Duck Rain and Dragon Dirt

I woke up feeling strange. My nightmare... wasn't scary? I had to tell the graves! I needed more graveyard dirt anyway so might as well kill two rats with one snake! I flung myself from bed and got ready to have a small adventure!

I grabbed my sneakers and a clean shirt and got ready to leave before I saw the world outside the window. It was raining. Pouring. A waterfall was bursting from the sky. Ok then, I'll grab my rain coat as well! I fed Basil a treat and snagged a jar before running out the door. Starving and excited I ran down the main stairs on the hunt for some food real quick.

Outside the lobby doors, a storm attacked the pavement mercilessly. The streets were flooding and the trees looked limp and berated. Pulling the collar of my olive rain coat up, I pushed the doors open. I flash of white feathers swooped past my head, yellow claws just missing my face by a few inches.

"What the hell?!"

I pulled my head back out of reflex at looked to my where my assaulter landed to see a duck. Many ducks. Swimming in the streets. The duck that had almost hit me flusteredly waddled to the street, meeting with friends and running away.

 The bewildering sight left me starring a bit but I regained my senses with time and continued on my adventure.

I walked over to this place next to Collingwood Heights called "Hot Legs"? Never heard of it but it said on a sign that they have good fries and hot wings. Cool. I walked inside to be blasted by music and rave lights. Most of the club was empty but the people who where there were all women. Huh.

I walked up to a bar like dinning area and sat down, feeling a little out of place but mostly uncomfortable by the insanely loud music. A tough looking woman on the other side of the bar walked up to me.

"WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE SUGAR?" She yelled but I still could only barely hear her over the noise.

"uh- UH SOME FRIES AND WATER!" I yelled back and she wrote my order down.

"COMING UP HOT STUFF."

'what kind of place is this?'  I thought, looking around some more. All the decor. The light. The music. The overly affectionate waitress.

'no way." It dawned on me.  

'I'm in a lesbian bar aren't I?'  I backed off my chair and looked around more, only confirming my suspicion. I quickly turned away from the bar and stumbled out the door and back onto the stormy streets.

"Holy shit, how can I be that oblivious?!" I said, hitting myself in the head. Not against the life, I just had no clue why I didn't see that place was a lesbian bar, ok? Its good to see we got a diverse neighborhood though.

As I stood there a bit longer the entrance's bell rang and a boy quickly ran past me and out of sight as fast as he came. He looked like he was in a hell of a hurry. My eyes wandered to the pavement at my feet to see drops of blood diluting against the wet ground. I looked back to where the boy disappeared, kind of confused. I hope that boy was ok...?

I decided to skip breakfast and head strait to the graveyard this time. My walk there consisted of stepping over ducks and rivers of flood water. News stands along the way all screamed the same thing:

"FLASH FLOOD WARNING"

"CURSE OF THE SIX"

How can a curse cause flash flooding though? Oh well, in the end I made it to the graveyard in record breaking slowness. The sign above the looming black gates read:

"Old Hollow Graveyard" Poetic.

Anyway, I wandered a bit through the graves, every single one was blackened with age and as I wandered there was a crowed of people in the distance. All huddled around one shiny white stone; I'll have to vista then sometime as well.

Soon after the group of people disappeared from my sight I found myself stumbling upon my favorite grave: Mr. Rodrick Fredly, 1902-1998, died the year I was born. I've only been here about a month now but he seems to be the best listener, its not like I've meet many living people in the neighborhood anyway. I crouched down and opened the jar in my pocket. I started scooping grey dirt into the jar and started one of our usual one sided conversations.

"I had another nightmare," I said to the old stone, "Well, I always have nightmares, you know that, but this one was different! It wasn't bloody. It was just a normal day." A warmness filled my chest as I remembered the nightmare.

I woke up to see Gabriel still awake, as he always was, and Dragon was sleeping close to the blackened fire pit. I went through my backpack and pulled out breakfast materials.

We all enjoyed a happy meal of Gabe eating nothing and Dragon just ate some fire coals. I had bread and ham. It was like a family breakfast. We packed up and wandered through the woods some more, Gabe taking the lead and Dragon by my side. Not a single wild animal crossed our path that day. Not a single monster needed to be defeated. It was rare peace for us. 

We made it out of the grim forest as the day waned, stumbling upon an open field filled with golden wheat. I took Dragon's hand and ran past Gabe. I pulled Dragon down to the ground with me, flopping down under the tall grass. We laughed and watched the sky turn to a blazing red.
It was like a fantasy, so surreal, so joyful.

Dragon broke the laughter, yelling to the sky something that surprised me,

"I love you, Rosemary Valerian!"

And then I woke up in my dark, empty apartment. The sun was just starting to rise and my heart was pounding harder than it has ever before.

"I guess it was the first time he told her he loves her." I said to the graves. They stood as stoic as ever, rain dripping down their faces. I could feel the rain pelting against my rain coat again and the cold smell of dirt shook me from my thoughts.

"Is that what a dream feels like?" Sadly my decaying friend could not answer my unfamiliar question.

I finished collecting the graveyard dirt and sealed the jar. I stood up and called a goodbye to Mr. Fredly before walking out the graveyard gates and went home.

I looked up at the old manor, dark and grim against the charcoal sky. It felt haunting until my eyes caught a splash of bright color pinned to the corner wall. I curiously walked to it to see a giant graffiti master piece.

A knight in purple shining armor stood with his chest out and feet wide, firmly standing in a bath of flames. He looked up towards the sky where his foe resided. A red dragon, flying high above the brave knight and a sword through its scaled heart. The dragon had its jaws open in a silent roar of agony, trying to escape its fate.

I couldn't look away from the art, emotions flooded through me that I had never felt while awake. Anger poured out of my eyes and I couldn't help myself. I flung my arms against the side of the building, hitting and scratching at the painted knight. I gritted my teeth to keep myself from screaming. I only managed to scratch off a few flakes of paint before I curled my fists and fell to my knees.

I couldn't stand. I couldn't speak. I just stared at nothing while I cried in the rain. I wanted that knight to die, I wanted him to stay away from the dragon. The poor dragon. My Dragon...
It felt like I was sitting there for hours, the air suddenly thick and hot, suffocating me.

I stood again once I found feeling in my legs. I stumbled on shaky ground with my arms close to my body. I pattered into the lobby, the only sounds I heard were my own soggy foot steps and the rain outside. My ascent up the stairs was long, and I finally opened the door to my empty apartment. Not bothering to turn on the lights, I locked the door and slid down to the dull coppery floor. I curled my body into myself a tight ball of swimming, strange emotions.

"dragon...
dragon..."

I whispered to no one, I cried to an empty room. I felt so weak for some reason, so cold.
"My Dragon..."

What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I feel this way?

Refrigerator

My day started at 1:00 am waking up in my usually stressed and sweaty way. The blankets were too hot and clung to my skin in a terrible way. I couldn't close my eyes without seeing horrifying images behind my eyelids. So sleep wasn't really an option.
My room was almost completely dark except for Basil's heat lamp but even then the world felt small and hot. I felt like I couldn't escape anything, not even the air I had to breathe to survive. I just couldn't keep from the feeling of heat sticking to my body and smothering me.
I got out of bed and pulled a sheet around me as I headed to the kitchen a few feet away. The window next to my fridge barely let any street light in.
Through the widow I could see the moon was beginning to turn a bloody red color. It reminded me of Dragon's scaly red skin that he always tried to hide under many types of clothing. I smiled a little, he is always kind of insecure in my nightmares, like a flustered kid 24/7. I think that was one of the reasons past me loved him.
I opened my refrigerator to let the bleached light flood the kitchen floor. It only took a few seconds for the cold air to hit me and I sat down in front of the open fridge. I leaned my shoulder against the door to keep it from closing on me.
The cold air hit me like a wave and I sunk to the bottom of its endless ocean. I closed my eyes and looked at the color that filtered through my eyelids, an array of oranges and reds let my eyes stay busy yet rested. I fell asleep again and woke up around 7:00 am with only a memory of fuzziness from my dream and a warm refrigerator.
I got up and went to the bathroom. I passed the mirror and stopped. Taking a step back I looked at myself. Me. Not her. Me. My tan Hispanic skin. My different colored eyes. The many colorful band aids covering exposed skin. My dark short hair. This was me.
I went on my routine, washing up and dressing myself, checking the closet garden, and feeding my slithery baby for the week.
I left the building and started walking towards the hardware store to buy some new plants. The air was thin today, clouds over head just little whips in the endless blue. As I was looking to the sky I bumped into someone. I turned back to look at them but they just kept going like they were in a hurry. Their feminine body shape looked really pretty but their walk was kind of sad, maybe confused. For some subconscious reason I wanted to call out to them but my voice caught in my throat. I felt kind of helpless... not that I'd every admit that to a soul. I just turned back to the sidewalk and kept moving forward.
The hardware store smelled of sawdust and soil, very welcoming. I got what I came for and went home, but as I stared at my barren apartment, the image of that girl stuck in the back of my mind, like I had seen them once before...