"Jennifer!?"
Dr. Tomah's panicked shrill scream of her name caused Jenny to return to reality. Blood was dripping from her nose, and she had a wicked migraine.
"W-What?" Jenny replied fumbling to grab one of her therapist's tissues from the box sitting on the small table between them. She stuffed the tissue up her nostrils and tried to clean up. The images of the nightmare still flickered in the back of her mind.
"Are you alright, do you want me to call an ambulance?" Dr. Tomah asked with panic still shaking her voice.
"Huh? Ah… no, I'm fine… I-It's been happening a lot," Jenny insisted feeling warm sweat run down her forehead from the stabbing headache. She absentmindedly wiped it away with a fresh tissue and startled finding it stained red with her own blood.
"I'm going to call an ambulance, try to lay down," Dr. Tomah insisted reaching for her phone. Jenny barely heard her as she felt her forehead finding a strange wound along it. As soon as she touched it her whole body tingled again, and her vision fuzzed back to the nightmarish conditions from only moments before.
"Find me… time is running out… quick!"
The voice of the child echoed in her mind and Jenny bolted up, nearly falling over as nausea washed through her body.
"Jennifer? Don't try to stand, just lay down. You need to be looked at," Dr. Tomah told her with the fear barely suppressed in her voice. She went over to Jenny to try and make her sit down again.
"I-I can't stay… I gotta go! I h-have to find the golden child!" Jenny blurted out breathlessly as she staggered towards the door. Dr. Tomah grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from falling over when she stumbled. Everything distorted in Jenny's vision; she only saw destruction, fire, and decay.
Dr. Tomah recoiled with a shriek and Jenny fell against the door, vomiting blood upon the floor. She glanced at her therapist panting with wild eyes as she fumbled for the door handle. Dr. Tomah was shaking from shock and slowly blood dripped from her nose.
"W-What was that…?" Dr. Tomah asked breathlessly stumbling back from Jenny. Jenny gritted her teeth and shook her head, finally getting a hold of the door handle and stumbling into the hallway.
"Jennifer!!" her therapist called after Jenny as she sprinted towards the exit with urgency. She shoved people out of the way at the door, making them scream when they caught sight of her bloodied face.
She had to get out.
She couldn't stay.
The golden child needed her.
Jenny finally burst through the doors out onto the street, the pain in her head pulsing from the wound along her forehead. She wiped the blood out of her eyes as she squinted in the brightness of the sun.
The tall buildings around her kept flickering between reality and the apocalyptic vision she had just moments before and she tightly closed her eyes.
"Miss, do you need help?" a voice from beside her snapped her eyes back open. Jenny recoiled when the person shimmered between green, blue, and what could only be reality.
"Easy! Just sit-down Miss, I'll call an ambulance. Please, I just want to help," the woman continued holding her phone. Jenny gritted her teeth and shook her head before bolting away.
"Miss?!" the woman called after her, but Jenny had pushed through the crowd already, having shoved people out of the way left and right.
Jenny's heart was pounding within her chest as her eyes darted from side to side, taking in her shifting surroundings. Any time she blinked, her visions switched between the destruction from before and reality.
The laughter of a child caught her attention and she saw a flicker of gold.
The golden child.
She had found him.
She watched frozen in place as the small child of no more than five years of age played with a ball.
Shaking with unknown dread, Jenny stared as the ball bounced over the fence and the child scrambled through the gate after it. The child flickered and shimmered gold as he chased the ball down the sidewalk towards the busy street.
Jenny felt another stinging pulse of pain from the wound along her forehead and she pressed a hand to it with a hiss of pain.
Suddenly everything was engulfed in flames once again, sirens blaring, terrified screams piercing through the air as the building across the street collapsed from a colossal beast's fin that flew through the air.
"GO!! SAVE ME BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!"
The golden child's voice shrieked through her mind. That's all it took for Jenny to take off at a sprint towards the child.
The ball bounced into the middle of the street and the young child followed it just as a car sped through the stop sign and hurtled towards him.
Jenny leapt towards the child, shoving him back onto the sidewalk a split second before the car hit her full force. She rolled over the hood, the suddenness of the impact killed the scream within her throat.
The car came to a screeching halt and Jenny dropped off of it onto the pavement. Her whole body was ablaze with pain and her vision kept swimming in and out of focus. The cries of the child pierced through her ears and with what strength she could muster she turned her head to look for him.
He had some scrapes and bruises, but otherwise he looked fine as his mom ran down the sidewalk to console him. Jenny couldn't make out what was being said around her.
Moving set her body ablaze with pain.
Her ragged breaths stuck in her throat with the bitter metallic taste of her blood in her mouth.
People hovered around her as shadows in her blurred vision as everything began to get darker.
Jenny closed her eyes for longer and longer as the wails of the child faded to sweet laughter.
Her eyes snapped open again, this time the vision was no longer one of destruction, but of a field of flowers and clear skies. Before her stood the golden child bearing no injuries, but with a smile along his face.
He kneeled down beside Jenny and leaned down giving her forehead a kiss. Her whole body sang with relief, and she took a shaky breath.
"Thank you…" the golden child spoke and tenderly stroked over Jenny's hair. She took one last breath and exhaled slowly as her eyes closed for the last time, giving in to the peaceful darkness.
"…farewell..."