Fever Dreams Who: Makola & OPEN When: Very early Saturday morning Where: The beach just outside the Level 1/2 Apartments
Makola woke in the dark with the echoes of screaming still ringing in his ears. He had slept on top of the sheets, as he usually did, but they were nevertheless damp with sweat. He lay there for a moment, breathing deeply. For the first time he was glad that he was sleeping in a room by himself. The transition had been strange at first. The first year dormitory room was hardly the kind of communal sleeping arrangement he was used to, but at least he had not been alone, and he could lie awake at night and listen to the rough, sometimes husky breathing of three other young men. He didn't like being able to hear nothing but the wind and rain, or even worse, nothing at all but the gently lapping waves. There were nature sounds, but they were very far away. Maybe that was what brought on the nightmare. But in any case he was glad now that he was alone; he was sure he had called out in his dream.
Suddenly he felt quite chill, with little bumps raising on his skin. Shivering, still gasping from the effort of wakefulness, he slid out of bed, dressed only in loose shorts and the baboon fang on its string around his neck, and stumbled out into the outdoors. He couldn't help but make a bit more noise than he would have liked; the door closed with a bang behind him despite all his best efforts, and he hoped he hadn't woken anyone.
He went out onto the low porch of the building and leaned gratefully over the thick wooden railing. It was still very dark, not even pre-dawn, and only moonlight lit the waves as they gently washed the beach. The weather seemed to have died down now, the effects of the storm visible in torn vegetation and bits of timber strewn on the beach, but it was not as warm as he might have liked. Still the breeze was a relief on his face.
He hadn't dreamt quite so vividly of Kagi for a long time. He didn't want to remember the dream, as it had frightened him, but out of respect for her spirit he tried to piece together the details, willing his heartbeat to slow back to normal rhythm. He thought she had been holding something in the dream, and what she had been holding had terrified him. She looked so young, he thought. Like a child. But they hadn't thought of themselves as children, then. They were married, ready to start a family and new adventures together.
He gripped the railing and shut his eyes tight for a moment. Then he vaulted over it, landing like a tiger on the sand, and walked out over the beach to the edge of the water, letting the shifting solidity of the sand under his bare feet bring him back to the real world.