More Fractured Tales stories!
Her eyes flew wide open as she came to a sitting position in one quick motion.
Her heart was pounding like a native war drum... sending a message of great urgency... her breathing was fast and shallow.
Everything seemed to be closing in on her... and it felt as if the room was getting smaller and colder.
Claustrophobia? But what had she been dreaming about?
She was overwhelmed by a strong feeling that something had just happened... was currently in progress... or was about to happen... something very bad.
This was not the first time it had happened... and it always left her feeling helpless because she could do nothing about it.
She had no location, time or possible cause for whatever it was... nada... zilch... absolutely nothing!
She simply could not remember what the dream was about... which was unsettling.
All she knew was that something bad was going to happen to someone... she did not even know if the person in danger was herself - or someone else.
A quick glance at the clock revealed that it was just past four a.m., not time to get up, but she knew she wouldn't sleep again this night.
As her breathing and heartbeat slowly returned to normal, she tried to make some sense of it all.
There'd been dreams before that affected her like this... but she'd always been able to pinpoint the cause... usually something she had read, seen, or heard the previous day.
She searched her brain for any possible trigger within the past two days - but nothing came to mind... and she found that a little strange... there HAD to be a reason.
There was only one other possibility... something that didn't happen often... and it always scared her.
Several times in the past few years she'd had vivid dreams of something happening... and then read or heard about it in the next day's news... but it had never been anything bad.
This one had felt different... like a warning that something bad was about to happen.
But not being able to remember a dream that obviously affected her very deeply... that had never happened before.
What was so terrible that she couldn't remember?
Or was she blocking it from her consciousness for some reason?
She half remembered that she'd had the same dream - or something similar - for the past several nights.
THAT had never happened before, and that's why she felt it must be something important... and the fact that she couldn't remember made her very uneasy.
It was now five o'clock... she knew sleep was out of the question... and she also knew that she needed to know what her dream was all about... what had scared her so much.
She slid out of bed... jammed her feet into her slippers... opened the bedroom door... and sniffed the aroma of fresh coffee drifting in from the kitchen.
Mentally thanking the unknown person who had invented the programmable coffee maker, she shuffled out to the kitchen... poured coffee into a mug... and took it with her to the living room.
She sat in the recliner, with the footrest up... drank deeply from her mug... then laid it on the end table to her right.
With her head resting on the back of the chair, she brought her legs up to a semi-yoga position... closed her eyes... and let her mind drift... trying to recapture the dream.
There was darkness... a sense of sudden falling... fear... and panic.
She could actually feel the fear... someone was having trouble breathing... she could sense the fast and erratic heartbeats.
Her own heart began to beat faster as she felt all the emotions that had been present in her dreams.
People... three, four, five of them... trapped... falling and terrified... she forced herself to remember... and cried out when she did.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, coming back to reality gradually... so as not to lose any of the feelings of sheer terror.
She knew what she had to do next, and there was no time to waste
Minutes later, she rushed out the door and to the sidewalk in pyjamas and slippers.
Three feet down the sidewalk, she stopped... standing absolutely still while people went by on both sides... in both directions.
What was she doing?... no one was going to believe her... and she took a step backwards.
This is important, she thought, and it could save someone's life... I really should warn them of the danger... she slowly took two steps ahead.
She looked down at her feet... perhaps she should go back for her shoes... her slippers were getting wet... and she took three steps back.
She was wasting time... she should just go and not worry about what they'd think of her... and two more steps forward.
This was crazy... no one was going to believe she'd had a dream about an accident that was going to happen, and would cause injuries... and why should they... she was nobody special... and she certainly wasn't a psychic... it was nothing more than a dream
She took one step backwards... then swivelled around and ran, not stopping until she was safely inside her own space.
Sitting on the floor with her back against the door... both arms wrapped around her knees... she waited until her breathing slowed to normal.
Then she slowly rose to her feet, refilled her mug and shook her head... what was she thinking... premonition... really... what a foolish notion.
It was simply nothing more than weird dreams... probably caused by something she read... or saw on television... nothing more.
Nobody knew about her silly dreams... she would work through it... somehow... and wasn't it better that way?
