What Storms Shake the Oceans of m Sleep

The wind was whistling a blue tune through the window panes and there was harmony throughout the house, but Raven felt no such peace. Her night was filled with flashes of storms, broken promises and burning bridges. She woke in a pool of cold sweat, shivering in the moonlight that poured into her room, casting it into eerie shadows that danced romantically around her. Raven shook the sleep from her eyes trying to make sense of her surroundings. The whistling grew to an unbearable pitch, screaming like sirens in her head, and it was only then did Raven notice the wind.

“Oh my..”

Ripping the sheets off her body, Raven threw open the bedside drawer taking out a set of rusted keys and a heavy flashlight before tearing herself from the cocoon of warmth she had created and plunged into the darkness. Not another storm… she thought, Oh God not another storm… Her nightmare and reality mingled disgustingly in the musty air but all she could think about was finding her brother and getting him to safety. Adrenaline pumping in her system, Raven crashed through her bedroom door and hurled herself down the corridor towards B’s bedroom door which stood ajar in the moonlight. Raven hesitated for a beat in the quiet. Quiet, too silent for a storm. She stood frozen in the hallway a few steps from B’s door, her breath ragged, beads of sweat trickle down her back causing her hair to stand on edge. She took one more step towards her brother’s room with the stale feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. She tried to stay as quiet as she could but her heart beat rebelliously against her ribcage so hard she wondered why no one else could hear it. Another two steps and she was stood at the door peering into the room, cursing herself for breaking her promise. Through the gap in the door she could see the end of B’s bed, which stretched forlorn and abandoned flooded in moonlight. Confused at the absence of her brother, Raven went to open the door but it was pulled away from her before she had time to reach for it.

Raven felt herself sucked into the room. Harsh fingers grabbed her shoulders and threw her across the room causing her to smack into the opposite wall, coughing and spluttering in pain. With a great struggle, Raven pulled her shaking body off the floor and stood her ground looking around at what had hurt her. She didn’t know what she was expecting. Burglars, thugs, her father. The prints of the fingers bruising her arms felt uncomfortably familiar and her knees knocked together more frantically as she thought of her father. He’s dead… she thought, panicking Dead… The room around her seemed deserted. B’s bed stood cold and unloved in one corner and his windows whistled with the same unnerving lullaby. Confused, Raven shuffled towards the bed that was obviously empty not wanting to believe her eyes and stopped a few feet from it, scared of what she might find.

Slowly the walls started to spin as if Raven was the eye of the hurricane. Raven stumbled back to the centre of the room trying to focus on a point that would stop the walls from spinning. Faster and faster it spun and shadows began cracking in and out of her vision. Large, hulking shadows of menacing figures. As she spun faster they grew taller until she was barricaded in a cage forged by shadows. Faster and faster it spun until Raven felt ready to hurl and throwing herself to the only solid thing left to her, collapsed to the floor. The room stopped spinning immediately and she realised without knowing how that the room hadn’t been spinning- she had, like some absurd ballerina in a music box or perverted spinning top, wound too tight. The shadows moved around Raven casting her into darkness, blocking the moonlight from the window and causing her to shudder and suck a painful breath. Her knuckles gleamed white on the flashlight. Slightly surprised to see that she had hold of it she clung to it like a lifeline and slowly got to her feet again.

“Who are you?” Raven called out into the void. Her voice shook almost as violently as she was and she cursed herself on not wearing warmer pyjamas. Brandishing the flashlight in front of her like a mighty sword, the silhouettes crept back into her vision. Six men stood before her in a perfect circle, all equidistance apart. Sharp black suits contrasted with harsh lines against its softly lit backdrop. All the men looked identical. Each had a shadowed brooding face with undistinguishable features, wide sloping shoulders, standing like soldiers to attention. Raven notices that they had trapped her inside their circle and her mind exploded with every thought at once. She spun once more, slowly this time eyeing up her surrounding and trying to work out the best plan but her mind was plagued with hopelessness. She clutched the flashlight even tighter.

“I said.” Raven had regained a little more of her composure and her voice shook less. She spoke slowly and deliberately wanting them to understand every word, but also to acknowledge her rising temper that was only controlled by her grinding down on her teeth, hard.

“Who. Are. You?”

“We don’t need her- we have the boy.”

The voice seemed to rebound off the walls, masking its original location. Raven spun once again trying to work out which man had spoken, she spun a little too quickly and almost toppled again. The voice was low and smooth with a hint of grit. It was a voice that didn’t seem right, a sound that would have been reassuring but had smoked for 40 years and favoured punishment. Boy?... she thought. She felt her resolve crumble as she thought of her brother.

“Boy? What boy?” She received no answer, the men just started walking away in perfect timing, marching to the beat of a melody that hung in the air that Raven couldn’t quite hear. “Who do you have? What are you doing? Where are you going?” Hot tears of frustration fell of her face as she attempted to stay in the circle of men. Her breath caught in her chest as she thought what would happen to her, or her brother. These men were taking B and Raven could tell they weren’t the type of people to negotiate. Her best plan was to be taken too so that she would at least be with B to keep him safe. She saw his face creased slightly with confusion trapped inside a cage encircled by these men. She could not leave him to that fate.

“No, no, no, no, no, no…” She cried to no one in particular. The men were halfway out of the room by now and she started to beat the nearest one in the chest with the flashlight, sobbing recklessly. “Please, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, GOD DAMN YOU!” she screamed as the men bundled into the hallway like a perverse conga line. “B!” She screamed hopelessly, feeling her throat break and with one final burst of energy she pounded the flashlight on the chest of the final man in the room’s chest. With one fluid moment, he held out an arm and pushed Raven so hard she flew across the room, landing hard on the solid floor that had seemed welcoming to her earlier.

“No…” she managed to mutter and as she saw the flashlight finally fall from her grip and smash on the floor and the moonlight faded from her view.