A State Of Darkness

4. Dark

"Hey, wake up!"
Someone had their hands on my shoulders, shaking me viciously.
"Wha..?"
"It was just a bad dream, Kayden"

My bedroom was completely dark, except for a few strips of light shining through the blinds.
My head was throbbing, and my forehead was covered with sweat. The dream had felt so real - like I had full control. The presence of the forrest had been so intense. My socks had been soaked from sprinting though the dense forrest floor.
I reached my hand up to the side of my head. No blood. I could have sworn it was real. The pain, the exhaustion, my hunger. It had all felt so real. I had had realistic dreams before, but nothing like this.

"Kayden, are you alright?"
That was Tyler, my room mate. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and got out of bed.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine"
I headed for the bathroom, with Tyler following in my footsteps.
"Man, you were all sorts of crazy back there, what was that?!"
I headed for the bathroom and picked up the pace.
"Just a dream, alright? Go back to bed"

I closed the bathroom door behind me and turned on the light.
The person looking back in the mirror had pale skin, dark eyes, black ruffed up hair and a manic look to his eyes.
I was a wreck. The dream still felt so close. Like I had just rushed into the warm light of the streetlight. What was going on?

That was when the light went off. The darkness came fast.
"Tyler?"

I heard my roommate shuffling around in the hall, trying not to knock things over.
"Tyler, what the hell happened?"

The footsteps stopped. I stood completely still. Irritated, because I had always been a bit afraid of the dark, and Tyler knew that.

"Tyler, stop messing around!"
A surge of fear passed through my gut.
"...Tyler?"
I searched for the door, completely blinded by the darkness. It felt just like in my dream.
I listened carefully for any sound.
A loud crash came from the kitchen.

"Kayden?! Kayd, FUCK, kayden, help! NOOO!"
My heart stopped.
"Tyler?!"
I forced myself through the door. The hallway was completely dark. The streetlights outside had gone out. The silence in the apartment was deafening.
My blood was pounding hard, my bloodstream filling up with adrenaline.

There was a flashlight in the top drawer of the wardrobe to my right. Without making a sound, I made it over to it. As I reached for the drawer handle, a drop of blood landed on the palm of my hand. A gash, 2 inches wide had opened up. Just like the one I had in my dream.
The darkness seemed to intensify, and the ruckus in the kitchen had stopped. After the dream, I had a feeling this was anything but ordinary.
"Tyler...?" I tried in a whisper.
A cold gust of wind made the hairs on my body stand. My breath became shorter and shallow.
I turned around to face the direction of the kitchen. Tyler was in danger, I had to help him.

As I turned around, my heart stopped.

"You can't save her"
The voice of an old man pierced the darkness, only 2 steps in front of me.
"Who..."
My knees felt weak and my vision blurred.
The man was around 5"9, dressed in a black suit. On his head he wore a weathered hat. Sitting on his shoulder; a crow.
There was some sort of dark aura around the man. A black mist incapsulating him and the bird.
The building shook.
The man opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. The next second, him and the crow had disappeared.