When You're Gone.

She was searching frantically, in a panic. She ran through the prickly waist tall grass, tumbling over every few strides then getting up; forced to start her search all over again. She was in a seemingly endless field that could have went on forever in each direction. There were dark storm clouds overhead, threatening to soak her at any given moment.

"Wonderful," she muttered to herself darkly. "The last thing I need right now is rain."

Her eyes squinted to see through the oncoming darkness, her heart in her throat. She was giving into despair. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes, pooling over and running down her face. She couldn't do it. She never could do it, no matter how prepared she thought she was or how many times it happened. It was impossible. She cast one more glance across the desolate landscape, then was relieved of her misery.

Waking up in frustration, her pillow was soaked with perspiration and her eyes red with tears. Automatically, she reached over to pick up the phone on her night table and speed dialed his number.

"Yeah?" he answered, his voice scratchy, as if he'd been shouting. 'He' was her older brother. Specifically, he was older by less than four minutes and was technically her twin.

"Hi, It's me again," she said softly, while sighing with relief at the sound of his voice, her eyes closing despite her efforts to keep them opened.

He nodded, even though he knew she couldn't see him. "Everything's okay. Don't worry." he assured her soothingly. This conversation might sound odd to the unknowing person. To them though, it was natural, something that happened almost every night. For some reason always a few hours after they fell asleep. They didn't understand it. Ever since they were kids they had had dreams of losing each other and being unable to find each other again. But recently, ever since Jake had moved away to boarding school in Britain, they had been coming more and more frequently. It was just a few weeks ago that they had started getting nervous about it. Lindsay had called him up one morning, having been unable to sleep and told him she thought it was a warning. An omen. She thought that their subconsciousnesses were trying to tell them that something bad was going to happen, but he dismissed the theory as nerves. He kept an opened mind though and despite himself was starting to get freaked out by it too.

Ever since that night she had been scared to sleep, and called him often. She wanted him to come home so they could be together. She was so close to him and the thought of something happening made the hair at the back of her neck stand up eerily and her whole body shiver with fear. At the same time though, she didn't want to make a big deal of it encase it was just because they were apart for so long. All through school they had been the best of friends, and even though they were siblings they rarely argued. It was unnatural for them to be so far from each other.

"I don't get it Jake, I just want it to stop." she said furiously, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and sitting up.

"It will," he told her. "Just try not to think about it. Maybe if you take your mind off it it'll stop."

"That's kinda hard."

"Look, I was going to wait, and surprise you. But I think you should hear it now. I'm coming home this weekend, for the long weekend. We'll be able to see each other sooner than we expected, cause I can't come back after that for a while." he explained, hoping this would make her feel better. The feeling that he was too far away and was unable to do anything to help her bothered him. He passed a hand through his tousled auburn hair with a yawn.

Her eyes widened in surprise. A smile appeared on her lips and she felt as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "I can't believe you weren't going to tell me this! Jake, I can't wait to see you. I miss you." she said, tears coming to her eyes again but this time they were tears of joy. She was in a state of confusion, half of her still thinking about the horror of her dream and the other half looking forward to seeing her brother again. For the first time in a while she had something to look forward to.

They talked for a while longer, and when she hung up she was able to sleep the rest of the night without any horrifying dreams coming to haunt her.

***

It started where it had left off the night before. The rain had just staring pouring down, sharp and shockingly cold. Jake shivered, his arms wrapped around himself, peering into the darkness. He rolled his eyes. He had lived through this scene countless times, he almost felt as though it was real. He wondered if at some point he would start believing it really was. He speculated this, momentarily letting his mind wander.

"Concentrate..!" he told himself sharply, shaking his head. He knew no one could hear him, he had stopped trying to call out Lindsay's name shortly after the dreams had started. It was comforting to hear his voice though. It made him feel like he had a stronger hold on the reality that was trying to slip away from him. He was constantly losing focus, with the wind and the rain billowing around him. But he knew his mission was vital.

With a sinking feeling and dark spots appearing in his front of his vision, he fought to stay upright. The feeling of panic had never been so bad. The need to find her quickly had never been so urgent. The difficulty of doing so had never seemed as bad. Even though he had never found her in this god-forsaken place before, he had always had some small beacon of hope that he would. That beacon was absent at the moment though, and we was scared and unsure of why that was. He wished he could just look over his shoulder and spot her in the distance, run up to her and hold her and tell her that he had done it. That everything would be okay.

"What if... she's in a totally different field? What if this is some kind of joke and she was never here to begin with?" he speculated. The irony of this thought caused him to get angry and raise his hands, tugging on a strand of his hair. He tried to keep his anger at bay, to hush the thoughts that whirled around in his head. It wasn't working. His thoughts were a mess when finally, in exhaustion, he tumbled onto the ground. With a splash, his body hit the mud and his face was scratched against a stray branch.

"Funny.... I didn't see... any trees.." he mumbled incoherently before blacking out. His humanly form though, didn't stay sleeping but woke up just after. He got up from the bed jerkily and in a daze, looking for the phone. Usually she was the first to call him, the ringing was usually what woke him up from his nightmares. Finding it under a pile of clothes he pressed number 2 on speed dial. He pulled the receiver to his ear, listening to the persistent ringing.

riiiing... riiiing... riiiing. It continued, his thoughts wandering while the back of his mind payed very close attention to the phone to hear when she picked up.

'Hi, it's Lindsay.."

"Lindsay! It's me, it's Jake! Is everythi-" he was cut off as her voice continued oddly.

"I'm not here right now, but if you leave a name and number I'll call you back as soon as I get in, thanks."

"Damnit, pick up..!" he swore, a lump rising in his throat, his hands shaking.

BEEEEP.

He had to sit down. Sinking onto the bed he left a message, his voice rising to a higher pitch that it was accustomed to, getting hoarse. He knew it, something had happened. Something told him, though he didn't know what. Was it his conscience? A twin thing? Nevertheless, a few minutes later he tried again, following this pattern throughout the night and into the new day. He stayed up restlessly, refusing to leave his spot on the corner of the bed until he heard her voice.

There was no answer.