Out of the Black - Lee Doty [98]
"Neither could I before today."
"You take the good with the bad." Hawthorne shrugged and turned back to the window.
"You think I should invest in a cape?" Anne said after a moment's silence.
"Not without tights."
"I meant more Dracula than Superman." She thought for a few seconds, "Cowl, mask, or should just I go naked like Superman?"
"You don't wear glasses."
"I could start."
Hawthorne abandoned her vigil over the operation below and turned to face Anne, "You think you could fly if you tried?"
"The guy who gave me the atomic hickey sure couldn't." Her face darkened as an unexpected funk interrupted their conversational repartee.
"What?" Hawthorne said, concerned.
"He warned me."
"Who?"
"He said that they were coming, said it was up to me now."
"Who?"
"He didn't say who... just that 'they' were coming."
"Yeah," Hawthorne said, actively managing her frustration now, "but who said that?"
"Oh... right. I'm not sure. A little Down's Syndrome kid in the middle of a car crash."
Hawthorne blinked. She shook her head as if to clear it. Questions weren't getting her anywhere, so she tried silence. She stared at Anne expectantly.
Anne got the message, "Right... While the fallen guy was abusing my neck, the pain knocked me clean out, and I start having this dream... parts of it were as weird as my normal dreams, but other parts..."
Hawthorne nodded. After a pause, Anne continued, "Other parts were vivid, frightening... sad. In these parts, the fallen guy was always trying to get me with these huge shark's teeth..." Anne paused, shaking her head. "No, that's not fair. He was trying to talk to me, but he kept sprouting these teeth... every time it happened he'd get exasperated and I'd book on out of there."
Hawthorne bit back the questions, rode the pause out.
"I was scared like I'd never been before. Shocked... scared stupid. I thought I was dead, thought he was trying the find-me-eat-my-soul kind of thing. 'Nother weird thing: I didn't remember any of it when I woke up on top of him."
Hawthorne couldn't resist, "You're just remembering this now?"
Anne shook her head, "No, I re-dreamed it in bits since then. I can't wait to see what's on the all-weird dream channel tonight."
"Re-dreamed." Hawthorne said, dubious.
"Since then, I keep dreaming parts of that first dream, but I remember it kinda like déjà vu. I'm eating thanksgiving dinner at the kids' table, he's sitting where my cousin should be. I'm running through darkness and he's a descending angel. I'm in a... food store, he's the server, always acting friendly, followed by a spooky tooth-head transformation and then I'm running for my life again through another hokey scene."
"You said something about a kid with Down's Syndrome in a car crash..." Hawthorne prompted, nearly ready to slap Anne a few times and see how badly she'd be killed for it.
"Yeah, and that isn't even the weirdest part of the dream." Anne smiled, trying to keep the mood lighter than she felt. "That was the saddest part though, and by far the most vivid. I'm almost certain it really happened, but not to me."
Anne noticed Hawthorne's confusion and paused, regrouped. She told her the story of the minivan wreck as concisely as she could.
"So what did he tell you?" Hawthorne asked when Anne had finished.
"That 'they' were coming, that it was up to me... that he hoped to see his parents again soon." She thought for a moment, "I think he did."
"Did what?"
Her voice thickened uncomfortably, "See them again. I think I caught a glimpse of them as I was waking, as he was dying."
"What? The kid died in your dream?"
"No... yes. I think the little kid was the guy who attacked me. I think being the kid was just his way of making me sit still long enough to listen to him. I think he was with me when his body died... I think I saw his parents come to get him."
"So you're saying he jacked into your mind." Hawthorne said, not hiding the skepticism.
"Yeah, that's ridiculous... vampires definitely can't do that." Anne came back.
Hawthorne snort ne"Touché." Behind her business