"Demi, my dear. Come here." His mother called out. She looked weak, as she laid on the bed, breathing her last breaths. Demi, still a small, child went to her side.
"Do you know why your name's Demi?" He had heard this many times but he couldn't help but ask. Hoping she'd say something different.
"Why is it so, Mother?" She smiled. She grabbed his hand.
"Everyone thinks Demi means half or semi-. But that's not the only meaning. And that's certainly not the meaning I want your name to mean." She laughed. "I mean where's the fun in that? Your name should match how you are. To me. And to everyone who knows you." She smiled, softly. Demi shivered. He knew what was coming. "Smile for me, Demi." Demi nodded and gave her a weak smile.
"Smile properly." Demi tried to smile a little better.
"Good." She patted his head. "Come closer." Demi bent his head more closer to her.
"Your name means inadequate." She said softly and before Demi could jerk his head away, she held his cheeks and made his look straight into her eyes. She looked delirious. "It means insufficient. You are insufficient. You are inadequate." Demi was afraid. He wanted to get away and tried to push away from his mother's grasps.
"You are incomplete!"
Demi woke up. His whole body broke into a cold sweat. He breathed heavily and got out of bed. The dream was still vivid in his mind and he didn't want to go back to sleep.
"Why today of all days? Is this an omen?" He took sips of water and smiled to himself. "How would Nova comfort me if I told her I had a nightmare?" He felt that their relationship had gone up significantly. But he was still wary of her. More like he wanted to be wary of her but he couldn't.
I'm going out for some fresh air. He and Nova had their balconies adjacent to each other and he wished they could talk comfortably on their balconies, one day. He slid the door open and the curtains billowed outward because of a breeze. He walked outside and rested his arms on the railing. When the curtains fluttered around slowly moving back to their original position of rest, Demi caught a glint of shiny black hair mixing into the night sky. And when the curtains flapping around finally subsided, he found himself staring into emerald eyes. They drew him in.
"Unable to sleep?" A soft voice asked him and he smiled.
"Had a nightmare and now, I don't want to go back."
Nova chuckled. "I can't imagine you having a nightmare."
Demi was shocked. "Ehhhh? I'm human t-"
"You must have looked so cute." Nova smiled. She had her elbows on the railing and her palms were supporting her face, resting on her cheeks. Demi blushed as she saw her and he looked away. To which he got another soft chuckle.
"I see. So, the cute guy you were talking about was me after all." Nova blushed and threw a pillow at him.
"Where do your pillows come from?" Demi burst out laughing as he threw it back at her and she dodged it. "Being called cute hurts my pride, but if it's you-" He took one of her hands and kissed it. "I'll allow anything."
Nova's face turned red and she quickly pulled her hand out. And without any further notice, she pulled herself together and... ran away. Demi laughed once again. "You're the one who's cute." He mumbled.
Then he became flustered. "How could I do that? What if she avoids me again? But why was she awake?" He jumped back into bed with the notion of seeing how things would turn out the next day, completely forgetting about his nightmare which would come haunt him again.
"Demi." His father called him. "Get away from there! Come here. Yes. Come closer to me." His father called out to the young boy, ushering him to come closer. The boy first walked slowly, wary of him, but when the darkness behind him began to grow at an alarming rate, he ran. Ran towards his father, who seemed to be adorned in bright white light. He kept running but he could never reach. He began to cry. He was afraid. Afraid of being consumed by whatever, that was after him.
"Father! Father! I can't reach you!" He cried out.
His father just smiled. "Obviously, you can't. You'll never be able to reach where I am. Because you are insufficient. Inadequate. INCOMPLETE." He laughed, evilly.
The darkness behind Demi enveloped him and he was consumed by it. He screamed out for help but no one helped him. There was nothing where he was. Complete darkness. An eternal void of only darkness. He couldn't speak, smell, hear or see anything. He couldn't even move. The only thing he had was his thoughts.
He shut his eyes because keeping them open had no effect. It was dark, whether they were opened or closed.
"Isn't it better here?" A voice asked and he opened his eyes. It was dark but he could feel that he was back into his actual body and no longer in the traumatised young boy's.
'Where are you?' He thought. He couldn't speak. Knowing who it was wouldn't bring him any peace. He just wanted to see something other than the complete darkness that had covered him.
"I'm here. Right here." The voice sounded in his head. 'Where? I can't see anything.'
"You can see. You're just choosing not to."
'What? What do you mean?" He tried to move but he couldn't. He didn't like this feeling at all. He closed his eyes once again when he didn't hear a reply.
Suddenly, he felt someone grab his hand. The warmth from that one touch surged through his entire body and he opened his eyes.
He was in a field of flowers. All kinds of flowers in all kinds of colours and the person who was pulling him, holding his hand, glowed brightly. He could hear birds, animals and serene sound of the breeze blowing all around them. Now, he wanted to know.
"Who are you?"
"I'm.......Remember what I said, okay?" Her body glowed while her hair moved because of the breeze and for a fraction of a second, he saw her face. She was smiling, happily.
Demi woke, once again, in cold sweat. This time, he decided to go and shower. It was early morning after all. While showering he pondered upon what had happened in his nightmare. Who was that? He couldn't remember what the person said.
"What could it have been?" He lamented and groaned. "This is going to be on my mind the whole day." He put on his pants and went to check his fridge to see if there was anything for breakfast. There wasn't anything. He heaved a sigh. What was he expecting? Like food would appear from no-where?
Someone knocked his door and he opened it. Nova stood outside holding a brown paper bag. "I brought breakfast-" She looked at Demi, turned red, and shut the door. Demi looked at himself and chuckled. He hadn't put on a shirt. He went and put on one which looked formal enough. He also changed his pants into formal ones.
When he opened the door, Nova was waiting outside leaning against the wall that separated their main doors. "So, wanna come in?" He asked, bending his head outside. Seeing Nova had brought a smile to his face. Nova nodded and entered the apartment.
"Sorry if it's a little bit messy." Nova couldn't believe her eyes. Her entire apartment was a garbage dump while his was as clean as it could be. Nova snorted. "Messy, my ass." She grumbled and thanked the gods that day he had come in, she had cleaned the house in the morning. She threw him the bag and he caught it.
"Breakfast." She said. Demi smiled. "Why, thank you!"
"I had a nightmare again but it ended on a sweet note." Demi told her as they sat down on a table. "That saying, why were you awake yesterday?"
Nova put on a sad smile. "I had a nightmare too. Well, I was a bit worried about few things and it just happened to accumulate."
"I get what you mean." Demi took a bite of the sandwich he had been brought.
"So, you ready?" She asked him and he nodded. Today was the day they were going to the orphanage.
"I can see your nervous. Who is that, Nova? Oh! This guy? He's the cute guy that I almost-" Demi imitated a conversation and Nova threw pillows at him.
"Seriously, where do you get all these pillows from?" He said, dodging them.
"They're always around me whenever you bring that topic up." She laughed and Demi laughed too.
At this moment, both of them had no idea of what would happen, when they'd visit the orphanage.