(your great, great grandfather's island, dark harbor, 1998)

you have been plagued with nightmares for the past week. waking up every morning drenched in sweat and breathing rapidly. the same nightmare. every. night, not how you thought your summer break would go...anyways, the nightmare consists of a man. a young man, handsome. dark, greasy, messy hair, eyebags, a black eye. on his left eye. a mole above his lip, the left side, a cut on his right cheek. yourself, obviously. the two you are sitting on your parents red couch at midnight. he's wearing your fathers white dressing gown. you two always have the same conversation, which always ends in your father running into the room with his axe...after that you always wake up, unsettled by the conversation between you and the young man, with no clue as to what happens after your father runs in, though you can take a guess...

this morning was the same as all the other mornings this past week. you're drenched in sweat, breathing quickly. you sit up and rub your eyes. you reach for your hairbrush on your bedside desk and brush your hair so it's not as messy.....you go down the stairs, putting on your hoodie over yourself. as you walk into the kitchen to get breakfast, you see that same young man from your dreams sitting at the kitchen table talking with your parents over breakfast...