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Scene #52
The dream was always the same. As soon as her head touched
the pillow, it would come for her. Long dark hallways that would
twist and bend. The smell of dirt all around her, the coldness of
stone under her fingers. She could hear breathing behind her, rough
and ragged, as the beast followed her. She imagined its saliva
dripping to the pavement, the tang of blood in the air.
There would be a flash of light, green and blinding, and the harsh
cackle of a woman's laughter. She turned a corner and there it was:
the centre of a maze, her salvation. Except there was a woman
there, waiting for her. Snakes slid across the ground and
she could hear their slither, soft and seducing. And under that
sound, soft but still there, she could hear music, a gentle,
lulling lullaby. The woman smiled at her, but the smile did not
reach her eyes. At the woman's feet lay a man. He was
dressed in a blinding white robe and belt, like a tunic. She could
see the pools of blood from the wound at his side. She knew he
would not survive, that there was no way he could be alive, but she
knew she had to reach him. She did not know why she loved
him, but she did. She could feel her heart ache for him, yearn for
him. Feel pain for him… The old woman motioned to the prone
man. “You love him?” her voice was deep. It seemed to echo louder
than it was in the walls surrounding them. Anna tried not to be
distracted by the snakes crawling along the woman, the tendrils of
serpents that moved of their own accord here her hair should have
been. It was from this woman the green light was coming
from. Anna could feel the bile rising in her throat, knowing what
she was about to do. She didn't know if she had it in her, if she
could do it. For Valentine… As Anna walked toward her,
magic of her own tingling in her fingertips, the old woman laughed
in a high pitched giggle like the tinkle of bells or water moving
over the rocks. A soft whisper that sent shivers down her spine.
“Oh, come now, Anna dear. Haven't I given you enough clues?”
There was a flash of bright, searing green light… And
her body woke. * * * Anna lay in the darkness
for a moment before moving. She had learned that it was easier this
way, that her body had to realign after her dreams. Terror
still clung to her skin as she laid in bed, the darkness around her
seeming to swallow her whole. “Shake it off,” she said out
loud. “Just shake it off.” Anna waited in the darkness of
her bedroom, made momentarily unrecognizable; the images of the
dream were still strong in her mind. She could still see the walls,
the blinding green light. Could still smell the cold and wet smell
of the dirt under her feet. The smell was acidic and pungent,
smoky. She willed the scene to disappear and instead
listened to the incredible silence. She knew that the sound of a
telephone would fill that void of sound with a shrill whistle. She
always knew when the phone would ring. It had always been
this way. The shrill ring of the telephone was almost a
comfort to her when it came. Almost. It helped her believe, even if
it was just for one brief second, that she wasn't insane. That she
wasn't imagining all of this. She grimaced, knowing what she
was about to hear would not be good, and picked up the receiver.
The dreams always came before death. Anna wondered who had died
this time and how she knew them. And somehow, she always knew them.
It was who she had always been. Knowing she could not
put off the inevitable for long, she reached for the phone and
placed the receiver to her ear. “Hello?” she asked. “Anna?”
The voice on the other end of the phone was deep, a rumbling
baritone. It was the voice of her partner, Jaden Prince. He had
been her partner for three years and she knew the timbers of his
voice very well by now. In that one word, her name, she
could hear the fatigue. The fear. “What is it Jaden?” she asked,
knowing what he would say. “There's been another one.” His
voice was ragged and she wondered if he'd had as little sleep as
she had. “You better come down here.” “Where are you?”
“Newmarket and Third.” His voice was frail, fragile. Anna briefly
wondered about what had shaken him up so much. “It's bad this time,
Anna.” Anna felt a sliver of cold slide underneath her skin.
“How bad?” Jaden let out a whoosh of breath. The sound was
almost like static in her ear. It was a rough edged sound, a sound
of despair. “Like nothing I've ever seen before.” He said. “You
won't believe it until you see it.” Anna closed her eyes; saw
a flash of the man at the old woman's feet. The pale blond hair
shining in the shadows, the darkness of the blood against his skin.
She already had seen it, she thought. Jaden was silent on
the other end of the phone. He knew that she had seen the victim.
He knew she always saw the victims. It was that personal connection
to the victims that made her so good at her job. Anna sighed
heavily. She was so tired, so very tired. But needs must. “I'm on
my way,” she said, and hung up the phone.
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