Am I In A Dream?

Elise POV:

My life has turned upside down and I don’t know how to fix it. I recently celebrated turning 21 but I also got the biggest surprise of my life. I found out I was adopted. 

My parents let me know that there was no information on my birth parents. It’s almost as if they don’t exist. Some people found me in the woods. 

Not long after I got off the phone with my mom, I lay in bed thinking about several questions that I will probably never get the answer to.

Morning came way too fast after falling asleep late into the night. My brain wouldn’t shut off. But as soon as I start waking up something feels off. My body feels too cold and stiff. My eyes pop open and I come to the realization that I’m no longer in my bedroom. 

I quickly sit up and look around. I’m surrounded by trees and laying in a bed of flowers.

“What in the fucking hell,” I say to myself. Am I dreaming? What is going on?  

I look around confused about the whole thing. I place my hands on my lap, my clothes feel different. I look down and see I’m not wearing my pajamas anymore. I’m in a black and red dress. There is a slit down one side going all the way up my leg, stopping about 4 inches from my hip. Black combat boots cover my feet. 

I try to stand up and almost lose my footing. I grab onto the nearest tree for help. I start walking to try and find a way out of this place. I can see a clearing up ahead. But as I get closer to the edge of the tree line I abruptly stop. I hear male voices I don’t recognize. Surely this is a dream, right? It’s normal to have strangers in dreams. But something doesn’t feel right. 

“Do you think we’ll be able to find the girl the dark prince is looking for? If we can find her before the faeries do then we’d have an advantage. Not everyone knows the prince is looking for her. I bet we can find out what she looks like,” one of the men says.

“Ezra would try and destroy werewolf kind if we got the girl before he did. This girl seems to be someone special to him if he’s secretly trying to find her and oesn't want werewolves to know. Rumor has it that he had visions of her. There are also rumors going around that he spoke very highly of her beauty,” says another one of the men. What are they talking about? Faeries? Werewolves?  

I can slightly see them several feet away from me. If I take a step forward they’ll be able to see me. I see four men. Each of them looks to be in bad shape. They kind of creep me out with the look on their faces. 

I take a step back hearing a crunching noise under my foot. I silently cursed myself and hoped they hadn’t heard it. But of course my life never goes the way I want. All four men are suddenly in front of me. 

“What do we have here boys?” One of the men asks as he takes a step closer to me. My heart pounds with fear. I take a step backwards. But they all continue to take steps towards me. I take another step backwards then turn around and run as fast as I can.

I can hear them chasing after me but I continue running. I don’t even dare to look back. Branches and other things slam into my arms and legs. It stings but I can’t stop. 

“Just stop running. There is nowhere for you to run. We’ll eventually catch you. You’re not very fast. We’re just letting you think you can get away.” 

I feel fingers graze my arm as one of them reaches for me. I let out a small yelp as my foot catches on something and I fall forward. I put my hands out to catch my fall. Pain shoots up my arms as I hit the ground. 

“Look boys, we get to have some fun today. It's even better that we didn’t have to go looking for it, she came straight to us. You’re exactly where we want you, pretty little thang.” His voice sounds rough as I feel him near my back.

“Don’t touch me,” I yell as he touches my back. They don’t listen as I feel hands touching anywhere they are able to. I try to move away but one of them roughly pulls me back. This is not good. I don’t know how to get out of this situation. One of them grabs hold of my thigh and aggressively pulls me towards him. 

“No, please stop.” I beg. 

Before they can do anything else their touches disappear. I hear grunts and what sounds like them falling to the ground. I don’t have the courage to look to see what is happening. I squeeze my eyes shut hoping I can wake up from this nightmare. But as the minutes pass I realize I’m not waking up.  

My curiosity gets the best of me and I finally take a peek. I bring my hands down,wincing as they touch the rough ground, and push myself up into a sitting position. 

I look around and see someone standing to my left. I look up to see a man looking down at me. He’s handsome but glaring at me. I flinch as I remember what those men were about to do. Is this guy going to do the same? But as I look around I can see the other men knocked out several feet away from me. 

“You should know better than to just be hanging around these parts of the woods alone. There are always creeps laying low around here.” The guy scolds me. How was I supposed to know that? I’ve never been here before. I’m so confused.

I look up at the guy once more and he scoffs at me. I roll my eyes as annoyance fills my veins. I look down at my hands and notice they are scraped and bruised up. I try to stand up but end up stumbling instead. 

“Fuck.” I look up and see him rolling his eyes at me. Well isn’t he just charming? “Thank you for helping me. I don’t know how I would have been able to get away from them.” 

“No need to thank me. You just shouldn’t have been out here putting yourself into a nasty situation. You should just stay home next time.” I can hear the annoyance in his tone. I can’t help but feel irritated. I cross my arms over my chest and notice him glance down before quickly looking back up. 

“I don’t live around here. I almost thought I was dreaming.” 

I hear him snicker. I glare at him. He tries to hold in his laugh but fails. 

“I hate to break it to you but this most definitely isn’t a dream.”