Natasha
“Natasha to the earth, Natasha to the earth!” A hand in front of her face waves and Natasha’s senses are jolted back to reality. The inane banter of the dinner patron filled the air. The waitress brightly smiled as she placed the breakfast with a glass of juice in front of her.
“Thanks,” She choked and cleared her throat, and the waitress nodded and walked away. Jody’s keen black eyes were concerned.
“Are you all right?” She asked, sitting across from Natasha at the table.
“Yes, I am,” she sighs.
“Did you have the same beautiful nightmare?” Her perfect brows arched.
“You mean the beautiful dream that becomes a nightmare?” When she spoke, she felt both breathless and terrified.
When she talked about her dream, she felt both breathless and terrified.
“Well, that’s why it’s a beautiful nightmare.”
Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes. But She can’t help but admit that it was enchanting. The sensation of being in his arms was beautiful. Something sweet, but suddenly the black woods emerged, and the fire terrified her. Those red-blue eyes were watching, warning, asking her to leave, yet something within her kept her from doing so. She would always stay in the fire circle only to see his eyes again. She doesn’t understand anything but the call to stay and becomes trapped in that dream.
“Oh no, don’t go there again; we’re already late for work,” Jody hurried them.
They both hurriedly gathered their belongings and paid their bills. The hospital is about a mile distant.
“Work, Natasha, Work, you have to focus,” Natasha tries to gather herself. There are plenty more essential things to consider than a bizarre nightmare. Though it is an odd repeating nightmare that she has had since she was twelve, it is still simply a nightmare.
A shudder ran down her spine as she got into Jody’s car, her eyes scanning the sidewalk involuntarily. When she saw the man across the road wearing dark clothes, his face covered by a black hood and mask, she stopped dead in her tracks. She froze when she noticed his red-blue eyes.
“Natasha!” Jody calls her.
“Jody lo-look!” Natasha shuttered, blinking, and pointed across the street.
“What?” she asks, perplexed. Natasha turns around, and he’s gone. She shook her head. Is she now hallucinating?
“We’re running late.”
“Yeah… le-lets go.” Natasha agreed, her voice rough. Jody started the car. Was it truly simply a nightmare?
~~~~
She was startled awake, trying to control her breathing and remember her dream. Feeling dizzy, she swallowed and threw her head back to the pillow. She remembered nothing beyond the dread lingering at her heart’s edge. She shivered.
When she heard her phone ring, she was alarmed. Jody was there. She took it up. Jody began talking before she said hello.
“Good morning, sunshine!”
“It’s our golden weekend; we get today off,” Jody chirped.
“It’s only Sunday, Jody. “What’s so special about it?”
“Because it’s our last Sunday off in three months,” she says.
“Fair point,” Natasha yawns. She slid out of bed, rolling her sore shoulder.
“So, shopping?”
“Can’t we just stay in?” she asked as she walked into the kitchen and started the coffee maker.
“I assumed you’d want to go shopping,”
“Why?” Leaning against the marble slab, Natasha asked. She reaches out to grab a mug from the side.
“Your birthday is coming!” The mug fell out of her grasp and shattered. Something about those words made her nervous. She stares down at the broken cup.
“Nat?”
“Uh…yeah?”
“Are you lost again?”
“No,…no,” She gathered herself, “I am here,” hoping. She didn’t sound as shaken as she felt.
“Are you going shopping?” Come on; it’s also your birthday on Sunday; hopefully, we’ll have another perfect Sunday by then.”
Jody sounded delighted.
“Um…shopping sounds good…can you pick me up at Five?” I said
“Be ready.”
“Yeah,”
First, they looked for dresses, and then Natasha proceeded to look through the daily wear section. A few comfortable t-shirts and nightshirts are essential. They moved down the street in search of the ideal shoes to complement the dress for Jody.
“Do you realize you have the perfect pair of shoes at home for the dress you just bought?” Natasha asked.
“I know, but a woman can never have too many shoes,” she exclaimed. Natasha snorted and shook her head. The entire street view was visible through the glass, and something caught her eye.
She drew her gaze closer to the glass. Her eyes widened as she realized it was him. Her dream’s hooded figure and what she saw at the hospital caught her breath as she met his gaze across the road, and he locked his gaze on hers. She felt a tug in her chest and couldn’t take her gaze away from him, drawn to his eyes like a moth to a flame.
A warm fuzzy feeling rushed through her. Every nerve in her body was left loose as all the weight was gone, leaving her mind free of everything. The spell broke when he averted his eyes.
She was not in the shop but standing in the center of the road with a speeding car approaching her. Natasha’s pupils dilated in dread. This is it; this is all there is to it. This is the end of her. She clamped her eyes shut and braced herself for the crushing force.