Peripheral Vision: A Supernatural Thriller(20)
“Do you still remember it?” Nick asked.
“What?” Sarah replied. She was confused and still thinking of her mother.
“Your dream?”
“Oh… yes, I mean, sorry… I was thinking about something else. Yes, I remember my dream.” Sarah sat there at the kitchen table just staring at Nick. There was something else that she wanted to ask him about but what was it? Then it hit her- the scrapbook. She got up and walked over to the box on the kitchen counter.
“You knew my aunt pretty well. I want to show you something. I found this last night.” Sarah sat back down next to Nick, and opened Elizabeth’s scrapbook to reveal the newspaper clippings. “Why would she save these?”
Nick flipped through the pages silently and then shook his head. “I can’t speak for Elizabeth, but like we were saying yesterday... it’s a pretty big story in a pretty small town.”
“I guess, but in her scrapbook? That’s just creepy and weird.“
“It’s not weird. People get infatuated with bad stuff sometimes. Like driving by a car accident or watching the news. I’m sure she had her reasons. We can’t judge Elizabeth when she’s not around to defend herself. That’s not fair.” Nick shut the scrapbook. “Is this what you were doing before you went to sleep last night? No wonder you were having nightmares.”
“I didn’t say I was having nightmares. Just a dream.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, a dream then.”
“Listen, Nick, I don’t mean to talk ill of my aunt in her own house. I’m sorry, it’s just… this isn’t the first time I’ve had a dream like this. The other night I, I...” Sarah stopped mid-sentence and jumped up from the table, bumping her knee and knocking over a coffee cup in the process. She ran out of the kitchen and headed straight for the basement door. Her memory was returning.
“Sarah? What is it?! What’s going on?!” Nick shouted after her.
Sarah swung open the basement door, flipped on the light, and stared in disbelief at the broken jar and the scattered marbles lying at the bottom of the steps.
“I…I dreamed about this... “
“What are you talking about, Sarah?”
“The marbles. I saw this. Two nights ago, in the hotel room, I had a dream about a woman with long, black hair placing glass jars on a shelf. I was in a dark cellar. The woman dropped one of the jars and it shattered on the floor scattering marbles everywhere. Last night I was going to go down into this basement, but I got scared and then when I went to shut the door I accidentally kicked that jar of marbles down the steps.”
Nick took it all in for a moment and then stepped past Sarah and headed down the stairs.
“Hey, where are you going?” Sarah asked, but Nick didn’t respond, only continued down the stairs. “Nick?”
Nick stopped, turned up the stairs and extended his hand out to Sarah. “There’s nothing scary about this basement, Sarah. I’ll show you.”
Sarah reluctantly took his hand and Nick lead the two down the stairs and into the dark basement. At the bottom of the stairs he flipped on another light switch, and the shadowed room became a bit brighter. The new light revealed a couple rusted bikes, and a broken cobweb tangled wooden organ across the room from the stairs. The ceiling in the basement was somewhat low and the concrete foundation was cracked and broken in some spots, exposing the cool dirt from below. Three wooden support beams connected the floor to the unfinished floorboards of the ceiling. The pillars ran down the center of the room, which, looking out from the stairs, seemed longer and narrower than it should be. Sarah stopped and pulled her hand away from Nick who was still moving forward.
“This was all in my dream. All of it!” She said.
Nick looked at Sarah, confused. “Sarah, I... “
“Did my aunt have long, black hair?”
Nick nodded slowly.
“I’ve been dreaming about her, Nick.” Sarah was visibly shaken.
Nick didn’t know what to make of it all, but instinctively reached out to comfort her. “I think... we need to get out of the house for awhile. It’s musty and hard to breath down here. Come on.” Nick again took Sarah by the hand. This time he lead her back up the stairs.
“Nick, I…” Sarah started.
“No. Let’s get you some fresh air. It’ll help.” Nick closed the basement door behind them. “Go grab a jacket. I’m taking you fishing.”
Sarah shot a surprised look his way, and then went upstairs and grabbed her coat. She didn’t object. She was excited to get out of the old house.
●
Nick and Sarah sat on the grassy bank of an evergreen encircled lake, fishing. Nick pulled on his line, setting the hook. Sarah just watched him. She couldn’t help but stare at him as he confidently reeled in another fish.
“Bluegill.” He smiled at Sarah and held up his catch, before dropping the fish in the worn, white pale with the wire handle, and casting back out into the lake. The weather was getting colder and hints of ice were starting to form on the lake’s surface.
Sarah’s mind was already miles away from her aunt’s house, her dreams, and the sleepless night that had preceded this new day. Instead, she found herself thinking about the man in front of her. He was so far removed from all of the guys she had ever dated, and that was a good thing. He was a true gentleman and a man’s man, who fished, and used tools and got dirty. Not at all like the LA pretty boys she had dealt with for so long. The air wasn’t the only thing that was refreshing that afternoon.