and I wake up

Something wasn't right, something was missing. No, not something...someone. Questions of where is he? are met with panicked flinching and non-committal shrugs at best, blank stares at worst. Dread sinks in, fear's claws tighten. It stirs action, yet turns feet to lead. Sharpens the senses, yet dulls perception. Quickens the heart, yet slows its beat.

After too long, she finds me. "I didn't want to tell you this earlier,". Oh no. I don't want to know. But how can I not? That feeling of premonition and trepidation, where your senses whisper to you your darkest fears before your mind can rationalise it, seeps into my heart. "They found him near one of the temples." My sense of balance gives way, my legs moments after. As I fall, time acquires an elastic, spongy quality. I register my face hitting the floor, the left side of my teeth cracking against the unyielding stone. I don't feel it. All I can feel is a hollow emptiness, like staring into a deep chasm. A horror so dark it seems to suck at your soul. A sorrow beyond feeling.

Brutal, unforgiving images flash by, supplied by morbid imagination, of the slaughter that I know to have happened. Somewhere, dimly, something tells me I should be hurting someone, maiming something. But I can't even move, let alone feel angry. I can't see. I can't breathe.

Soon, it all stops, and I wake up.

It takes me long seconds to realise where I am, to even remember why I feel so weird. Then the dream comes back in shattered fragments, like a mirror shattering in reverse. The memory brings with it a wave of panic, and a need to rationalise and reassert my grip on this reality.

Seriously, what a horrible dream. I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything to deserve that.