Eli first looked around in confusion before fear gripped his heart. He was here again, in the same field as before, with the same small cottage in the distance and the exact outline of a person sitting on the porch. This time, Eli knew he only had so long before the fire would start to consume him, so he took off towards the cabin, running as fast as his legs could carry him. This drew the attention of the person sitting on the porch as they looked up from what they were doing. Eli was gasping for air as he tried to get as close as possible, but the distance between him and the cabin seemed to stretch endlessly. The more he ran, the further he seemed to be from the cabin. His father’s voice seemed to start echoing behind him. Eli tried to speed up to escape the sound of the eventual fmes, but he could only run for so long before he tripped and fell to the ground.

  Eli was gasping on the ground, desperately trying to get air into his lungs, his body screaming at him just to stay down, but he couldn’t. He needed to escape the fire, and this fear drove him to stand up and try to start moving again. As he rose to his feet, what he saw sent fear tingling up his spine. He now stood in a field of tall grass, which gently swayed in the faint breeze, a barrier shimmering behind him as an entire pin of flowers stood just behind the barrier, engulfed in fmes with his father’s voice booming out but this time muted by the barrier. Pilrs of smoke filled the air, blotting out the horizon before it seemed to converge together until what stood in the sky was his father. Made out of smoke, he continued to hurl insults and demands as he began to pound on the barrier. Still, he could not get through, no matter how much his father pounded on the barrier. Eli let out a sigh of relief. He was safe. He had escaped his father.

  Turning around, he saw he was closer than ever to the cottage. He now could see that the person standing on the porch was clearly female based on their outline. As if she could sense Eli’s gaze, the figure turned and stared at Eli with her Icey blue eyes, eyes that looked just like his mother's. As soon as their eyes met, the air seemed to grow cold, freezing even. Eli watched as the figure got up from her seat and disappeared the second Eli blinked. Fear started to swell within him once more. Whoever this shadow dy was, she wasn’t friendly.

  The temperature continued to drop as snow began to fall from the sky. Eli could no longer see the figure but decided he didn’t want to meet her and started to make his way away from the cabin. Slowly, Eli began to pick up speed, but the tall grass hindered him. The wind started to howl as he tried to distance himself from the cabin as if the weather wanted him to go there. Eli was defiant though. He wanted nothing to do with this shadow dy and continued to sally forth into the tall grass.

  Snow was falling heavily now, the wind biting at his extremities as he trudged through the snow. This didn’t make sense. It had only started snowing, yet he was trudging through inches of snow. Visibility continued to fall as Eli tried to push deeper into the blizzard. The cold was getting to him now. His extremities felt numb, and he could barely see 5 feet in front of him. Then he heard it, quiet at first, a screech that he could barely make out over the sound of the wind. Then he heard it again, this time much closer. Whatever was out there was coming for him. Eli continued to push forward, fear being the only thing keeping him going now.

  Suddenly, out of the storm, a figure burst forth, almost his height but a bit shorter, with a well-defined feminine figure. The creature seemed to be made from pure shadow itself. The figure swiftly approached him before smming its hand into his chest, the other hand digging into his hip as he was hoisted into the air. He could feel its talons burrowing into his chest. He couldn’t breathe. Ice seemed to fill his lungs, his whole body burning from the cold, the warmth seeming to drain out of him as seconds ticked by. The burning sensation seemed to fall away as his vision started to go dark. He tried to breathe, but no air was to be found. His lungs felt like ice. He couldn’t even feel the rest of his body anymore. Darkness consumed his vision as ice crawled across his skin before covering him completely. The st thing he could see before his vision went dark was the creature’s smile, long shiny teeth gleaming in the light with a much too wide smile. It seemed to say something, its lips moving slowly, but his brain was too addled to be able to figure out what. Darkness finally consumed him.

  _____________________________________________________________________________

  “...E….w..k……p”

  “.....p…..e……w…..p

  “Eli…..ple…..”

  “Eli……”

  “Eli!”

  Eli couldn’t breathe. He desperately cwed at his throat, the feeling of the ice still flowing in his veins making it hard to move. Desperately, he tried again and again. He was panicking now. He couldn’t breathe. What was going on? Was he dying? What was happening? It seemed like everything was moving too fast and yet slowly at the same time. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, two warm hands came to rest on his face.

  “Eli! Eli! Look into my eyes, alright.”

  Eli felt so tired and cold he could barely focus, but that voice and the slight bit of warmth helped him focus. Slowly but surely, he opened his eyes, and two floating emeralds seemed to hover just inches away.

  “Alright, Eli, just like before, I need you to breathe with me, alright,”

  Eli could feel the warmth of her breath on his face as she began to breathe in a rhythm. Slowly but surely, her warmth helped him focus. Finally, he was able to gasp for air. Warmth started to flood into him as he tried to gobble up as much air as possible.

  “Eli, remember, follow my rhythm.”

  Her voice brought him back to centre as he desperately tried to get his breathing under control. The rhythm of her breathing continued as he forced himself to try and follow along. Slowly, warmth began to fill him once more as he was able to get his breathing under control. The minutes seemed to stretch onward before he felt little droplets of warmth on his face.

  “Oh god, Eli, are you alright?”

  Finally, after controlling his breathing, Eli could only get a few words out.

  “Nightmare, cold, suffocating.”

  “Oh god, I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.”

  Tears continued to stream down Amy’s face, leaving trails along the gentle blue hue of her skin. Eli was finally able to try to sit up. Amy made room for him before wrapping him in a hug, and her wings folded around him. It was so warm, and her wings were so soft.

  “It’s not your fault Amy, it was just a nightmare.”

  “I’m sorry I tried to wake you but you were unresponsive again and you weren’t breathing and I didn’t know what to do, I was so scared, I called 911 but you wouldn’t respond, you were so cold it was like touching a block of ice I didn’t know what to do.”

  Eli slowly wrapped his arms around Amy. He felt warm and safe in her arms as he leaned in close.

  “Thank you Amy, once again for helping me out, just like yesterday I had a terrible nightmare.”

  Eli slowly took the time to expin the horrible experience he had been through to her before EMTs arrived, and Amy led them into the apartment. Eli tried to protest when they insisted he come with them in an ambunce, but Amy was having none of it. With strength that Eli did not expect from her, Amy lifted Eli and carried him out to the ambunce, with the EMTs quickly following behind.

  Eli was so embarrassed as he was carried through the halls. For some reason, this feeling, the feeling of being held like this, like he was safe, was overwhelming. He never wanted her to let him go. He gazed into her deep green eyes as she carried him into the ambunce before sitting beside him.

  “Ma’am we can take it from here.”

  Amy’s eyes seemed to glow brighter briefly as her tail whipped out and her wings unfurled behind her. “No. I am coming with you.”

  “Alright then, guess we have a ride along.”

  The EMT sat down across from them. “Usually, we have the patient strapped down for the ride, but from what was described over the phone, we need to get you checked out.”

  “I’m fine really.” Eli looked to the EMT hoping to find some way out of this situation.

  “Sir, it’s standard procedure to get a person checked out when they have a Xenos gene manifestation.”

  Something about how the EMT said sir, just ate away at Eli, but he couldn’t figure out why. Wait, gene manifestation. “Gene manifestation! What do you mean, there’s no way that that happened, that can’t happen to me.”

  “I mean from the symptoms that were described over the phone, that is a cssic case of a Xenos gene manifesting.”

  “You don’t understand, I can’t become a Xenos, I can't, my dad would kill me. No, no this can’t be happening.” At this point, Eli burst into tears. All the fear and anxiety from earlier, compounded by the fear of what his dad would do, just overwhelmed Eli. The tears came in rivers as he tried to curl up on himself, tried to block out the world around him. Once again, this gentle warmth wrapped around him, and Amy held him close, as she whispered over and over into his ear.

  “I’m here Eli, Everything is going to be alright, just let it out.”

  Eli felt like he had cried for hours when the ambunce finally came to a stop.

  “Eli are you feeling a bit better” Amy looked down at Eli with a warm smile. She seemed to shine in the inside of the ambunce as warmth blossomed in Eli’s chest.

  “Yeah” Eli could only get out a single word as he gazed deep into Amy’s emerald eyes.

  “Can you come with me into the hospital so we can make sure everything is alright?”

  “Okay” At this point Eli didn’t want to say anything that would make that smile disappear.

  Amy leaned down and whispered into Eli’s ear.

  “Good girl.”

  It felt like a bolt of electricity had just nced up his spine, his face instantly turned crimson as his brain went into overdrive. Everything started spinning while he was still being held in her arms. Why did she say that? He wasn’t a girl. Why did that feel so good? What’s going on? Why was she smiling? Oh god, why was he smiling so much? What did all this mean? He wasn’t a girl. Why did she say that? He couldn’t be a girl. He was a man, a manly man, just like his father told him to be. Just like he had to be.

  “Jsnfsdkjf.” Eli could only conjure the greatest of prose in response to what Amy had just said as he looked in any other direction besides Amy’s eyes. However, with her embracing him in a hug and her wings folded around him, it was hard to look anywhere that wasn’t Amy.

  With a massive grin on her face, she said, “that’s a cute response.”

  “Imntogirl,” Eli whispered

  “I’m sorry what?”

  Eli was thoroughly embarrassed at this point. “I’m not a girl, so why would you say that? I’m a guy obviously. Also I told you to stop calling me cute, I’m not cute, I can’t be cute.”

  “Sorry to interrupt you two, but can you get out of the ambunce now? We still need to get you checked in. I’m only an EMT, and we can’t spend too long here.” The EMT was leaned against the ambunce door, he tapped his foot on the ground repeatedly as he waited for the two of them to climb out of the ambunce.

  Looking thoroughly chagrined, both of them made their way into the hospital.