Echo of my Scream

The room was dark, cold. The only light source came from outside, flittering and dim. The girl gave a moan, her small frail frame contorted into a ball. Someone nearby was plaing a heart wrenching lilting tune on a piano.

It was loud, like thunder, each note, each key was like a deafening roar boring into her skull. It was what awoke the poor woman. She attempted to push herself up off the floor, but her left arm burned with a throbbing pain. It caused her to fall flat on her face, hitting her head against the hardwood floor.

“Owww…”

She hissed, as again, she tried to push herself up, this time using her right hand. Now seated the girl stared at her left arm, strange black bulbus marks surrounded her wrist. The girls Purple eyes widened in horror and she gave a scream, holding out her hand as though it was some sort of disease. It was different to what she remembered, what she knew. She didn’t like it. So she screamed. Her shrill voice bounced off the walls of the old abandoned piano store.

The sound echoed in her eardrums, louder than what it should have, this caused Lai to fall into murmurs, clutching her lilac hair rocking back and forth. Where was she? Why was it dark? Why did she not remember who she was…what her name was…

The girl stopped rocking, hearing her heart pounding, the thunderous roar of the ivory piano keys…there was…also another soft beat, could she hear another heartbeat? How was that so? Perhaps she was someone who could hear very well…she didn’t remember. What was her name? She didn’t remember. The girl looked down at her body, an hourglass shape and full breasts, so she was fully developed…but how old was she?

The girl saw a piece of red string, on the floor and picked it up giving a soft smile. Seeing the colour somewhat relieved her feeling of loss. Red. She liked the colour red. The girl tied it around her hand, murmuring. “You are the me I forgot. The me that I am not right now.” She frowned, “So I am a lie…no matter what I say…it is not true because I do not remember…”

She gave a wince, as the tune reached a crescendo. It was loud, too loud. The sound rang in her ears she decided to follow it. The woman slowly pushed herself up off the floor, rubbing her eyes then dusting herself off. She wore a white silken gown. It was as though she was simply plucked from her bed and carelessly left nothing warmer to change into. She was cold, her body shaking and teeth chattering as she walked, barefoot across the room to peer into the adjoining room. She gave a wince and covered her ears. It was too loud.



Lai murmured, as she stepped into the room and pressed herself against the wall. Giving a short shrill scream. “AHHHH!” Maybe her noise would stop the other noise.

Like a school of silver fish, the notes of the song flowed through his hands, his fingers dancing on the ivory keys. His body swayed rythmically to the tune, rising and falling, left to right, from one end to the other. He did not know what he was playing, nor did it really matter; all he knew was that he should not stop. Let the music carry everything away; the memories, the stress, the pain of the moment. Let it take pain by the hand, seperate it from his body, give it permission to watch a free concert. The audience so far included Pain from his sternum, Emotional Pain, Madness, Stress and Memories. Only his soul resided in the broken body that played the piano flawlessly.
His eyes remained closed throughout the piece; forget the moment, it was also watching, waiting along with the others for the end of the tune. Forget the broken sternum in your chest, forget the bruised cheek and the blood stains on your shirt.
Only one member refused to watch the show: Knowledge. It remained seated, stubborn, at the back of his mind. Knowing that no song lasts forever, knowing that every breath feels as if he is inhaling needles, every heartbeat a punch in his broken sternum. Every motion grinding...

There was a scream somewhere behind him, in another room. A girl. A smile cracked upon his face; the girl, a scream. That had been barely hours ago. No! The tune, he must keep playing while he can, while his bruised fingers do not hurt. He played louder then before, the notes thundering down on whoever listened.
One by one, as the ecstasy faded, the audience stepped back into his brain. The song wa soon over. The memories came back, the stress grew. Last to follow was the pain. The song faded from his arms, at the same time as a short shrill scream was emitted directly behind him. He turned a head towards the oh so familiar sound.

As he turned, his sternum made a gritting sound, much like the sound a mortar and pestle make when rubbed together. The mans pupils shrunk instantaniously, sweat breaking all over his body. He grasped the center of his broken chest, falling from the bench he was sitting on. Rafael gasped for air, finally letting out a scream that could have risen all the hairs on a full grown man's body. Fear flooded through his veins; there were flashes of color in his mind, old faces swimming in front of him, jeering, laughing, contorting. He covered his face with a pair of trembling hands...

"GYAAAAAAAAHAAAAAA!!!! DOESN"T HAPPEN!!!!!!"

The music stopped, and the girl watched. Lilac orbs widened, a distorted look of fear and confusion on her round face. The loud noises had stopped and she gave a small whimper of relief. Had the scream worked? Was that how you stopped ‘loud noises’? Of course. She had done it, and it had worked, so it was correct.



He fell back, and screamed in return, she peered still silent his eyes were a golden hue of yellow, brilliant and light, piercing the darkened room with a bloodshot pained gaze. She gave a whimper. She did not like yellow. Yellow was bad. She remembered corn…corn was yellow. People eat corn but corn does not digest. So Yellow is bad. Anything made of yellow must be bad too, because it has yellow in it. But it is diluted so it is not as bad as just yellow.

The girl crawled forth a few feet, dragging herself along the ground toward the screaming man. He also had red. She liked red. Red was the colour of blood. But only when blood touches air. Blood is blue when it is inside you, so blue is a good colour too. Lai was very close to him now, she could reach out and touch him if she wanted. Yet her gaze remained to the floor.

He was a stranger. She did not know this person. She did not know this place. Maybe the other her would know him? Maybe the other her remembers this place. Lai held out her piece of string toward Rafael, staring intently at the small frayed twine almost as if she expected something to come of the action.



Few minutes passed, nothing happened. Lai frowned at this, she kept her head down. She wanted part of his red. She reached out to touch him. As her trembling fingers softly grazed the surface of the back of his hand she felt a strange twitch.

The Mark on her wrist felt warm now, she felt a low buzz in her head, it was low and somehow comforting. Was it this person? Was it because he had red on him? The red made things warm? Lai pulled back, the feeling was still there. A strange sensation of longing, a want and a need. She had to stay by him.

The feeling was unexplainable, and somehow the girl figured it was unnatural. But she still remained, she simply placed her hand on his. “Red…” She murmured softly.

A Bond had been created.

Screaming died down to a rattling sigh. Breathe! He was gasping for air, every breath feeling like a bus had settled itself on his chest, and was rolling back and forth...back and forth. His pupils shrunk as panic reared it's ugly head inside his mind. He breathed fast and shallow, and with every rise and fall his chest made a nasty gritty sound, similar to the sound of wet sand paper. The pain, the pain, so much, too much...he fell limp for a few seconds. Once again his eyes fluttered open, only to fall on a piece of red string that was being held, suspended in mid air. The little torn fibers danced in his breath; he could have easily snatched it. Holding the frayed twine was a hand: young, female...NO! He snapped his eyelids shut, colors bursting beneath those. Another breath, and white lights popped somewhere behind his eyes.

A touch grazed the back of his hand, panic! He glanced up, violently, madness in his sight, fear almost seeping out of his ears.

Hailey?!
No! It was not. However, it was a girl.

She had a round sort of face, with messily kept grayish hair, and ever so lilac eyes. The color was rich, he could have taken a paintbrush and used the color to paint the flowers on a lilac tree.
She shone like a beacon of light in the infinite darkness. Somehow, as if he had known her for a long time, the color of her eyes, the shape of her face, it reassured him. His breathing slowed, panic leaving his body, heart beat more regular and pupils relaxing.

She placed a hand on his. There was a trust he had never felt before, tears began streaming down his face. All the pain, all the suffering, the memories, the stress, everything was coming back now. His chest throbbed at every sob, but he cried anyways.

Red...red...red...red...

Lie. Lai. Lie Lai. Lying Lai. How peculiar. This was hardly time for introductions. They needed to get away. They needed to hide, to go on a roof. He needed to get up.
He moved a single arm from his side, then the other, putting them in a position which to an uninjured person would be quite normal. His sternum was on fire, he felt like someone was ripping open his chest with their bare hands. He screamed, propping his body up halfway in a sitting position before laying back down, breathing heavily, white as a sheet. He saw her hand, she was holding it out for him, trying to help him. He wasn't even sure if he could reach for it.
He could feel his heart beating furiously behind his cracked sternum. She could hear every beat that thundered in his chest.
The dogs were a mere three blocks away. No time to ask how she knew. They needed to move.
"You're...you're going to have to lift me. I can't sit up." he breathed, panic in his voice. His eyes scanned the girl. Something was off about her. She seemed to not quite be entirely there; she didn't truly look at him, she never seemed to be anchored in reality. Little Lai seemed to be in her own world. He only realised now that it bothered him. But she was the only person around, the only one that could reassure him, that could give him help.

"I need you to help me get up." he said again. He tought about her lifting him to his feet, and he hesitated again; there was something wrong with her, maybe he didn't want her help. Something deep inside him told him that she was okay, as if he had known her in another life.....where had he seen a disposition like hers before? Think back a few years...

"Rafael. Rafael?"

He stirred, opening his eyes groggily. Someone was standing real close to his face, and he had a large smile on his face. Rafael jumped back, almost falling out of his tiny bed. It was a boy. He had a happy sort of face, and had a hand on one ear, constantly rubbing the lobe.

"How how how are you doin'?"

She...Lai was autistic? It couldn't be anything else....how cute....

Lai murmured, scratching her cheek with one hand. The other rubbing the frayed red twine in her hand, her eyes were downcast and she murmured incoherently. She wanted to help him…felt the need to do anything to help him. Help her Red Rafael. The girl took a timid step forward as she knelt down. Biting her lower lip, brows furrowed in a sort of agitated frustration she looped one arm under his and around his lower back. “Red needs to stand.” She simply said.

Lai attempted to pull him up off the ground, but paused. Hearing a strange grinding noise coming from him, the girl turned to look at him. “I can hear grinding...sounds like....bones?” She questioned, resting her head against his chest. Sure enough, she heard it again. With every shaky breath he took, every strained movement. “Red Rafael is broken.”

Of course, Lai didn’t have any medical experience, she had no idea how to fix it, or stop the pain the man was clearly in. Lai furrowed her brow standing there struggling to hold the man mid air in her arms. What to do? Normally...if something broke she would drop it, and walk away. But she couldn’t drop him. Not her Red. “Cannot drop Red Rafael..” She muttered, holding him tighter, in a somewhat possessive grasp.

“Where is Safety? Where do we play hide and seek?”

She didn’t understand the danger, didn’t understand his fear. They were just no good dogs. What was the worst that could happen?

The awkwardness in her movement was suddenly made obvious at the way she decided to pull him up. A regular person would have simply wrapped their arms under his, and lifted upwards, or at least it's what he expected. But, she did it from an odd angle, half from the side, and half from behind him. This caused his body to twist slightly to the side.

Welcome back Mr. Pain, I missed you so.

You'd think he would lose his voice, screaming the way he was. But it kept going, going, going, going....from the moment she began lifting him off the dirty floor. It felt like the moment someone hits you in the chest with a baseball bat, dragged over an eternity. The moment the knife penetrates through the skin, carving the bone beneath all the layers of tissue.
The bones grinded soundlessly in his body, and she paused, midway from a complete standing position. His gaze, maddened by the pain, shifted to her small round face.
"DON'T STOP THERE!!! FFFFUUUUUCKKK KEEEP GOINGGGG ARRARRUGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Don't drop me don't drop me don't drop me don't drop me!!!!!" He could not breathe, could not lift himself further. It was all up to her now, he was clearly stuck, helpless. He felt like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing, gasping for air.

"...get me up get me up get me up...." he pleaded, feeling the room around him leave from underneath his feet. A tunnel grew around his vision, and sounds faded in the distance. Somewhere in this place, the pain faded slightly...

Screaming, screaming and more screaming. Lai frowned at this, the loud noises rung in her ears and began to give her a headache. Rather than reply she ignored him, she chose not to hear his words, she was too bothered by his screams. She didn’t like them. Not one bit. Lai murmured lowering her head, she felt a little helpless and that frustrated her. “A…B…C…D…” She muttered, biting her lower lip.
Lai shifted underneath his arm, pulling him up and offering the support he so sorely needed. Now that she had the broken man hoisted up, she was at a loss of what to do. Tilting her head to the side Lai could hear the ‘no good dogs’ it sounded like they were close, very close. “No good dogs coming. Coming close.” There wasn’t really much to the old music store, no upstairs nowhere to hide. At least not to her knowledge. The girl murmured, shifting her weight.

“E…F…G…H…I…J…” She clenched her hands, one over Rafael’s arm, the other around his mid back. It was almost as if she forgot where she was, what she was meant to be doing. She continued, her concentration devoted to finishing the childhood mantra. “K….L…N…N…O…P….”

Howls could be heard in the near distance, the scuffling, scraping of clawed paws against dirtied concrete grounds the huffs of their ragged breathing.

“Q…R…S…T…U…V…”

As she lifted him up, closer to her own body, she wrapped an arm around his waist, another on his own arm. He was no longer stuck in the position that cause him so much pain, he could breathe once more. His fainting mind was slammed back down to reality, he gulped the air hungrily.

They need out...NOW!

"Lai...Lai..." he said weakly, between gasps for air. "We...we need to...r-run. Find...lets...lets find some...stairs..." he listened to her say the alphabet, that silly little song. This was common. It was the comfort of the familiar sentence, it made her feel less lost in this lost city...somehow it made him feel better too.

He lifted a single leg, setting it down on the ground, shakily. "Sing me another song Lai." he whispered into her ear. The other leg rested itself on the floor. He could feed himself from her strength, give himself energy when she was repleneished, like a parasitic worm in your small intestine.
He bagn walking, leaning heavily on the woman, leading them to a staircase in the corner. He shuffled his feet, every step making his chest grit, every step making his teeth clench.

He trudged on, up the rickety staircase, into a sort of appartment complex.
Broken glass lay everywhere, as if they had been shattered by hundreds of storms, thousands of sledgehammers.

Lai carefully, slowly followed Rafael towards a set of stairs. The sniffing and scraping of the ’no good dogs’ could be heard downstairs. They were scrambling into the building. Lai could easily hear their ragged breath, she didn’t inform Rafael. To her knowledge everyone had this sort of hearing. “Twinkle....Twinkle...little star....A...B..C..D..E..F..G...They have the same tones those two songs.” Lai commented, turning to Rafael.

She blinked when they faced the room. Broken glass littered the floor, she looked down at her bare feet and wriggled her toes. This was not good. The girl hesitated before carefully advancing, the glass cracking under the pressure of her soft feet. She gave a whimper, feeling a sharp pain as the shards dug into her foot. “H..Hurts...” She whined pausing and giving a slight shiver. She rubbed her eye with her free hand.

“Don’t like this...don’t like this....don’t like this...” She whimpered, slightly rocking on the spot. Her grip tightened on the man, “Red help...Don’t like this...don’t like this...”

(WROTE THIS ON MY IPHONE NOW THAT IS DEDICATION)

He did not answer her comment. He was stuck in the moment, listening to every tone.

This was soon interrupted. Knife-like pain could be felt at the soles of his feet. He was wearing shoes (nice ones might I add), the glass couldn't possibly penetrate through the soles of these. No. He was feeling Lai's pain. The glass penetrated in her soft feet, pain signals shooting up Rafael's body. He did a jitterbug sort of step, awkwardly, yelping and snarling.
Something else occured; more fear flooded through him. Lai was scared, she didn't like the glass, and neither did he. He gasped for air, feeling her nervous squeeze.

"O-okay Lai. Walk with me, we'll find a place to r-r-rest. Do you know any other songs?" he asked, his voice shaky and weak. Gotta keep the mind busy, don't face the world, the reality, it hurts too much. Get lost in another song, somewhere, a place where there was no pain. Maybe he should start singing.

"The ants go marching one by one, hoorah, hoorah!" he began. "The ants go marching one by one hoorah, hoorah! The ants go marching one by one, the little one stops to suck his thumb! And they all go marching down, to the ground, to get out of the rain, boom boom boom..."

He lead the way, through the glass shards, into a door at the end of the hallway. The room was fairly small, all the furniture was covered with large white sheets, as if this broken room was to be painted, long ago. Among the shapes stood a battered couch, a leather arm chair, a small coffee table, and possibly an old televison set. The curtained windows were caked with dirt, light sneaking its way through to the ground, which had about an inch of dust covering it.

Lai murmured, tilting her head to the side staring at Rafael’s strange sort of dance, it was almost as though he was doing the jitterbug, or perhaps an awkward one person waltz. She blinked when he started singing, it was a song she didn’t know, didn’t remember but it was repetitive and hard a hard, fast beat which she liked. Lai managed a smile, almost forgetting the searing pain in her feet. “I like that song.” She followed him in silent amazement, her Red Rafael sang.

As they entered yet another room Lai gave a sigh, looking down at her bloodied feet, small shards of glass still wedged in the soft fleshy soles. “Safe from glass…door shut means no good dogs cant get through?” She asked, turning to rest a shaky hand on the door. The pain still bothered her, but somehow, with Rafael here she found a sort of inner strength. Her jumbled thoughts could be strung together to form comprehensive patterns, to allow her to see the world around her for what it actually was, and not as a dull haze. Lai blinked, how was it that she could tell the difference? Was there a difference? This is all she knew. So this had to be right.
“Safe here?” Lai asked, wide eyes looking to Rafael for some sort of support, perhaps another song or a simple smile. Maybe he had his own special red that he would bring out. Then their reds could meet. Lai, now distracted pulled out the piece of red twine, she sat herself on the floor and held it against the soles of her feet. “Red…red is coming from Lai. Red hurts…but red is good...Red is me. Me I do not remember.” She added again, clutching the string tightly to her chest. “Rafael have his red?” She asked as she lightly prodded a shard wedged in her foot then winced.

Stiff. Sore. He walked over to the door, placing a hand on the old knob. He leaned into the heavy wooden structure, shutting it with the weight of his body, rather then pushing it with a shaking hand.
A stiff turn. He slowly makes his way to the nearest couch, feeling her pain in the soles of his shoes, music fading from his lips. With a simple arching motion he seats himself, his chest gritting under the strain.

He gasped, wheezing, taking a few minutes to breathe and stop moving before addressing his newfound friend.

"Yes, little Lai. We ar-are safe here. " he replied to her, weakly, leaning his head back on the couch.
Exhaustion ran him over like a train. He didn't want to move any more, as pain radiated from the broken sternum.
"No, I don't have my red with me.... Actually, I have two reds. One is a violin. She is made of maple, and has six strings." he raises his hands, which are shaking uncontrollably. "My other red lives in here. In my hands. You met him when I was playing the piano." he laughed, passing a heavy cough soon after. He claws at his chest, stopping suddenly when it begins to hurt too much. Instead, he grips at the couch, almost ripping the covering sheet.
He bit his lower lip, panicked, and began to sing again.

Lai blinked, staring at Rafael, most of what he said going over her head, she only picked up on a few keywords. Red and Violin, Piano....the man then laughed, so Lai mimicked with a small laugh of her own. "Safe with Rafael's Violin and Red." Lai gave a warm smile, almost forgetting the pain in her feet.

"Like that."

The woman fell silent as he broke into song again, she wasn't sure what to do, she didn't know the words so she simply listened, carefully tracing the outlines of the wounds on her feet. Her chest felt heavy too, and she couldn't figure out why. It frustrated her Lai clutched her light hair in her hands. Giving a frustrated cry. "Ahhhh...Dont like pain...." She whimpered, wishing for the pain to go.

She reached out to Rafael, her pale small hand trembling as she tugged on his sleeve, wide lavender eyes wide, "When will the pain go?" She asked, pleaded, bringing her knees up underneath her. Lai murmured, almost whined as she tugged. Seeking solice in a stranger, whom she felt she had known her entire life.

When will the pain go... when will the pain go.?

Pain never really leaves. It rests deep inside you, past your bruises, past your ripped muscles and shattered bones, residing deep inside your soul, burrowing it's way through your mind. Eventually, it breaks free from your shaky frame, rearing its ugly head at the strangers that stare; roaring, fighting, biting, hissing, scratching at anyone that tries to help.

Or maybe...the pain pokes its snout out, sniffing the air hungrily as it senses someone that is in the same dillema, someone, a girl, that is tugging at his dirty sleeves.

The broken man peers down at the girl kneeling before him. She gave him a sort of whimper, and he can feel her worry, as if it were his own. Once again, tears begin streaming down his face, he too wishes the pain away.
Rafael raises an arm to his face, wiping the salty sting that bother's his face.

"I...I don't kn-know Lai. I don't knowwww....I'm so tired." his voice quivers under the strain. Raising a trembling hand, it comes to rest on her shoulder, not even enough strength in it to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. He lets this one fall limp to her side.
Monstrous sleep knocks on his skull, and he can feel his yellow eyes begginning to shut themselves. With an unpleasent jerky motion, he fights to stay awake.

"Lai....we........we n-n-need to..." his voice trails off into a sticky murmur, as his eyes become unfocused. An aura. Oh no. Not now. "L-l-l-Lai........st-stayy c-clo-o-se."

His jaw clenches, his body seizing. Every muscle contracting at the same time. Then releasing, contacting, releasing....over and over. His body topples over on the couch as this motion repeats itself over and over again.
Best time for a seizure.

Lai remained silent, her small hand tightly held fast to his sleeve, even as he raised it to wipe the tears from his eyes. She gave another determined tug, like that of a obstinate child. He didn't have the answers she so desperately sought. But it was OK. It was OK because he was here, by her side. His very presence brining her a warmth she never thought possible, at least, to her recollection. Which was only a few days old.

She gave a murmur, feeling a slight wave of discomfort as he rested a hand on her shoulder. Yet that soon disappeared, his jerked movements snapping her attention to his distorted facial features.

"Need to?"

She was not given a reply, rather an order? No it was more like a plea, a desperate plea. She blinked seemingly uncaring as Rafael began to jolt, his body twisting in a rhythmic dance of seizures. It wasn't that she didn't care. It was that she was unsure of how to act, nor aware of the fact that these movements were involuntary.

Lai picked up his seized upper half, and carefully placed it in her lap, fingers lightly stroking his forehead, trailing up and into his hair. Her gaze transfixed, staring silently and waiting. Waiting for it to end. For him to breathe a sigh and simply say something. Anything.

Perhaps her red, really was broken.

"Please don't break anymore..."

It was as though there was a blank spot in his memory. He knew he had a seizure, there was no doubt about that; he felt it coming before it struck. He had had many seizures before, all when he was much younger. What he couldn't remember was the actual time frame in which it happened. All he knew now, as the seizure came to an abrupt halt, was that he was even more tired then before. His mind felt a little less overloaded, a little less overwhelmed.
There was a light brushing on his forehead. A hand, gentle, unsure, was removing and replacing his head of slick hair. It was soothing, it calmed his shaking body, slowed his rapid, gritty breathing.

He looked up at Lai, studying her worried face, scrutinizing every detail in those lavender eyes. He's got to keep her busy, she doesn't want her to get worried; somehow he knows that he'll get worried too.

"L-L-Lai, can you he-hear the dogs? Can you tell me wh-wh-wh-where they are?" he whispered, his voice cracking under the strain. Maybe this wasn't the best way to keep her brain away from worry, but Rafael knows that autistic people can only comprehend one thing at a time. He hoped Lai was not able to string the consequences of her being able to hear the dogs, and how close they might be. It'll take all her concentration just to pinpoint that one sound. Or so he hoped.
His body was now exhausted, as if it hadn't already been tired enough. Every muscle in his body ached, he dared not to move from his position, head in Lai's lap, body half strewn out over the couch.

Lai blinked, a small smile forming on her face. "Red Rafael isn't broken!" She leaned down, giving his torso a light squeeze as a sort of hug. Lai felt somewhat relieved to see him opening his eyes, to have his body relax. It made her feel relaxed, she let out a small breath as she sat back up. His seizure hadn't lasted all that long, then again Lai was never one who kept track of time.

"The dogs?" Lai asked, tilting her head to the side. Where were they? She pursed her lips, falling silent. She could hear his heartbeat, still threatening to burst out of his chest, yet perhaps at a less exasperated rate. Then there was the scratching, downstairs? She could hear their paws clicking against the wooden floors, the scuffling and shuffling as the dogs pressed their noses against the sheets, the wood, trying to pick up Rafael and Lai's scent.

"They are downstairs." Lai said, turning to look at Rafael. "Sounds like they are sniffing things. Tracking things."

Broken? Him? Perhaps he was. Actually, he thought about this for a second. No, he was not broken, he was just having a bad day. There was a slight flickering smile as he remembered earlier; Hailey. Oh Hailey. You'll never get rid of me.
He cringed at her light hug, after all his sternum was cracked, and this was quite painful, so even a hug didn't help.

What he needed now was sleep. His eyes were already shutting themselves, and his body had given up.
"Okay.....are they...coming upstairs?" he asked softly, eyelids half shut, voice trailing into the distance as he began falling into a slumber.
"I'm tired Lai....your Red Rafael needs to sleep....I'll just...sleep--" he was unable to finish his sentence, falling asleep on the couch, half laying down Lai's lap.

At first, the sleep was dreamless, dark, warm and comforting. He felt as though he was floating in a void, not necessarily alone, no pain.
But then, in the distance, he saw a pinpoint far far away. His dream self squinted at the object, noticing it was heading straight for him at a high velocity. It grew and grew, morphing into a large arrow, then into a gigantic nail, a spear, a knife....changing and morphing and flying straight for him. He tried to move, he's gonna get stabbed if he doesn't! But he can't! His limbs are relaxed and his body refuses to cooperate. Panic creeps into his immediate thoughts as the object comes closer and closer to him. He closes his eyes, expecting the pain. It never comes. Slowly and unsure, he looks ahead to see that the object was now a person, standing above him; Hailey. He smiled, still unable to move, trying desperately to get up on his feet. Soon however it was obvious that she was no longer Hailey; her face changed dramatically and her feminine features dissapeared as it changed into the face he has always hated and feared; the priest. Rafael felt he was a boy once more.
The dream faded into darkness as he was pulled back into a deeper, dreamless sleep. His body relaxed further, his heartbeat slowing dramatically.