"AVERY WAKE UP!" I heard a booming loud voice ringing through my head. My eyes shot open and I sat up quickly in the bed. Panting for air as the sweat dripped down my body.
"Avery, what just happened?" Natasha asked me. Panic and worry were evident in her voice. I looked at her in shock and wrapped my arms around her tightly.
"I'm so sorry, Natasha...I'm sorry you heard that!" I blurted out. The air was slowly leaving my lungs. I couldn't breathe. It was as if the world was closing in on me and everything was getting tighter and smaller.
Natasha pushed me back. Her hands holding onto my shoulders.
"Avery, breath!" She told me. I shook my head furiously, unable to grant her what she's asking for.
"Look at me, Avery. You're awake. It was a dream and now you're awake. I'm right here, darling." I looked down at my wrist and saw that Natasha had let go of my shoulder and grabbed onto my hand. She held my wrist and I held hers. Feeling her pulse. I felt the slow and steady beats and closed my eyes. Feeling the calmness of her pulse relaxing me. My breathing soon becoming slower and steadier. I opened my eyes and saw Natasha smiling at me.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Avery, I need you to tell me about your dream." Natasha said, slowly. My eyes shot open and I couldn't find the words to speak.
Natasha looked at me in shock. Her hand cupping my face and her eyes scanning mine.
"You heard your mother die," I said in a hushed tone. My voice was raspy and quiet. The words I wanted to speak, I did not want to speak in volume. They weren't words you spoke like any others.
Natasha raised her eyebrows and she looked at me with pity. She wrapped her hands around me and I pushed myself deeper into the hug.
"So did you sweetheart, and I'm sorry for that." She whispered.
"I saw you, Natasha. You weren't older than five years. You were sitting on the staircase, pushing against the railing and squeezing your eyes shut. You were crying.
I heard screams, and I saw the shadow of a fire. I was running upstairs but you stopped me. There was an invisible wall put up, meant to keep you from walking up there. But when I heard her screams, her agony, I pushed through it, I broke the barrier." Natasha looked at me, terrified, I decided to continue before I let her speak.
"I ran upstairs and into the room. I saw him, the man, he was," I didn't know if this part should be told. I advised against it.
"She looked at me, she saw me. But he didn't. She told me that he needed to die." I stopped, realizing that this next part was going to reveal something that both of us knew but neither of us had told the other.
"He was the wizard that has been controlling me," Natasha gulped hard before averting her eyes and looking down at the bed.
"She told me that he needs to die, and then she told me how." When I said the last part, Natashas head flew back up and she stared at me. She shook her head slowly, unable to comprehend what I had just told her.
"What did you see in the room?" She asked me carefully. Neither her voice nor her eyes told me that she wanted to know. She heard her mother dying, but thanks to the barrier, she didn't see it. And I don't believe that she needed to know.
"She was lying on the floor, peacefully when I walked in. The fire surrounded her in a circle," I lied. I couldn't tell the truth. How her mother was burnt alive, held in the air, and the flames slowly eating at her flesh.
"Avery?" I snapped back from the horrific memory to see Natasha looking at me with her brows furrowed.
"You're lying, aren't you?" She asked me. A small smile tugged at her lips.
"Yes, but that is what I am sticking with. Sorry, Natasha, but I'm not going to tell you what I saw." I was careful with my words. All I saw in front of me right now was that five-year-old little girl. And I was not going to tell her anything horrific. She doesn't deserve to remember her mother like that.
With what the images are doing to me, I could only imagine what they would do to her.
"I understand," she said, nodding her head. I could see that there was something else she wanted to tell me, but she held back. The war was coming soon. We would all stand face to face with Crow and risk our lives. The truth showed itself when it was ready to be discovered.
I looked at Natasha and put my hands on my knees. Biting my bottom lip.
"I know that you're my sister." I said.