vivid living nightmare she had been suffering through the past couple of days.
    Any other time she’d have dismissed it all as absurd. That she was probably hallucinating with all the stress she’d be going through at school. But there had been absolutely no other explanation for it. She was being haunted. Or maybe her new place at