Dead Dreams ((Young Adult Paranormal Romance) ( Dead Dreams Trilogy)) (30 page)

There was
a brief
moment of
happiness and a taste of family life
when the then
ten
-
year
-
old was sent to stay with her a
unt because her
mother had been hospitalized for liver problems.

For weeks it was blissful.

Summer played happily with her three cousins and the
re was always food on the table.
S
he slept
on clean sheets in a
comfortable pretty pink
room
that
she would imagine
was a castle and
she was a fairy princess
. She dreamed and fantasized
that if she could stay
long enough in the
magic bedroom
, until she’d grown then a
dashing prince
on a white horse would
take her away
. J
ust like
in the fairy tale books she read endlessly.

But t
he
good life ended
the day
her m
other
showed up unannounced
ignor
ing
the pleas of her sister to keep Summer
for a while longer.
I
nstead
she took her straight back into
a life of
endless misery.

B
y the time she was
fourteen
she’d had a succession of boyfriends
mostly older
, one abortion a
rising
drug problem and bulimia.
One night, after her mother’s latest boyfriend
hit Summer across the face in a drunken rage
she ran away
vowing
never came back.
Life on the streets wasn’t much better but she considered it
the only
choice and w
hen she found out her mother had died, she shed no tears, preferring to keep them locked away.

“
Maybe we don’
t exist or we never existed or
they
don’t exist.
”
Adam said.

“
Yeh okay which is it to be, face it we’re screwed which ever way we turn.
”

“
We don’t exist.
”

All
hope of reconciliation had
failed
. T
he only option left was
to head back to the city to find people like themselves, people that
could see them
and wouldn’t take advantage of them. L
ost and confused they re
luctantly head back to the city with Adam still smarting from the rejection.
Silently they walked
away
from the suburbs
heading
back to the place they couldn’t wait to get away
from. Adam had
nothing to say his mood
was
sombre
.
Summer
struggled
to find some l
ogic to their situation but it
didn’t come-
no matter how hard she tried.

“
What day is it?
”
Adam had become totally disorientated.

“
How would I know? I’ve forgotten what year it is let alone
what
day.
”

“
Big help, what’s your problem
now
?
”
She
stop
ped
in her tracks
and with her
hands
firmly
on
her
hips she
blew
,

“
I’m done wi
th you, you’re making me crazy…
I…I’m
outta here,
find your bridge throw yourself off I
don’t
give a shit!
”

“
Come with me.
”

“
What?
”

“
Off the bridge together and zoom pow we’re
out of our misery
.
”

Summer began to shake and
cry, her tears of sorrow
were
not just fo
r the hopeless situation she’d
found herself in
,
b
ut for the years of pain she was
forced to endure in her short life. She
had started to believe
that being with
Adam was a
kind of punishment
even though she
couldn’t deny that
a part of her
did feel
the love gr
owing between them. The other part hated his guts. Was it
fate
that
brought them together and
would
it be
fate
that would tear them apart?

Adam
interpreted her tears
as a sympathy ploy used to play on his emotions
and weaken his defences. He saw
her as an attention seeke
r, creating arguments to get
insults
;
that
way she’d
ge
t him to notice her
,
even if it was
negative.
She makes
Katie
look like
Alice
in Wonderland and I thought she was a pain in the ass.

“
I’m going now,
”
She said
through
the tears.
“
Do what you want, kill yourself or whatever. But if you change your mind and wanna come with me then stop with the
suicide
talk, I can’t stand it anymore.

He wanted desperately to put an end to what he saw
was
a wasted life yet
he lacked
the courage to do something
. There was only one choice, keep
try
ing
to
make sense of everything that was
going
on
and head back to the city to search for answers.

“
You lead I’ll follow.
”
He meekly rep
lied.

Chapter 9

Heading back meant another long laborious walk. They’d lost the
appetite for food preferring to just walk silently hoping to find someone who
would
help them. The lights
and sounds in the distance told
them
they
were
close but
which direction to
take was eluding them as they weren’t communicating
. Neither
wanted to face what was
coming next-
losing faith came easy when you couldn’t
find the answers.

Summer
was
first to
see
a park in the
early
afternoon sun, the
soft
green grass and
a chance
to sit
was
inviting as her swollen feet and old flip flops
had
become
a bone of contention
.

“
Can we
sit for a while?
”
She
requested afraid to upset the delicate situation
.

“
Yeh sure why not?
”
Adam replied wanting to keep the peace.

It was
a peaceful deserted oasis with
no-one
to spoil the calming atmosphere. T
he sight of a bench
was heaven
as they both flopped down with relief.
They scanned the few people they saw
in the distance
hoping to be seen, praying that there were still others like them
.

Summer spot a girl alone.
“
The girl over there
looks
friendly
,
go
say hello.
”

“
Why me
? S
he’s gonna think I’m hitting on her
,
you go.
”

“
If I do
will you be nice to me for once?
”

“
Yeh yeh just go.
”

Adam
was
intrigued
by
the tall dark
skinned girl standing by a tree acting as if she was waiting for someone.
H
e watched
Summer slowly
walk
towards her
,
building
up the confidence to go right up to her and speak,