Waste

The darkness the surrounded me made my trigger finger itch with anticipation as I walked through the balck expanse with the machine gun raised ahead of me. The air smelled of musky rotten corpses but there was nothing in this black hole. I don't think I've ever been in such a place before and I hope I never have to face something like this ever again. The sound of different growls came into my ears and I looked in every direction but there was nothing in sight. A huge flash of light made my shelter my eyes until the light became dim. I looked around and seen the old Huntington Beach neighborhood I grew up in. Everything was normal. I looked over to my left and seen the house I had grew up in. It was so full of life with the rose bushes my mother had planted were in full bloom. I walked towards the house and opened the front door.

The walls and floor was covered with blood and bits of flesh were everywhere. What the hell is going on? continued to walk through the house and everything was cover in a thick layer of clotted blood. My legs felt heavy and when I looked down at them, they were dead and rotted. The veins were carelessly dragging the ground and blood smeared my legs and all the way to my waist. What the hell happened to me?! As I continued my journey through the bloody house, I looked into one of the rooms and a feeding frenzy was happening right in front of my eyes. I tried to raise my weapon but my shooting arm fell to the ground with a thump. I turned to the right and looked at myself in the mirror....my face was rotting flesh. My jaw bone and teeth were showing in my reflection. I reached up and rubbed my hand over the spot and it felt so normal. There was nothing wrong with it. A loud bang made me turn my head but nothing was there. I turned back to look at myself again and Felicity stood there. She was one of them!

"You killed your own family!" she yelled before sinking her dead teeth into my neck. I screamed as loud as I could hoping someone among the living would hear and come to my rescue.

"Serenity!"

"Serenity! Serenity wake the fuck up!!" I gasped for air as I opened my eyes and seen Felicity with the look od concern smeared on her face. I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around my sister before balling my eyes out.

"It's alright Serenity." Felicity soothed to me as she rubbed my back. The sound of footsteps made me look over to the door where everyone was standing.

"Is everything alright in here? We heard screaming."

"It's alright Zacky. She'shad another nightmare. You all go back to bed and I'll calm her down." Felicity said rocking me from side to side. Silent tears ran down my face as everyone left.

"Are you alright Serenity?"

"They...they're getting worse Felicity. I dreamt that the neighborhood we grew up in was back to normal but when I walked into our home...there was blood everywhere...I started turning into one of the dead and when I looked into a mirror there you were...You were one of them too and you were yelling at me that I killed our family...I'm so sorry Felicity! I didn't mean to kill mom and I didn't mean to have dad get killed!" I said in another fit of tears. She gently wiped my tears away with her hand.

"Serenity it was just a dream and you had no choice but to kill mom. She was already dead and dad was taken from us by a Stray. You had nothing to do with that."

"But I feel so responsible for everything! I can't even close my eyes without seeing them laying on the floor in their own blood!" I said breaking down.

"You are not responsible for anything Serenity! Do you understand? There's nothing about this whole shit that you should be blaming yourself for. You had no idea any of this would happen!"

"Then why do I feel like I am?" I said hanging my head she pushed my chin up to look at her.

"You feel guilty for not going back to get them that night. Serenity, I would feel the same way if I was in your shoes but I know there's not enough comforting words to tell you that everything will be alright. The only way for you to know that everything is going to be fine is if you confront those demons within your dreams." I nodded my head in responce to her since I couldn't find any words that would interject was she just said. I knew she was right and I guess I'll have to go deep within myself to chase the demons away. I don't want to be haunted within my mind any longer.

Notes