Broken Glass and Bleeding Hearts

What was with all the damn nightmares lately? I laid in my bed staring up at the white ceiling on Saturday morning a few weeks later. I’d just been woken up a lot earlier than I would have liked by another nightmare. The strange thing? They all ended the same way-Matt and I dying.

I reached over to grab my phone off of my nightstand. I knew that in a matter of minutes it would either ring or receive a text message from Matt. He would be making sure I was alright. Unfortunately I wasn’t the only one having so many deadly nightmares.

I’d managed to convince my mom that I was just watching too many late night horror movies on Friday nights since Star had been busy for the past few weeks with her new boyfriend. It was actually kinda funny. But anyway I’m not sure how completely convinced my mom is since pretty much every Saturday morning, ranging from 1 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., I wake up screaming bloody murder. And in this case it really is bloody murder in dream form.

But the two worst parts are that I still don’t know who manages to kill us every time and with each dream they just get worse. I mean it is becoming torture in the dream, on both Matt and myself. This last one is the worst so far. Then my cell phone went off. It was text which made me smile.

Elliebear r u ok? More bloody murderer for me. I’ll admit it even though it is cheesy to think, even for me. Matt was so cute when he woke up. Even in text messaged because he always put murderer on accident.

I’m fine. Are you okay?

Yep. I’m going back 2 sleep. I’ll see u later I closed my phone and placed it back on my nightstand. I should try and go back to sleep, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to close my eyes. I knew that the villain was a female but that is it.

Instead of trying to go back to sleep I got up and took a shower. Star was still asleep so I decided I’d go bug someone else. A someone else named Zacky. I knew his parents were out of town since he’d thrown a party last night and that is where everyone had went.

My mom was watching a movie in the living room when I walked downstairs. “Morning sweetie.” She smiled.

“Morning mom. I’m going to go bug Zacky. I’ll see you later.” Outside I got into the car that I could now call mine and headed for Zacky’s house. When I arrived I knocked on the door several times before I heard any noise from inside.

“Are you freakin’ crazy?” Zacky asked simple when he opened the door.

“Sometimes. You look like shit Zack.”

“I wonder why.” He moved aside so that I could come inside. I took the unspoken invitation and looked around.

“Did you even make it to your room last night?” I stared at him in disbelief. There were plastic cups scattered around the living room, Cds in random spots, and even Jimmy’s drumsticks laying around.

“No.”

“I’ll help you clean up.”

“Thanks. I was just going to make Jimmy and Brian do it though.”

“Are they still here?” Zacky didn’t bother answering as he turned and led me into the kitchen, instead he just pointed up, telling me they were upstairs. “Did they take over your bedroom Zacky?”

“Nah, I think they fell over in the spare room. I’m sure Brian took over the bed and Jimmy is crashed on the floor.”

“Justin went home?”

“Yeah.” Zacky opened the fridge and grabbed a soda for each of us.

“This isn’t healthy you know?” I asked taking the can he was offering me.

“Yeah so what?” I opened the can and took a long drink of the soda. At least it was full of sugar and caffeine. We’d need an energy rush to clean the disaster area in that living room this early. “So what brings you to my lair instead of Matt’s?”

“Lair? Well um he’s still asleep.”

“Yes, lair. So you wake me up but not him?”
“Yeah.”

“Ass.”

“I try.”

“Come on.” It took a little over an hour to get the living room in order since it became a game of hide-and-seek with all the scattered crap. We have just finished and plopped down on his couch when we heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Wow did we clean up last night Jimmy?” Brian asked before he saw Zacky and I on the couch.

“Maybe. I don’t remember.” Jimmy answered with a laugh. Zacky and I sprang up and glared at them.

“You two slept all morning. Ellie and I cleaned up.” Zacky informed them.

“Yeah. Jimmy your 50 drum sticks are over there in the corner.” I pointed to where Zacky and I had placed all the drum stick in a box.

“Awesome! Thanks guys!”

“No problem.”

“Ellie why are you over here instead of at Matt’s house?” Brian asked looking at me with a completely confused look on his face. I had to laugh before I answered.

“I was letting him get some sleep.”

“So you came to bug Zacky? What about Star?”

“She had a date last night. She was still asleep too.”

“Interesting.”

***

That night I found myself in the crowd at Avenged’s gig with Star next to me. The place was packed! “What time is it?” I asked over the loud music that was playing through the stereo system.

“About 8:30.” She answered after looking at her phone. Then I gasped when I saw her. “What?”

“Look! That is that Angelica I told you about!”

“The one the council wants Matt to be dating instead of you?”

“Yes, that one!”

“Gasps!”

“Oh brother Star.”

“We should go kick her butt!”

“Please welcome Huntington Beach’s very own Avenged Sevenfold!” The voice suddenly sounded over the loud speakers.

“Screw up, we’ll get her later!” We both turned our attention to the stage where the guys were now walking out in front of the crowd.

The beginning of We Come Out At Night kicked in and the crowd exploded. I caught sight of Angelica moving towards the front of the crowd and for the first time ever I felt a stab of pure jealousy pulse through me. She wanted Matt to notice her. “What is it?” Star must have noticed the anger that was radiating from me.

“Her. She wants Matt to notice her.”

“Ellie chill, you’ve saw girls try and get Matt’s attention before. Besides they are going to have girls trying to get their attentions from now on when Avenged gets big.”

“It’s just something about her. I can’t help it.”

“Well what do you want to do?”

“I’m going up there.”

“Wonderful. I’m coming with you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yeah but if you get into a fight with her I might want to help.” Sure enough when we got to the front she was right there, looking at Matt and batting her eyelashes. Matt wasn’t taking any notice to her, much to my happiness and much to her anger obviously.

When the guys got done playing I took a step back because I already knew that Matt was just going to hop of stage and onto the floor. He had noticed Star and I a few minutes after we made it to the front and sure enough he ended up right in front of us. “Great show.” I smiled as I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

“Can I have a kiss too?” Matt and I’s heads both snapped over to see Angelica standing there and smiling.

“Angelica what are you doing here?” Matt asked as I felt that stab of anger again.

“I came to see you.”

“Go screw yourself.” I hadn’t even realized the words had left my mouth at first, after all I’d only been thinking it. I hadn’t meant to actually say it out loud.

“Well you aren’t very nice are you?” She turned to me and I swear for half a second I saw an evil glimmer in her eye that made my blood run cold.

“For the last time I’m not interested in you. Ellie is my girlfriend.” Matt’s arm tightened a bit around my shoulder as he stared at Angelica.

“We’ll see about that.” With that she blew him a kiss and turned around to walk away. The anger hadn’t faded from my system when Matt gently shook me.

“Elliebear are you okay?”

“Uh yeah, I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Come on. You look tired. I’ll take you home.”

“Okay, but I need to say bye to the guys first.”

“Okay. I’ll wait here.” Matt did wait while I told everyone else bye, and then we left for my house. There was a note on the coffee table in the living room from my mom. She was at Matt’s house talking to his parents. “What does it say?”

“She’s at your house. You wanna hang out for a while?” I didn’t want him to leave so soon. There was a feeling in the pit of my stomach saying that something was wrong. I just wasn’t sure what it was.

That night after Matt left and I talked to my mom when she got home I went up to my room to stop thinking about things for a little bit. Now why is it that when you wanna stop thinking about everything and relax a million thoughts flood into your head?
It was like a flood wall had broke the second I laid down on my bed. What was up with my sudden jealousy? Did I really see an evil glimmer in her eye? Why did she want Matt? What was the bad feeling that I had? Why did seeing her flip a switch in my that alerted me of danger subconsciously?

When the thoughts became too much I reached for my cell phone and called Star. “Huh?” She answered half asleep.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up. I forgot to ask you. How was your date with Kellan last night?” I asked trying to avoid anything that might break another flood wall. My head felt like it was going to explode.

“It was awesome! He is so sweet.” She began gushing. Thankfully I knew that she’d keep my mind off of my unanswered questions. I asked details for about 20 minutes and then she began to not make sense. She was too tired.

After we hung up I watched TV for a while and finally found myself falling asleep. I knew that sleep tonight would be hell and I was right. The first nightmare started soon after I drifted off and was basically a different version of the one from last night.

The second time I fell asleep the new one started and it was worse than I could ever imagine. I already knew that I probably wouldn’t be able to save Matt but I was running anyway. But then the dream became so much more real than I would have hoped.

I could feel the cold, not only on my skin but deep inside my bones. I could hear the scurrying rats running in different directions on the cold, hard, concrete floor to avoid getting stepped on by me or the person who was chasing me. I could hear the soft drops of water falling onto that same floor from above my head and every now and then I could feel them land softly on my head or shoulders.

The darkness wasn’t welcoming at all, even for a vampire. It held a sense of danger and worse, death. I could smell the sweet scent of fresh blood as it moved deeply into my lungs and drew me towards it. It was fresh and warm, and familiar. Too familiar. It was the scent of the blood I’d tasted more than one time, and the blood that belonged to the guy I loved. It was Matt’s blood.

I could hear the footsteps of the person behind me getting faster as they got closer to me. My heart beat increased to a rate that I thought might cause it to literally beat out of my chest. Thankfully it didn’t but it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. With a final burst of energy I sprinted forward faster, a plus of being a vampire was that you could actually run, and found the source of the sweetly intoxicating smell.

The tears burst out from my eyes before I even had time to stop them. The scene was beyond the worst I’d ever say and the blood was in massive amounts. Matt’s fate had been decided at it was death. I knew mine was the same. “Matt!” I shrieked as I joined him at his side.

“It’s okay Elliebear. It’s okay.” His head weakly moved and landed on my cheek. I’d never saw Matt seem so helpless. He had lost too much blood. “Don’t worry about me. Save yourself.”

“No. I’m not leaving without you.” I placed my hand over his and then I heard the eardrum breaking scream of anger.

“Neither of you are leaving alive! He was supposed to be mine! But you had to get in the way! Just because of love. Bullshit! This has gone on long enough! You both die!” The anger and hatred dripped out of her mouth and words live venom and I could feel that dark feeling and sense of death loom over us again.

“You aren’t leaving alive either!” My voice wasn’t even recognizable. The tears made my vision blurry even though there was light in the room. The sobs came out unwillingly with my declaration and then I saw a blur of speed attack Matt and it was all over.

Her hands were at my throat making it hard to breath. My hands were fists throwing punches at her. The air that I was getting was no longer sweetly intoxicating, instead it was a painful reminder of who I’d just lost. The reminder was just too painful and I couldn’t fight anymore. He was gone.

“Just kill me now.” I pleaded as the tears increased. My voice was in gasps as the hands loosened. She let me go and I crumbled onto the cold floor allowing the water to soak a large amount of my body.

“No. That would please you too much. Get up and fight.” She kick my back multiple times followed by several other acts causing pain to me. The tears refused to stop as the smell continued to fill my lungs. The pain of loss made the physical pain seem like tiny pokes of the tip of a cat’s claws lightly pressing against my skin.

“No. Why should I?” I closed my eyes to avoid seeing anymore of the room where it would all end.

“Because you caused me so much trouble! Had you just given him to me none of this would have happened!” I sat up and my eyes sprang open and I was staring at her.

“I loved him! He wasn’t a trophy to be passed around! Matt was a person! He chose who he wanted to be with and he picked me! Because he loved me the way I loved him!” My words were more powerful than I could have ever imagined. “You didn’t love him Angelica. You just wanted a trophy.” I said her name as I got a clear image of her face. She scream in anger and then it all went black.

I sprung up in my bed with a loud scream and my head swirling. Then I heard a knock at the window that made my heart stop for a few seconds. I looked over and stared at the window in fear. Who was it?

Then I looked closer and a tear ran down my cheek in joy and relief. I opened the window and pulled Matt in. I didn’t bother with words instead I wrapped my arms around him, buried my face against his should and began crying. “It’s her Matt. I saw it in my dream. I remember.” I sobbed.

“I know Ellie. I know. Shh. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” He whispered as his arms wrapped around me and his lips gently kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay. Shh.”