tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343702752024-03-06T00:19:07.823-05:00A Quiet StormThe incoherent stories of a stormy girl.stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-89962886549022668972011-11-15T03:24:00.006-05:002011-11-15T06:00:37.077-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 25Christmas morning arrived at last. Emily woke up at five in the morning, and woke Sarah up with her eyes gleeming. " SARAH SARAH! IT IS CHRISTMAS YAY!"<br /><br />"Can't we sleep a little more" Sarah groaned but Emily wouldn't let her rest. As Sarah began to groggily sit up, Emily ran into Tina's room to wake her up as well.<br /><br />Emily ran down the stairs like an excited child as the two Pinkertons sleepily followed. "YAY! Look at all the gifts!" Emily shouted from in front of them. Emily's eyes sparkled at the amount of gifts that were under the tree. Several of them were addressed to her, and a couple more to Forrest. She didn't wait for the two Pinkertons to arrive, she started ripping into the presents. Tina had bought her some coloring books and crayons, which Emily seemed to want to start coloring right away, and a cute diaper bag. She had also bought some onesies for Forrest.<br /><br />Emily cheerfully opened the gift that Sarah had gotten for her. Sarah tensed up, hoping she would like it, and Emily started cheering as she opened it "YES SARAH YES!" Emily hopped up and down looking at the box in her hand. "A camera! Now I can take lots of pictures when Forrest is born." Emily smiled brightly.<br /><br />"It can also take movies" Sarah said, happy that her present was so well received. <br /><br />Emily was also excited to see the onesies and matching socks Sarah had bought for Forrest. "Ohh! They have monkeys on them! For my little monkey."<br /><br />Sarah was so happy to see Emily opening her gifts with so much enthusiasm, that she almost forgot she had gifts herself. She opened the gifts she had received from Emily, secretly wondering when Emily had time to buy them. She got a pet rock, and a her own hair straightener. "Cause you look so cute with your hair straight!" Emily declared. Then she opened the gift from her mother, which was a gift card to buy some books for her book reader. This thrilled Sarah, she wanted to go buy some new books right away. She hadn't been doing much reading since Emily had moved in, so she had a bunch of new books she wanted to get.<br /><br />Tina, with a cup of coffee in hand started to open her own gifts. Sarah had gotten her a foot soaker, which she would put to good use after all her long days at Macy's. When she opened Emily's gift, she almost began to cry. "Aww Emily!" Tina said hugging the small girl. Emily had gotten her a t-shirt and mug that all said "World's Best Mother". It was a truly thoughtful gift, and Tina was so happy that Emily thought so highly of her.<br /><br />They spent the rest of the happy Christmas watching old Christmas movies on television, and at Emily's request, singing some Christmas Carols. Emily took a picture of everyone with her new camera, in front of the tree, saying she never wanted to forget the best Christmas ever. It had truly been a magical day.<br /><br />The next few days until New Years Eve went by quickly. Work had been slower now, although Jenn had her dreaded returns to do. Customer's seemed more cheerful now, many of them coming in the store with shiny new gift cards to spend.<br /><br />New Year's Eve arrived, and Jenn was over at the Pinkerton's house. Her mother, Hana, was going out with her new boyfriend, and her father and Marisol were going to a party. So Jenn and Dennis were invited to celebrate with them. Dennis went into a corner of the living room and started playing on his phone again. "Does that kid do anything else?" Sarah asked quietly to Jenn.<br /><br />"He's in his 'I hate everything and no one understands me phase'," Jenn sighed. "But don't tell him it's a phase or he'll get really angry."<br /><br />The three girls sat on the couch in front of the televison, watching the show in Times Square. Tina made them some snack, which included potato skins with bacon, some cookies, cheese and crackers, and lastly some sparkling apple cider for them to toast at midnight.<br /><br />Feeling awfully brave, Sarah decided to try and get Dennis in on their fun. He was being rather antisocial, and it reminded Sarah of how she used to be. She sat down on the floor next to him and asked "What are you doing?"<br /><br />"Playing a game." Dennis said flatly.<br /><br />"What kind of game?" Sarah asked, trying to get Dennis to open up to her a bit.<br /><br />"It's an RPG." Sarah wasn't sure what that meant, she never played a lot of video games.<br /><br />"Don't you think it would be more fun to come over with us?" Sarah pointed at Tina, Jenn, and Emily who were all dancing to the band that was currently playing on the television.<br /><br />"No." Dennis said a bit indifferently.<br /><br />"Oh come on! Dance with me Dennis!" Sarah smiled. Dennis blushed slightly.<br /><br />"Al...alright." Dennis took her hand, and joined her. They went to the center of the living room where everyone else was dancing, and Sarah took Dennis's hand. She twirled him around a few times like a ballroom dancer. Dennis started to laugh.<br /><br />"Hey bro having fun?" Jenn smiled.<br /><br />"No!" Dennis said, but he kept on laughing.<br /><br />Soon they all got tired of dancing. They all sat on the couch eating more snacks and talking. Even Dennis joined in, he seemed to have forgotten all about the game on his phone. Soon the countdown to the new year began, they all watched in anticipation as the ball started to drop. Emily started the countdown. "TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!"<br /><br />"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" Everyone shouted, except for Emily who screamed loudest of all "HAPPY BIRTHDAY WORLD!" They all toasted their sparkling apple cider. It was the beginning of a wonderful new year.<br /><br />Soon after all the excitement died down, the three girls and Dennis all decided to get some sleep. Jenn and Dennis rolled out their sleeping bags on the floor, while Emily took the couch and Sarah took the recliner. They didn't fall asleep right away, they all talked quietly about their new year's resolutions.<br /><br />"I want to get a girlfriend this year." Dennis said, blushing, sneaking a peek a Sarah.<br /><br />"Aren't you a little young for that?" Jenn chuckled.<br /><br />"No! Todd and Billy have girlfriends already." Dennis pouted.<br /><br />"Well alright then. I want to go to college this year. I've been saving up some money!" Jenn said happily.<br /><br />"I just want to be the best mommy to Forrest EVER!" Emily gleefully said.<br /><br />Sarah thought for a moment, she didn't really have a resolution this year. "I guess I want to keep being less socially awkward." Sarah laughed.<br /><br />"You already are doing great at that!" Emily declared. "Pick something else."<br /><br />"Uhhh well I really would like a boyfriend. I've never really had one." Sarah said quietly, and Dennis looked at her with smile.<br /><br />The three girls all laughed. "No you don't want a boyfriend! You'll end up like me!" Emily joked.<br /><br />They all fell asleep soon after that, thinking of how they were going to make this year the best year ever.<br /><br />The days started to fly by again, and now everyone's attention was focused on the up coming wedding between Tim and Marisol. The wedding was going to be a small affair, but it still had a lot of planning. They were going to be married in small chapel, and then have a bigger reception afterward. The girls went to help Marisol pick out a dress after work one day. It turned out that Marisol was indeed a teacher, like Sarah had thought. She taught second grade at the local elementary school. Marisol told them about telling her students about how her last name was going to change now, and laughed about how confused they all were. " 'So you aren't going to be Miss Hong anymore?' To which I said, nope, from now on I'm going to be Mrs. Castell."<br /><br />"Oh well that would confuse me too!" Emily nodded her head.<br /><br />They all laughed a bit, and Marisol continued to look at the wedding dresses. She found a cheaper one, it was a strapless white dress, which came down to halfway between her knees and ankles. "What do you girls think of this one?"<br /><br />"Try it on! TRY IT ON!" Emily prodded her towards the fitting room.<br /><br />Marisol came out looking as beautiful as a bride could. The dress fit her perfectly, it flowed out from her waist and was classy yet not too overly fancy. "Oh I like this one!"<br /><br />Marisol got the dress, happy with her decision. The three girls then went to get their bridesmaid dresses. They all wanted to match, but then found that would be hard considering how pregnant Emily was. She looked like she was about to pop. They decided to get a dress for Emily first, and then try to find dresses that matched hers. They all went to the maternity store to look for a dress.<br /><br />Emily spotted a light blue dress that would come down to her knees. "OH I like this one!" She grabbed it and went to try it on. She came out looking almost like a model in it. "I even have enough boobs now to fill it in!" Emily laughed. The dress curved cutely around her huge stomach, and was simple enough to not outshine the bride. They all decided it was perfect, and went to find dresses for Jenn and Sarah that would match it.<br /><br />They found some dresses that were slightly longer, and a shade darker than the dress Emily had gotten, and decided to get them. Sarah wasn't happy with how the dress fit her, she thought it made her look fat, but the other girls told her she looked wonderful. "I bet Jeff would think you look downright SExY." Emily said.<br /><br />"Jeff again?" Sarah sighed. Her friend had been bringing him up every once in awhile, as if she was trying to jog Sarah's memory. "I still don't remember."<br /><br />"Oh you will. He was your not boyfriend!"<br /><br />"But if he was that close to me, why hasn't he tried to contact me at all? I don't even have a Jeff in my contacts on my phone." Sarah sighed. She almost didn't want to believe this Jeff character existed and was purely a figment of Emily's overactive imagination, but Jenn backed her up. They walked to the front register as Sarah contemplated this boy she couldn't remember ever being in her life.<br /><br />The next day after Sarah drove Emily to work, she herself sat down at her computer. She had decided that she had to figure out this mystery of Jeff once and for all. It was really beginning to bug her that she couldn't remember this boy. If Jeff had ever existed, there had to be some sign of him somewhere in her life. Asking her mother had been less than helpful, Tina had said she didn't recall Sarah talking about Jeff much. So Sarah's next search began on her computer.<br /><br />She went through her photos, trying to see if she had ever taken a picture with this Jeff. Her photos lacked any males, in fact it was pretty barren except for the few pictures she'd taken with Emily and Jenn. Then Sarah searched through the videos she had.<br /><br />There she found several videos she hadn't remembered about, all from the Dreamsight she had almost forgotten she owned. She began to watch them, and she didn't recognize any of the things that had happened in them. They didn't seem real, Sarah didn't remember any of her dreams after all. Yet she recognized her own voice, and the person she was addressing in the dreams, well Sarah was awfully surprised to hear the name Jeff.<br /><br />She paused the video, looking at the young man. He looked to be about her own age. He looked, startlingly familiar as well. Sarah couldn't place where she had seen him before. Her mind whirled as she tried to figure out where these dreams had come from, and who Jeff could be. If Jeff had been someone she dreamed about, why did her friends talk about him like she had met him before? Sarah decided to ask them about it when she went to pick up Emily from work.<br /><br />Sarah drove her car through the winter wonderland that now surrounded her. It had been beautiful out lately. The snow wasn't too deep out, and it made everything look pure and new. Sarah didn't really like winter all that much, but even she had to admit that it was very pretty. Sarah picked Emily up, and went to meet Jenn at the Starbucks, the place where they so often met up.<br /><br />Sarah asked them about Jeff, and how they knew him. Emily was the first to reply. "Well I first saw him when you showed me one of your dreams!"<br /><br />"I don't remember that happening." Sarah pouted.<br /><br />"Oh well that's okay. But you did! I was all excited over your Dreamsight, and you showed me a dream where Jeff gave you a cute lil stuffed kitty and you watched fireworks with him."<br /><br />"Hmmm." Sarah sighed. She remembered watching that dream on her computer, but she couldn't recall such an event taking place.<br /><br />"Yes, and then the day before you fell into a coma," Jenn continued from where Emily left off, "You called us and wanted us to met you at the hospital. We saw Jeff there, he was in a coma too."<br /><br />"Eh?" Sarah totally didn't recall that happening. She was confused. She was mad at her own memory for lying to her. She asked "What happened to him? Is he still in a coma?"<br /><br />"Well I went to go tell him his not girlfriend was alright, but when I went to his room, he wasn't there anymore." Emily smiled, sipping her juice. "I was really more worried about you at the time so I didn't really go searching for him."<br /><br />They all sat in silence. Sarah tried her best to dig through her memories, to find something that reminded her of Jeff. She almost caught a faint glimpse of herself, holding the hand of the young man from her dreams, but that was all. Sarah was frustrated. No one seemed to have any answers. Who was this Jeff, and what did he mean to her? Sarah was beginning to feel like she was missing an entire part of her life. Sarah had so many questions, and no one to answer them.<br /><br /><p class="c1"><span>Sarah spent the rest of the day in a sort of daze. She brought Emily home. They sat on the couch watching television and Emily yammered on about how she was so hungry and other things about Forrest. Sarah let her words sweep over her. Her mind was focused on Jeff. She hadn't let her memory loss bother her that much, but now she wanted answers. Sarah couldn't focus on anything else. Suddenly an answer came to her. She would have to find this Jeff and ask him about everything. He was sure to remember her. He would have the answers.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"What was Jeff's last name?" Sarah interrupted Emily's ramblings.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Oh starting to remember?"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Maybe..."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Well it began with a D." Emily pondered. "Hmmm. Durmin? Durglam? Oh man I'm not good with names."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Sarah sighed. It was a start. She told Emily she would be right back, and ran up to her room. She went on her computer. She searched through the names Emily had given her, trying to find any sign of Jeff. There was no Jeff Durglam's that Sarah could find, and although there was a Jeff Durmin, he lived in Alaska and was almost fifty years old. Sarah sat her computer desk, thinking for awhile. While Jeff could possibly have a different last name, Sarah couldn’t think of what it might be. She felt like she had hit a brick wall. </span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Sarah rejoined Emily back downstairs. She tired her best to not think of Jeff, and focus on what was happening on the television. Even if she found him, would she be brave enough to talk to him? To ask him about herself? To admit she had forgotten everything? Sarah decided it might be best if she just let it go, and forgot about Jeff entirely.<br /></span></p><p class="c1">Words this part: 2817<br />Words total: 50051 (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)<br /></p>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-52740367383002197932011-11-14T12:19:00.007-05:002011-11-14T13:43:52.362-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 24The week and a half leading up to Christmas Eve were some of the craziest days at Burlington Coat Factory. None of the crazy things that had happened on Black Friday happened, but it was still intense. Sarah spent half of her time trying to help customers who all seemed to have insane requests, and the other half just trying to keep her department clean. Emily rambled on about how there were so many customers buying so many things, and how she wished she could have a stool to sit down at the register. Jenn had another slight mental breakdown on a day where she had to do at least a hundred price checks. Still they all managed to make it through the days, taking it one day at a time.<br /><br />Then Christmas Eve came, and like a solider has bad flashbacks to the war, Sarah had flashbacks to Black Friday. Sarah wondered to herself if anyone had done any shopping ahead of time. The lines to the registers went from the youth department in the back of the store, all the way to the front. All the customers seemed to have forgotten the holiday spirit, and were grumpy, most of them complaining about the wait, and how they had somewhere else to be. Sarah wondered why they had simply gone shopping earlier, than this wouldn't have been a problem.<br /><br />A customer approached Sarah, "Do you have these jeans in size 0?"<br /><br />"No ma'am, they don't make those jeans in junior sizes." Sarah said, trying to be helpful.<br /><br />"Yes they do. I've bought them before." Sarah was used to customers who thought they knew more than they did. Sarah decided to just play along.<br /><br />"Oh, well then we must be out."<br /><br />"CHECK THE BACK. You must have more. My daughter has to have these jeans for Christmas!"<br /><br />"We don't have anything in the back ma'am." Sarah said truthful. They had already rolled out all the new stock for the day, they didn't keep anything in the back.<br /><br />"Don't get that attitude with me! I know you are just being lazy GO CHECK THE BACK."<br /><br />"Just one second ma'am." Sarah knew this wasn't a battle she was going to win. She went to the back room and stared at the box crusher for a few moments, then walked back out again. "Sorry we don't have any size 0" The customer cursed under her breath, but walked away. Sarah was glad she hadn't pushed the issue any further.<br /><br />The rest of the day went by without much issue. The store closed early, and all three girls were happy when they were able to go to the break room to collect their things.<br /><br />"We should get those automatic check out things like every other store has. Then I could just sit there and make sure no one was stealing anything." Emily moaned.<br /><br />"But I'd still have to do..." Jenn twitched slightly, "PRICE CHECKS ARRRRRRGHHH"<br /><br />The two other girls giggled slightly. "Well at least we don't have to work tomorrow!" Sarah said, excited to have another day off, nothing having to deal with the crazy customers.<br /><br />"Yeah, but after that..." Jenn twitched again. "THE RETURNS ARGGHHHHHHHH" Jenn calmed herself down. "Well I'll see you girls tonight. I can't wait for you guys to met Marisol and my dad."<br /><br />"Yeah, should be fun." Sarah said, feeling a bit nervous about meeting new people. After the day she had, she didn't know if she could deal with more people.<br /><br />After spending the last few Christmas Eve's with just Sarah, Tina was a bit excite to being going to someone else's house this year. When Sarah and Emily arrived home from their job, Tina wanted to go almost immediately. She thought maybe some of Emily's random energy was rubbing off on her. Still she waited patiently while the girls got changed into more comfortable clothes.<br /><br />While they changed Sarah felt a sudden panic attack coming on. While she wanted to be there for Jenn, and met her father, she was suddenly nervous about meeting new people. "I feel sick I don't think I can go." Sarah whined.<br /><br />"LIES!" Emily shouted, putting on a pair of socks that didn't match.<br /><br />"I have a headache!" Sarah persisted.<br /><br />"No you don't!" Emily giggled as she went over and modeled in front of the mirror. After deciding she looked okay, she continued in a sing songy voice. "You are just being shy again Sarah."<br /><br />Her cover blown, Sarah just sat on her bed and sighed. "I'm not good with meeting new people."<br /><br />"You did fine with me and Jenn, and this is only Jenn's family. You'll be fine." Emily said, sitting next to Sarah. "Oh! Forrest is kicking again! Feel!" Emily took Sarah's hand and placed it on her belly. Sarah felt the little kicks from Forrest, like she did most days. It never failed to amaze her, though, and today it helped calm her down.<br /><br />"Alright, I'm ready to go!" Sarah said, smiling bravely.<br /><br />They picked up the gifts meant for Jenn and her family from under their Christmas tree. Sarah admired the tree for a moment. It had mostly ordinary ornaments, but Emily had decided to put some of the refrigerator magnets on the tree as well. Somehow it worked out, and it looked very nice. Sarah looked down at the gifts she had bought, and almost had another panic attack, thinking she had bought the worst gifts possible. She was determined not to be upset, and to go with what she had. It's the thought that counts, Sarah reminded herself.<br /><br />They all packed into Tina's car. A few more inches of snow had fallen, making it look and feel like Christmas. Tina put the address into her GPS, and they made their way to Jenn's father's house.<br /><br />Despite her nervousness, Sarah had a good time. She met Jenn's father Tim, a rugged looking man, but with a kind smile, Marisol, a petite woman who wore glasses that made her look like a teacher, and Dennis, Jenn's little brother who was fourteen and looked almost exactly like his sister but with short hair and a screw the world attitude.<br /><br />They shared a ham dinner. Emily, Marisol, and Tina sat together, all discussing the finer points of pregnancy. This was Marisol's first baby, and she was a bit nervous about it. Dennis didn't talk at all, instead he spent the whole dinner on his phone. That left Sarah, Jenn, and Tim to talk amongst themselves. <br /><br />"I really want to get my own apartment, but I want to go to school first." Jenn was telling her father, as he listened intently.<br /><br />"Oh? Whatcha wanna go to school for?" Tim said gruffly.<br /><br />"I want to be a make-up artist! You know like the people who put make-up on celebrities! That would be neat." Jenn seemed to be less awkward around her father now. Sarah saw that as a good sign.<br /><br />"Oh yeah, Jenn's really good with make-up, you should've seen how well she painted my nails." Sarah said, trying to contribute to the conversation.<br /><br />"Oh that was nothing. I can do even cooler things!" Jenn said with pride.<br /><br />"So what do you do for a living Mr. MAKEUPALASTNAMEFORJENN?" Sarah asked Tim politely.<br /><br />"Oh well I'm kinda a jack of all trades, as they say. Right now I'm doing snow plowing, but other times of the year I do landscaping. I also do some plumbing on the side. You can call me Tim though, I don't like being called Mister." Tim laughed roughly.<br /><br />"Alright then...Tim" Sarah said timidly.<br /><br />Dinner ended, and it was time for opening gifts. Dennis opened his gifts first. Sarah had almost forgotten to get him a gift, and had decided on getting him a gift-card for Amazon.com at the last minute. He seemed to appreciate the gift, but didn't even say thank you. He just slunk back to a corner and continued playing with his phone. Sarah wondered how the battery hadn't died yet.<br /><br />Jenn opened her gifts next. She got a cute cell phone accessory in the shape of a puppy from Emily, a sweater from her father, a new fashionable purse from Tina, and a gift certificate to the mall from Marisol. Finally she opened Sarah's gift, and smiled.<br /><br />"Oh yes thank you so much Sarah!" She looked over the gift with glee. Sarah had gotten her a kit for mixing your own nail polish colors. Jenn looked immensely pleased with the gift. Sarah was happy she had chosen such a good gift for her friend.<br /><br />Emily got her gifts next. Jenn got her a cookbook that's title was "100 easy recipes for you and your baby". Tim got her a sweater that wouldn't fit her until after Forrest was born, and another gift-card to the mall.<br /><br />Sarah's gifts were similar to the two other girls, but Jenn had gotten her a small stuffed cat. For some reason it made her feel very nostalgic, and she cuddled it for the rest of the night.<br /><br />Marisol loved the candle Sarah got her, saying it was her favorite scent. Tim laughed at the tie. "I don't got much of a reason to wear a tie, but hey dear, maybe I can wear it to our wedding." He laughed, and Marisol ever so lightly bonked him on the head with a book Tina had gotten her on Early Child Care, all with a smile on her face.<br /><br />The night concluded, and Tina, Sarah, and Emily all piled back in the car. Sarah had fun that night. She wasn't sure what she had been so nervous about, things had gone well. She was happy to finally meet some of Jenn's family. She felt like they were becoming closer friends all the time. Still, something about the stuffed cat Jenn had gotten her made her feel very strange, like it was from a memory of a far off time, something that Sarah could see, but it was just barely out of grasp. Sarah tried not to think about it.<br /><br />They drove the long way home, looking at all the glimmering Christmas lights. Emily oohed and awed at them almost like they were fireworks. A couple of neighborhoods had put out milk jugs with candles in them, lighted the side of the street. It was all magical and beautiful, just as Christmas is supposed to be.<br /><br />They all quickly fell asleep that night, Emily muttering something about Santa Claus as she drifted off, and Sarah holding the stuffed cat in her arms as she rested.<br /><br />Words this part: 1814<br />Words Total: 47234stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-1258467969507567322011-11-14T05:07:00.003-05:002011-11-14T07:05:49.477-05:00Fleeting Glimpse part 23<p class="c1"><span>For as long as Sarah Pinkerton could remember, she had never dreamed. She wondered why that might be, but she didn't waste much time thinking about it. After all dreams were just something that went on in your head while you were sleeping. Sarah didn't mind not ever having them. The only thing that concerned her was a sinking feeling she had ever since she had woken up from her coma. A feeling that she was forgetting something important.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>That coma had been one of the strangest experiences of her life. Sarah remembered going to sleep that night, with Emily by her side, and waking up the next day in the hospital. Despite her feeling just fine, they insisted she stay in the hospital another night just to make sure. When she went home the next day, she starred in wonder at the white winter world before her. It was like the world had become something else while she was asleep.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Some time had passed, and now it was December. Sarah had returned to work, and everything seemed to be getting back to normal. Emily insisted on sleeping in Sarah's bed every night, just to make sure she was alright. Sarah didn't mind, she knew that Emily was worried about her, and Sarah was worried for Emily as well. She knew how much stress the small girl had been through lately. Sarah started driving Emily to work every day now, Emily's stomach was getting too big for her to be able to drive by herself.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Emily lamented on the couch one day after work. "Ugh Forrest, we need to get your things from Joey's apartment." She sighed down at her stomach. "I don't want to go there though..."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Well if you had some goons, they could go get the stuff for you!" Sarah laughed.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Hmmm...well actually..."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Jenn knocked on the door of Emily's former apartment. Sarah stood beside her nervously. She wasn't sure if this plan would work out, but she hoped it would.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Joey answered the door, looking angrily at the two girls. "We are here for Emily's things." Jenn said bravely.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Ha! You and what army?" Joey laughed at them.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Jenn waved her arm behind her, and Joey opened the door wider to reveal nine athletic men behind her. Emily had called her friend from high school who was now on a college football team for a favor he owed her. He had agreed to take the team to go pick up Emily's things. Sarah didn't ask why he owed her a favor, and she knew better than to ask. Emily was just too random.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"I hope there won't be a problem." Said the lead football player gruffly. Joey stood to the side and let them in. He sneered as Sarah and Jenn went in, but didn't try anything. Soon the football players packed all of Emily's belongings into Jenn and Sarah's cars. They waved goodbye as the two girls thanked them profusely for their help.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Emily was excited to see all of her things again, especially the crib and baby things for Forrest. "YAY! Now we can set up the spare room into a nursery!" Emily exclaimed, as Sarah and Jenn started carrying everything up to the room. Emily directed the baby things into the spare room, but insisted they put her things into Sarah's room. Sarah didn't argue, she had gotten used to Emily sleeping with her.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>After all the hard work, the girls ordered a pizza and watched a movie together. When Tina arrived home, Emily excitedly got up to greet her. "Mom mom! Guess what! Sarah and Jenn got all my stuff from Joey's house!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"That's great dear!" Tina smiled down on the girl she now considered her adopted daughter. "Oh do I smell pizza?" Jenn offered her a slice, and she sat down amongst her daughter and friends. "Guess this means you can have your own bedroom now."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Emily gasped and clung to Sarah. "NEVER! It can be Forrest's room! I can't leave Sarah! What if something bad happens again?"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"I don't think anything will happen again." Sarah said, trying to reassure her friend.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Yeah but they don't even know what happened in the first place!" Emily bounced about nervously.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Don't worry dear, Sarah will be okay." Tina reassured.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Emily just pouted, but let go of Sarah. "Yeah but what ever happened to Jeff?"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Who?" Sarah asked.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Oh yeah you don't remember him..." Emily trailed off. She had tried to bring Jeff up in the hospital, but to no avail. The doctors had said that Sarah might have some memory loss, but Emily was still worried. When would Sarah remember everything again?</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Don't force it Emily." Tina said. "She'll remember when she remembers."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>It was Sarah's turn to pout. She remembered them bringing Jeff up before now. She still couldn't remember ever knowing some one by that name. She didn't think they could be very important memories if she couldn't remember them anymore. The few days before she fell into the short coma all seemed fuzzy in her memory as well. Sarah tried not to dwell too much on the past though. So much was going on in the present.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>That night, Emily snuggled up to Sarah as they prepared to go to sleep. "Hey Sarah?"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"What is it Em?"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"I kinda lied. I do like sleeping in your bed cause I'm worried about you, but also cause I'm lonely. I just can't sleep by myself. I still miss Joey sometimes."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"I know it's hard on you Em. We'll get through this together." Sarah squeezed Emily's shoulders. Sarah was happy to have Emily as a friend. Emily always seemed so strong, but when she was alone with Sarah she showed her weaker side off. Sarah was glad she could trust her with her weakness, it meant that she didn't have to keep it all bottled up inside herself.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>For some reason, Sarah was reminded of the Dreamsight sitting on her desk. She couldn't remember why she had bought it anymore. Seemed silly, she never had any dreams to begin with. She remembered wearing it a lot before her coma, but now she didn't sleep with it on anymore. There didn't seem to be a point to it.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Night Sarah..." Emily said, as she drifted off into sleep. Sarah soon followed her.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>The next week at work was crazy. It wasn't as busy as that fateful Black Friday had been, but it was still busy. Every morning when they went into work, instead of just putting out the new clothes, they went down into receiving. Sarah had been scared at first to go into the dark basement, but she got over that fear pretty quickly. They spent about an hour helping the people who worked downstairs unbox items, put price tags on them, and put them on long clothing rods so they could be brought up stairs. Sometimes one of the clothing rods would be so overstuffed with new clothes it almost fell over. Sarah kinda liked working downstairs out of the sight of customers. It reminded her a lot of her days working in the factory. Those days seemed like a lifetime away sometimes though. She was glad for this job in many ways. If it wasn't for this job she never would've gotten over her shyness, and she never would've made such good friends in Emily and Jenn.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Emily started being a cashier full time, and was taken out of Sportsware. Sarah missed her sometimes, but she got to see her so much at home it didn't bother her that much. Sometimes Sarah had to ring on a register as well when the lines got too long. Sarah was glad that work was so busy lately, she was getting lots of overtime. She needed this extra money so she could buy her mother an extra special Christmas gift. She also wanted to buy Emily something special for Forrest, and Jenn something too. Sarah never had to buy so many Christmas gifts before. She was excited though, she wanted to make her friends and mother happy.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>One day, the three girls met in Starbucks like usual. Jenn had some news to share. "They decided on a wedding date!"Jenn had almost started to get excited for her father. Jenn remembered the first time she met Marisol, her father's new girlfriend. She hadn't liked her at the time but after spending more time with her, she had really gotten to like her. She was happy that Marisol was making her estranged father so happy. Sometimes Jenn got the idea that it was Marisol who had coaxed her father into contacting his old family again. That made Jenn like her even more.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Oh when?" Emily exclaimed.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"January fifteenth."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Oh pooh. I was hoping Forrest would be able to go." Emily patted her stomach gently.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Jenn giggled. "Well they want to have it soon, before Marisol starts really showing. It's only going to be a small thing. But the exciting part is, Marisol wants us to be her bridesmaids!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Us?" Sarah asked, "But she's never even met me or Emily."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"YAY!" Emily declared without a care in the world.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"She wants to meet my friends, I think she's doing this to try to help us all come together as a family." Jenn smiled. "I know it's kinda sudden, but she wants to spend Christmas Eve with you guys too."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Can Ma come too?" Sarah asked.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Of course!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"YAY!" Emily squealed again. The three girls all laughed together for some time.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>The next day Sarah had off from work. She drove Emily in, and promised to come pick her up when she got out at four. Sarah then drove to the mall to get some Christmas shopping done. It was already the tenth of December, time seemed to be flying by with how busy she had been at work. Sarah avoided the Macy's where her mother worked, and instead went to the JC Penny's.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>She wandered around the store, on the hunt for perfect gifts. She had added Marisol, and Jenn's father Tim, to the mental list of people she had to buy gifts for. She was at a lost as to what to buy them. She found a pretty candle for Marisol finally, and got Tim a tie. She thought they were pretty safe gifts, considering she had never met them before. Then she had the task of buying the gifts for her mother and two best friends. After over an hour of searching, she decided she had found the perfect gifts for all of them. She went to the register and paid.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>As she was leaving, toting along her large bags, Sarah stopped for a second when she caught the eyes of a boy her own age. The boy was shopping with a person Sarah assumed was his father. There was something about his eyes...they seemed to be so familiar. Sarah shrugged it off as a random occurrence of deja vu.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Sarah drove home and quickly wrapped up the gifts she had bought, and put them under the tree. She realized how late it was getting, and went to pick up Emily from work. She noticed that it had started to snow again, the snow from late November had all melted already. Sarah was used to the snow coming down all the way from November to sometimes in April. It was just the way New England was. She cleaned off the little snow that had fallen on her car, and drove to Burlington Coat Factory to get Emily.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"YAY SNOW!" Emily screamed with delight as soon as she got outside the building. "We didn't get to play in it last time cause you were in a coma. But now we can! Let's make a fort, and a snowman, and have a snowball fight, and make snow angels!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"I don't think it's deep enough for all that."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"Hmm. You'll see!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Once they got home, Emily refused to go inside until they had at least built a snowman. With Sarah's help, Emily rolled up almost all the snow that had fallen in the front yard into a halfway decent snowman. "Oh Sarah take a picture of us together! I want to show Forrest his first winter someday!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Sarah giggled, and took a picture with her phone. She smiled, thinking how similar the snowman and Emily were, both of them with rather large bellies. She ushered Emily inside for some hot chocolate after that. After both girls had warmed up, Sarah decided they should unpack the things for Forrest's nursery.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"OH YES! I had almost forget we've been so busy! YAY FORREST'S ROOM!" Emily skipped up the stairs happily.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Sarah had never been very good with tools, but with Emily reading off the directions and helping a bit, she managed to put the crib and the changing table together. She was proud of herself for being able to help her friend out. Emily's baby was rapidly becoming like her own baby. Sarah giggled to herself as she thought about how she was the daddy.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Tina had arrived home. Tina had been worried about Sarah ever since the coma, but her daughter seemed fine, she didn't even remember most of the things surrounding the coma. But Tina did. She still felt guilty for subjecting her daughter to a scientific study, but she tried not to torture herself too much about it. Sarah was fine now, and Dr. Durham said that there would be no further incidents. The study was being shut down now, after eighteen years. Tina couldn't have been more relieved to hear that.</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>She stuck her head into the spare room where she heard voice from. Cries of "MA!" and "MOM!" came from the room as the two girls spotted her. They showed her the work they had done for the nursery. Tina thought about how soon she'd have a baby in the house. She almost felt like she herself was becoming a grandma. It was a warm kind of feeling. "You girls did a good job setting this up! Without any help, I'm impressed."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"We still got a lot of work to do Ma. Forrest will be here before we know it."</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>"He's gonna have the BEST NURSERY EVER!"</span></p><p class="c0"><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Tina smiled. Everything seemed like it was back to normal.</span></p><p class="c1"><br /><span></span></p><p class="c1"><span>Words This Part: 2466</span></p><p class="c1"><span>Words Total: </span>45420</p>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-33361756861449460402011-11-14T03:25:00.002-05:002011-11-14T04:39:47.246-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 22The dark room they found themselves in was much smaller than the last room.<br /><br />"We must be near the top." Jeff gulped.<br /><br />"How did you know it was a dream Jeff?" Sarah asked, not paying attention to what he just said.<br /><br />"I don't know." Jeff shrugged.<br /><br />"And how come when you figured it out we didn't snap out of the dream automatically, like when I always realized it?" Sarah's mind boggled. There was something going on here that she didn't understand, something deeper than she had initially been led to believe. She thought that once they realized the dream wasn't real, or they were killed in the dream, they went back to the tower. But now she was having second doubts. That dream was the most realistic of all the dreams yet. It scared Sarah that she hadn't been able to figure out it was a dream herself.<br /><br />Jeff just shrugged again. Sarah felt angry again, but she was done arguing with Jeff. "Let's go, the next floor is probably the top right? We can't afford to waste anymore time." Sarah said more forcefully than she meant. She didn't wait for Jeff to start following her. She climbed the stairs and opened the door to the next floor.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Doctor Jeffery Durham Senior was making his rounds at the hospital. He had a lot on his mind, especially the patient he was going to see next. She was a young woman that he knew very well, although she didn't know him at all. Dr. Durham was worried for her. Things hadn't been going according to plan at all.<br /><br />He entered her room, and he spotted the woman he had first spoke to over 18 years ago, when his scientific study had just begun. The woman, who he knew was named Tina Pinkerton, looked over at him with wide eyes, and immediately got up from her chair to talk to him. She pulled him out into the hallway for a slightly more private conversation.<br /><br />"Sarah's...this coma, does it have anything to do with that chip you implanted in her head for that study on dreams you were doing?" Tina said, anxiously wringing her hands.<br /><br />Dr. Durham cringed for a moment, wondering how she had figured it out so quickly. He nodded his head and said "My own son is also in a coma, I didn't know if you were aware. It's hard to say if they'll be able to wake up ever again. The chips I implanted in them to read their dreams, well suffice to say, they had some unexpected consequences."<br /><br />Tina began to quietly cry at hearing this. "What can you do Doctor? There must be something! I don't want to lose my daughter."<br /><br />"For now, Mrs Pinkerton, all we can do is pray."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Sarah entered the room, expected to see the normal flash of blackness, but it didn't come. She looked around the room she found herself in. It was like the rest of the tower, just as black. There was nothing in this room, not even a staircase leading up higher. Sarah felt confused. Where was the thing they had to destroy, what was going on here? She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder from behind.<br /><br />"Sarah there is something I have to tell you." Jeff said, as Sarah spun around wildly to face him.<br /><br />"Huh? JEFF. There is nothing here! We can't escape!" Sarah felt like crying.<br /><br />"I know Sarah. Listen to me. I haven't been entirely truthful with you. There are things you don't know about yourself. " Sarah just stared at Jeff, confused and a bit angry. "When you were just a baby, you were entered into a scientific study on the nature of dreams. You had a chip implanted into your head so that my father, and his team of researchers could study your dreams."<br /><br />"WHAT?" Sarah blinked her eyes a few times, not quite believing what she was hearing.<br /><br />"Yeah, you weren't the only one. Thousands of other young children were in the study. That's when my father learned that some people's dreams were special. You were one of those children. So was I, but for different reasons. Sarah, you have the ability to maintain a whole dream world even when you are not there. You made a whole city up, and it continued even when you were not dreaming. You have one of the most vivid imaginations I've ever seen. You also had an even more special power though, one we are not quite even sure how it can exists. We think it has something to do with dreams being almost like death, where your whole body slows down, but Sarah, in your dreams...you can see the dead."<br /><br />Sarah's eyes got wider. "You mean...when we went to see my father? That was really him?" Sarah felt tears welling up in her eyes.<br /><br />"Well yes. I couldn't follow you there. Only you have that ability."<br /><br />"What's your ability then?" Sarah asked, but her mind was going in a million different directions, trying to comprehend everything that she was being told.<br /><br />"I can travel to other people's dreams. When my father found this out he wanted me to go into the dreams of his other test subjects, but once I found you I decided to not go any further. You are so special Sarah." Jeff took Sarah's hand gently in his own. "I'm so sorry Sarah."<br /><br />"Sorry? For what?"<br /><br />"It was me. I trapped you here."<br /><br />Sarah ripped her hand out of Jeff's reach. She felt like her heart was falling into pieces, and at the same time, she felt so angry she could hardly see straight. "What? Why did you do that? JEFF!" Sarah wanted to hit Jeff, but she refrained from doing so. She balled her hand up into a fist and stood there, staring at Jeff menacingly.<br /><br />"I made this tower up Sarah. I knew you'd come back to your dreams eventually. So I made it. This tower was supposed to be wonderful things that would show you how amazing dreams were, but your own imagination and power over dreams destroyed that. You made each dream into your own dream, instead of what I had envisioned."<br /><br />Everything seemed to click into place for Sarah. The reason why Jeff had told her that they were in a dream, why the dreams all started out nicely but ended up badly, why the tower wasn't evil like she thought it would be. The only question, which Sarah said out loud was, "Why?"<br /><br />"Sarah, I meant what I said before, I love you." Jeff looked sadly down, he had not been expecting Sarah to react like this. "I wanted you to see how wonderful dreams were, so that you would spend forever with me here."<br /><br />"I...I can't do that Jeff. You know I can't. We can spent time together outside of dreams. Come on let us go home." Sarah pleaded.<br /><br />"The world outside is a terrible place Sarah. It's corrupt and there are so many bad people out there who couldn't give a fuck about you. But here, with you, we were happy weren't we? It's fun here, and nothing bad ever happens. We can be happy here forever Sarah."<br /><br />Sarah looked at Jeff like he was going crazy. "Jeff we can't! I have a life out there, I know you don't think you do, but you do as well! You can't tell your stories in here. There is nothing for us in here. It's. Just. A. Dream!"<br /><br />"Sarah, there is only way you can escape from here." Jeff said, but stopped before he said what that thing was.<br /><br />"Yes? Tell me Jeff. We can escape from here. I know you don't want to spend forever in my dreams. We can be happy outside too."<br /><br />Jeff looked deeply at Sarah, his blue eyes beginning to well up with tears. "Sarah, you can only escape if you kill me."<br /><br />"Oh I get it! The tower is testing us again. This is another dream. WAKE UP WAKE UP!" Sarah screamed at herself, not wanting to believe the truth.<br /><br />"No it's not Sarah." Jeff painfully said.<br /><br />Sarah felt her whole body getting heavier. She sat down on the floor and pounded it with her fist. "It's just a dream! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!" Jeff put his hand on Sarah's shoulder but she violently shrugged it off. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!" Jeff backed away fearfully. "I can't believe this. This isn't real. You are lying to me."<br /><br />"I wish I was Sarah." Jeff said, now standing a few feet away from her. "You have to decide now Sarah. Do you want to live out your life with me here, in this wonderful place of your dreams? Or do you want to go back to the corrupt evil reality?" Jeff said, sneering at the last few words.<br /><br />"Jeff I can't kill you. I can't kill anyone." Sarah sobbed.<br /><br />"It's okay Sarah. I won't die in the real world. You'll just forget I ever existed, and I'll forget about you. Everything will go back to normal." Jeff admitted.<br /><br />"I...won't remember you?"<br /><br />"You won't remember anything. You won't remember any dreams we shared."<br /><br />Sarah sat silently for awhile. She wouldn't remember her dreams. All the wonderful times she had spent with Jeff. She wouldn't remember the happiness she had. Most of all, she wouldn't remember the time she had met her father. How could she let all of that go? Sarah didn't want to forget this world. Then something sparked in her head. She knew what she had to do.<br /><br />"Jeff, I'm so sorry for this." Sarah knew she was in a dream, her dream. She could do anything she wanted here. Sarah stood up, feeling slightly more confident now. She imagined that she had a gun in her hand, and it was there. She had never fired a gun in reality, but here she seemed to know just what to do. She aimed the gun at Jeff's head.<br /><br />Jeff didn't flinch. "I guess you've made up your mind then." He looked sadly into Sarah's eyes. She nodded sadly. This was what had to be done. "Goodbye Sarah. I love you."<br /><br />"Bye Jeff. I.....love you too."<br /><br />She pulled the trigger.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">"MOM! MISTER DOCTOR MAN!" Emily screamed excitedly into the hallway. "She's waking up! Sarah's WAKING UP!" Emily bounced up and down as Sarah's eyes began to slowly open.<br /><br /><br />Words This Part: 1826<br />Words Total: 42954</div></div></div></div></div></div>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-62576555796138935672011-11-13T06:45:00.003-05:002011-11-13T08:06:56.628-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 21The sound of childrens' laughter rang out through the air. It was warm and slightly muggy here, like a tropical paradise. Sarah looked around herself at the place that toted itself, the world's largest water park. There was a small lake surrounded by a beach, water slides, a large river to go rafting down, and many other things here. It was amazing to look at. Sarah walked around the park, taking in the sights, and for once in her life not worrying about how she looked in a bathing suit. Jeff lagged behind her, looking slightly anxious.<br /><br />"Is it too hot for you?" Sarah asked sweetly.<br /><br />"Oh no, I'm fine." Jeff looked around him, as if he was searching for something. Sarah had no idea what could be the matter with Jeff today. He was acting so odd.<br /><br />Sarah gently took his hand and said, "Come on, you need to cool off. Let's go down that water slide!" Sarah pointed up towards one of the taller slides. It looked like a fun ride, it wasn't too fast, and was surrounded by beautiful tropical plants. Sarah started climbing up the stairs, and was hit with a sudden blast of deja vu. Why would stairs be so familiar to her? She didn't question it too much, and made her way to the top.<br /><br />This slide was more like a log flume, but they were to ride a small raft down. Sarah sat in front, with Jeff behind her. He put his arms around Sarah's stomach, and she felt the butterflies take flight in her tummy. Sarah didn't have much time to dwell on this feeling, because before she knew it, they were sliding down. The raft took many twists and turns down the slide, the tropical plants became like a rainbow blur. It was beautiful to look at, and Sarah was almost sad when the raft splashed to the end.<br /><br />As Sarah and Jeff looked around at the attractions, trying to decide what to do next, Sarah heard Jeff mumbling to himself, "So far so good..."<br /><br />"Eh?" Sarah asked him.<br /><br />"Oh nothing." Jeff looked away, like a dog who had been caught doing something bad.<br /><br />"You've been acting..." Sarah stopped talking. She smelt something awful in the air. It smelt like decaying, rotten flesh. It almost made her want to vomit. She looked around and saw the other water park attendees putting their hands to their faces, and making expressions of disgust. "Oh god do you smell that?"<br /><br />Jeff nodded, unable to take his hand away from his nose. He was beginning to look a bit green.<br /><br />That's when the screaming began. From the front of the park it started, and it moved towards the back like a wave. The word that was being screamed was clear.<br /><br />"ZOMBIES!!!"<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><div style="text-align: left;">Tina sat near her daughter's bed, lost in her thoughts. Jenn was sitting near her, but Emily was standing next to Sarah, telling her stories. Emily said that even if Sarah was in a coma she could still hear her, and she didn't want her to be bored. So she told her stories of all sorts, Tina didn't really know she wasn't paying much attention.<br /><br />Her own thoughts were focused on that day, over eighteen years ago, when she had been still pregnant with Sarah.<br /><br />The doctor had approached her, asked if she would participate in a scientific study. He said that it would be no risk to her yet to be born baby. He said that it would pay well. Tina had needed the money, she had a new baby on the way after all.<br /><br />Tina felt so much regret at accepting that offer.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><div style="text-align: left;">The crowd started running, almost separating Sarah and Jeff. Sarah grabbed Jeff's hand to keep them together as they ran from the yet unseen zombie threat. Sarah looked around, calculating where would be the best place to run, where would they be the safest. She spotted a hillside cafe, up on top of a tall cliff. She told Jeff as she pointed towards it "There, we have to go there!"<br /><br />They split off from the rest of the crowd slightly, and began the climb up a long staircase up the cliff. While everyone else seemed to be in a panic, Sarah's mind was as clear as a crisp spring morning. "There is no exit that way, the only way out is the entrance, and we can't go that way the zombies are coming in that way." Sarah explained as she ran up the stairs. She didn't feel out of breath, even with all the physical exercise. She wondered if she was working on pure adrenaline here. "At least on the cliff we'll be mostly protected, and can board ourselves up in the cafe and wait for help." Sarah wondered if help would ever come, and how wide spread this outbreak of zombies was. She didn't want to hope for the worst, so she just hoped for the best. That someone would be coming to save them.<br /><br />A few other people seemed to have the same idea, and ran up the stairs with Jeff and Sarah. They soon reached the top, and even from up there, the putrid stench of rotted flesh was just as strong. A few people mulled around at the top, as if looking for guidance. Sarah decided that she would have to do her best and work through her shyness. These people needed help, and she was the one who could do that.<br /><br />She began to bark out orders. "You two, start boarding up the windows. Break the tables inside if you have to. You three, go in the kitchen and look for any weapons. Come on Jeff, let's start making a barricade at the top of these stairs to slow down any zombies that try to make it this far." Sarah felt like a general in an army. Soon everyone got to work.<br /><br />Sarah and Jeff used some tables and chairs to block off a part of the stairs. They tried their best to build a good barricade, but they didn't have any hammers or nails. The few nails and the single hammer that was found inside the cafe was being used to board up the windows. The three who had been sent to find weapons made a pile of knifes and other kitchen instruments in the center of the cafe, and then went to help board up the windows or build the barricade. Although they worked fast, Sarah was beginning to see some gray, half rotten, shuffling bodies far below her. She could see them chasing after some other people, and looked away as they started to devour an older man.<br /><br />One of the few people on the cliff suggested they throw burning things down on the zombies. Sarah shook her head. "Do you really want flaming zombies chasing after you? I don't think fire alone will keep them away, and we don't really have much left to burn." Sarah was starting to feel more and more scared. She tried to remain calm for those around her, but it was difficult. This was an unusual situation, and she hoped she was making the right choices.<br /><br />Jeff looked down below them, and shouted out "SARAH!" Sarah looked down and saw that a few zombies were making their way up the stairs to the cliff-side cafe.<br /><br />"Everyone inside, and barricade the door!" Sarah shouted. They all rushed into the cafe. They used the few remaining tables and nails to secure the door. Sarah just hoped it would be enough. She went to the pile of kitchen equipment, and chose a rather long knife. She knew they might just end up having to defend themselves.<br /><br />And then, they waited.<br /><br />Sarah sat down near one corner, and Jeff joined her with a long pipe in his hand. Jeff looked like he had something on his mind, but he wasn't speaking.<br /><br />"Jeff..." Sarah began, feeling an awkward silence between them. "If you have something you want to say you better say it now."<br /><br />Jeff looked scared, but remained silent. Instead of talking, he leaned forward and gave Sarah a hug. Sarah hugged him back with the arm that wasn't holding the knife. That's when she heard a scratching and a loud moaning noise at the door. The zombies were here.<br /><br />Sarah stood in a defensive position, followed by her new comrades in arms. Jeff was right beside her, looking less than thrilled at the battle that would soon commence. The scratching at the door became louder and louder before it broke open.<br /><br />The zombies were even more disgusting in person, their flesh seeming to hang off their bones at awkward angles, and the stench of them was much stronger now. Sarah went to start attacking them with her knife, determined to not give up and do her best to protect her life and the lives of those around her. She was stopped by a tugging at her elbow.<br /><br />"No Sarah."<br /><br />"Jeff this is HARDLY THE TIME FOR TALKING" Sarah raged trying to move forward again, but Jeff put both his arms around her, stopping her forward motion.<br /><br />"Sarah look this is a dream. A DREAM." Sarah couldn't see Jeff's face, but she could tell he was being sincere, yet she had no time to think about what he was saying, the zombies were almost upon them.<br /><br />"What? What do you mean?"<br /><br />"We have to wake up. I don't want to do this Sarah. It's a DREAM! A DREAM!" Sarah's memory came rushing back at this, and she closed her eyes as a zombie took a swing at her. She felt herself falling backwards, and when she opened her eyes again, she recognized the blackness before her.<br /><br />Words this part: 1660<br />Word Total: 41128<br /><br /></div></div></div></div>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-69503734170010138332011-11-12T12:59:00.002-05:002011-11-12T13:44:24.980-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 20In was well into the afternoon before the a nurse came out and greeted Tina, Jenn, and Emily. They had all just finished eating lunches bought from the hospital cafeteria, and were getting weary of waiting. Seeing the nurse, and hoping for some good news, brought up their broken spirits some.<br /><br />"She's stable now, you can visit her." The nurse told them. Jenn and Emily were excited, but at the same time slightly disappointed that she hadn't woken up yet.<br /><br />"What's wrong?" Tina asked. "When will she wake up?" Tina fretted and worried.<br /><br />"We don't know yet." the nurse said sadly. "I can show you to her room." The nurse took them down the halls, and they all demurely followed behind.<br /><br />When they arrived at her room, Emily ran in quickly, followed by a less quick Jenn. Tina stayed behind, she had a question to ask the nurse. "Is there a Doctor Durham here?"<br /><br />The nurse raised an eyebrow, but responded "Yes. He's the one taking care of your daughter. You'll probably see him later today." Tina thanked the nurse, and went into the room to see her daughter.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><div style="text-align: left;">Sarah opened her eyes and found only darkness around her. "Is this what death is like?" She said out loud, to no one particular. In front of her, she started to be able to make out a hazy shape in the distance. Her eyes focused, and she realized they were a set of stairs. "Eh?" Sarah sat up quickly, and the world started to swim before her eyes. She eventually found her balance again. She looked around the room, and realized she was indeed back in the black tower. The memory of the latest floor was burned into her memory. It had been a terrifying experience, what was more terrifying was the fact that she had acted in the dream in a way she would never act in real life. Had she been a spy? What was that organization? Did it really mean anything or had it just been another peril for her to overcome to reach the final floor of the tower? She wanted to ask Jeff what he thought. Sarah looked around, and began to panic.<br /><br />"Jeff? JEFF?" Sarah looked around the room, trying to find him anywhere. It wasn't hard, the room was smaller than the last two had been. Yet she couldn't see him. He wasn't in the room with her. Sarah's heart beat faster. Was this because she had died in the dream and he hadn't? Would this mean she had to take on the rest of the tower on her own? She didn't know if she could. She didn't even know what it was she even had to destroy. Jeff was the one with all the answers, Sarah had nothing without him. Sarah had just gotten to her feet trying to decide what to do next, when she felt the tower quiver.<br /><br />"Jeff!" Sarah exclaimed, seeing him suddenly appear in the center of the room. He was holding his head and looking slightly confused, but he was alright. Sarah ran over to him and gave him a hug, before backing away and asking "Are you alright? What happened?"<br /><br />"I...I don't know." Jeff looked concerned. "You died Sarah." Jeff looked like he was going to cry. "I was so scared. We can't do this anymore, we have to leave this tower."<br /><br />"No! We can't do that Jeff. I know it's scary, but look I'm fine!" Sarah waved her arms around erratically as if to prove her point. "It's just a dream. We can't give up, we can do this together."<br /><br />"It's just, these dreams are becoming so realistic. The first two didn't feel as real as that one did." Jeff shivered. This was not what he had been expecting in this tower.<br /><br />"It's okay Jeff. Besides, look, this room is smaller. We must be getting closer to the top." Sarah did her best to smile and look reassuring to her friend. She put out her hand to help Jeff stand up.<br /><br />"Alright. I'm just...I don't know, that man in that dream, he well..." Jeff trailed off.<br /><br />"What is it Jeff?"<br /><br />"I can't tell you right now. I don't even know for myself." Jeff seemed worried.<br /><br />Sarah felt herself getting angry. Jeff was hiding things from her. "ARGH!" She shouted, feeling frustrated. "You know what's going on here don't you? Why can't you just tell me? Wouldn't it make it easier for both of us if we both knew? I don't like secrets Jeff. You told me you loved me but you cant trust me with whatever it is you are keeping locked away? Just tell me PLEASE!"<br /><br />Jeff shook his head sadly. "I really can't Sarah. It's just...let's keep going alright? We'll never get out of here if we stand here arguing." Jeff started making his way towards the stairs and the next door. Sarah followed, feeling a rage in her heart she didn't quite understand.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A doctor tended to his young patient. He checked his vital signs, and made sure the boy was comfortable with a tenderness that doctors rarely show for their patients. Still as he went to leave the room, he whispered to the unconscious boy, "This isn't what was supposed to happen."<br /><br />A few rooms away, a mother and two girls hovered around the still sleeping body of their friend. Each of them hoping they could in some way help her, knowing that they could not.<br /><br />Words this part: 985<br />Words Total: 39468<br /><br />(The total maybe a bit off, I was doing some editing to the beginning of the story cause I realized I randomly went from the month of January to November. YAY RANDOM INCONSISTENCIES)<br /></div></div></div></div>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-79834051379093679212011-11-12T03:33:00.004-05:002011-11-12T05:16:23.153-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 19"Jeff, do you hear that?" Sarah said her eyes widening in horror.<br /><br />"Oh who's trying to scare who now?" Jeff said with an air of humor.<br /><br />"Shhhhh" Sarah was silent, her ears, straining to hear the sound she feared most of all.<br /><br />Drip, drip, drip.<br /><br />"Jeff it's the Black Pond Demon!" Sarah said trying to get out of the sleeping bag and finding herself getting more tangled up in it instead. Jeff was silent for a moment, he was unsure of himself, and if he had really heard the noises coming from outside their tent.<br /><br />"Sarah, I just made up that story. There is no Black Pond Demon." Jeff said, trying to reassure himself more than anyone else.<br /><br />Sarah managed to get herself untangled from the sleeping bag and searched around the tent for a flashlight, and something to protect herself. She found the flashlight near the front of the tent, but she couldn't find anything that she could protect herself. In her frantic flee for something she didn't notice the scratching from the back of the tent. She turned on the flashlight and pointed it towards Jeff, and then she saw it.<br /><br />Two red claws were piercing the back of the tent, slowing ripping down. Sarah screamed and her mind blinded with terror she tried to open the zipper of the tent to escape, except the zipper seemed to be stuck. Sarah swore under her breath, hoping Jeff would come and help her. Sarah dared to glance back and saw Jeff looking towards the claws, the back of the tent slowing opening, frozen in fear.<br /><br />"Jeff COME ON!" Sarah screamed. Jeff seemed to snap out of his funk, and he came to help Sarah open the tent. "We have to get out of her oh my god oh my god."<br /><br />The tent finally opened and Jeff and Sarah spilled out the front. The noise seemed to have distracted the demon from his rending the back of the tent apart. Sarah and Jeff were too busy trying to get up to notice the demon slowly approaching them.<br /><br />"JEFF THAT MONSTER IS REAL!" Sarah screamed hysterically. She was panicking, and out of her mind with fear. Jeff had already stood up, and pulled Sarah to her feet. Then in a blink of an eye, he noticed the red monstrosity making it's way towards them. He pointed towards the demon, unable to move, unable to make a sound, paralyzed in fear.<br /><br />Sarah motioned the flashlight in the direction Jeff was pointing. She saw the demon in the full light, the light momentarily blinding it, freezing it in place so Sarah could get an even better look at it. It was small like a child, but was blood red from head to toe. Black horns grew out of it's head, and sharp pointed teeth, dripping with the same red substance, stuck out of it's demented grinning mouth. His head appeared too big for the rest of it's body. The demon seemed to overcome it's initial start from the bright light, and started brandishing it's sharp claws at the two paralyzed humans.<br /><br />Sarah overcame her own shock, and took Jeff's hand and started running. Jeff initially resisted, but he began to run with her as well. Sarah could hear the all too quick footsteps of the monster behind them, each step accented with an oozing splat. Sarah tried to run through the trees, not caring where she was going, she just wanted to put as much space between herself and the demon. Sarah felt as if she could not possibly run fast enough to escape, time itself seemed to be slowing down, but only for herself, the demon seemed to be getting closer and closer.<br /><br />A tree had fallen down up ahead, Jeff noticed it in time to jump, but Sarah ran into it, falling down on her hands and knees. Jeff looked startled, he wanted to keep running but he couldn't leave Sarah behind. He quickly tried to pull Sarah back up again, but it was too late. The demon was there.<br /><br />The demon jumped onto Sarah, leaning it's face up against Sarah's. She could feel it's sticky blood covering her, and she suddenly couldn't move anymore. She had succumbed to the demon's poison, it paralyzed her. Jeff was behind her, still pulling on her hand, but she could not longer feel him. Instead all she could feel was the demon's breath upon her face. The demon whispered in a voice much too deep for such a small creature "Your soul." The demon's smile seemed to widen, showing far too many teeth than could possibly fit into such a small mouth.<br /><br />Sarah's mind reeled. No, she thought, this can't be real this has to be a dream. Sarah's thoughts seemed to come out of her mouth without her realizing it. "This is a DREAM! THIS HAS TO BE A DREAM."<br /><br />Sarah found herself lying on the cold black floor of the tower, Jeff still trying to pull her out of danger. The darkness of the ceiling replaced the formerly starry sky, and Sarah started to laugh hysterically.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Jenn had driven to the hospital that morning faster than she had ever driven anywhere previously in her life. She was glad that no cops had stopped her, the last thing she needed was a speeding ticket. She couldn't really deal with anymore stress in her life at the moment. She remembered the frantic phone call she had received that morning. Emily had been half screaming, half crying into the phone that Sarah was in a coma, that she hadn't woken up that morning. Jenn had jumped into her car as fast as she could, not even stopping to clean off the fresh blanket of snow that had covered it. Jenn normally loved the snow, but now it only seemed a hindrance to her getting to the hospital as fast as she could.<br /><br />Jenn found Emily and Sarah's mom sitting a waiting room, waiting for news about Sarah. Emily leaped up as soon as she saw Jenn, and didn't say a word, just hugged Jenn tightly. Jenn was worried for Emily and her baby, surely all this stress couldn't be good for Forrest, or for his momma. Jenn hugged Sarah gently back, and went to sit back down. Jenn followed them, and waited news on Sarah, who was currently in the ER.<br /><br />Emily tried to make small talk and wondered out loud to herself "Are comas contagious?"<br /><br />"Eh?" Jenn said, wondering where Emily got such an idea. "No..."<br /><br />"Well don't you remember?" Emily's voice got higher and her speaking pace became faster. "Sarah went to see her not boyfriend in the hospital yesterday, and he was in a coma. She even held his hand, and now's she's in a coma. I mean it can't be a coincidence right? Things like that just don't happen."<br /><br />"Who?" Tina looked up from the hospital floor she had previously been staring at trying to distract herself. She was counting the tiles, wondering how long it would be until the doctors came out with some good news for all of them.<br /><br />"You know, her not boyfriend. Well I said he was her boyfriend, but she was like, no he's just my friend since I was real little." Emily said quickly. Tina's mind whirled. For as long as she could remember, Sarah had no friends. Jenn and Emily were the first friends she had ever mentioned, and she didn't think her daughter would be keeping secrets from her, no matter how shy Sarah acted to the rest of the world, she was pretty open with her mother. "What was his name?" Emily continued. "Oh yeah Jeffery Durham."<br /><br />Tina looked over at Emily with a shocked expression on her face, her mind winding back the years to where she had heard that name before. Terror took over Tina. This was all her fault.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><div style="text-align: left;">Sarah stopped laughing as Jeff hovered over her in concern. "Sorry I was so scared I just had to laugh. Guess this tower is going to be pretty hard to complete." Sarah sighed to herself.<br /><br />"I don't even want to go any further." Jeff shivered. He had not been expected something like that to happen.<br /><br />"We have to Jeff. Don't you want to see your family again?"<br /><br />Jeff made a sound of disgust. "I don't think they'll even care if they see me again. My dad is some big doctor and he's never even home. He never pays attention to me when he is. He just wants to talk about his latest work. And my mom, well she thinks I sleep too much and I should do something with my life. I am taking some classes right now, but it's not going so well. I think she wants me to be a doctor like my father, but I don't want to do that."<br /><br />"What do you want to do?" Sarah asked, happy to be actually talking with Jeff. After all these years of being so close to him, she still felt sometimes like she hardly knew him at all. She wondered why she had never bothered asking these questions before. Well perhaps because she had always assumed he was just a dream. Now that she knew he was real, she wanted to know more and more about him.<br /><br />"I want to be an author. I love telling stories. I want to just be able to tell stories for the rest of my life." Jeff smiled. "What about you Sarah?"<br /><br />Sarah thought for a moment. She had never really thought that much about her own future. She didn't really have any skills, but she was a fast learner. She remembered when she was a little girl she had wanted to be a teacher, or a ballerina, or an astronaut. She laughed and told Jeff "I'm not sure yet, but something. I used to be so shy, I hated just being around other people, but now, now I don't mind it so much. I feel like I could be anything really."<br /><br />"In your dreams you can be anything" Jeff laughed.<br /><br />"Yeah well we have to get out of this black tower first. Then I wouldn't mind having some normal dreams. Let's keep going. I'm so scared that someone will find me see that I can't wake up. I don't want to scare my mom, or my friends." Sarah cringed at the thought of her mom finding Sarah and trying to wake her up and being unable to. Sarah didn't want to impart that kind of pain on her mother. "Hurry!"<br /><br />Sarah started jogging towards to next set of stairs, towards the next door. She was afraid of what might lie behind it this time, but she knew she had to keep pressing forward. The door opened and...<br /><br />The world tore past Sarah as she drove down the street as fast as possible. Jeff was sitting shot gun, with a shot gun, shooting behind them at the car that was chasing them. Everything seemed to smear as Sarah pressed the gas to the floor, trying to make the car go faster yet. She blazed through red lights, quickly swerved around cars. The sounds of gunshots blasted all around Sarah, but she tried not to think too much about it. A bullet struck their back windshield, and shards of glass flew everywhere. Sarah closed her eyes momentarily, but had to open them again quickly so she could see where they were going. Glass coated the back seat of the car, but Sarah seemed to be uninjured.<br /><br />Jeff pulled the trigger of his gun, and made a lucky shot. He got the tire of the car behind them, sending the car spinning and it wrecked into a telephone pole. The car exploded behind them, Sarah noted as she raced off without the threat of being shot behind her anymore.<br /><br />"How did they find us so fast?" Sarah thought out loud.<br /><br />"I don't know. There has to be a double agent in our midst." Jeff said angrily. "Quick we have to get back to the base. I'm bleeding."<br /><br />Sarah dared a glance over, and saw that Jeff was bleeding from his arm. She ignored the urge to help him, and made her way to their secret base.<br /><br />The base was an old shack near the edge of the river. It was hard to get there, and no one would ever expect it. Sarah quickly got out of the car and helped Jeff into the shack. His breathing was getting more ragged, Sarah knew he had to be in a lot of pain. Sarah found Devon typing away at his computer inside, and Lisa was sitting at a table with her feet up smoking a cigarette. Lisa jumped up and quickly ran to their aid. "What happened? This was supposed to be an in and out job."<br /><br />"They were waiting for us. They knew we'd be there." Jeff painfully said.<br /><br />"Did you get the info?" Devon said, not turning around from the computer, in fact he didn't even stop his rapid typing.<br /><br />"Of course, who do you take me for?" Sarah laughed.<br /><br />Lisa started to tend to Jeff's wound. A shard of glass had embedded into his arm, and she got out her bag of medical gear to try and remove it. Sarah sauntered over to Devon, handing his the USB drive that had the information on it. "We didn't have much time, but it's all there."<br /><br />Devon inserted the USB drive into his computer. He seemed to go over all the files in no time, while Sarah went and held Jeff's hand as Lisa finished bandaging him up. Sarah's mind began to wander. Who had betrayed them, and why? Could it have been Lisa or Devon? It couldn't have been Jeff, why would he put his life on the line? Sarah let out a frustrated groan, she trusted everyone in this room, she had no reason to doubt any of them.<br /><br />Devon let out a yelp of excitement. "Yes! With this we can take them down once and for all. This proves their organization has been stealing the profits, now we just have to get this out to the press." Devon stopped mid-sentence as he heard a loud bang outside of their shack. Sarah glanced out the window and saw dozens of cars pulling up towards their shack.<br /><br />"Shit!" She muttered. "How could they have found us here so fast?"<br /><br />"Sarah this is not your fault." Jeff said from his chair. Sarah's heart beat quickened.<br /><br />"I know that. It's my mother's organization. She's been stealing from all those people, she's even killed countless others. I couldn't let it go on. But now I've put you all in danger." Sarah sighed, backing away from the window. Her mind raced at who could've betrayed them all. She had no answers, and no time. She thought quickly. "If I give myself up maybe they'll let you all go."<br /><br />"NO! Not after everything we've worked for." Jeff said with passion. "You can't Sarah, they'll kill you."<br /><br />"What other options to we have left? We can't take them all on, we are severely outnumbered. I'd rather die then see you all die." Sarah said, her heart heavy.<br /><br />"Sarah..." Lisa said, looking down. "You can't..." Tears began to fall from Lisa's face, but she knew it was too late. Once Sarah made up her mind, you couldn't force her to do anything else.<br /><br />"I'm going." Sarah went towards to door, but Jeff grabbed her arm, and pulled her in for a kiss.<br /><br />"Sarah, I love you, you can't." Jeff's eyes were welling up with tears. He kissed her with a burning fire of desire. Sarah returned the kiss.<br /><br />"I love you too Jeff, that's why I have to do this."<br /><br />Sarah headed for the door. Devon had stopped typing, and watched Sarah's progress across the room. He didn't know what to say, so he let her go without saying anything at all. Jeff tried to stop Sarah, tried to run after her, but Lisa held onto his good arm, stopping him. Jeff was in too much pain to resist.<br /><br />Sarah opened the door to the shack, and put both her hands in the air. She saw that men were lined up behind the cars, all pointing guns at her. Sarah yelled out "I give up! Please don't shoot. Please let my friends go."<br /><br />A man standing towards the front, wearing an outfit of black that seemed to consume his whole body, even his face, waved his arm down, and the men all lowered their guns. Sarah made her way towards them slowly and steadily, not faltering although her heart felt heavy. She got closer to the man in the front. His face was masked, yet she could see his eyes. They seemed familiar, yet Sarah couldn't place from where. The man grasped Sarah and forced her into a kneel, and he held her two arms with one of his own. She felt a cold metal against her head.<br /><br />"We don't forgive those who betray the Pinkerton Empire." The man said harshly. "Do you want to know who betrayed you to us? Do you want your last moments to be for the hatred of your so called comrades?"<br /><br />"Shut up." Sarah said aggressively. "Just pull the damn trigger." Sarah hoped in her heart for a last minute rescue that she knew would never come. She looked towards her base, towards the friends she was doing this for.<br /><br />"Heh, as you wish, PRINCESS." The man pulled the trigger, and Sarah felt the bullet against her head, the loud blasting noise, but felt no pain. She fell to the side as she saw Jeff running towards her almost in slow motion.<br /><br />The man in black said something else, and Sarah seemed to catch the words, as if they were floating around her. "The one who betrayed you was...."<br /><br />Everything went black.<br /><br />Words This Part: 3086<br />Words Total: 38483</div></div></div></div>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-87693498406917609202011-11-11T00:17:00.006-05:002011-11-11T02:24:22.284-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 18The trees were bare, but the sky was a brilliant blue. There was a forest surrounding them the branches of the trees laden with snow, and a huge frozen pond in the middle. Sarah sat on a bench by the edge of the pond, tying a pair of ice skates to her feet.<br /><br />"Are you ready?" Jeff asked her, some of his hair poking out from beneath a knit cap. He was wearing a heavy winter coat, but it didn't feel all that cold to Sarah.<br /><br />"I've never gone ice skating before, I'm nervous."<br /><br />"You don't have to be nervous." Jeff's hand appeared before Sarah's face, and she took it. Jeff helped her to her feet. Sarah almost fell down again, the ice beneath her was slicker than she had expected. Jeff kept a tight grip on her arm, not allowing her to fall back down again. "I got ya. Here it's like this." Jeff demonstrated how to move his feet to Sarah. Sarah began to grasp the concept, more of a sliding motion, less like walking.<br /><br />Before she knew it, she was skating along side Jeff as if she had been doing it for all her life. Still, becoming to zealous in her own abilities and trying to jump, Sarah fell down on her bottom. She felt the ice below her as she pushed herself back up, and got a suddenly feeling of wrongness in it all. The ice didn't feel cold or wet, it just felt flat.<br /><br />"Are you alright?" Jeff said, kneeling slightly before Sarah. He looked with concern into her eyes, but Sarah just blushed and looked away.<br /><br />"I'm fine."<br /><br />Everything felt so confusing, as Sarah got back up to her feet. The pond, the trees, everything felt out of place. Where was she? How had she gotten here? She wanted to ask Jeff about it, but she felt so nervous she could hardly form words.<br /><br />"Hey Sarah, did I ever tell you the story about this pond?" Jeff said skating next to Sarah again, slowing down and taking her hand.<br /><br />"N..no" Sarah slightly stuttered.<br /><br />"Well once upon a time, there was a beautiful young princess. She was rather rebellious, so sometimes she would run away from the castle. One day when she had run away, she came across a beautiful clearing in the woods. She found a young man playing a flute there. She was enchanted by him, and the two of them fell in love. The princess had planned on running away with the young man, for she knew her father would never allow them to marry. On the day they had planned to elope together, her father found out about her plans, and had the young man killed. The young princess was so distraught, she ran away to the field one last time. She cried a million tears they say, and those tears formed this pond." Jeff finished his story. "Kinda sad, isn't it?"<br /><br />"Yeah." Sarah said quietly. She thought to herself that she was pretty sure that there had never been princesses in New England. That thought shocked her. She was in New England, or at least she was supposed to be. This looked like the setting out of a story book. "Where are we Jeff?"<br /><br />"Where we are supposed to be, Princess Sarah." Sarah looked around her, and found that she was no longer wearing winter clothes, but was wearing a Renaissance era dress. It was long, and flowed around her as easily as water flows down stream. Sarah went from looking at her dress to where Jeff was sitting on a rock, wearing what looked like peasant's clothing and playing a flute. "Does the fair lady wish for me to play her a song?"<br /><br />The pond was gone and replaced with a field in the middle of the trees. Sarah wanted to protest. This was all wrong. How could this be happening. Instead she sat down at the base of the rock, and nodded at Jeff to play her a song.<br /><br />He began his song. It was a simple song, like the wind blowing through the trees, but a bit sad. The notes touched Sarah's heart, and made her tremble a bit. She started to sing out in tune with the flute, although she didn't know where the lyrics came from.<br /><br />"I once saw a place much farther from here<br />A place of good, yet a place of fear<br />My heart beats kindly for all of us near<br />When I dream of Paradise.<br /><br />I left that place far behind<br />Although it never left my mind<br />It wasn't a place you are likely to find,<br />When I dream of Paradise.<br /><br />Someday I wish that we could return<br />Although my heart has yet to learn,<br />Of a place called Paradise."<br /><br />Jeff put his flute down and looked kindly down at Sarah. "That was a beautiful song."<br /><br />Sarah beamed at him. "Thank you." She blushed slightly at his compliment.<br /><br />Jeff jumped off from the rock and sat down beside Sarah. He took her hand into his own. "I know you will likely refuse, but may I have a kiss from the princess?"<br /><br />Sarah felt her blush doubling over, and quickly looked away from Jeff towards the trees. The trees sparked something in her memory. What was it? The forest. The trees in the forest.<br /><br />"Forrest!"Sarah jumped to her feet. "Emily's baby Forrest!" Sarah smiled at the memory. "We aren't really here, this is a dream. We are in that dark tower still!"<br /><br />Sarah looked around her, but all the scenery had gone. It was replaced by walls of ebony. There was very little light inside the tower, but towards the back of the room, Sarah could make out a staircase cut into the side of the tower. "Oh let's go! We have to reach the top of the tower, don't we?"<br /><br />"Who is Emily?" Jeff stood up next to Sarah slowly.<br /><br />"Oh she's...well. She's my friend. She's living with me right now, and she's going to have a baby in February. She named him Forrest. I guess seeing the trees reminded me of him. I'm glad, we might've been trapped there forever if I hadn't remembered. " Sarah sighed out a breath of relief. She didn't know that the tower was going to be like this. She wondered what waited her on higher floors. Still she knew that standing still wouldn't help. She didn't know how much time was passing in the real world, and she wanted to get out of here before they found out anything was wrong, and that she couldn't wake up anymore.<br /><br />Jeff didn't move though. "I've never really had friends, it must be nice. I've always felt invisible to this world. I've always liked dreams so much more. At least in my dreams I have you Sarah."<br /><br />"Well one we destroy the thing in this tower we can be friends in the real world. And you can met Jenn and Emily. We can all be friends together! Come on!" Sarah started towards the staircase. Jeff stood silently for awhile, but then began to follow Sarah up the stairs.<br /><br />The stairs seemed to be made of the same black rock the tower was made of, some unearthly rock that glowed black where they touched it. Slowly but surely the two made it up the stairs to a small landing. There was another door there, much smaller than the one that they had entered the tower from. Sarah nervously opened the door, Jeff standing directly behind her, with a flash of darkness taking them over.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br />The sound of sirens echoed through the snowy morning air. Emily sat beside Tina, trying to comfort the woman who had been like a mother to her the past few days. The ambulance crew hovered over Sarah's body, putting her on oxygen. One of the men tried to ask Tina what had happened but she was too upset to answer. Emily told him about how that morning she had tried to wake up her friend, but she hadn't responded. It all seemed so unreal to Emily. Forrest kicked about in her stomach in a maddening way. Emily patted her stomach, trying to calm Forrest down. She looked over at her friend, and a feeling of fear passed through her. She wasnted Sarah to be okay again. She wanted Sarah to wake up. She was so scared. Emily tried not to think about the worst outcomes but she couldn't help it. What if Sarah stayed sleeping so long she wasn't there when Forrest was born? What if Sarah never woke up again? What if she...Emily couldn't finish he own thought, and began to sob with Tina.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Sarah was laying on her back. The stars shone brilliantly in the sky. The ground felt comfortable to her as she lay there, looking at the constellations. She didn't really know that much about stars, but she saw the big dipper floating up above here. Instead of trying to figure out what the constellations were, Sarah began to make them up for her own. There was the famous kitty constellation, she thought, tracing with her finger stars in the shape of a cat head. There is the heart one, and a star constellation, she giggled to herself, making a shape of a star with the stars. She was so amused with herself, she hardly heard the voice calling out her own name.<br /><br />"Sarah." Then again, this time louder and a bit more forceful "Sarah!"<br /><br />Sarah sat up, dusting the dirt off her back. "Coming Jeff!"<br /><br />Sarah made her way through the trees to where she saw the light of their camp fire. Sarah could almost feel a memory of being nervous about going camping with Jeff alone, but now that she was here she wasn't sure what she was so nervous about. They were having a great time. Then she looked over at the tent, and started blushing again. They were going to be sleeping so closely with each other. Sarah had never spent the night so close to someone of the opposite sex before. Even though it was Jeff, Sarah's heart started pounding faster and faster in her chest.<br /><br />"Oh there you are Sarah. I was just roasting some hot dogs over the fire, I thought you might be hungry too." Jeff handed Sarah one of the sticks he was using to roast the hot dogs with. Sarah sat on the opposite side of the fire. She was still too nervous to sit any closer than that.<br /><br />Sarah roasted her hot dog, and quickly ate it with mustard on top. It was pretty much tasteless, Sarah wondered if her nervousness was affected her other senses. She tried to shake herself out of it, and enjoy this camping trip with Jeff. She smiled at him, and asked about S'mores.<br /><br />"What kind of a camping trip would this be without S'mores?" Jeff smiled as he took some supplies out of his backpack. "Let's get roasting!" He took a marshmalllow out of the bag then throw the bag towards Sarah. She caught it, and put her own marshmallow on her stick. She held it over the fire, watching it slowly begin to brown on the outside. When she deemed it was ready, she headed closer to Jeff to get the graham crackers and chocolate.<br /><br />"Come on sit down over here." Jeff patted the log next to him. Sarah trembled a bit as she sat down and took the graham crackers and chocolate from Jeff and began constructing her S'more. "You know what else a camping trip isn't complete without?<br /><br />"What?" Sarah shrugged.<br /><br />"A ghost story." Jeff made a spooky "Oooh" sound.<br /><br />Sarah wasn't one for ghost stories but she was alright with Jeff telling one. He was so goofy most of the time she didn't know how seriously she could take him. Of course once Jeff got into telling stories he was pretty good at it. "Alright, you got one to tell?"<br /><br />Jeff nodded as he started to eat his own S'more. He took bites of it in between the sentences in his story. "It was a dark night, much like this one, with the wind blowing through the trees. There was a couple, much like us OW!" Sarah had hit him on the arm. She didn't really think of them as a couple yet. "What? Well in any case, they were two people on a camping trip who may or may not have been dating. Happy? In any case, this was not an ordinary night. This was the night that it was said that the demon of Black Pond emerges. He is a dreadful sight. Those who have seen him say he doesn't have any skin, he is just a pulsing red color, and he leaves a trail of red behind him wherever he goes. Some say it's sticky like slime, others say it is his own blood. If you touch it, the red slime or blood will paralyze you. Whatever it is, it's not as deadly as the demon himself. He travels through the woods, looking for victims. He is said to eat the souls of anyone he comes across, unless they are the lucky few to escape. After he eats your soul, he drags your body back down into Black Pond, to do terrible things to it."<br /><br />"What things?"<br /><br />"I don't know, everyone who was dragged down there was already dead. I can't ask the dead questions. Anyway, so the couple who was camping in the woods had been sitting quietly by their own fire, when suddenly they heard this disgusting dripping sound. Drip, drip, drip. The noise went. It got closer and closer to them. Drip, drip, drip. The girl wanted to go investigate, but drip, drip..."<br /><br />"AHHHHH!" Sarah screamed as something poked her on the back. Sarah quickly turned around and found that it was Jeff and not some terrible demon behind her. She hit him on the arm again. "That wasn't funny Jeff!"<br /><br />Jeff stuck out his tongue. Sarah started to giggle. Jeff joined her. They both laughed for some time when Jeff suddenly said, "Did you hear that?"<br /><br />"Don't joke around Jeff, you aren't going to scare me again." Sarah pouted.<br /><br />"No...well in any case don't you think we should head to bed now? It is getting kind of late." Jeff said finishing off the last of his S'more. It had taken him a lot longer to eat his than Sarah, since he had been talking the whole time. "And don't worry I'm protect you from any demons we may come across." Jeff smiled.<br /><br />Jeff headed into the tent, and Sarah nervously followed after. They each had their own sleeping bags in the tent, a little bit apart from each other. Sarah snuggled down into her own sleeping bag. She turned away from Jeff and cuddled down and tried to sleep. "Night Sarah." Jeff said.<br /><br />"Night Jeff." Sarah said feeling relieved that Jeff hadn't tried to make a move on her or anything. She was scared sometimes that he would want to do more with her, and she was even more scared that he would leave her if she didn't do those kinds of things with him. She knew she was being silly. Jeff knew how shy she was, and he'd wait until she was ready.<br /><br />Sarah tried to fall asleep, but the nervous energy in her body wouldn't leave. She turned over to look at Jeff. He was facing her with his eyes open as well. "Can't sleep?" he whispered gently.<br /><br />"Yeah..." Sarah admitted.<br /><br />"Sorry for telling you that scary story."<br /><br />"It's ok. That's not why I can't sleep. I just feel nervous. I've never spent the whole night with you before." Sarah felt like her whole body was shaking a bit.<br /><br />Jeff unzipped the front of his sleeping bag and whispered, "Hey come over here."<br /><br />Sarah was stunned at Jeff asking her to do such a thing, yet she felt compelled to go closer to him. She went into his sleeping bag, into his waiting arms. She rested her head against his should as he held her. "It's ok Sarah. We can just cuddle. I like being close to you, is all." Jeff's voice whispered directly into her ear, sending chills down her spine.<br /><br />They held each other for some time, Sarah feeling very comfortable in Jeff's arms, feeling like she had no reasons to be scared. She was just about to drift off into sleep when she heard a noise outside the tent, a sickening, eerie, dripping noise.<br /><br /></div></div>Words this Part: 2846<br />Words Total: 35397</div></div>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-89399001698660039702011-11-10T05:09:00.003-05:002011-11-10T06:11:21.598-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 17Sarah opened her eyes and found herself in a place she hadn't seen in a long time. It was a garden. She was surrounded by trees with leafs of pink, flowers bordering the trees in all colors of the rainbow. There was a small pond nearby, and within it there was a glimmer of gold fish. Just beyond the pond sat a small table with two chairs, with a tea set on it. Sarah looked from the table to the boy sitting in the chair.<br /><br />"You are real!" Sarah exclaimed running towards the boy with brown-red hair. She had never been more relieved <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>to be in a dream, and to see Jeff again. Sarah felt tears forming in her eyes as she ran towards him. Now she could get some answers, now she could know the truth.<br /><br />Jeff stood up and opened his arms wide. Sarah ran into his arms and felt his warm embrace. It felt as real as when she had held his hand in the hospital. "You are real." Sarah cried into his chest, feeling his arms around her. He held onto her arms, but took a step back and examined her for a moment. Before Sarah knew what was happening, his face got closer to hers. She closed her eyes and felt his lips touch upon hers. They stayed like that for a moment, Sarah felt an excitement dance across her whole body. It was her first kiss. Even if it was a dream, it was real to Sarah, and with a real boy. She didn't want it to end, but eventually Jeff pulled away from her.<br /><br />"Sarah...I was searching for you for so long. I thought you were gone forever. But..." Jeff seemed uncertain how to continue.<br /><br />"What is it Jeff? What is going on? You are in a coma? What?" Jeff put a finger against her lips to get her to stop talking.<br /><br />"I...I can't explain it all yet. I'm afraid that it may be too late for you too." Jeff looked sadly at Sarah, his big blue eyes seemed to be looking into the depths of her soul.<br /><br />"What do you mean?" Sarah felt angry and lost again. She thought that finding Jeff would suddenly answer all her questions. "You know what's going on don't you? Why can't you tell me?"<br /><br />Jeff stood in silence for a moment, and then he pointed to his left. The trees seemed to part where he pointed, and there was the large dark tower. "There. There I can answer everything for you."<br /><br />"The tower?" Sarah seemed confused.<br /><br />"It's all more complicated than you can imagine. And you, well you have quite an imagination Sarah. I wish I could just tell you everything but there is something stopping me. It's in that tower and if we can destroy it I can tell you everything and we can escape from this nightmare." Jeff looked sadly at Sarah again. "First do you remember this place?"<br /><br />"I..." Sarah stopped and looked around her for a moment, trying to get the memories to come back to her. "This is...this is my secret garden! I remember! Before my dad died, he went on a lot of business trips. He told me that if I thought about this place before I went to sleep, I could meet him here. But then he died, and I came here looking for him, but he wasn't here anymore." Sarah remembered her disappointment in that fact as clear as day. "But then..." Sarah trailed off.<br /><br />"Yes. We met here as well. You were crying at this table. I remember finding you here and you couldn't even tell me what was wrong. That was almost ten years ago now." Jeff smiled slightly at the memory.<br /><br />"But what does that have to do with anything?" Sarah asked concerned.<br /><br />"It really doesn't, but yet it does. I just wanted to know if you remembered the first time we met. But now of course, I'm afraid that you can't leave your dreams anymore."<br /><br />"WHAT?" Sarah exclaimed full of fear. She tried to wake herself up, but found that she couldn't.<br /><br />"We are trapped here. That dark tower has a power over us. It is keeping us here. If we can destroy what's in there, well that's the only way we can escape. That dark tower is the answer to everything." Sarah started to cry as Jeff told her all of this. He took her into his arms again. "It's okay Sarah. We have each other. We can do this."<br /><br />"But what about all my friends in the real world? My mom? If I can't wake up, what will happen to me? What's going on here? I don't understand anything. I'm so confused." Sarah wailed into Jeff's arms.<br /><br />"Sarah there was something I wanted to tell you, a long time ago but I was too scared. Sarah, I love you. I think I've always loved you. I was happy that all my dreams were with you because that was the only way that I could spend time with you. I love you."<br /><br />Sarah was shocked at Jeff's sudden confession. She had never felt as close to another guy as she felt to Jeff though. She whispered back to him. "I...I think I love you too."<br /><br />Jeff smiled. Sarah was happy that she could be with him, but she wanted to be with him in the real world, not in her dreams. She had made up her mind. "Okay, let's go to the tower, let's destroy whatever it is we need to. Let's met back up in the real world so you can tell me everything." Sarah felt confident that she could do whatever was necessary to get back to the real world.<br /><br />"Alright then! Let's go!" Suddenly the two of them were flying in the air. Sarah wasn't sure how it was happening, and was scared to let go of Jeff, but when she did she found she could fly on her own. They whipped through the air, feeling the wind blow against their skin. The ground was far below them, the secret garden started fading into the distance, and the terrible dark tower loomed ever closer.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">---</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Emily woke up with a terrible feeling in her heart. Her head was still resting on Sarah's chest, but she could hardly hear her heart beat anymore. Emily pushed herself up, trying not to panic. The light was just barely beginning to come up, filtering through the blinds in the windows. She whispered into the dimness "Sarah?" Sarah's body did not move.<br /><br />Emily quickly started to shake Sarah, the panic in her heart rising up. "Sarah wake up, please wake up!" Sarah still lay almost lifeless in the bed.<br /><br />Emily started to scream. "Sarah! PLEASE WAKE UP! SARAH!!!"<br /><br />Tina was woken up by the loud screaming emanating from her daughter's room. She rushed in to see what was the matter, and found Emily hovering over her daughter, shaking her and yelling. She turned to see Tina enter the room, and with tears in her eyes cried out "Sarah won't wake up...she won't wake up."<br /><br />Snow started to gently fall outside. The coldness seemed to permeate the room, leaving the two awake inhabitants in a storm of their own.<br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">---</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sarah and Jeff arrived at the tower. It was taller than she had remembered in her dreams, and foreboding. It was even more terrifying in person than it had been in her dreams. A black fog surrounded it, and as they got closer to it, it was harder and harder to move. It was as if the black fog was weighing them down. No plants grew near the base of the tower, the ground around it was completely barren. They walked up to it, unable to fly any further.<br /><br />"Are you sure you want to do this Sarah?" Jeff sounded nervous.<br /><br />Sarah was scared, yet she knew she really had no other choice. "What else can we do?"<br /><br />"We can remain here, in this dream forever?" Jeff said with a hearty sigh.<br /><br />"Well that's not really an option at all? This isn't like the dreams we've had before. This is a nightmare now. We have to escape it Jeff. Don't you want to see you friends and family again?"<br /><br />Jeff didn't reply. He looked towards the tower and took Sarah's hand. "Okay, let's do this. I don't know exactly what terrors await us inside but we can do it if we have each other." Jeff gave Sarah a kiss on her cheek. Sarah blushed slight at this act. She wasn't used to being so intimate with someone else, but it felt nice all the same. Together they walked forward under the heavy black fog, and reached the door to the tower. They both put their hands on the door, and pushed forward, and into places unknown.<br /><br />Words this part: 1529<br />Words total: </span>32551</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div></div>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-42317368855804394782011-11-09T05:31:00.007-05:002011-11-09T07:50:18.479-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 16Sarah awoke the next morning to the sweet smell of bacon wafting out from her kitchen. She sat up and saw her mother and Jenn cooking breakfast. Sarah listened to them talk for a moment before getting up.<br /><br />"She's just so sweet. I don't know how I raised such a good daughter, but I'm glad I did." Tina said happily.<br /><br />"Yeah! She's a good girl. I'm glad me and Emily were able to meet her. She pretty much the only sane one at our job too." Jenn giggled. Sarah rolled her eyes and thought to herself, 'If they only knew'.<br /><br />Sarah stretched and got up off the recliner. For the first time in almost a month, she felt well rested, like she had boundless energy. It was still only seven in the morning, they all had plenty of time before they needed to be at work at nine. Sarah gently nudged Emily who was mumbling in her sleep "uhhh rocks aren't frisbees."<br /><br />Sarah giggled at her friend. "Come on Emily, don't you smell the bacon?"<br /><br />"BACON?!" Emily was immediately wide awake. She sniffed the air and smiled. "Oh my gosh bacon yes!" Emily bounded out of bed and ran into the kitchen. Sarah followed her with just a bit less energy. The four of them shared a breakfast of bacon and eggs expertly made by Jenn and Tina.<br /><br />"Wow you are just good at everything." Sarah said to Jenn. "You can cook too!"<br /><br />"Yeah, I learned from my mom, she's pretty handy in a kitchen. I sometimes have to cook for my brother when she has to work late too."<br /><br />"I'm awful at cooking." Emily said, taking a bit of a strange sandwich she had made consisting of two fried eggs acting as bread and bacon in the middle. This wasn't working out so well for her as the yolk from the eggs ran down her fingers. "I once burnt water."<br /><br />The girls laughed as they enjoyed their breakfast. All too soon it was time for them to go to work, and there was a bit of a hassle as they tried to balance out all three of them using the two bathrooms. It all worked out and they left for work on time.<br /><br />Sarah had decided she had to find out more about Jeff, the real person, not just the one from her dreams. She had a sneaking suspicion and she wanted to check it out as soon as they got out of work. Work passed by quickly, and as Sarah was pulling her bag out of her locker, Jenn walked into the room followed by a skipping Emily. Sarah secretly wondered if Forrest ever got dizzy by the amount of jumping around his mother did.<br /><br />"Hey Sarah, we are going to Starbucks, do you want to come?" Jenn asked politely.<br /><br />Sarah was divided, she wanted to go out with her friends, but the weight on her mind about Jeff wouldn't cease until she had some questions answered. "I...I can't today, I'm sorry. There is something I have to do." Sarah shyly looked down at her feet. She still didn't know how to talk about her problems with her friends, but she knew that once she had some answers, it would be easier.<br /><br />"Oh are you going to see your BOYFRIEND?" Emily gleefully clapped her hands together.<br /><br />"It's...something like that."<br /><br />"Go get em tiger!" Emily patted Sarah on the back.<br /><br />Sarah drove home. The trees were bare and the sky was already growing dark this early in the day. It was cold out, it felt as if snow would soon be there. Autumn's last days were giving way to the chilly fingers of winter.<br /><br />Sarah went to her computer as soon as she got home. She was a huge ball of nerves, and was trembling a bit as she logged onto her DreamTube account. Now she had three messages waiting for her, and she knew who they were from. She finally clicked on her inbox and saw the messages waiting for her from TimeInABottle.<br /><br />The first one read: "sarah? did you watch my last video? i wanted you to see it. i hope you get this message."<br /><br />The second one was even shorter, it simply said "where are you sarah? i can't find you anymore."<br /><br />Sarah was scared to click on the last one, it had been sent only the day before. "i don't want to be awake anymore. i just want to sleep forever. maybe then i can find you again. -jeff."<br /><br />Sarah stared at the last message for a long time, her heartbeat racing and a feeling like her throat was closing up. The message was depressing, and the name that was signed. It was Jeff. It had been him all along. He was real. But now it looked like he had given up hope. Sarah clicked onto his channel page. TimeInABottle, or, Sarah thought, Jeff, had been uploading videos daily, and without fail. From the shot that showed in each videos preview, Sarah knew it was from the very same city she had been seeing in her own dreams. There was one video missing, the one from today. Sarah feared that she might be too late. She quickly went to google and searched for "Jeff Durham." A search result appeared, and not one that Sarah had expected to see.<br /><br />Sarah quickly pulled out her phone. She wouldn't have to face this alone. She reached Emily and quickly said, "Please Emily you have to meet me at Middlesex hospital."<br /><br />Sarah didn't like hospitals. They were cold, sterile, impersonal places. Places that housed the sick, injured, and dying. It was a terrible place. Sarah didn't want to be here, but she had no other choice. She had to know the truth.<br /><br />Sarah paced around the entrance way waiting for her friends to arrive. She didn't have to wait long, as she saw them running through the doors. "Sarah, what's wrong? Emily wouldn't tell me anything." Jenn panting, trying to catch her breath after running.<br /><br />"No Sarah didn't tell me either. What happened?" Emily wasn't out of breath, but was bouncing nervously up and down.<br /><br />"I...it's...just come with me please." Sarah pleaded, feeling tears forming at the back of her eyes.<br /><br />They walked up to a information desk, and Sarah asked which room Jeff Durham was in. She heard Emily whispering to Jenn behind her, "Her boyfriend?" The nurse directed them which way to go, warning them that visiting hours were nearly over, and Sarah silently went off, Emily and Jenn trailing behind.<br /><br />A door stood in front of Sarah. She was afraid to enter it, afraid of what was on the other side. She remembered the new artcile she had read online. It stated that an 18 year old young man had fallen asleep at a local diner and couldn't be woken up. That the young man had to be rushed to this hospital. That his name was Jeffery Durham. Sarah took a deep breath and entered the room.<br /><br />In the bed lay a boy with reddish brown hair, the same color Sarah remembered. She carefully went over all his features, noticing them, recalling them from her dreams. She was sure if his eyes were open, they'd be the same blue she remembered, the same blue color she had chosen to paint her nails the night before without realizing it. She walked over to him, and the world seemed to slow down. He was real. Jeff was real. He wasn't just a dream. Sarah gently took his hand, feeling it for real for the first time. It felt just as it had in her dreams. The tears she had been holding back for so long began to pour down her face. Now that she had met the boy that she had spent so much time with in her dreams, it was too late. She couldn't talk to him, couldn't ask him questions. She had so many questions.<br /><br />"What happened to him?" Jenn asked, but Sarah was spared answering when another person entered the room.<br /><br />"He's in a coma, we don't know the cause yet." The man in scrubs answered. "Are you his friends?"<br /><br />Sarah nodded meekly, slowly letting go of Jeff's hand. She asked "Will he wake up again?"<br /><br />"We don't know that yet. We won't know until we can find what caused his condition. I'm glad you girls came, he hasn't had any visitors yet." The doctor looked at them sympathetically. "But visiting hours are over now, so you'll have to leave."<br /><br />The girls filed out of the room. Emily hugged Sarah as the exited the room. "Sarah I'm sorry. I guess we are all having a terrible week."<br /><br />Sarah sighed, not quite knowing what emotions she should be feeling. "It's ok. It's hard for me to explain right now, but Jeff isn't exactly my boyfriend. He's been my friend for a long time. I just feel sick right now." They had reached an exit with some chair nearby. Sarah sank down into one and started sobbing again. She wasn't sure why she was crying, but she just felt so entirely exhausted. Everything that had happened in her life, everything that had happened in her dreams, the whole world, everything was crashing down around her.<br /><br />Her friends sat down beside her, both of them hugging her. Sarah felt as if she was going to be okay. She had two good friends at her sides, and even though they both had their own serious problems, they were helping her in her own time of need. She just wished she could find the words to explain to them what was really going on.<br /><br />"Let's go home Emily, I'm just feeling really tired. I need some rest." Emily agreed, and they all left in their own cars. Sarah drove home, realizing that Emily had her car back now. Jenn must've taken her to her old apartment to pick it up. Sarah had forgotten all about that, and she was glad Jenn had helped Emily out. It must've been hard for her to go back there. At some point they'd all have to go back there and pick up the rest of Emily's things, especially all the baby things for Forrest. Sarah was so tired as she drove home.<br /><br />That's when it hit her like a ton of bricks. She couldn't talk to Jeff in this world, the waking world. But what about her dreams. He had said that he was trying to find her in dreams. Sarah wanted to dream again, back in that same place she had dreamed about her whole life. She wanted to go there. She wanted to see Jeff again.<br /><br />When she got home Emily was already there. "Are you gonna be ok Sarah?" Emily asked. "Your not boyfriend will wake up again, I know it." Emily tried to comfort Sarah. Sarah smiled at her.<br /><br />"Thank you Emily. We've been through quite a week haven't we."<br /><br />"Mmhmm!" Emily agreed.<br /><br />"I just want to lay down if that's ok. I am so tired." Sarah went up to her bedroom with Emily trailing behind. She quickly changed her pajamas, put her dreamsight onto her head, and climbed into bed. Emily climbed in with her.<br /><br />"I don't want you to have to be alone right now." Emily explained. Sarah lay in bed, with Emily's head on her shoulder, one of her arms wrapped around Sarah, and her stomach gently pushing into Sarah's side. Sarah felt comforted, and quickly fell into a deep sleep.<br /><br /><br />Words this part: 1988<br />Words Total 31022stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-59057094207126316362011-11-08T21:06:00.004-05:002011-11-08T23:05:02.692-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 15Sarah rushed to the bathroom and quickly tried to make herself persentable before she ran out the door to help Emily. Her hair had started to curl back up again, and the make-up Emily had put on her face the day before was smeared down her face. Sarah quickly splashed her face with some water and washed the make-up off her face. She pull a brush through her hair and ran out the door.<br /><br />Sarah drove quickly to the apartment Sarah and Joey had shared. She knew Emily was probably very scared and nervous. Sarah knew that Emily loved Joey and she was going to do whatever she needed to do to help them get back together. She wanted Emily to be happy, yet somehow in the back of her mind, she felt a bit sad. The last couple of days had been amazing, and she didn't want Emily to leave yet. But her friend's happiness came first, over her her own selfishness.<br /><br />Sarah drove to the apartment, and she had forgotten the numbness she had felt all day. Now she was focused on Emily and Emily alone. It felt like an emergency, even though it really wasn't. She didn't want Joey to leave before they could talk to him, or have Emily face Joey alone. She drove faster than she had ever driven before. She wanted to help fix this.<br /><br />Sarah pulled into a parking space next to Emily's car. Emily was in her car still, looking up towards her apartment. Sarah knocked on her window, and Emily jumped, looking around with a shocked expression on her face. Emily opened the door and quickly sprung out and hugged Sarah. "I'm so glad you are here. I didn't want to talk to him alone. I'm scared. I don't know what he'll so or what he'll do. What if he doesn't want me anymore?" Emily's lip quivered.<br /><br />"Don't worry Em, I'm here for you. We'll do this together." Sarah took Emily's hand and lead her up to the apartment door. They climbed the stairs to the apartment Emily and Joey shared, and with in a bout of nervous energy, Sarah forcefully knocked on the door.<br /><br />"I'm coming," came a grumpy voice from inside. The door opened and Joey was standing before them. He looked at the two girls standing there, and for a second he didn't say anything. The silence seemed to be a palpable force between them all. Then at long last Joey said, almost indifferently, "Emily."<br /><br />"Joey, I..." Emily trailed off. Sarah squeezed her hand to comfort her. "Joey can we come in? I want to talk."<br /><br />Joey backed up a few feet to let them inside. Sarah looked around the apartment, it was cramped and tiny. Joey shut the door behind them and muttered out "What?"<br /><br />"Well you see...I well..." Emily seemed unable to say the things she wanted to say. Joey looked on, with an expression Sarah could only describe as disgusted. Sarah's heart began to pound faster and faster. Could Joey really still be mad about Emily turning off his video game? It didn't seem like such a serious thing. Was there something else going on that Emily hadn't told her about?<br /><br />"Joey, do you think we can work this out?" Emily finally managed to say, her eyes getting teary again.<br /><br />"I don't see how!" Joey's expression turned from disgust to anger. "You always have to have YOUR way. If it's not your way then it's nothing. I can't take it anymore!" Joey throw his hand up in the air.<br /><br />"I'm sorry Joey. I won't have things my way anymore. Please forgive me." Emily looked so unlike herself at that moment. Sarah didn't like this, any of this. It all felt so wrong.<br /><br />"Um Emily, you don't have to say that." Sarah blurted out before she knew what she was saying. "This is a relationship right? Don't you both have to make sacrifices for each other sometimes? You can have your ways sometimes..." Sarah's sentence petered out, her shyness getting the better of her again. It didn't seem to matter, Joey and Emily didn't seem to hear her anyway.<br /><br />"HA! That's unlikely Emily. You are so demanding all the time." Joey lashed out.<br /><br />"I'm sorry Joey...I love you..." Emily seemed to be less and less sure of herself all the time. "Joey you have always been there for me, even when I got pregnant and my parent's disowned me. You were there for me. I just want us to be together. For our baby."<br /><br />"You know what Emily?" Joey started to move closer to the two girls. "You ruined my LIFE. You think I wanted to have this baby now? You think I didn't want to do other things? No now I have to give up everything for you BABY."<br /><br />Emily started to break down crying. "But Joey I..."<br /><br />Joey sneered angrily, "I am so tired of your BULLSHIT." Joey raised a hand as if to slap Emily, but something inside Sarah broke and in an instant of movement she let go of Emily's hand and grabbed Joey's hand an instant before it made contact with Emily's face.<br /><br />"What the HELL!" Sarah screamed. "Who do you think you are? Were you going to HIT HER? What the FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Sarah seethed. Sarah had never been so angry with another human being in her whole life. "You don't deserve to be with Emily. Emily we are leaving RIGHT NOW!"<br /><br />Sarah grabbed Emily's hand and stormed out of the apartment, her heart beating so fast in her chest it felt that it would leap out of her throat. Emily was sobbing silently as Sarah pulled her out the front door. Joey hadn't even tried to stop them, to say he was sorry, to do anything. Sarah couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that Emily had ever wanted to go back to such a terrible man. Sarah couldn't help but to ask, "Has he hit you before Emily?"<br /><br />"I..."Emily's tears poured down her face. They said all the things Emily could not.<br /><br />"Oh that son of a BITCH." Sarah was sure she had never sworn this much in her entire life. "You are not going back there. Not ever. You can't. I won't let him hurt you anymore." She put her arms around Emily. "I won't let him hurt Forrest either."<br /><br />"Sarah" Emily managed to say through her tears. "Thank you."<br /><br />"Oh Em." Sarah released the hug and smiled down at her small friend. "I would do anything for you. Come on let's go home."<br /><br />"Ok."<br /><br />Sarah put Emily in her own car, knowing that Emily was probably too stressed out to drive for herself. Sarah had no idea that Joey had been treating Emily like this. If she had known she would've done something far sooner, but Emily hadn't said a word. Emily had always seemed so happy and cheerful. Sarah felt a bit of guilt at not realizing her friend was in such a bad position, but quickly dismissed those feelings. She hadn't even known Emily that long, only a few weeks. She couldn't possibly be expected to know. The street lights started coming on as they drove back. Emily stared up at them, no longer crying, but not saying anything either. Sarah knew she just had to give Emily some time. Emily had loved Joey, even if he had treated her like crap. It would take a long time for her to recover from this broken heart.<br /><br />They got home and Emily slouched down on the couch, much like Sarah had done the entire day. Sarah went into the kitchen to make her a cup of tea. She also texted Jenn while she was in there, explaining quickly what had happened and that Jenn should come over after work to have a sleep over with them. Sarah thought it would be best if Emily was surrounded by all her friends tonight. Jenn was closing at the store tonight, and wouldn't be out until after nine, but that was okay with Sarah. As long as she would be there.<br /><br />Tina came home to find a depressed looking Emily on her couch, with Sarah's arms around her. "Is everything ok?"<br /><br />"Ma, we need to talk about Emily staying her more permanently?" This wasn't Sarah's house, even though now that she had a job she helped pay the rent. She wanted her mother to be alright with this, and accept Emily into their house, at least for now.<br /><br />"Of course she can!" Tina smiled. She remembered when she was younger, and her own mother doing much the same thing for one of her brother's friends. It seemed it was in her family, in her blood, to help out all the children around her, even if they weren't her own. "Emily don't even worry about it. You can have the spare room we haven't been using. Everything will be alright." Tina sat down next to Emily and hugged her as well.<br /><br />"Thanks Mom." Emily said, sounding a bit more happy.<br /><br />"Sarah, come with me to the kitchen, let's make some dinner for us." Sarah followed her mother into the kitchen.<br /><br />"Ma, is it ok if Jenn spends the night here tonight too?" Sarah asked nervously, afraid she might be asking for too much.<br /><br />"Not a problem. But what happened?" Tina said, concerned.<br /><br />"Her boyfriend, he...he's just awful. Emily tried to make up with him today, and he just yelled at her. He...he....he tried to hit her!" Sarah felt the anger in her heart welling up again.<br /><br />Tina felt a similar angry in her own heart. "Emily can't go back there! She should get a restraining order! I can't believe it! She always talked so fondly of him." Tina almost wanted to cry. She felt so bad for Emily, the poor girl seemed to have gone through so much. Now Tina wanted to protect her, mother her.<br /><br />"Don't worry Ma, I won't let her. She still loves him, but he's doesn't deserve someone as sweet as Emily in his life!" Sarah said repeating what she had said to Joey earlier. "Emily is much better off here."<br /><br />Tina agreed, and started to make dinner. They didn't have leftovers again, instead they had some fish sticks and french fries. They fixed a plate for Emily, with way more food than the both of them combined, and they all sat in the living room and ate dinner. After dinner they all sat and watched some television. Occasionally Emily would begin to cry silently to herself, but Sarah was quickly there to offer her a tissue and a hug.<br /><br />Around 9:45, Jenn showed up, carrying a sleeping bag and a backpack. She ran over to Emily and hugged her. Emily looked surprised at her arrival, Sarah hadn't told her that she was coming. "Jenn?"<br /><br />"Guess what Emily?" Jenn told her. "We are having a sleepover tonight." Jenn tried to smile in a comforting way.<br /><br />"Oh?" Emily said, a sight grin starting to form at the edges of her lips.<br /><br />"Oh yes, and I brought some nail polish so we can paint each other's nails, and a scary movie to watch! And of course some popcorn." Jenn said, taking items out of her backpack and putting them on the coffee table. <br /><br />Emily leaned forward and started to look at the different colors of nail polish. There was a startling neon pink one, and Emily picked it up and examined it for a moment. "Oh yes I want this one!"<br /><br />"Alright!" Jenn smiled happily. "I want this blue one, which one do you want Sarah?"<br /><br />Sarah pondered over the colors. She had never had a sleepover before, and she had certainly never done girly things like paint her nails before. She picked out a rather demure looking blue color.<br /><br />"Alright! I'll paint your nails first Emily." Jenn held Emily's hand gently and masterfully started painting her nails the bright happy pink.<br /><br />Sarah looked on with awe at how easily she painted Emily's nails, not getting a bit of color on her skin. "You are good at that!"<br /><br />"Oh well I practiced a lot on my brother, when he was going through a phase and wanted black nails all the time." Jenn giggled.<br /><br />After she was done, Sarah felt like she should try out her own skills. She asked, "Can I paint your nails Jenn?"<br /><br />Sarah was awful at painting Jenn's nails, she was sloppy and put the coat of polish on way too thick. Jenn giggled and told her to just take her time, and to make sure there wasn't too much polish on the brush before she started. By Jenn's second hand Sarah had gotten better, and was slightly proud of herself.<br /><br />Emily's nails had dried and she took it upon herself to paint Sarah's nails. She gently took Sarah's hands and painted the so quickly that Sarah barely had time to realize what was going on. She looked down at her nails, they glittered slightly in the light. Sarah thought they looked pretty, and that she should perhaps buy some of her own nail polish to do this again.<br /><br />The girls chatted amoungst themselves and Sarah and Jenn waited for the polish to dry.<br /><br />"My dad's getting married." Jenn said suddenly.<br /><br />"What?!" Emily and Sarah both said at the same time.<br /><br />"Yup. He called me today. He's gonna marry his new girlfriend. And you know what else? She's pregnant!" Jenn looked a bit happy, but also a bit confused.<br /><br />"Oh wow!" Emily exclaimed. "You are gonna be a big sister again."<br /><br />"Yeah. But I dunno. I'm happy for him, but I'm just starting to get to know him again. Is he trying to replace the family he abandoned for another one?" Jenn looked down sadly.<br /><br />"I don't think so." Sarah said quietly. "If he wanted to replace you, he wouldn't have tried to get back in contact with you in the first place. He wants you and your brother in his family."<br /><br />Jenn smiled slightly. "You always make me feel better Sarah. I always have these doubts, but you make them go away. He told me on Thanksgiving that he always regretting leaving me and my brother. He missed out on so much of our lives. He just couldn't be with my mom anymore. He wants to do anything he can to make it up to us. I don't know what he can do, but it's felt nice to hear him say it."<br /><br />"Can we meet your daddy and his girlfriend?" Emily smiled brightly for the first time all day. "When she has her baby Forrest can play with them!"<br /><br />Jenn laughed a bit. "Of course you guys can. He's been saying he wants to meet my friends."<br /><br />"Oh and Sarah can bring her BOYFRIEND." Emily laughed out. Jenn looked towards Sarah with shock, and Sarah felt just as shocked. She had almost forgotten the events of the night before with everything else that happened today.<br /><br />"You have a boyfriend?" Jenn's eyes were wide.<br /><br />"I um...errrr...you see..." Sarah couldn't find the words to say what she wanted to say. In fact she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to say in the first place.<br /><br />"Aww you are so shy Sarah. You can tell us about him when you are ready." Jenn smiled. Sarah smiled back, relieved for the out. She started to feel the feelings of doubt and confusion sink back into her brain, but she shook them out. Now wasn't the time to have her own pity party, tonight she had to be there for Emily.<br /><br />"Can we watch that movie now? I heard it's really good. It's about these kids and they are being stalked by something that they can't even begin to comprehend! A faceless monster that won't stop until it gets what it wants. THE TERROR! Also I think there is a doggy somewhere in there." Emily picked up the movie, and smiled. "It is probably the BEST MOVIE EVER!"<br /><br />Sarah went to make popcorn as the trailers played. She put it in a big bowl so they could all share, and thought to herself that Emily would probably be eating most of it anyway. The three girls snuggled together on the couch and watched the movie. It was pretty scary, and at one point Emily jumped up and ran behind the couch to hide in her fear. Jenn had to coax her back out by offering her a candy bar. Finally the movie ended on a bit of cliffhanger with none of the questions about the monster really answered. It was past midnight by that point, so the girls decided to go to bed, since they were all working the night shift in the morning.<br /><br />Jenn rolled out her sleeping bag, while Emily took the couch and Sarah got some blankets and took a recliner. The other two girls seemed to fall asleep quickly, but now in the dark and quiet, Sarah was left alone to her own thoughts again. Yesterday seemed like a dream to her now, but she still felt a strange feeling in her heart, a numb feeling of worry and fear. She was still afraid to fall asleep when all of a sudden a quiet voice popped up next to her.<br /><br />"Sarah..." Emily had somehow noiselessly snuck up next to the recliner she was snuggled in. "Hey Sarah!" Emily said a bit louder now.<br /><br />"Wha?" Sarah mumbled, lost in her thoughts but now coming back to reality.<br /><br />"I just wanted to thank you again for today. I was lost but you made me see what a jerk Joey was being. I was afraid to leave him. Afraid to be on my own." Sarah sat up in her chair, and Emily sat down on the arm of the chair facing away from Sarah. "Now I know that I can do this on my own, I can raise Forrest on my own. Because I won't really be on my own!" Emily swivel around on the arm of the recliner to face Sarah. "I have your mom. I have Jenn. Most of all, I have you." Emily reached out and hugged Sarah. Sarah put her arms around Emily. "Sarah you are the bestest. I love you!"<br /><br />"Aww, I love you too Em." Sarah smiled. Emily let go of Sarah and got back off the arm of the chair. "We should go to sleep now though, we have work in the morning." Emily quietly snuck away back to the couch.<br /><br />Sarah thought for awhile about what Emily said. She too, had been afraid of being alone. Now Sarah realized she didn't have to go through her own problems alone. She had the support of her friends. Together, maybe, they could all figure out what was going on. Sarah smiled, and fell asleep, and for the first time in her life, she had no dreams.<br /><br />Words this Part: 3164<br />Words total according to goggle docs: 29034stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-74106319583159263762011-11-08T04:29:00.003-05:002011-11-08T05:48:45.335-05:00Fleeting Glimpse, part 14Sarah's jaw hit the floor. She didn't know what to say except, "What you know about Jeff?" Her mind was a blur of confusion, no thoughts were coming in coherently enough.<br /><br />"Oh yeah I remember him being in my math class. Although he was really quiet. I didn't know him that well. Wait a second is he your BOYFRIEND?" Emily clapped her hands together excitedly.<br /><br />Sarah blushed and looked down at her feet. Her mind was still a whirl of confusion, but the thought of Jeff being her boyfriend made her feel very embarrassed. "I don't know." Sarah mumbled.<br /><br />"Aww that's so cute!" Emily's eyes glinted with her usual happiness. Sarah was too embarrassed to say that she had never met Jeff in her life. In fact hearing the news that he was real was making her feel very panicky.<br /><br />Emily sat back in her chair and started to yawn. Sarah took this opportunity to change the subject. "Why don't you go to bed? We had a long day. You have to work tomorrow"<br /><br />"Oh yeah, you have tomorrow off. LUCKY DUCKY!" Emily didn't protest, and went to lay down in Sarah's bed without asking. Sarah didn't tell her not to, she thought it was cute that Emily still didn't want to sleep alone.<br /><br />Sarah turned off the light in the room, and took the plates and cups down stairs, quickly rinsed them off and put them in the dish washer. By the time she got back upstairs, Emily was already asleep.<br /><br />Sarah on the other hand, was not tired at all. She felt anxious, almost to the point of nausea. Although her body ached and yearned for rest, Sarah's mind was wide awake. She sat back down at her desk, looking blankly at her computer. She looked at her DreamTube page, almost not believing any of this was real. She saw her message inbox, with the two waiting messages for her.<br />She hovered the mouse cursor over the link, and then just sat there for a moment or two. She took a couple of breathes, and then quickly put the cursor over the to the top of the web browser and closed the window. Whatever was in those messages, she felt she wasn't ready to read yet.<br /><br />Sarah sat at her desk for a long time in silence. Her mind still hadn't calmed down. Random thoughts kept whizzing by her. "Jeff is real?" "My dreams are real?" "What is real?" "Is anything real?" She couldn't focus on any one thought for too long before her mind was thinking up a new question. "Am I real?" "What does this all mean?" "What is going on?" "Why?" Sarah jumped out of her chair when the radiator in her house came to life. It clanged loudly for a moment before starting. Sarah looked back to see if the noise had woken Emily up, but she was sleeping soundly. Sarah was jealous of her friend, being able to sleep soundly, not filled with all these huge questions.<br /><br />Sarah looked back at her computer. She went into her video folder almost without thinking about it. She put on some headphones, and clicked the earliest video that had contained nothing but blackness. She didn't know what she would find there, but something in the back of her head was telling her to watch.<br /><br />The blackness filled her screen when she clicked play. Sarah had expected that of course, but she didn't expect what happened soon after that. The blackness began to lift, and then the screen was a pure white. The brightness almost hurt Sarah's eyes, but that too began to fade away, revealing the city that Sarah had so often dreamed about. Only it wasn't exactly the same. The buildings were begin to crumble, and at the center of the city stood a large tower that Sarah had never seen before. The tower was black, and it's shape was unlike anything Sarah had ever seen. It gently curved upwards, with strange whisps of blackness coming off the sides. It was almost as if it was glowing black. The dream ended abruptly.<br /><br />Sarah spent the better part of the night, watching all the videos she had recorded since then. The dreams were all the same, except the city grew ever more decrepit. Buildings began to fall down. Gaping holes opened up in the streets. The sky grew ever darker. The tower grew ever taller. It terrified Sarah to see the city she had spent so many nights dreaming off falling to pieces.<br /><br />The last video ended and Sarah sat in her chair, thinking to herself. "This just raises further questions." Sarah tried to remember what had happened before her dreams had turned to black, but couldn't quite remember. She remembered the open field, the butterflies, and then the storm. None of it seemed to piece together. What had happened? Why was it happening?<br /><br />Sarah yawned. Her entire body ached intensely, begging her to lay down and sleep. But Sarah was too afraid to. She didn't want to fall asleep and dream anymore. She couldn't comprehend any of this. She was scared to see Jeff in her dreams again. She didn't want to feel this confused. "Am I crazy?" Sarah didn't think she was. She felt pretty sane. Of course did crazy people know they were crazy? Did crazy people think they were sane?<br /><br />Sarah got out of the chair and headed towards her bed. Emily had a sweet angelic look on her face. It was a stark contrast to her normal energetic behavior. Sarah didn't want to wake up her friend, so she took the opposite side of the bed, and curled herself up in a fetal position. The confusion and stress of the day finally got to Sarah. She began to sob silently in her arms.<br /><br />The rays of the sun began to dawn, warming Sarah, and gently awakening Emily. Sarah closed her eyes tightly, pretending to be asleep so she wouldn't have to talk. Emily whispered "Sarah?" and when Sarah didn't reply, Emily leaned over and gave her a hug. Sarah felt Emily's warm embrace, it touched her deeply. Still she couldn't bring her self to move. Emily let go of Sarah, and began humming quietly to herself. Sarah felt the weight of Emily shift off the bed, and and heard her rumbling around the room. Soon there was a sound of a door opening, and Emily's humming began to fade into the distance.<br /><br />Sarah laid still in her bed for a long time. Eventually she heard the sounds of Emily's car starting up in the drive way, and then the car sounds faded away too. Sarah opened her eyes. The whole world felt very dim. She rolled over, her limbs feeling heavy, as if she was moving through water. Sarah stared at the ceiling. There was a cobweb in the corner she hadn't ever noticed before. Sarah stared at the cobweb. She had no reason to, but it was easier than letting her mind wander and think of things that were all too confusing.<br /><br />Sarah eventually got up and went down the stairs, dragging her body along every step. Once when Sarah was very young she had gotten very sick. She had been unable to get out of her bed, and her mother had taken her to the hospital. She didn't remember much about that time, just a numb feeling. That's what she felt now. Comfortably numb.<br /><br />Sarah sat down on the couch and turned on the television on. She let the sounds wash over her in waves. She didn't hear a thing that was said. The noise was a comfort. The noise blocked out her thoughts. Sarah didn't hardly notice the time passing. But time doesn't ever stay still. Sarah hardly noticed when her phone began ringing. She lazily picked it up, and heard a distressed voice at the other end of the phone.<br /><br />"Sarah! Please you have to come here." Emily sounded upset, scared, and angry all in the same breath. "I went to my apartment to pick up some things, but Joey's car is here. Please please hurry and come here."<br /><br />Words this part: 1362<br />Words Total: 25762<br /><br />(Note from this part on I am using Google Docs word count, and it is different from the one I was using before, which is why my word count is now a completely different number. I also changed the title, this title reflects more about what my novel is about now than what it was in the beginning)stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-55535979271725549432011-11-07T04:06:00.005-05:002011-11-07T05:56:28.004-05:00Invisible, part 13Sarah and Emily entered the house, and found Tina relaxing on the couch sipping a cup of coffee. Emily cried out "Hi mom we're home!"<br /><br />The two girls sat down on the couch next to Tina, happy to be off their feet. "How did it go today?" Tina asked.<br /><br />"It was so crazy!" Emily blurted out. "There were so many people and someone decided to use the fitting room as a bathroom, and everything was such a mess! It was a clothing-apocalypse!"<br /><br />"Yeah Ma, it was like a warzone." Sarah shuttered thinking about the day. She also felt a warm glow of accomplishment. She had made it through the day with nothing too bad happening. It was pure chaos, but Sarah hadn't given up. Sarah felt as if she had done something amazing that day, even if all she had done was run around a department store cleaning up after women who were more like pigs than they were like people. "How did things go at your store?"<br /><br />"Oh well the same as at yours, probably. I mostly did the register so it wasn't too bad. My assistant manager came in early because he wanted overtime, and I was happy to leave him in charge and leave early for once."<br /><br />"Ugh" Emily suddenly groaned, and patted her stomach gently. "I didn't even get to finish my lunch today, and now Forrest's angry. I'm gonna go get something to eat, do you want anything Sarah, Mom?"<br /><br />"That's ok Em."<br /><br />"I'm fine, but thank you for offering." Tina felt a bit of pride at her daughter's friends calling her mom. There was nothing she loved more in this world than being a mother. She had wanted to have more children, and had decided with her late husband James that they would have more, but he passed away too soon. Tina let a little fantasy play out in her mind of Emily staying with them forever, and herself having two wonderful daughters. She scooted herself closer to her daughter so as to have a more private conversation. "Is Emily going to be staying with us for a lot longer?" Tina secretly hoped that she would.<br /><br />"I don't know, she wanted to make up with her boyfriend, and we went over to her house to see him, but he wasn't there. He wouldn't answer his phone either. I'm a bit worried about him, I mean not worried about him, but worried about Emily and him."<br /><br />Emily wandered back in from the kitchen with a plate of leftover turkey and mashed potatoes. Tina spoke up as Emily sat back down on the couch. "Emily, I just want to let you know you are welcome in our house for as long as you need to stay here."<br /><br />Emily smiled widely and it almost looked as if she had tears in her eyes. "Thanks mom!"<br /><br />Emily started eating her plate of food almost like a vacuum, sucking the food up so fast Sarah wasn't quite sure how she was doing it. Sarah decided it was just another one of Emily's bit of randomness, not meant to be questioned, just accepted. She leaned back on couch and watched the show on television. It was a makeover show where a group of people had one week to makeover someone. They would dye the person's hair, give them a spray tan, put expenisive makeup and clothes on the person, all in the name of fashion. Sarah didn't quite understand why they were doing it, but it was a pretty interesting show, watching someone go from ordinary to beautiful.<br /><br />As the host of the show revealed the final transformation of the woman currently on the show, Emily cried out "Oh my gosh Sarah, you have to let me do a make over on you."<br /><br />"Eh?" Sarah looked startled.<br /><br />"COME ON!" Emily grabbed Sarah hand and pulled her up the stairs to her bedroom. Tina giggled as she watched the two girls run off.<br /><br />Emily told Sarah to sit on the floor, and got a huge box out of her suitcase. In the box was all kinds of beauty products. Emily looked over Sarah, trying to decide a plan of attack. "Dem eyebrows" Emily finally declared.<br /><br />"Wha?" Sarah didn't get to finish, because Emily was already going after her eyebrows with a pair of tweezers. She managed to get a stray hair and plucked it. Sarah screamed quietly and squirmed away from Emily. "NO!"<br /><br />"BEAUTY IS PAIN!" Emily roared out with laughter.<br /><br />After getting Sarah to sit still, Emily finished her eyebrows and moved on to less painful beauty. She plugged in a hair straightener, and while it warmed up she started brushing Sarah's hair. It felt oddly comforting to Sarah, having someone else brush her hair.<br /><br />"You're lucky."<br /><br />"Hm?" Sarah wondered, her mind elsewhere.<br /><br />"Your mom. She's amazing. She so loving and accepting. She's even willing to put up with me, an unmarried pregnant teenager."<br /><br />Sarah smiled at the thought of her own mother. She was proud that she had such a cool mom. "My mom always told me not to judge other people. She's just doing the same."<br /><br />Emily smiled. She picked up the hair straightener which was finally hot. "Ok don't move your head, I don't want to burn you."<br /><br />Sarah sat still, but her mind wasn't. "What are your parents like Em?"<br /><br />Emily was silent for awhile, occupying herself with getting all the curls out of Sarah's thick hair. She finally answered quietly "My parent's disowned me."<br /><br />"EH?" Sarah almost jumped, but stayed still for she didn't want to get burned. "What? Why would they do that?"<br /><br />"They were very religious people. When I got pregnant they told me to get out, basically. That I wasn't their daughter anymore. I moved in with Joey, and although it's been hard, I was happy. Now though. Now I'm just alone."<br /><br />Sarah's mind couldn't understand parents who would kick their own child out of their house when their child was going through something as tough as having a baby. She imagined if she had gotten pregnant, her mom would be worried and maybe a little angry, but she'd help out her daughter anyway she could. Sarah felt a deep sadness in her heart for Emily. "You know you aren't alone though. You have me. You have my mom. You have Jenn. And you are going to have Joey again too. I know you two will make up. After all you've been through together, I know it will work out."<br /><br />"Yeah." Emily smiled, but there was a trace of sadness still in her smile. Emily turned off the hair straightener and put it to the side. She opened a jar of concealer to put on Sarah's face, then decided it against it. "You have such nice skin! Well close your eyes." Sarah obeyed, and she felt something tickling against the lids of her eyes. Then Emily put mascara, blush, and lipstick on Sarah's face. Sarah felt for sure that she looked like a clown at this point, but when Emily showed her face in a mirror, Sarah's jaw about hit the floor.<br /><br />In the mirror was a girl Sarah hardly recognized. She looked almost as pretty as a model. Her brown curly hair now hung straight down around her shoulders. Emily had parted it more to the side than Sarah normally did. The makeup make Sarah's eyes look brighter and she swore she looked a couple years older too. "Wow." was all Sarah could manage to say.<br /><br />"Oh let's go show mom!" Emily and Sarah went back downstairs to where Tina was still relaxing on the couch. "Look mom look!"<br /><br />Tina gasped at how Sarah now looked. It was as if her baby girl had become a grown woman in only a few minutes. Sarah was smiling brightly at her mother. "Very nice job Emily! Sarah you look beautiful."<br /><br />"Mom take a picture of us!" Sarah held her phone out to Tina so she could take a picture.<br /><br />"Alright! Say 'Cheese' girls!"<br /><br />"Cheese!"<br /><br />"FORMAGE!"<br /><br />A picture was taken of the two girls, with their arms around each other, smiling at the camera. It was a really great picture, and Tina hoped she could get a copy of it as well. Seeing the two girls together made her more happy than she could possibly imagine. Especially after her daughter had spent so much of her life alone, seeing her with a good friend and smiling like that, it was just about the best thing Tina had ever seen.<br /><br />After Emily and Sarah had settled down from the make over madness, Emily asked "What's for dinner?"<br /><br />"Oh I was just going to warm up some leftovers. You girls can fend for yourself right? I'm feeling tired after all the craziness of today."<br /><br />Sarah had almost forgotten that it was still Black Friday. She quickly put the thought right back out of her head as she went into the kitchen to find something to eat, Emily singing behind her "Yay leftovers yay!"<br /><br />The two girls each made a plate for themselves, and Emily said "OH yeah! I almost forgot, but you promised to show me your dream! Come on let's eat in your room" They took their plates and drinks up to Sarah's room. Emily stopped before they got to the computer, and opened her bag, taking a bottle of vitamins out. "I almost forgot to take these!" Emily quickly gulped down a vitamin, and sat down at Sarah's desk. Sarah had another chair in her room she sat in when reading sometimes, and she pulled it next to Emily.<br /><br />Sarah logged onto her DreamTube account and picked a video to watch. She ignored the message box that showed she had two new messages. Sarah decided the best video for the two of the to watch was the one that she had spent with Jeff, Lisa, and Devon at the fair. She sat back in her chair and started to eat as the video played.<br /><br />Emily didn't say much as the dream played. She gasped at first at how much it was like a movie, and oohed and awed at the fireworks scene. Sarah was nervous the whole time. She felt like she was sharing a very private memory with Emily. Still Emily seemed to enjoy it. After the video ended both girls sat in silence for awhile.<br /><br />Sarah was about to ask Emily what she thought of her dream, but Emily started speaking first. "Oh, so you know Jeff too?"<br /><br />Words this part: 1756<br />Words total: 23766stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-38535853876860018932011-11-06T15:43:00.003-05:002011-11-06T16:40:54.952-05:00Invisible, part 12Sarah headed down to the break room, feeling a bit relieved. Sam had told her to take her lunch break while the business had slowed down a bit. Sarah ripped off her name bag and stuck it in her pocket, afraid that if she didn't she'd be mobbed by more customers on her way to her break. And Sarah needed this break.<br /><br />No one that Sarah was very familiar with was in the break room when she got there. She looked around the room, and noticed one of the girls from the men's department crying, a person from shoes and someone else from the youth department were trying to calm her down. "Oh why" the girl, who Sarah remembered was Nora, cried out.<br /><br />"It'll be ok Nora. That lady was crazy."<br /><br />"She poured out her whole cup of coffee all over my fitting room" Nora sobbed. "I tried to help her, I really did. We don't even sell those brand of pants she was looking for." Nora put her head down on the table and wailed.<br /><br />Sarah got her sandwich out from her locker. She has made a her lunch from the leftovers from Thanksgiving, and had a lovely turkey sandwich to eat. She couldn't really enjoy it with Nora sobbing though.<br /><br />The man from the shoe department looked over at Sarah and asked "How's it going over in Sportware?"<br /><br />Sarah was shocked, she hadn't even spoken to this man before, although she knew his name was Bill. She tried to muster up a response. "It's like...we are fighting a war we can't win."<br /><br />Bill laughed heartily at this. "You got that right sister!"<br /><br />Sarah felt like she should say something else, "How's everything in Shoes?"<br /><br />"Oh we've had the normal crazies. The people who want to buy shoes that don't go together, people who want shoes that are two different sizes. Some lady left her kid alone and made this fort of shoe boxes...that took awhile to fix." Bill sighed but still seemed cheerful. "I've done Black Friday for six years now though, nothing really surprises me anymore." Bill nodded sagely.<br /><br />Sarah didn't know how Bill did it. After only working half her shift she already never wanted to do another Black Friday again. Sarah thought of her own mother, and wondered if she was having similar craziness happening in her own store.<br /><br />All too soon Sarah's break was over and she had to head back to her department. It looked as if a bomb had gone off, and Sam was trying her best to keep up with everything on her own. She desperately looked at Sarah and cried out, "Sarah check the underwear section. I haven't been able to get there." Sarah nodded and headed over there.<br /><br />If the rest of Sportsware looked like a bomb had gone off, then the underwear section looked like the apocalypse had happened. Sarah groaned as she started putting a table that had a bunch of panties on it back in order, sorting out the ones that obviously didn't belong on that table at all. In fact she found some earrings and a pair of boxers on the table. She put them to the side hoping she'd have time to return them to their rightful departments. Sarah was concentrating so hard on putting things back in order she didn't notice a rather large woman approach her.<br /><br />"Cuse me miss." The woman said, and Sarah jumped. "I need some help."<br /><br />Sarah composed herself. "How can I help you?"<br /><br />"Help me try on this bra dearie?"<br /><br />Sarah looked terrified. She didn't understand. Her mind raced with a million thoughts and none of them made sense. Had this woman really just asked her to help her try on a bra? It didn't seem possible, but Sarah knew that anything was possible today. "What was that?" Sarah asked nervously hoping she had misheard the lady.<br /><br />"I can't reach, can you help me with this bra?" Sarah wanted to run away, so very far away. In fact she wanted to do anything in the world except help this lady try on a bra. But Sarah knew that sometimes in life, you just gotta suck it up and do things you really didn't want to do.<br /><br />"Alright." Sarah helped the lady hook the bra and put the straps over her shoulders. The bra fit her.<br /><br />"Thanks dearie." Sarah helped the lady out of the bra, and was extremely grateful when she left the area.<br /><br />Sarah rushed through the rest of the underwear section, and made sure that it looked presentable. She didn't care if it was perfect anymore, she knew it would probably get destroyed again. Sarah left the area as quickly as possible.<br /><br />Business was still going strong in the rest of the store. Sarah helped Sam with some more returns, when she heard Emily scream from the fitting room. She ran back and found Emily and Sam standing in front of one of the fitting rooms.<br /><br />"Oh god, they peed in the stall why would they do that?" Emily cringed. "Ughh the smell I want to barf."<br /><br />"It's ok, I'm going to get some cleaning stuff. Emily, just make sure no one uses this stall. Sarah, try to hold down the fort while I'm gone." Sam rushed off.<br /><br />Emily looked back at the line of people waiting to try on clothes. "Well they won't be happy about this." Emily looked at Sarah sadly. Sarah just gave Emily a sad look back before she had to go help a customer who was raving about having to find five matching sweat suits in a color Sarah was sure they didn't even have.<br /><br />Sarah wanted to hide. She was getting seriously stressed out. All the customers were acting like zoo animals, the department looked like a twister had gone through it, and Sarah had reached her limit on dealing with everything. Still she trudged forward, knowing the end was in sight. Soon her replacement would be coming in, and Sarah could go home. She just had to make it through the rest of her shift without any more crazy incidents.<br /><br />Luckily for Sarah, it seemed like she was going to get her way. She helped a few more customers, including one who absolutely had to have the outfit one of the mannequins was wearing. Sarah and Emily's replacements both showed up on time, and they were finally able to leave. They wished Sam good luck before they both went to clock out and get their things from the break room.<br /><br />"That was like...oh my gosh..." Emily moaned. "My feet are killing me now too. ARGH!"<br /><br />They entered the break room which was much emptier than it had been the last time Sarah was in it. The two girls noticed a pair of shoes poking out from beside the soda machine. Sarah went over to look and saw Jenn sitting there with her head in her hands.<br /><br />"Jenn, you ok?" Sarah asked.<br /><br />"Ahhhhh! NO MORE PRICE CHECKS!" Jenn cried out.<br /><br />"It's ok Jenn, it's over now."<br /><br />Jenn looked up hopefully. "It's over?"<br /><br />"YUP!" Emily said cheerfully.<br /><br />Jenn seemed to snap out of her temporary work induced insanity. "We did it...we survived Black Friday!" Jenn cheered. She stood up and dusted off her pants. The girls all took turns high fiving each other before they got their things out of their lockers and headed for the door.<br /><br />"Should we go celebrate somewhere?" Emily said, practically dancing now, even though she had just been complaining abut her feet.<br /><br />"I don't want to go to any more stores today, I don't think I can handle it." Jenn said, making sure her name tag was removed so she wouldn't get any attention from the customers.<br /><br />"Well okay." Emily pouted.<br /><br />"How was your Thanksgiving Jenn?" Sarah asked, as they finally stepped out the front door into the chilly autumn air.<br /><br />"Oh it went better than I expected. My dad's girlfriend is a nice girl, and she made us a great dinner. I didn't really talk about anything too personal with my dad though. I didn't really know what to say to him. But I guess I'll have lots of chances to ask him all the questions I always wanted to ask him now." Jenn smiled slightly. "I'm glad I'm giving him a chance though. We'll see how it goes. How was your guys Thanksgiving?"<br /><br />Realizing Jenn didn't know about Emily's situation yet, Emily filled Jenn in with all the details. "Well for now I'm just gonna stay with Sarah, but we are gonna go see Joey to see if we can sort this all out." Emily finished.<br /><br />"Oh wow that's crazy Emily. I hope you can work it out with Joey." Jenn sympathized.<br /><br />"If I can't I still got those goons" Emily shifted her eyes mysteriously.<br /><br />The girls laughed and headed for their cars. "Good luck!" Jenn called out before getting in her car.<br /><br />"I think you should try and call Joey first," Sarah said before they started driving.<br /><br />Emily made a sound of agreement, and tried to call Joey. When he didn't answer their house phone, she tried his cell phone. Her lack of success at reaching him showed on her face. "Hmmm why isn't he answering me?" Emily said worryingly.<br /><br />"Let's just go see if he's at your house." Sarah said starting the car up.<br /><br />When they reached Emily's apartment building, it became painfully obvious that Joey wasn't there, his car wasn't there. Still Emily and Sarah went up to her apartment and found no sign of him. Emily scrawled out a note and put it on the kitchen table. It said "Joey, please call me when you get home. I'm staying with Sarah right now but we really have to talk." Satisfied that she had done all she could, Emily and Sarah left the apartment.<br /><br />"I hope he's alright." Emily sighed. Sarah patted her on the shoulder in a reassuring way.<br /><br />"Come on let's get back to my house, I'm exhausted."<br /><br />Words this part: 1673<br />Words total: <strong>22010</strong>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-37790257801753691082011-11-06T10:07:00.004-05:002011-11-06T11:22:41.445-05:00Invisible, part 11Sarah opened the door for Emily and let her come in. "Of course we can talk." Sarah was still in a sleepy state of mind, her brain hadn't quite caught up with what she was doing yet. She sat down on her bed and Emily followed her.<br /><br />"I'm sorry I know it's late, and I was trying to sleep I really was but I just couldn't." Emily frowned. "I'll just go."<br /><br />Sarah woke up out of her daze a bit and grabbed Emily's arm before she could stand up. "No, please tell me what's on your mind." Sarah might not be the best at giving advice to her friends, but the least she could do was listen to their problems.<br /><br />"Oh okay. I'm just so worried. I don't think I can do it on my own. I can't be a mommy by myself." Emily's tears started rolling down her face. "And now I'm alone. How am I going to manage this?"<br /><br />Sarah stood up and got a box of tissues off her desk. She handed them to Emily and thought about how she could answer. "Emily you are strong. You can do anything I'm sure of it."<br /><br />"But I don't want to!" Emily broke down. Sarah realized that there was probably a deeper issue here, and she let her friend explain herself. "I still love Joey so much. I was being so stupid and irrational and now he probably hates me forever. I was so impatient, we didn't have to leave right then and there but I just wanted to go. He could've finished his video game I didn't have to go and unplug it. Now I've lost Joey forever!"<br /><br />"You weren't be stupid Em. He wasn't thinking of your feelings either." Sarah hoped she was saying the right things. "Maybe you should try talking to him?"<br /><br />"But he hasn't even called or texted me once since I left! Does he even care that I'm gone? He probably is glad to have me out of his hair." Emily nervously took one of the tissues out of the box and started folding it into a tiny airplane. "I probably don't mean anything to him."<br /><br />"Don't say that Emily. He's just being stubborn probably." Sarah thought of all the other times Emily and Joey had fought in the past, but Joey had always done something to make it up to Emily. Sarah didn't know how to phrase it properly, but she knew that Joey would do that again this time.<br /><br />"Maybe..." Emily threw the tissue airplane towards the trash can Sarah kept by her desk. It wobbled in the air and made it about halfway across the room before crashing into the ground. "I'm just scared. I might have screwed everything up. I don't want to lose Joey. I can't lose him I love him so much."<br /><br />"Em we'll both talk to Joey tomorrow after work. I know you two can work this out." Sarah tried to smile in a comforting way. She hugged Emily and hoped that she was helping. She didn't like seeing Emily in this much pain, it just wrenched at her heart.<br /><br />"Okay. Hey Sarah?"<br /><br />"Yeah?"<br /><br />"Do you think I could stay with you tonight? I mean your bed is awfully big. I just...I just don't want to be alone right now." Emily frowned.<br /><br />"Of course you can. Come on let's try to get some sleep." Sarah got up to turn off the light when Emily spotted the Dreamsight on her head.<br /><br />"Oh what is that?"<br /><br />"It's a Dreamsight, you use it to record your dreams." Sarah explained.<br /><br />"Oh neat! Can I see them?" Emily sounded excited.<br /><br />Sarah giggled slightly at her friend's abrupt mood change. She guessed that perhaps she had helped her friend a little bit if she was able to talk like this now. "Tomorrow! We gotta sleep now we have to be at work at six."<br /><br />"Alright." Emily made herself comfortable on Sarah's bed, stealing most of the covers and blankets for herself. Sarah took the opposite side of the bed once she turned the lights off. Emily whispered one last thing before they both fell asleep, "Thank you."<br /><br />Sarah woke up to her beeping alarm clock, not even remembering her dreams from the night before. She reached over to turn off her alarm clock and bumped into a still sleeping Emily. Sarah wondered how she could possibly still be sleeping when Emily muttered "Just five more minutes mom..."<br /><br />"You better get up or we won't have time for breakfast!" Sarah giggled.<br /><br />"OH MY GOSH!" Emily was awake and sitting up so suddenly she almost knocked Sarah off the bed. "Tell me we are having waffles."<br /><br />"I don't think we really have time for that. We have to be at work soon." Sarah said in a depressed tone, the shadow of Black Friday was now upon them.<br /><br />"Well do you at least have some good cereals? And by good I mean marshmallows."<br /><br />The two girls made their way down to the kitchen to see what cereals they had. Tina was already sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee and eating some toast. "Good morning MOM!" Emily cried out.<br /><br />Tina giggled at this and said "Good morning girls."<br /><br />Sarah pointed Emily towards where they kept the cereal, and she went to make herself some toast. Emily cried out with joy when she found the box of Lucky Charms. "Ohmygosh. These are the best cereal. I hear if you eat all the marshmallows and none of the cereal parts you can get magical powers. OooooOOooOoooO" Emily wriggled her fingers around as if she was casting a spell on all of them.<br /><br />They all had a good laugh and quickly ate their breakfasts. Sarah was glad Emily was in a much better mood today. She hoped that she had helped Emily. She had done her best at least, and that's all she could really do.<br /><br />Sarah decided she would drive Emily into work since they were working the same shift that day. When they went to leave Tina stopped them, her eyes wide, serious, almost fearful. "Good luck today girls. Be careful."<br /><br />"We will be. Love ya Ma!" Sarah took her mother's warning to heart. If even her own mother seemed afraid of this day, Sarah didn't know how she'd make it through it. On the drive to work Emily hummed along with the radio and looked out the window. Sarah didn't know what to say, so she just let Emily be.<br /><br />Suddenly Emily turned to Sarah and said, "If we don't make it out of there alive today, you can have my collection of spoons." Emily went back to humming and looking out the window after she said that, almost like she hadn't said it at all. Sarah felt a nervous twitch coming on in one of her eyes.<br /><br />The parking lot at their store was already halfway full, and it wasn't quite six yet, the store wouldn't even be open until seven. A crowd was packed around the entrance way. Sarah glupped and wondered how they were even going to make it into the store. Emily of course just shoved people out of her way, Sarah just followed her. The security guard let the girls inside, but one of the customers grabbed Sarah's hand before they she could get all the way in the door. "WHY DO YOU GET TO GO IN NOW" the older woman bellowed out.<br /><br />"I...I...I work here?" Sarah said feeling faint.<br /><br />"No, not fair, I want to go in now. I NEED TO GO SHOPPING RIGHT NOW." The woman had a crazed look in her eye.<br /><br />The security guard pulled Sarah inside away from woman. "Hmm it's going way better than last year." He mumbled to himself. Sarah gulped and went down to the employee break room. Down there she found half of the employees already in the break room. Most of them had depressed looks on their faces, but some of them looked like war hardened soldiers about to march off to war.<br /><br />After a few more people arrived Debbie called attention to herself. "Okay quick store meeting before we get things ready." Debbie stood towards the front of the room. "Here's whats going to go down." Debbie started doling out orders like a general of an army. She kept throwing out lines like "We have to be smarter than them." "We must be organized, unified." and "Let's not have a repeat of last year's debacle." At last Debbie left them to go set up their departments.<br /><br />Sarah, Emily, and Sam were all opening the Sportsware department together. They decided to let Emily run the fitting room, while Sam and Sarah did returns and what Sam called "control the masses" which Sarah took to mean help out the customers. Although the way Sam said it, it almost seemed like she didn't think of the customers as people anymore. It was almost seven when Sarah heard a loud banging noise at the front of the store. Since Sportsware was so near the front of the store, she could see several people banging to be let in. Sarah didn't think she was ready for this yet. Before she knew it though, she watched in fear as the Debbie and the security guard unlocked the front door. From somewhere in the store Sarah heard someone call out "PREPARE FOR IMPACT!" but it was too late.<br /><br />Black Friday was upon them.<br /><br />Sarah didn't have time to think. She didn't have time to do anything but run around the department making sure the whole thing didn't fall to pieces. There were mostly women in her department, and they were doing the most insane things. They were tearing through the racks of clothes, throwing items on the ground, and just generally making the hugest mess Sarah had ever seen. Sarah barely had time to run returns, she was too busy trying to make sure the rest of the clothes in Sportsware was still staying on hangers and not on the floor or flung over shelves.<br /><br />Practically running down one of the aisles, Sarah found a woman trying on pants. In the middle of the aisle. Sarah gasped and wanted to run away. But she managed to loudly whisper at the woman "Umm you can't do that ma'am."<br /><br />The woman looked at Sarah with disgust in her eyes. "FINE! I didn't want these pants anyway." She threw the pants in Sarah's direction, pulled her own pants back on, and stomped away. Sarah decided it was best for her own sanity if she pretended that never happened.<br /><br />Sarah made a fatal mistake at this point. She wandered towards the outside racks, near the houseware department. She was trying to fix a small display of sweaters when a couple approached her. "We need your help!" The man said to Sarah.<br /><br />"Okay, what can I help you with?" Sarah stopped what she was doing and smiled brightly at the pair.<br /><br />"We need a painting on the top shelf. Can you get it down for us?" the man asked nicely.<br /><br />"Oh, well I can get some one from housewares to help you." Sarah said, "Just one second let me page them."<br /><br />"NO!" cried out the woman of the pair. "I need that painting now, you don't understand."<br /><br />"Oh but just one...second..." Sarah said nervously. "I can get someone to help you..."<br /><br />The woman put her face right in Sarah's face. Sarah tried to avoid eye contact, but at this close of range that was nearly impossible. "You are going to help us RIGHT NOW."<br /><br />"Okay." Sarah was defeated, and went to get the ladder.<br /><br />The woman pointed up at a painting on the top shelf. "That one!"<br /><br />Sarah carefully climbed up the ladder. The woman below was already sounding irritated at how long she was taking. She complained to her husband about how kids these days have no respect. Sarah grabbed the painting, and was surprised at how heavy it was. The painting began to tilt backwards, and the force of gravity started to take Sarah with it. Sarah desperately tried to lean forward, a fall from this high would hurt. She managed to pull herself closer to the ladder while holding onto to the painting with one hand. She balanced the painting against the ladder while she regained her balance. Confident that she had a good hold on it, she made her way down.<br /><br />"Alright, there you go Ma'am!" Sarah was slightly proud of her accomplishment.<br /><br />The woman on the other hand, looked a bit like a bull about to charge. "No, no, no. I want that one." The woman pointed at the painting that had been behind this one. An exact duplicate of the one now in Sarah's hand. "Go fetch that one for me!"<br /><br />"They are identical though." Sarah said, hoping the woman would see that and not send her back up the death trap ladder.<br /><br />"No they are not. Get that one for me." Sarah felt like she was on the verge of tears as she got the woman the painting. She walked away with her husband without saying a word of thanks. All Sarah could think of was that this wasn't a store anymore. It was a war zone.<br /><br />Words this part: 2219<br />Words total: 20337stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-87214079695830143242011-11-05T20:58:00.004-04:002011-11-05T21:56:10.657-04:00Invisible, part 10The days seemed to turn into weeks before Sarah's eyes. She wasn't getting much sleep lately, and the dreams she did have were as dark as ever. Sarah continued to record them by habit, but she never looked over the contents of her dreams, just uploaded them to her computer. What would be the point of looking at them? The only thing they included was a inky blackness.<br /><br />Work was starting to get busier for Sarah as well. It was almost Thanksgiving, and the customers were out in full force. Occasionally Sarah would be called to the front of the store to ring customers out because the lines were getting too long. Sarah was starting to get nervous for the day after Thanksgiving, Emily and Jenn told her stories of the year before, and just how busy they had been. Emily cried in terror "PEOPLE COULD DIE". Sarah almost laughed except for the dead serious looks on her friends faces. Jenn showed Sarah a news article from a few years ago on her phone. Apparently people did die. Sarah gulped and almost wanted to request that day off. Unfortunately when she looked at the schedule, there was a huge note saying that no one was permitted to take that day off. Sarah looked at that note for a long time and almost wanted to cry.<br /><br />Before she knew it, Thanksgiving was here. Sarah awoke that morning and decided to just enjoy the day and not worry about the terrible Black Friday that would follow it. The store was closed for the day, and so was Tina's store. Sarah was glad for this. Thanksgiving was practically her favorite holiday. She got to eat so much good food. Sarah loved the delicious turkey, the mashed potatoes, the cranberry sauce, and most of all the stuffing. She was practically drooling already. Sarah had an odd taste for bread and all things bread related. Her mother had caught her daughter on more than one occasion eating an entire loaf of bread or snacking on a bag of croutons. Tina always made extra stuffing for her daughter, knowing that if she didn't she wouldn't get any stuffing for herself.<br /><br />Sarah and her mom had spent the last few Thanksgiving in the company of themselves. Tina's parents had moved to Florida where Tina's brother and sister also lived. Tina missed her family, but she loved New England so much she refused to move anywhere else. Sarah and Tina flew down to visit them once, but after Sarah freaked out on the plane ride Tina hadn't really wanted to fly down there again. They could've taken a train or bus, but knowing how much her daughter hated to travel, Tina decided against it for now. Although seeing Sarah happier and with friends made Tina think that maybe she wouldn't freak out so much now.<br /><br />Sarah was helping her mother in the kitchen the meal when suddenly a loud noise echoed through the house. Sarah jumped before she realized it was someone knocking loudly at their front door. "I'll get it," Sarah said.<br /><br />She opened the door and was surprised to see a crying Emily standing on her front porch with a suitcase in her hand. "SARAH!" Emily cried dropping her suitcase and hugging Sarah as tight as she could with her ever swelling stomach in the way. Emily started crying hysterically and Sarah tried to comfort her. "I know it's Thanksgiving and all but..." Emily let out a wail of pain, and Tina came to the door to see what was going on.<br /><br />"Come in Emily." Sarah said nervously. Emily went inside and sat sobbing on the Pinkerton's couch. Sarah carried Emily's suitcase in while her mother ran back into the kitchen. Sarah sat on the couch and tried to comfort Emily, and her mother emerged from the kitchen carried a couple cups of tea.<br /><br />"What's wrong dear?" Tina said. Tina had met Emily a few times before, the energetic little girl had always been smiling those times. She was worried for her daughter's new friend.<br /><br />"He...he...he said he HATED ME!!!!" Emily burst out her tears falling even more freely.<br /><br />Eventually Emily calmed down enough to tell Sarah and her mother the whole story. She sipped on her tea and started. "I was complaining to Joey about how much my feet hurt and he was just playing his video games. We were going to go over to his parent's house for Thanksgiving soon and he just wouldn't pay attention to me. He was just all like 'Oh let me finish this one game and we'll get going', but it was taking him forever and I was tired of standing around. So I unplugged the game system and he just looked at me and told me he HATED ME!" Emily started crying again, but not as loudly as before.<br /><br />Sarah put her arms around Emily, trying to be as comforting as possible. "I'm sure he didn't mean it Em."<br /><br />"It doesn't matter if he meant it or not! There is no reason for someone who supposed to love you to say those things! I packed up my things and I came over here. I know it's Thanksgiving but I don't really have anywhere else to go. Jenn is having Thanksgiving with her father and I didn't want to bother her."<br /><br />"No it's okay Emily, we don't mind, do we mom?" Sarah said looking up at her mother.<br /><br />"Yes dear, it's fine, you can stay with us today. I'm sure you'll feel better once you've eaten a nice warm meal."<br /><br />"Oh yes! Forrest has been kicking around in my belly yelling about how hungry he is for awhile now!" Emily looked down and patted her belly. "My son is already a trouble maker, aren't?" She smiled down at her stomach.<br /><br />"Well then, Emily, why don't you help us make our Thanksgiving dinner?" Tina got up and started for the kitchen. Sarah helped Emily to her feet and they both went into the kitchen together.<br /><br />"So you decided on a name for him?" Sarah asked quietly.<br /><br />"Oh yeah! I didn't tell you yet. Well you know how much I love trees right? Well I decided to name him after a whole forest! So he's Forrest!" Emily smiled, seeming to be getting back to normal after all her crying. Still the normal glimmer of happiness that always seemed to be in her eyes was gone. Sarah hoped that Emily would be alright.<br /><br />They finished up making dinner, Emily helping only slightly. It turned out that Emily wasn't very used to making food of any kind. Emily shyly said that she hadn't ever really cooked before. Tina let Emily mash the potatoes, which seemed to make Emily quite gleeful. She mashed the potatoes into practically a paste before Tina told her that was good enough.<br /><br />Emily and Sarah sat down at the kitchen table while Tina took the turkey out of the oven. Emily looked quite excited at the size of the bird, mumbling to herself that she wanted at least half of it.<br /><br />Tina sat down and said "Okay before we eat, let's all say what we are thankful for. I'm thankful for having the most wonderful daughter in the world." She patted Sarah on the arm as she said that.<br /><br />"I'm thankful for having the best mom in the world!" Sarah said smiling. "And for having such good friends." Sarah looked over at Emily who was drooling a bit over all the food.<br /><br />"Oh well I'm thankful for Forrest, and for trees and llamas and cats and of course all this FOOD!" Emily rambled out. "Let's eat!"<br /><br />Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success. Sarah was happy that Emily was there. She was happy that her friend trusted her enough to come to her when she had such a huge problem. Sarah hoped that everything would turn out alright for Emily. She didn't know how she could help, but for now being there for Emily seemed enough. Sarah also thought of her other friend Jenn, who was spending Thanksgiving with her father and his new girlfriend. She was glad that Jenn had decided to give her father a chance, and hoped that everything was going alright. She decided to text her later on and see how everything went.<br /><br />After dinner and they cleaned up and went into the living room to watch some television. The night passed by quickly, and Sarah was having a lot of fun spending the holiday with her friend, even if she was upset. Around ten Emily started rubbing her eyes and complaining about how sleepy she was. Tina and Sarah pulled out the couch into a bed and got some pillows and blankets for Emily. Knowing that tomorrow was going to be a huge hassle for all of them, Sarah and her mother decided it was best if they got to bed too. Sarah stayed by Emily's side as she got into her makeshift bed and seemed to fall asleep almost immediately. "Night Em, sleep well."<br /><br />"Night Sarah." Emily yawned and said almost half asleep already. "Don't let the bed bugs bite."<br /><br />Sarah headed up to her own bedroom. She realized it was probably too late to text Jenn, and decided she would ask her about her Thanksgiving the next day. Sarah lay in her bed awake for some time, her mind full of worries for her two friends, and for herself and how work would be the next day. She was finally just starting to fall asleep when a knock came at her door. She opened it and found Emily standing there, tears in her eyes again.<br /><br />"Can we talk?"<br /><br />Words this part: 1617<br />Words total: 18118stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-35116926018034622012011-11-04T12:35:00.002-04:002011-11-04T13:17:03.273-04:00Invisible, part 9Sarah let the blackness of her dream take her over. She didn't fit it this time, her mind was too exhausted to struggle. The darkness was comforting to her somehow, if not a bit lonely. She waited with her mind quieted, and woke up the next morning as if she hadn't slept at all. She didn't feel well rested at all, and when she looked in the mirror she had dark circles under her eyes still. She sighed, and headed to work early.<br /><br />In the employee break room, Jenn was sitting staring at her cellphone, her mind equal parts rage and sadness. She wanted to scream and throw her phone across the room, and then curl up in a ball and cry. While her mind was at war with itself, the door opened, startling Jenn so much she nearly fell out of her chair.<br /><br />"Oh good morning Jenn." Sarah said quietly. She noticed the look of discontent on her new friend's face, and debated in her head about asking what was wrong. She didn't want to ask Jenn what was wrong if it would upset her more, but she also didn't want to seem like a bad friend by not asking at all. She settled by say, "Is everything alright?"<br /><br />"He's a BASTARD!" Jenn let out a scream of rage. Sarah looked concerned, she didn't know who Jenn was talking about, but whoever it was had made Jenn absolutely livid. "He doesn't contact me for a whole year, and now he thinks he can have some part in my life? WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE DAD?"<br /><br />Sarah took a deep breath, and sat down next to Jenn. She was nervous, but felt like she had to help her friend out in her time of need. "What happened Jenn?"<br /><br />"My dad, he just texted me this morning. He said he wanted to see me. Well he wasn't there the whole time I was growing up, couldn't even show his face when I graduated from high school, and now he thinks he can just come back into my life like nothing happened? I don't think so DAD. The last time he even said anything to me was my birthday last year. He just sent me a card without even writing anything in it. He's not a real father. He doesn't deserve to be in my life." Jenn ranted, tears starting to well up in her eyes. Sarah gently put her hand on Jenn's shoulder, trying to do her best to comfort him.<br /><br />"Maybe you should give him a chance?" Sarah said quietly.<br /><br />"WHY SHOULD I?" Jenn yelled, and Sarah quickly pulled back.<br /><br />"Umm well." Sarah stopped and took another breath. She was scared, but she knew she had to say something. "I never got to have a dad either Jenn. He died when I was really young. I wish I could see him now, but I know I'll never have that chance again. Your dad is trying to contact you now. Shouldn't you at least give him a chance?"<br /><br />Jenn looked a bit less angry now, she just looked sad. "He walked out on me, my mom, and my little brother. Why didn't he give us a chance back then? He's nothing more than a sperm donor!"<br /><br />Sarah stopped and thought about it for a second. She thought about how much she missed her own father, and how much Jenn's father probably missed her as well. "He's only human, Jenn. Maybe he's trying to make up for his mistakes now?" Sarah didn't know if she was giving the best advice, but she was trying her hardest. "You don't even have to see him right away, but at least you can try talking to him? I mean at least see why he's trying to contact you?"<br /><br />Jenn's face twisted up in a look of confusion. She had hated her father for so long, it was hard for her to see him as anything but a terrible villain. Jenn didn't know if he really deserved a second chance, with his mistakes being so numerous and huge, but she could try. "Thanks Sarah, I'm not sure what I'll do, but thank you for trying to help." Jenn gave Sarah a hug. Sarah hadn't been expecting that to happen, but she accepted the hug and hugged Jenn back. She hoped greatly that she had been some comfort and help to her friend.<br /><br />Jenn looked back down at her phone, and realized how late it was getting. "Oh man, we better clock in before we are late." Sarah walked to punch in with Jenn, feeling a bit closer to her than she had before. She smiled a bit to herself. She had never given herself the chance to be close to someone before, and it felt a bit nice. She was glad she could be there for someone else.<br /><br />The work day flew by quickly, Sarah had started to pick up the in's and out's of working retail. She even managed to help a customer locate a sweater in her size, and she hadn't put away too many clothes in the wrong places. Sarah was enjoying her new job, and her new friends.<br /><br />When she left work, Sarah heard her phone buzz. She looked at it, and realized she had gotten a text message from Jenn. "Emily and I are getting some coffee at Starbucks, want to join us?" Sarah quickly typed out "Sure!"<br /><br />Sarah still had some doubts in her mind, as she drove to Starbucks. She had never thought that anyone would want to spend time with her, or enjoy her company. But she was glad that she had found two people who did.<br /><br />She found Jenn and Emily sitting outside Starbucks, Emily was drinking a juice, mumbling about how anything with caffeine in it made her baby freak out. Sarah told them she was going to order a coffee and she'd join them in a second.<br /><br />When she came back out Jenn was just finishing telling Emily about her father. "I think I might just go see him, just once. Just to see what he has to say.<br /><br />"Oh if he hurts you I will send my goons after him!" Emily said enraged.<br /><br />"You have goons?" Sarah laughed, getting used to Emily's randomness.<br /><br />"You know it! I got connections" Emily winked.<br /><br />The three friends laughed. Sarah felt like for the first time in her life, everything was perfect. Just enjoying the company of your friends, laughing the day away. The loneliness that had been in Sarah's heart for so long was starting to heal.<br /><br />Words this part: 1099<br />Words total: <strong>16501</strong>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-8394056483331185012011-11-04T04:20:00.007-04:002011-11-04T05:36:36.587-04:00Invisible, part 8Sarah was trapped in the inky black darkness, unable to move. She couldn't tell if her eyes were open or not, the darkness was too great. She couldn't move an inch of her body, she was trapped inside her own mind it felt like. She couldn't even feel her own body, or even the temperature of the air around her. Sarah had never experienced anything like this before, this dark all encompassing blackness and paralysis.<br /><br />Sarah was left alone in her thoughts. She wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not, but she didn't think she was awake. She couldn't remember how she had gotten to this place or what she had been doing previously. If almost felt as if she had been in this blackness forever. She was scared. She tried to call out for help, tried to call the name of the person who had always been there for her. Her lips wouldn't move, she wasn't even sure if she had lips anymore. Still she kept on trying, trying to scream out that name, finally she was able to scream.<br /><br />"JEFF!"<br /><br />The whole world shattered, on the distant horizon, Sarah thought she could see some light, the light moved closer and closer until the brightness was all she could see.<br /><br />Sarah sat up, panting heavily. She looked around trying to see where she was, her own room was what came into focus. She quickly looked over at her clock, and realized she was already running late for work. Without really thinking about it, she uploaded her video to DreamTube. She noticed that she had a new message, but she since she was already so late, she didn't have time to check it.<br /><br />Sarah rushed out the door to work. Sarah had a relatively normal day at work, she did the register again, but today felt different. She felt more confident in herself, something she had never really felt before. Sarah started to have fun at work, chatting with her fellow employees, enjoying herself. It was as if all it took to get her out of her shell was one good night out with some friends.<br /><br />When it was time for Sarah to leave, she was approached by a average sized woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a name tag the said "Sam - Manager", so Sarah figured she was the manager of the Sportswear department. "Hey are you Sarah?" the woman said forcefully.<br /><br />"Oh yes, I am."<br /><br />"I'm Sam, I run the Sportswear department. The holiday season is almost here, and we are going to need a lot of help. I'm going to start training you on Tuesday ok?" Sam smiled at Sarah awkwardly. Sarah wasn't sure how she felt about moving to a new department just after she had gotten used to working the register, but she agreed. This was her job now, and she'd do whatever was asked of her. "Ok I look forward to working with you." The two women shook hands, and Sarah clocked out and left for home.<br /><br />As she was driving home, Sarah had a lot on her mind. She thought about her new manager Sam, and what it would be like to work in a new department. She wouldn't see Jenn as much there, but she'd probably see Emily a whole lot more. Up until she only saw Emily when they were on break together, or when she came up to get her returns. Today she had even let Sarah feel her stomach as her baby kicked. Sarah had never felt such a thing before, she wondered what it'd be like to having another living being inside of yourself. There were so many thoughts in her head it took a long time before she started thinking about the dream she had the night before. A dream so scary she decided it would be best if she forgot about it.<br /><br />Once she got home she logged back onto her computer, wanted to see what the message was that she couldn't check earlier. Now she had two messages. They were both from TimeInABottle. The first one said "im doing well. im gonna get a dreamsight today, im so excited. you can watch my dream tomorrow!" The second one said "oh wow your latest dream was really scary. i uploaded my dream, wont you watch it?"<br /><br />Sarah clicked over to his DreamTube channel, and saw that there was one video, about five minutes in length. Something Sarah had realized once she started uploading her dreams, was that although dreams seemed to take up the whole night, once converted into video form they were hardly ever over fifteen minutes long. Her last dream had felt like an eternity, yet it only lasted three minutes. Sarah clicked on the video, and it began to play.<br /><br />A young man was frantically searching around a parking lot. The parking lot was full of people, yet the young man couldn't find whatever it was he was looking for. The view shifted almost in perceptively to a mountain top. From there the view shifted to a dozen more place, and with each shift the young man seemed more and more frantic.<br /><br />Then to boy uttered one word, one single word that left Sarah in a panic, unable to move for several minutes. When she could she closed the browser window, unable to reply to the messages she had received. She heart pounded heavily in her chest, almost as if it was a bird trying to escape from a cage. The word echoed over and over in her head.<br /><br />"Sarah...."<br /><br />She leaned back in her chair, her mind unable to rationalize what she had just seen. All those places had looked so familiar. And it had been her name that was spoken at the end. She tried to convince herself that it was just a coincidence. Sarah was a very common name after all.<br /><br />She started to laugh, quietly at first, then it reached a fever pitch. She was being so silly. Of course it was just a coincidence! Lots of people had dreams about similar places, and lots of people had the name Sarah. She was being absolutely ridiculous about this whole situation. Yet she still could not let herself log back onto her DreamTube account.<br /><br />Sarah didn't eat dinner that night, when her mother asked her if she was hungry she just said no. She lay awake all night, her mind full of an angry buzzing sound. She didn't want to think about the video she had seen. She didn't want to think about anything. Most of all, she didn't want to dream anymore.<br /><br />Sarah spent the few days in a daze. She had another day off, another day on the register, and then she finally got to work in the sportsware department. Sam was a good teacher, and Sarah tried her best to learn all the things she was teaching her. Sportsware turned out to be the whole woman's department, even the dresses. When she got there in the morning, at nine instead of ten, Sam showed her how to put new stock out. She had a sheet of numbers, and she told Sarah that the numbers referred to the barcodes, and that the first few numbers of each barcode would tell her where to put each item. Sarah could keep the sheet until she could remember where each item went. After the store opened, Sam told Sarah that she should stay by the fitting rooms, and make sure that customers took a number for the amount of items they were trying on, and to make sure they took the same amount of items back out. When there was no customers, she should put away all the items the customers didn't want. Sarah tried to remember all the things that Sam was telling her, but she had a hard time. She kept putting away items in the wrong place, but with Sam's help she found the right places. It wasn't a very hard job, but Sam warned that the closer it got to Christmas, the busier and crazier the store would get.<br /><br />After work that day, Emily and Jenn convinced Sarah to go with them to the mall. Sarah didn't really want to go, and protested that she was too tired, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. Sarah was glad that she went in the end though. Emily went to the maternity store and tried on a bunch of outrageous outfits and modeled them for the giggling Jenn and Sarah. Afterwards they went to go get pretzels and sat by the fountain.<br /><br />A slightly ghetto man, wearing sagging pants and a shirt that was covered in skulls approached the girls. He looked at Emily and said "Hey Momma, still with the baby daddy?"<br /><br />Emily rolled her eyes and said "Yeah no. Just don't." He walked away dejectedly, and the girls all giggled amongst themselves at the audacity of some guys.<br /><br />Sarah felt at peace as she drove home against the setting sun. Almost all the leaves were gone from the trees, soon it would start snowing. The air was very chilly now, at night it got down post freezing. This was the time of year Sarah loved to cuddle in her bed with her electric blanket and a cup of hot chocolate and read a good book. Tonight though, she laid down in her bed, ignoring her computer for the third day and a row, and let sleep take her unwillingly.<br /><br />Words this part: 1589<br />Words Total: 15402stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-15815146743463833292011-11-03T04:46:00.009-04:002011-11-03T06:41:26.391-04:00Invisible, part 7The smell of freshly cooked bacon filled the air as Sarah cooked her dinner and watched television at the same time. She wasn't really paying attention to the show, it was just background noise to keep her thoughts away from her dreams. Sarah loved to eat bacon, which might have contributed a bit to her chubbiness, but could you blame her? Bacon is DELICIOUS. Sarah loved to cook bacon, and then fry potatoes in the bacon grease. It was, in her mind, the yummiest thing in the world. She ate her dinner while sitting on her couch watching the show. On the show they were describing how wifflebats where made. Not the most interesting subject, but the host of the show seemed to think it was the most amazing thing in the world. Sarah giggled at his enthusiasm.<br /><br />After washing the dishes and taking a nice long shower, Sarah was ready for bed. She had to work in the morning, but Saturday was her first day off since starting this new job. Sarah loved days off because they meant she could sleep in as much as she wanted, dream for even longer.<br /><br />Sarah stopped her line of thinking there. She berated herself, "Am I always going to live in the world of dreams? I can't keep doing that. There is a whole world out there and I'm just wasting my life away." Sarah thought of Emily's boyfriend, and how she had never had a boyfriend in her whole life, in fact she had never even kissed a boy. All the school dances during middle school and high school she had just skipped. The closest she'd ever been to a boy had only ever been in her dreams. Sarah felt like a bit of a failure. She was going to be 19 this April, and she was still had never kissed a boy. Sarah sighed to herself. She didn't even want to sleep, she didn't want to dream tonight. She didn't want to see Jeff, Devon, or Lisa. She just wanted to go out into the world and make something of herself.<br /><br />Still with all of these thoughts of self doubt and hatred in her head, Sarah managed to fall asleep. That night though, her dream felt a bit different.<br /><br />Sarah was standing in a field she didn't recognize from any of her other dreams. It was a huge field, and in the distance she could see trees surrounding the field. She stood still for a moment looking around her. The sun was just starting to set, the sky a startling mix of purples and pinks. She took a set forward and there was a loud wooshing sound. She looked around her and millions of butterflies took flight around her. They were of every color of the rainbow, and they circled around her like a tornado of color. Sarah giggled and ran through the field watching the butterflies dance. The storm of colors kept whirling around her faster and faster until suddenly she collapsed.<br /><br />All of the butterflies had disappeared. The sun had gone down while she was running and now it looked like a mat of black. Fireflies soon replaces the butterflies that had been there previously, dancing around like a shower of stars. Sarah reached her hand up and one of the fireflies landed on her hand. She watched the firefly on her hand and was filled with a sudden feeling of loneliness. She wasn't alone here, with all the fireflies dancing around her, but she was alone. Where was Jeff? Where were Lisa and Devon? Where was anyone? Why was she all alone.<br /><br />Thinking these thoughts, a gust of wind came and rattled Sarah to the bones. The fireflies blinked out of existence, and now Sarah was truly alone. The sky was now stormy distances away from it's previously calm state. Rain came pouring down on her face. Sarah tried to stand, to run away from the cold rain. But she couldn't stand. She had to lay there and feel the brunt of the storm. Sarah started to cry, her tears mixing with the rain that was falling. Sarah had never really felt this alone before.<br /><br />She awoke to the sounds of her alarm clock. Sarah sat up, and she felt the tears that were still on her face. She felt confused. Her dreams had always been her escape from the world that had always seemed so cruel to her, but now she was alone in her dreams as well. Sarah had worn the Dreamsight that night out of habit, so she uploaded the video to DreamTube like usual. She got ready for work, with the intense feelings of loneliness still hanging over her.<br /><br />Outside, the trees were still clinging to the last of their leaves. Sarah knew that soon winter would be here, and the world would be sterilized in white. Sarah really didn't like winter time, especially with what had happened to her father that winter long ago. She drove to work, still feeling more depressed than ever.<br /><br />Work went by without much incident. Sarah was getting used to working the register. It was almost second nature to greet the customers now. Sarah still felt just as shy as ever, but it helped that she didn't think of the customers as people. They were just customers and it was her job to greet and help them anyway she could. Just like at her last job it was her job to pack the sheets into boxes. This thinking helped Sarah greatly. She got the feeling that she could do this job well now, and she wouldn't be a failure at this at least.<br /><br />Sarah clocked out and went to collect her things from the breakroom. The breakroom wasn't empty this time, Emily and Jenn were sitting at one of the tables chatting. Emily immediately greeted Sarah cheerfully. "Hi Sarah! How's it going today? We were just talking about how we are going to the movies tomorrow. We are gonna see that new movie, you know the one with the man who thinks he's a dog, but then he becomes a dog and there is a lot of pie? You know the one I'm talking about right. Well do you want to come?" Emily said all of this at once without waiting for an answer.<br /><br />Sarah was unsure of which question to answer first. She was stunned. She was being asked to go out with two other people. Like friends would do. That sound so amazing to her. She wanted to go so badly. "I'll go with you guys, if you want me too."<br /><br />"Of course we do!" Emily smiled brightly. "Can I get your phone number? We were gonna go at 6, but if that changes I want to be able to text you."<br /><br />Sarah, Jenn, and Emily all exchanged numbers. Sarah felt so excited. She was going to go out with some friends for the first time in her life. She wasn't going to be alone on a Saturday night. She wanted to cry out with glee, but she refrained from that. The three of them all said goodbye to each other, and Sarah drove home in a much better mood than she had gone to work in.<br /><br />When she got home, she noticed her mom sitting on the couch eating some yogurt. "Hey Ma! Guess what?"<br /><br />"What's that sweetie?"<br /><br />"I'm going out with some of the people I work with tomorrow! We are going to the movies!" Sarah could barely contain her excitement.<br /><br />"That's great Princess! You never go out with your friends." Sarah's mom smiled brightly at her daughter. "I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun." Sarah crashed on the couch and talked brightly with her mother as they watched the news.<br /><br />That night Sarah went to bed without thinking about her dreams or any of her doubts. She was happy for her future now, wondering what it would be like to have friends now. She wouldn't have to be alone now. She wondered if they'd share their dreams with her, their secrets. Her mind eventually stopped whirling around, and Sarah fell asleep.<br /><br />The sky was dark and stormy. The wind whipped around Sarah, forming a barrier from which she could not remove herself. Sarah could see branches from the trees around her breaking with loud bang sounds. Some of the trees even started falling down. Sarah tried to scream out, to escape from this terrible hurricane. She couldn't move though, she couldn't wake herself up. Sarah closed her eyes and prayed for this torture to end.<br /><br />Waking up was such a relief for Sarah, a sharp contrast to how she normally operated. Sarah was unsure about if she should upload this dream to DreamTube, but she decided to anyway. While she was online, she noticed another message, again from TimeInABottle. This one said. "thanks for friending me! your last video was beautiful, but then it got really scary. are you ok?"<br /><br />Sarah replied to her new online friend "I'm doing fine! I don't know why I had a dream like that, but it freaked me out a lot. I had a similar dream last night, but I'm sure you'll see it. How are you doing?" Sarah hadn't been sure about that last line, but she felt like it was a good question to ask a friend. She was slightly curious about this person who was messaging her. She didn't know anything about him except his age and gender.<br /><br />Sarah spent the day nervously wandering around her bedroom thinking about the night. What should she wear to go out with her friends? She didn't want to dress up too much and seem like she was trying too hard, but she didn't want to be too casual and look like a slob. She finally decided on a pair of jeans, a cute sweater, and a pair of black boots. It wasn't too fancy, but it was classy enough she decided. It was only noon by this point, so Sarah still had a lot of time to waste before she went out. Sarah went back on her computer and watched some more videos on DreamTube. There were some good ones about a man being chased by a monster but everything was going in slow motion and he couldn't escape. Then there was one about a girl who went to school, but then she realized she was only wearing her underwear. Some of these dreams were comical to Sarah. She had never had dreams like these, and she almost wished she could, considering how her dreams had been lately.<br /><br />Sarah ate only a sandwich for dinner, knowing she'd be stuffing her face with popcorn at the movies. She left at 5:30pm, even though it only took her ten minutes to get to the movie theater. She really didn't want to be late, she was also too excited to sit at home anymore. Sarah got there way before the other two girls, so she bought her ticket and waited at a table next to some arcade games. She played with her cellphone for awhile so she didn't look too out of place. At about 5:55pm, Sarah spotted the tall Jenn and skinny Emily. She waited until they saw her before she said anything.<br /><br />Sarah waited in the ticket line again with Jenn and Emily. Emily talked rabidly about how her boyfriend had surprised her with dinner the other night while Sarah and Jenn nodded and agreed with her. Sarah was glad Emily was doing most of the talking, she didn't feel like she had anything that interesting to say. They all got snacks and sat down in the mostly full theater.<br /><br />Sarah sat in between Jenn and Emily. This would normally make her feel awkward, but it was a lot of fun. Emily didn't take the no talking warnings too seriously. She kept laughing uproariously at every funny scene (and some that weren't even meant to be funny) and poking Sarah and whispering to her jokes that made Sarah laugh as well. It was the most fun Sarah could remember having in a long time.<br /><br />The movie ended and Emily cheered at the screen screaming "BEST MOVIE EVER" even though it wasn't really.<br /><br />Jenn spoke up for the first time, "Do you girls want to go to Starbucks?" Emily and Sarah agreed and they all walked over to the Starbucks which was near the theater.<br /><br />They talked and joked about the movie for awhile before Sarah said "I have to get home soon, I have to be work in the morning." The other girls agreed and they all left in their own cars, but not before saying that they should all do this again soon.<br /><br />Sarah drove home, thinking to herself that this had been a lot of fun. The wind had picked up, and the leaves were falling almost as fast as soon does. She drove slow afraid of her car slipping on the leaves.<br /><br />Sarah went to sleep that night, her heart full of joy. She had finally made some friends for the first time in her life. She didn't think that anything could ever take this joy away.<br /><br />In her dream however, she found herself in a world of blackness.<br /><br />Words this part: 2214<br />Words total:<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><strong>3813</strong><strong></strong>stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-19973393359785340092011-11-03T02:17:00.008-04:002011-11-03T03:15:44.128-04:00Invisible, part 6A loud noise echoed through the air. Sarah closed her eyes out of fear. She thought perhaps it was another firework going off, but when she opened her eyes she realized she was no longer holding Jeff's hand. She was back in the real, waking world again. She sighed, and then jumped out of bed when she heard the noise again, panicked. Then she felt incredibly silly when she got a look out her window and realized it was a thunderstorm.<br /><br />Sarah back down at the edge of her bed and watched the rain fall outside. It was just before dawn, and the sky was still dark, except when the lightening struck, making the world outside look like daylight, if only for a few seconds. The rain made a soothing pitter patter sound on the roof, and Sarah laid back down and fell back asleep to the noise.<br /><br />Before she knew it, it was morning time and she had to get up to go to work again. Sarah was less nervous today, although she still had some lingering doubts about how well she'd be able to do today, especially since Debbie said she'd be ringing on her own today. Debbie or another manager would probably still be close by, but the prospect of doing everything on her own scared Sarah.<br /><br />That day at work was more fun than Sarah expected. It wasn't very busy because of the thunder storm that was still lingering on outside, so Sarah actually had time to relax. She went to lunch at around 2pm, and to her surprise another employee was already in the break room.<br /><br />"Hey, you're new aren't you? Why don't you join me." the girl at one of the tables said. She was shorter, like Sarah, but was extremely skinny, almost like a twig. Sarah wanted to say no, wanted to run away from this social situation, but she sat down at the table with the girl. "I'm Emily."<br /><br />"Hi Emily, I'm Sarah." Sarah said shyly, unpacking her lunch from her bag so as to avoid eye contact. She had packed a relatively normal lunch for herself, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple. She looked over at Emily's lunch. She had a full spread of a sandwich, grapes, crackers, and some cookies. It was a lot of food for such a little girl.<br /><br />"So how long have you been here for? You liking it so far?" Emily asked, too engrossed with eating her lunch to really pay much attention to Sarah. This made Sarah feel better, she really didn't like other people watching her eat.<br /><br />"This is my second day. All I've been doing is the register so far, but I like it alright."<br /><br />"Oh that's good. I heard from the manager of my department that you'll probably be moved to sportsware with us." Emily smiled. "Our manager is really a cool chick. Her name is Sam. Well she's nice as long as you don't get on your bad side. She lets you have a couple extra breaks to smoke if you need them, not that I smoke anymore." Sarah let Emily ramble on an on, enjoying listening and not having to say much. "Oh man one time Sam spazzed on us all though for not cleaning out the fitting rooms. 'You girls have to clean the fitting rooms! RAWR!'" Emily went into a hilariously high pitched voice for her imitation of Sam. "But yeah mostly she's cool people. Do you have a boyfriend?" Emily asked out of nowhere.<br /><br />Sarah was too shocked to answer at first, but timidly said, "Well no."<br /><br />"Oh do you have some hot dude you're going after then?"<br /><br />"Well not exactly." Sarah thought briefly of holding Jeff's hand, but then brought herself back to reality. Dreams aren't real, she reminded herself.<br /><br />"Oh well it's good to be single every once in while. My boyfriend can be a pain sometimes but he is mostly cool. Like this one time he forgot to do the dishes and I found him playing video games without a care in the world. I was going to yell at him but then he gave me these puppy dog eyes and I can't yell at him when he does that. He's just so forgetful sometimes but he always makes up for it. Last year he forgot it was Valentines Day, and I was so mad at him, but then at 11:59pm he shows up at my door with some roses that he got from who knows where and he gave them to me saying 'It's not too late for Valentines Day right'. So of course I had to forgive him, I mean that's just too cute right?"<br /><br />Sarah laughed, feeling a bit jealous of Emily's relationship, but also amused at how many words she could say so quickly. "Well I gotta get back to work." Emily collecting all her garbage from the table. "We should hang out sometime though, it was fun talking to you." Talking at me, Sarah thought. When Emily stood up Sarah noticed the bulge on Emily's stomach. She must've noticed Sarah looking because she said, "Oh yes I'm gonna be having a baby soon. I can't wait." She smiled. "Well talk to you later bye Sarah!"<br /><br />"Bye Emily," Sarah said trying to process all the information that had been thrown at her at once. She realized that Emily had asked her to hang out with her. That had never happened before in her life. She hadn't even really opened up to anyone yet, and she was already starting to make friends. It was hard for her to talk to people, but maybe she could. Maybe she should try to set up some time to get to know her coworkers better.<br /><br />Sarah worked the rest of the day with a little more happiness than normal. She clocked out and went to get her things from her locker in the break room. She was alone down, she had hoped she could see Emily or Jenn again, but that didn't look like it was going to happen. Sarah left for the day, but on her way out she swore she saw him again. That boy that looked so much like her Jeff. Yet when she looked back in the direction of the store she thought she saw him, there was no one there. Sarah hoped she wasn't starting to hallucinate or anything like that.<br /><br />Sarah drove home, her mind abuzz with the possibilities of having some real friends for the first time in her life, she almost forgot all about seeing the boy who looked like Jeff. When she got home there was no one there, and Sarah wasn't hungry enough for dinner yet, so she got on her computer.<br /><br />She logged onto her Dreamtube account, and she saw that she had a message. She had never gotten a message before, although she had gotten quite a few comments on her videos. She looked at the message, it was from someone called TimeInABottle. The message simply said: "your dreams are amazing. i hope i can get a dreamsight too so that i can share my dreams as well. your latest dream interested me the most. i sent you a friend request on here, i hope we can be friends and when i get a dreamsight, youll watch my dreams as well."<br /><br />Sarah giggled to herself over his typing style, and sent him a message back. It was much easier to be social over the internet, where she could make sure what she said was perfect before she sent it, and she didn't have to make eye contact with anyone. Sarah's message said, "It would be lovely to be friends with you. I'm glad you are enjoying my videos!" It was a short message, but she didn't think much had to be said.<br /><br />She accepted his friend request, and went to look at his profile page. He had no videos uploaded, but he had favorited all of Sarah's videos. Sarah felt kinda proud about that, like she was doing something good, even if the only thing she was doing was dreaming. She saw that he was 18, just like her. He had no profile picture up, and Sarah briefly wondered what he looked like. She logged off her computer, feeling slightly more hungry now.<br /><br />Now, for the first time since she had woken up this morning, Sarah found herself lost in her own thoughts about the dream she had the night before. As odd as it was she found herself wondering if Jeff had a crush on her. She wondered what he could've possibly had to tell her that he couldn't say in front of Lisa and Devon. It was probably silly to think of things in this way, but she couldn't help it. Her dreams were so realistic, it was hard to not think of them as real. That Jeff, Lisa, and Devon were real people. For a moment Sarah remembered the stuffed doll that Jeff had given her, and she almost wished it was here with her now. She missed it, even thought it wasn't real. Sarah gave up trying to think about her dreams, and turned the television on.<br /><br />Words this part: 1541<br />Words total: 11599stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-43716879524909968372011-11-02T18:27:00.010-04:002011-11-02T20:34:44.313-04:00Invisible, part 5Sarah spent the next few days before starting her new job watching some of the other videos on Dreamtube. Her own video seemed to be getting a lot of views and comments, most people saying her dreams were almost like movie. The other videos mostly consisted of people falling, or losing their teeth, or even a few naughtier dreams, those rated mature. It was so very interesting to look at other people's dreams to see inside their heads. It was like seeing a part of a person that you normally wouldn't get a chance to see. Even if Sarah didn't know these people, she felt as if she was growing closer to them.<br /><br />Sarah uploaded a couple of her other dreams to Dreamtube as well. One of them took place on a hiking trail she often climbed with a few of her friends. It was a pretty average dream for as far as Sarah's dreams were average. She took the paths that she knew so well up to the top of the mountain, where there was a little building waiting, that Sarah always called the castle. There they had a picnic before Sarah laid down to rest in her dream, waking up in the real world.<br /><br />Dreams like that were why Sarah loved dreaming so much. They were interesting while not being scary. They were extremely calming, and when she woke up she felt fully energized and ready for the day.<br /><br />The night before she started her new job though, Sarah could not sleep at all. She tossed and turned all night. Sarah was very nervous about starting a new job, having to meet new people, being in a new situation she had never been in before. She had been trying to not think about it, but she was going to have to work with a lot of people now. She was going to have to talk to them, she was going to have to be not so shy anymore. Sarah didn't know if she was capable of interacting with others on some kind of normal level, but she had to try.<br /><br />On very little sleep, Sarah got up that morning and got dressed for her orientation at her new job. She wore nice clothes, still wanting to make a good impression on her new bosses and employees. Her mother was still sleeping when Sarah left, she often was asleep until noon. Sarah left quietly, not wanting to disturb her mother's rest.<br /><br />When she arrived in front of the department store, Sarah was almost overcome with fear. She sat in her car for almost ten minutes, watching the seagulls in the parking lot and trying to calm herself down. "Everywhere else in the world has pigeons. We get seagulls." Sarah muttered to herself. She finally was calm enough to go inside for her orientation.<br /><br />After meeting with Debbie again, Sarah wondered to herself why she had ever been nervous. Debbie gave Sarah her work badge, showed her where and how to clock in. She showed Sarah around the store, while giving her some of the basic rules, which were all in the rule book she also gave to Sarah. Finally she showed her to the employee break room where Sarah could keep her things while she was working, and where she could spend her breaks if she so chose to. For the rest of the shift, Debbie told Sarah she would be learning how to use the register.<br /><br />Sarah was nervous at first at having to talk to customers, but Debbie helped her through it. She told Sarah to politely greet each guest, how to scan the items, how to fold and bag their clothes, and how to make change if the customer had cash, or how to take debit and credit cards. Sarah didn't like interacting with the customer's much. She had a hard time making eye contact with them. It took a lot of effort to talk to these complete strangers, but Sarah managed to do it.<br /><br />When her shift was over, Sarah was down in the break room collecting her belongings from her locker. She turned around and saw another girl, one she recognized as another cashier. "Hello! You're new here aren't you? I'm Jenn." The girl smiled at Sarah. She was taller than Sarah, with hair long and black. Her eyes were also dark, they almost looked like they were black as well. Still she didn't look imposing, she looked friendly.<br /><br />"Oh hello. I'm Sarah." Sarah said nervously looking at the papers in her hand to avoid making eye contact.<br /><br />"Well it's nice to meet you Sarah. If you need help with anything just let me know!" Jenn bounded out of the room with more energy than it seemed necessary. Sarah giggled slightly at the overactive girl. Perhaps she would be able to make friends with the people at her new job. Perhaps they could all help her overcome her shyness.<br /><br />Sarah went home that night and ate dinner alone. Her mother was working overtime the next few days, her store was doing inventory and that always seemed to take forever. Sarah realized that she would probably have to do similar things at her own store. Sarah wondered if she would be able to do all the things that was required of her.<br /><br />That night instead of reading a book before bed, Sarah went over her copy of the rules for her new job. They weren't very interesting and Sarah was sure she wouldn't break them. The one rule that bothered her was the fact that you couldn't wear jeans to work. Everyday at the factory Sarah had worn jeans, and now she could never wear them. Sarah loved jeans, they were so comfortable and easy to wear. Sarah thought to herself, well at least I don't have to wear a uniform or something.<br /><br />That night Sarah slept much easier, all of her nervous energy from the day before seemed to have vanished. She closed her eyes gently to fall asleep, and when she opened them again...<br /><br />"Hey Sarah!" Jeff was driving his car down the highway. Sarah was sitting shotgun, and in the back were her friends Lisa and Devon. "Are you ready for the state fair?"<br /><br />In the back of her mind Sarah remembered talking about this at the picnic she had in her dream the night before. "Of course!" Sarah exclaimed.<br /><br />Lisa and Devon giggled from the backseat. Lisa was blonde with green eyes, while Devon was a red head covered in freckles. Recently Sarah had seen a change in her two friends, they seemed closed to each other. Sarah wondered briefly if they were dating each other now? Sarah never saw one without the other recently. Sarah looked at how close they were sitting together, and felt a little jealous. Sarah had never had a boyfriend. She had never really wanted one before either, but seeing other people happy like that, well Sarah wanted a bit of that happiness for herself.<br /><br />The arrived at the fair, and spent quite some time driving around looking for parking. They finally parked in the back of a lot, pretty much as far away from the fair as possible. The sun was shining brightly and it was very warm out so Sarah didn't mind the walk. She let the warm rays of the sun soak into her skin.<br /><br />Sarah and Jeff walked slightly in front of Lisa and Devon. Sarah glanced behind her and noticed that they were holding hands. Jealously flamed up in her heart again, but Sarah tried to quickly stop it. She didn't want to be jealous of her friends, she wanted to be happy for them. Jeff seemed to find something wrong in Sarah's disposition, because he grabbed Sarah's hand. "I don't want you to get lost in the crowd!" He said as he took her hand. Sarah thought that was a funny excuse, especially since Jeff was always holding her hand. She wondered if perhaps there was some more meaning behind his hand holding.<br /><br />The fair was fun. Lisa and Devon wandered off somewhere by themselves, so Jeff and Sarah spent most of the time together. Jeff bought a couple of tickets, and they rode the ferris wheel together. Sarah wasn't exactly fond of heights, but she knew she was safe. Everytime the ferris wheel reached the top Jeff would point out all the things around them. "Look Sarah! You can practically see the ocean from here!" Sarah looked where he was pointing, and in the distances she could see the beach with the tide slowly rolling in.<br /><br />After that Jeff got them both some funnel cake. Sarah loved to eat funnel cake, but it always seemed to be so messy. The delicious taste of the dough with just powered sugar on top made Sarah forget about being clean and just enjoyed it. She didn't care if she got a bit messy, they were at a fair having fun after all.<br /><br />There were a bunch of stalls set up where people were selling various things and a few games. There was a balloon dart game set up, the prizes were a bunch of cute stuffed animals. Jeff tried his luck at this game, throwing the dart with more force than Sarah thought it needed. A balloon on the side popped and almost made Sarah jump. Jeff actually won! He picked out a cute stuffed cat and handed it to Sarah. "I don't need a stuffed animal, and I know how much you like cats." His face seemed to turn slightly red as Sarah took the stuffed cat and smiled brightly.<br /><br />"Oh thank you Jeff!" Sarah hugged him tightly. He took her hand again as they continued to walk through the stalls.<br /><br />Day turned to night almost too quickly for Sarah. She was having so much fun that she didn't want this day to ever end. Devon and Lisa joined them again as they walked towards a hill just outside of the fair where everyone else seemed to be heading. They all sat down together, and looked up towards the sky. Soon the sky was lit up with color and noise as the fireworks display went off. The colors all collided together, greens oranges and reds all mixing together in the sky. Sarah loved the fireworks, even if she didn't like the noise all that much. She was distracted from the display in the sky as she looked over to her side and saw Devon had his arm around Lisa. She saw his face looking at Lisa, and then he went in to kiss her. Sarah looked away quickly, not wanting to interrupt the intimate moment. She looked up at the sky as the fireworks finale went off, the whole sky alight with brilliant colors.<br /><br />After the show was over, they all started to walk back to the car when Jeff suddenly pulled Sarah to the side. "Sarah come here real quick." Jeff took her hand and they almost ran behind one of the stalls. "Sarah" he said once they were out of sight of everyone else. "There is something I need to tell you."<br /><br />Words this part: 1863<br />Words Total: 10058stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-24315167466920433402011-11-02T00:29:00.008-04:002011-11-02T01:53:05.124-04:00Invisible, part 4"My..f..f..father?" Sarah stuttered.<br /><br />"Of course, why else would we come here, you want to see him don't you?" Jeff smiled innocently.<br /><br />Sarah hadn't thought of her father in quite some time. She remembered that day, 10 long years ago that her father had been ripped from her life. It was in early November when the freak snow storm hit. Her father had been driving back from his job after working late that night. The road had been icy and her father had been driving a bit too fast. His car spun out and crashed into a barricade. It took a long time for the ambulance to get there because of the bad weather, and by the time they arrived he was already gone.<br /><br />Sarah had been awoken that night by the phone ringing, then her mother crying out in grief. She climbed down the stairs and saw her mother holding the phone sobbing into it. She ran to her mother and cried with her without even know what was wrong. She cried because she had never seen her strong mother cry before. She cried because she didn't know what was wrong. When her mother calmed down enough to tell her that her father was gone, Sarah felt she couldn't possibly have any more tears left, yet she did. Everything that happened after that was such a whirl of events, yet all Sarah could really remember was the sick feeling in her stomach that nothing could ever be the same again. Perhaps that she could never be happy again.<br /><br />"I...do what to see him again." Sarah finally managed to say. She felt almost as if she was going to cry just at the thought of seeing her father's warm smile again. The chance to say goodbye to him, the chance to tell him how much she loved him. It almost seemed too good to be true.<br /><br />Jeff took her hand immediately and they took off into the tunnel, except for now the tunnel didn't seem to be so dark. They entered into the tunnel and all at once it didn't seem to be a tunnel anymore. It looked more like a parking garage. Sarah turned back to see if the entrance had changed but Jeff reached towards her face and said "We must never look back, only forward."<br /><br />The parking garage they were in was empty except for an door at the very end. When they reached it, Sarah saw stairs leading down. These stairs didn't look like stairs one might find in a parking garage, they were clean and they spiraled downwards majestically. It was much brighter in here than it had been previously. Jeff had already started down the stairs, and Sarah had no choice but to follow him ever downwards.<br /><br />The stairs seem to last forever, and Sarah almost felt dizzy climbing them down. As they got closer to the bottom the air felt like it was getting colder, and the lights where almost imperceptibly getting darker. Sarah started to feel scared, something she wasn't used to in her dreams. Normally they were happy dreams, playing with Jeff, visiting her other friends. This however felt oppressive. Even the walls seemed like they were moving in closer on the two of them. Trapping them in side. Sarah almost wanted to scream but she stopped herself.<br /><br />At the bottom there was another door. "Almost there Sarah dear." Jeff opened the door for Sarah, and Sarah walked through.<br /><br />On the other side was not something Sarah had expected. It looked like the dark murky halls of some high school. Scattered everywhere within the halls were bodies, hundreds of bodies all in varies stages of decay. Sarah felt the bile in her stomach rising, but forced it back down. "What..what is this?"<br /><br />Jeff didn't answer. Jeff was no longer with her. Sarah turned around to see where he went, but the door was gone. Sarah had no choice but to trudge forward. It was terrifying, Sarah could swear she could hear some of the bodies moaning, and some slight signs of movement. Sarah broke out into a panicked run.<br /><br />There was a door at the end of the long hallway. It looked almost like her the door to her mother's bedroom. Sarah burst through the door. She quickly slammed it behind her and stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She was in what looked like a theater. About halfway down the there was a what looked like a young man sitting in one of the seats, staring at the empty stage. "Hello?" Sarah called out meekly.<br /><br />The young man turned around and smiled. Sarah stood there for a second, feeling deja vu for a moment. She knew that face, she had seen it before. Recognition dawned on her as she cried out "DADDY!"<br /><br />Her father stood up and opened his arms. Sarah ran into them and they hugged for the first time in ten years. "Oh Sarah my precious girl. I've missed you so much."<br /><br />"Oh Daddy." Sarah said, her mind blanked of all the things she had wanted to say to him. Now she felt that those things probably didn't even need to be said. All that needed to be said was said in their embrace. Sarah looked into his face, remembering those eyes that looked so much like her own. Seeing him again was almost too much for Sarah to bare, but she didn't cry she was too busy smiling.<br /><br />They didn't talk for a long time. Sarah was happy just to be able to be close to her father again, and didn't feel much need for words. Finally she managed to say "I love you daddy."<br /><br />"I love you too my Princess." He smiled softly. He released their embrace and stared back towards the stage. Sarah looked towards it as well. She could almost swear she could hear some music playing. "Isn't it a beautiful show?"<br /><br />Sarah looked at the stage, and although it was still empty, she could swear she could see a young woman dancing on it. It was something she could only catch faint glimmers of, but it seemed to be there.<br /><br />Sarah couldn't think of anyway to really answer her father, so she just nodded. "Where is this? Why are you here?" She managed to say after awhile.<br /><br />"I'm waiting."<br /><br />A loud noise sounded through the theater. Sarah closed her eyes tightly, and when she opened them she was laying back in her bed. She sat up quickly and saw her mother standing in the doorway. "Oh I'm sorry Princess did I wake you up? I was just checking to see where you were."<br />Sarah's mom quickly and quietly closed the door.<br /><br />For a few moments Sarah relived what had happened in her dream in her head. She was sad that the dream had ended so quickly, and she wanted to hold onto the memories. She went to run her fingers through her hair when she felt something hard. "Oh yes!" Sarah exclaimed out loud remembering the Dreamsight she had been wearing. Sarah quickly got up and plugged in the recording part of the Dreamsight into her computer. The file quickly uploaded and she was given three options, one to save it to her computer, one to upload it directly to Dreamtube, and a third to edit it. Sarah didn't want to upload it quite yet, so she just clicked on the option to save it.<br /><br />Sarah rewatched the video. She felt strange watching her own dream, but it was amazing how much of the feelings were captured onto the device. The strange transitions from room to room, the oppressive nature of the staircase, the horrifying whispers from the bodies in the hallway. When Sarah finally got to the part where she saw her father, she started to cry the tears she could not shed in her dream. After the video ended Sarah sat there in silence for sometime.<br /><br />That's when she got a strange idea in her head. Her mother! She would probably want to see this dream as well. Sarah noticed it was almost 1am, but she figured that her mother would probably still be awake. Sarah decided it would probably just be easiest to upload the file to Dreamtube so they could watch it together on her mother's computer. Sarah went to upload it and was prompted for her log-in. Sarah created a new account under the name of SarahsDreamDiary. The file uploaded quickly and Sarah hurried into her mother's room to show her the dream.<br /><br />As Sarah knocked on her mother's bedroom door, she felt nervous about showing her mother the file. She didn't know how her mother would react to seeing it. Well she thought that at least it would remind her mom of the good times they all used to share.<br /><br />"Ma, there's something I want to show you." Sarah said after her mother let her in her room. "I had a dream while you were at work. I think you want to see it."<br /><br />"Well ok," Tina agreed and let her daughter on her computer. "So you already broke in the Dreamsight eh?" She smiled down at her daughter. Tina wondered if Sarah remembered what today was. Well she might not, she was so young at the time.<br /><br />Tina watched at the video started to play. It was a surreal dream to be sure, although some of the dialogue going on between her daughter and the young man in the dream was strange. Going to the afterlife? To see Sarah's father? Well it was a dream, let's just see what happens, she thought to herself.<br /><br />When Sarah got to the theater Tina let out a gasp. When he turned around she said, "That's him! That's exactly what he looked like!" Tina couldn't believe it, it was her husband. He looked exactly like he did the first time she had ever laid eyes on him. She watched the rest of the video, crying silently. When the view focused on the stage, Tina swore it looked very familiar as well. The video ended, and Tina sat down on her bed, wiping the tears from her eyes.<br /><br />"You know Sarah," she said patting her bed beckoning Sarah to sit beside her. "It's been ten years exactly now, since that day your father passed away. I think you must've remembered that, that's why you had that dream."<br /><br />Sarah sat beside her mother. She hadn't really remembered, but maybe somewhere in her memories she really had. Tina went on "Did I ever tell you the story about how I met your father?"<br /><br />"Well no, not that I can remember." Sarah said sheepishly, slightly ashamed that she had never asked her mother for that information.<br /><br />"It was back when I was in high school. Did you know I used to be a dancer?" Sarah shook her head no. "Well I was until I broke my ankle in college, well anyway. I was performing in a stage show of the Nutcracker. I had worked so hard and I think I danced very well that night. I must've because after the show a young man came up to me and asked me for an interview. he was reviewing the show for his college newspaper. That one interview turned into a lot more, that man was your father."<br /><br />Sarah sat silently, realizing how close her dream had been to reality. Sarah's mom went on "We dated for a long time, and your father came to all my shows. There was nothing he loved more than to watch me dance. When I broke my ankle and realized I would probably never be able to dance again, he just held me in his arms and cried with me. That's when I realized that I loved him." Tina felt the tears coming towards her eyes again. She quickly wiped them away and smiled at Sarah. "Thank you for sharing that dream with me Princess." Tina hugged her daughter tightly, and remembered all the good times she used to share with her husband. That dream, something that would normally be a fleeting memories, was now a treasure shared between mother and daughter.<br /><br />Words This Part: 2037<br />Words Total: 8195stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-19014116567072915732011-11-01T18:15:00.007-04:002011-11-01T18:49:18.273-04:00Invisible, part 3Sarah tried to shake off the feeling that she had seen someone she couldn't have possibly seen, after all it was probably just someone how looked like her dream friend, not her actually dream friend. That would be silly after all. Sarah cheered up thinking about her new job and decided that maybe, just this once, she would treat herself to something special.<br /><br />The electronic store wasn't very crowded considering it was still early in the day and most people were still at work. Sarah hadn't spent much money at all during her brief time unemployed, and since she had so much money saved up, she wanted to splurge a bit and celebrate getting a new job. She made her way to the back of the store where she saw a display with Dreamsights on it. There were two different models, the only difference being how much storage space they had in them. Sarah of course bought the slightly more expensive one with more memory. Considering how long her dreams could be, she was sure she'd need all the memory space she could get.<br /><br />At check out Sarah felt a surge of happiness in herself. She rarely ever bought anything for herself, there was rarely anything she ever really wanted. But this, this was something that she really wanted. Being able to revisit her dreams, allowing other people to see her dream world, it excited her. Maybe then she could see if other people had similar dreams to her, maybe then she wouldn't feel so alone. Sarah thanked the cashier and hurried to her car.<br /><br />When Sarah arrived home she found her mother sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee and reading some news articles on her tablet. "MA GUESS WHAT?!" Sarah burst out.<br /><br />"You got the job?!" Sarah's mom smiled sweetly.<br /><br />"YES!" Sarah hugged her mother "And guess what else, I got this cool new device, it can record your dreams!" Sarah almost felt more excited about the Dreamsight than getting the new job.<br /><br />Sarah's mom looked at her daughter, seeing a spark of happiness that had been long lost in her. Tina Pinkerton had been worried about her daughter for such a long time, seeing her fall into an ever deeper depression. Sarah had done nothing but sleep for a long time, but now she seemed to almost shine with happiness. Tina hugged her daughter back, hoping that perhaps now her Princess would stay shining.<br /><br />"Oh Princess I'm so proud of you." She said while Sarah broke away from their hug to show her the Dreamsight. She explained all about it, and then when asked told her mother about her new job and when she would be starting. Tina almost regretting seeing how late it was getting because soon she would have to go to work, and it had been a long time since she could remember having such a good conversations with Sarah.<br /><br />After Sarah's mom left for work, Sarah wanted to try out the Dreamsight as soon as possible. She felt almost too excited to sleep, but she had to try. She took the Dreamsight out of it's packaging, and read the directions. She found that the Dreamsight could be used wirelessly, for people who tossed and turned a lot in their sleep and didn't want to end up wrapped up in the cords. Sarah decided to use it that way, since she always seemed to move a lot in her sleep. She set up the recording part of the device on her desk where it was sure to be able to get the signal. Sarah put the headphone part of the Dreamsight on her head, and was amazed at how comfortable they were. Of course they had to be or else no one would be able to sleep in them. Sarah laid her head down on her pillow, and after not sleeping for many days fell into a deep sleep almost immediately.<br /><br /><br />It was cold and dark. Above her there was a huge opening to what looked like a cave, or perhaps more like a man made tunnel. The opening had a sign above it, which simply stated "Afterlife". As dark as it was out here, the inside of the tunnel looked darker still the blackness seemed to permeate outwards enveloping everything around it. "Are you ready?" said a familiar voice behind her.<br /><br />"Why are we here? What happened with my mom?" Sarah said anxiously, not wanting to go into the darkness"<br /><br />"She's fine Sarah. And don't you want to see him?" Jeff came into her view, he was wearing a dark suit and tie. Sarah looked down at herself and found herself wearing a plain black dress. It almost felt that she was dressed for a funeral.<br /><br />"See who?" Sarah felt like she already knew the answer to that question.<br /><br />"Your daddy of course!"<br /><br />Words this part: 813<br />Words Total: 6158stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-54704732328976580382011-11-01T06:06:00.011-04:002011-11-01T07:41:53.837-04:00Invisible, part 2Jeff Durham stood before Sarah with a worried look on his face. "Sarah, I'm so glad you're here, it's your mother."<br /><br />"What? What's going on?" Sarah was used to this world by now. This world so different from the waking one. Here she had friends, but here things didn't always make sense. Scenes sometimes shifted in and out of each other without warning. But sometimes things were more coherent. It seemed like this was going to be one of those times.<br /><br />"She's sick Sarah. We have to go see her!" Jeff took her by the hand and they started to run towards Sarah's house. It wasn't like the one in the waking world, it reminded her a lot of the house she had lived in when she was very young.<br /><br />They burst through the door into the house. There were dozens of blankets strung up making a kind of a fort in the living room. Sarah pulled the blankets apart and she saw her mother cuddled up in yet more blankets. She was curled up near a heater, but she still looked cold. "Ma!" Sarah ran towards her mother but she held up a hand to stop her daughter.<br /><br />"Sarah, you have to go downtown and get the medicine. Jeff knows the way. Please help me..." Sarah's moms voice degraded into coughs. Sarah felt her heart breaking for her mother. She'd do anything for her, anything to make her feel better again. Looking at her so sick, it was almost too much for her to bare.<br /><br />Jeff grabbed Sarah's hand again and pulled her out of the blanket tent. He handed her a long trench coat. He winked at her and said "We'll make it a mission. We'll be like spies!" Sarah would normally complain that they shouldn't be goofing off at a time like this, but she knew Jeff better than that. She put on the trench coat without saying a word and they were off running again.<br /><br />They finally stopped running at the bus station that was going to take them downtown. Sarah was surprised when it wasn't the city bus that came to pick them up, but instead a tour bus. "Wha?" Sarah tried to say but Jeff hushed her.<br /><br />"Spies should be quieter" He whispered in her ear.<br /><br />They road the tour bus around for a bit, a man in the front pointing out the scenery. Sarah was confused, but just went along for the ride. The bus eventually stopped at a very crowded shopping mall and everyone got out. Jeff took Sarah's hand again and they headed towards what looked like a resturant, or perhaps a dancing hall? It was like a combination of the both. It was extremely crowded. Normally Sarah would feel scared with so many people around, but as long as Jeff held her hand she felt safe here.<br /><br />The crowd danced and pushed against the two of them. Suddenly Sarah's grip on Jeff's hand loosened, and they were separated in the huge crowd. Sarah felt the fear sinking back in her heart, then remembered why they were there. They were there to get the medicine for her sick mother. Worry crowed out the fear in her heart. How would she find the medicine without Jeff? She looked around for him frantically. She saw him at the very back of the dance hall restaurant. There were a bunch of tables sent up in the back and he was talking with a man who was also wearing a trench coat. She had to get to Jeff. She pushed through the crowd as if her life depended on it. She felt like she was hardly making any progress, when suddenly someone grabbed her shoulders. "Sarah!" The voice whispered in her head.<br /><br />"SARAH!"<br /><br />Sarah opened her eyes and saw her mother standing over her bed shaking her gently. "Sarah you have to go to work sweetie." Normally Sarah's mom never woke her up, since Sarah hated to be waken up. She snapped at anyone who did it, but not today. Seeing her mom healthy and smiling almost made Sarah want to cry.<br /><br />"Thanks ma! I'm up." Sarah sat up and her mom started to leave the room. Suddenly she called out, "WAIT!"<br /><br />"What's wrong Princess?" Sarah's mom looked worried.<br /><br />"Oh it's nothing...I just wanted to give you a hug before I went to work." Sarah leaped out of bed with more energy than she normally had and gave her mother a huge hug. Her mother warmly returned the hug. Sarah felt so safe, so happy that her mother wasn't sick. She never wanted to see her mom so sick and venerable again. She released her mom and then looked over at her clock. "Ohmygosh I'm running so late."<br /><br />Sarah's mom chuckled slightly at her perpetually late daughter. Sarah rushed to get dressed and ran to her car, too worried about being late to worry about the meeting she was going to have with her boss. As she drove to work though, her worries about getting fired started to fill her head. She tried to distract herself by thinking about her latest dream. Jeff had been there, but Jeff was always there. She wondered if she had gotten her mom the medicine she needed, but that was silly, it was just a dream after all. Her real mother was fine. Sarah had so many worries on her mind, she felt as if she was going to have a panic attack.<br /><br />Sarah arrived at the factory, and she sat in her car breathing heavily, trying to calm herself down. She didn't want to get out of the car and face whatever was going to happen in there. She wanted to start her car and just drive far away. She scolded herself, she couldn't run away from her problems. She had been doing that all her life, escaping to her normally happier dream life. She had to face this head on, and deal with the consequences of her actions.<br /><br />Seagulls cried out in the parking lot, feeding on garbage that had been scattered around. Sarah looked at them and laughed, remembering how her mother always called them garbage gulls instead of seagulls. Then she remembered the joke her mother had told her when she was much younger. Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Cause if they flied over the bay, they'd be bagels!<br /><br />Sarah burst out laughing in her car, probably looking insane to anyone who happened to pass by. With that joke in her head she finally had the courage to get out of her car. She walked in the front door, showing her employee badge to the security guard just inside the door. She didn't get much further inside the building before her boss stopped her.<br /><br />"Sarah, please come into my office." Enoch said in an agitated tone. Sarah gulped and headed into the office.<br /><br />"Sarah, you did a no call no show yesterday, you know that is unaccepted right?" Sarah nodded as Enoch took out her employee file from a drawer. "You were written up twice before for being tardy. You had your final warning that if you were late again you would be terminated."<br /><br />Sarah blinked back tears that were coming towards her eyes. "But...I...uhh..."<br /><br />"Sarah, please no more excuses. I'm afraid we have to let you go." Enoch said without much emotion in his voice.<br /><br />The air in the room felt unnaturally cold to Sarah. Her mind raced trying to think of what was the proper thing to do in this situation, what she should say. She wanted to scream, she wanted to punch Enoch in his face. Sarah pulled herself together and said, "Thank you very much Mr. Gomez. I appreciate the work experience I gained while employed here. " She held out her hand to shake. Enoch looked at her with a indifferent expression plastered across his face. He shook her hand, and then Sarah put her employee badge on his desk and left.<br /><br />She went to her car, her hands shaking so bad that she could hardly open the door. She drove home trying her best to drive safely since she was so upset she could hardly see straight. She didn't cry not yet. She drove not thinking of anything, let the world race past her.<br /><br />Sarah arrived home and parked her car, and unlocked the front door. Her mother was standing in the hallway looking through some mail. Sarah looked at her helplessly and cried out "Ma!" and ran towards her. She broke down utterly and cried into her mother's arms.<br /><br />"Shhh Sarah it's ok, I'm here for you. It's ok." Sarah felt comforted in her mother's arm. She felt all the stress and worry over the past few days start to melt away as she cried.<br /><br />"They fired me mommy...they fired me I'm so sorry."<br /><br />"You don't have to apologize to me Princess. It will be ok, we'll make it through this. We've made it through everything else. Everything will be ok."<br /><br />The reassurances from her mother made Sarah feel so much better, but she continued to let her mother hold her awhile longer. Somehow it felt like her whole entire life was torn down before her in one day. But here she always felt safe. It would be ok, Sarah thought. Somehow it would be ok.<br /><br />After that day that Sarah's life feel down around her, she spent a few days just cooped up in her room. She had several sleepless nights just thinking about how much of a failure she had been to her mother. How was she supposed to help her mother out now? Then the realization came to Sarah that nothing would change if she just stayed in the house. She had to go out there and find a new job. She couldn't let her mother carry to burden of paying for everything. She knew her mother would manage to make it work somehow, but that wouldn't be fair. Sarah didn't want to take all her mother's money. She was an adult now, and she had to pay for herself.<br /><br />Sarah also felt like this could be a turning point in her life. She had always been so shy, always keeping everyone out. Now she could get a new job, and perhaps, she could become a new person. She could break out of the shell that she had been in for so long and maybe make some friends. Real ones, not like the ones she had in her dreams. This could be the best thing that had ever happened to her. Sarah felt so much better, and motivated to get out and find a new job.<br /><br />The next few days were a storm of filling out applications and making phone calls. Finally Sarah got an interview at a department store near where her mother worked. Sarah dressed in her best clothes, tried and failed to make her hair look normal, and made her way to the interview.<br /><br />The weather was starting to cool down now that summer was winding down. The leaves were starting to get tints of yellow and orange. This was Sarah's favorite time of year, yet it always seemed like she had little time to enjoy it before winter stormed it's way in. Sarah breathed in the cool air letting it refresh herself. She didn't want to be nervous for this interview. She needed this job. She breathed in again and enjoyed the autumn sights. No, there was no point in getting nervous now, she thought to herself, just be yourself and you'll be fine.<br /><br />Sarah walked in the department store, and turned towards the customer service desk. "Um well I have an interview today with a Ms. Coldwell." The cashier at the desk nodded and made a phone call. Soon a tall lady with blonde hair all wrapped up in a bun came out.<br /><br />"Ms Pinkerton?" The lady said. Sarah nodded. "Nice to meet you, I am Debra Coldwell, come with me please."<br /><br />They started walking, and in fact went out the front doors. Ms Coldwell started talking to Sarah. "Well have you ever worked in a department store before? Do you have customer experience?"<br /><br />"Well no, but my mom is the manager for the Macy's so I know a lot about the business."<br /><br />Ms Coldwell bent down to pick up some garbage that was in front of the store. Sarah noticed some more near her and she bent down to pick it up as well. Ms Coldwell gave a slight smile, and went on with her questions. "Well you know then that this job isn't easy, do you think you are up to the task?"<br /><br />"I can do it! I know I don't have a lot of experience, but I'm willing to learn." Sarah felt slightly desperate, and she was trying to not let it show in her voice.<br /><br />Ms Coldwell laughed slightly and lead Sarah back inside the building. "Well do you have reliable transportation here?"<br /><br />"Oh yes I have my own car." Sarah smiled. She couldn't tell if the interview was going well or not. It was probably the strangest interview she had ever been on.<br /><br />"Do you think you'll stay with the company for a long time?" Ms Coldwell continued with the questions as they walked down a department filled with women's clothing.<br /><br />"Well I'll stay as long as you'll have me."Sarah laughed to herself.<br /><br />"And it said on your resume that you were fired from you last job, why was that?"<br /><br />"Ummm..." Sarah felt full of anxiety. She had been fearing this question. "I was late too many times. But I won't let that happen again. I am determined now!"<br /><br />"Sarah I like you. I like your attitude. Do you think you can be in Wednesday at ten am for your orientation?"<br /><br />Sarah was flabbergasted. Had she just been hired right on the spot? She must have done something right, but she felt like she hadn't done anything really impressive. "Of course! I can be here earlier if you need me."<br /><br />"Oh that's ok Sarah. Make sure you bring your ID with you on Wednesday." Ms Coldwell smiled at Sarah. Sarah felt joy spreading into her heart. She had done it. She wanted to cheer and run up and down the isles.<br /><br />"Thank you so much Ms Coldwell. I'll be here Wednesday." Sarah shook Ms Coldwell's hand.<br /><br />"You can call me Debbie, we are going to be working together from now on." Sarah nodded and smiled happily. She thought to herself that this was going to work out well. She liked Debbie so much more than Enoch at her last job. This job seemed so much better than her last job. She didn't say that out loud, instead she said her goodbyes and made her way to the door.<br /><br />Sarah was nearly skipping by the time she got to the front door she was so ecstatic. When was about to leave she turned around to take another good look at the place that would be her job from now on. That's when she saw something that knocked the wind right out of chest and almost made her call out before she got ahold of herself. She turned around and made her way out the door calming herself down. She couldn't have seen what she thought she just saw. There was no way that Jeff could be here at this department store.<br /><br />Words This Part: 2581<br />Words Total: 5345stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34370275.post-85011485609878601802011-11-01T01:22:00.016-04:002011-11-01T03:15:22.799-04:00Invisible, part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI9C2m430QkC_8Ro2rIjEqI5xSqcwW6OQ9PV9HZOCd4D-yA5Dvi23iAkdR-CbVrmpp-6Q3kia8od7dsiq8DhtSOBzaNk4tcFTjtP28s9yJGfHY_YOF7uu27vi30hxwG8R_CGGz/s1600/Participant2_180_180_white.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI9C2m430QkC_8Ro2rIjEqI5xSqcwW6OQ9PV9HZOCd4D-yA5Dvi23iAkdR-CbVrmpp-6Q3kia8od7dsiq8DhtSOBzaNk4tcFTjtP28s9yJGfHY_YOF7uu27vi30hxwG8R_CGGz/s400/Participant2_180_180_white.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669922498042420466" border="0" /></a><br />Hello! This is my NaNoWriMo novel. I will be uploading all of them as I write them. Keep in mind this is only the first draft and there will be lots of grammatical, spelling, and other errors.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Invisible, part 1</span><br /><br /><br />You could say that she was a lonely girl. When she was younger she never had a lot of friends. She preferred to stay inside and read books while the other kids when outside and played. She always sat alone at lunch, and always seemed to sleep through most of her classes. After she got older and graduated from school, she knew things had to change. Sarah Pinkleton knew she couldn't always live in her own head.<br /><br />Sarah was shy, painfully shy. It was hard for her to social with those around her. She never knew why she was so shy, it was just something she had always been. She felt that she didn't need the company of others while there was another world out there. The world that was her own dreams. It was true that everyone dreamed, but Sarah felt that her dreams were different. Her dreams always seemed to take place in the same locations, with the same people around her. In her dreams she felt fulfilled, something she never felt when she was awake.<br /><br />Now that Sarah was an "adult" she had to make a place for herself in the world. She didn't want to go to college and have to deal with people everyday. So many people. Instead she chose to start working. At first she got a job at a factory where she didn't have to talk to anyone. She worked on the factory line, packing sheets into boxes. She did this for 8 hours everyday, with a 30 minute break for lunch. Sarah hated lunch most of all, but she mostly spent it alone. It felt like high school all over again, only this time she was making money for being there, and she wasn't forced to talk to anyone. She spent most of her time day dreaming about the other life she lead, the one from her dreams.<br /><br />You could say this is when Sarah started to spiral downwards. When she wasn't at work she was sleeping. Dreaming of a land far from the one we are on now. She started showing up late for work because she didn't want to leave her dream land, she didn't want to be in this waking world. Then she started not going to work at all. Everything came crashing down around her on the fifth of January, when she was woken up by her mother.<br /><br />"SARAH!" her mother called out to her, standing in her doorway. Sarah still lived with her mother. Just the two of them made up their little family after Sarah's father had passed away when she was younger. Now that Sarah was an adult she was helping pay some bills, but not much else had changed.<br /><br />Sarah blearily opened her eyes. "Huh wha?" She was still halfway in her dreamworld, not quiet awake yet.<br /><br />"It's your boss, on the phone." Sarah's mom was normally a kind woman, but now she sounded slightly agitated. Sarah groaned and got up to answer the phone.<br /><br />"Hello?" Sarah was nervous. She hadn't gone into work today, and she hadn't called in to let them know she wasn't coming in either.<br /><br />"Ms. Pinkleton, I need to see you as soon as possible, we need to discuss some things." The voice was of her boss, Enoch Gomez. Sarah told him that she would be there tomorrow and they could talk then.<br /><br />As soon as Sarah got off the phone her mother was waiting for her. "Sarah what's going on? Why is your boss calling you? I thought you had today off? He sounded angry with you."<br /><br />"I ummm," Sarah stumbled over her words and sighed. "I think I'm gonna be fired Ma. I was supposed to work today but I uh forgot." Sarah didn't like lying to her mother, but it was easier than telling the truth right now. "I'm sorry Ma. I know we need the money right now, I'll get another job I promise!"<br /><br />Sarah's mother looked very concerned. "Sarah, I don't...I just...what's going on?"<br /><br />Sarah looked at her feet, feeling shame in her heart. She felt like she was letting down her mother, the only person in the whole world who loved and cared about her unconditionally. The woman who was stronger than anyone else Sarah knew in the world. Sarah couldn't seem to find the words to say to her mother, she just kept trying to speak but found no words coming out.<br /><br />"Sarah look, I have to go to work now, but we'll discuss this when I get home. Please try to understand I'm really worried about you. It's just...well...we'll talk about this later Princess." Sarah's mom gave her a quick hug and left for work.<br /><br />Sarah felt so much guilt laying on her shoulders she could barely stand. Her mother had always been so kind to her. After Sarah's father had died in a car accident when was just a little girl, it was up to her mom to raise her by herself. She had worked two jobs for most of the time. Even with working two jobs she had always been there for Sarah. If there was a school play her mom was there. If Sarah was sick and needed to stay home from school her mom was there. Her mom had always been concerned about her. She remembered with a slight smile the times her mom had forced her to go outside. Sarah had spent a lot of time as a child sitting in her house's basement reading books. Her mom put a chair outside and made her sit outside and read. It probably looked really comical, but Sarah didn't mind going outside to read, except when the wind would turn over the pages she was reading.<br /><br />Remembering her childhood brought back other, not so happy memories though. Sarah had gone to a lot of psychiatrists when she was little. Her mother had always been worried about her always being a loner. Sarah didn't seem to mind, but her mother was always so concerned about her behavior. Sarah felt as if she had turned out alright, she never really felt that her lack of friends was a bad thing. She just simply wanted to be left alone, and only interacted with others when needed. And oh how she dreaded those moments that she had to do a class project or anything else with the other children.<br /><br />Now that she was older, Sarah felt that not having friends was even better. She had a lot of money from her job, and since she wasn't spending it going out with friends, she could help her mother out. With Sarah's help, her mom had been able to quit her second job and only work one. Sarah didn't want to lose this job and make her mother work two jobs again. The poor woman had always been working so hard for Sarah, Sarah felt that she had to do anything she could to help her mother out. Even if she did lose this job she had to find another one right away so her mother didn't have to work all those long hours again. So many long hours that her mother was unable to do anything but work and then come home sleep, and do it all over it again the next day. That was no kind of life to lead.<br /><br />Sarah, now finally awake, felt that she should do something productive with her time. Sarah loved to be neat and everything had to be in perfect order. She made her bed and went downstairs to the kitchen. There she found the load of dishes from the night before still in the dish washer, so she put them away before she made herself a sandwich to eat. Sarah had a very peculiar taste in food. Her sandwich contained turkey, strawberry jam, and chex cereal. It was something her mother had made for her when she was smaller, and it was something she never stopped eating, it was so delicious.<br /><br />After her sandwich, Sarah decided to take a shower. She washed her long brown hair while looking down at her slightly chubby body. She somehow always wondered if she had been skinnier, with beautiful blonde hair, with perfect shining white teeth, if she would have been as shy as she is now. Instead she was chubby with annoying curly brown hair, and teeth that weren't perfectly straight and shiny. She sighed and thought that even if her outside was different, she probably wouldn't be any different on the inside.<br /><br />When she had dried off and changed into some clean clothes, Sarah sat on the couch and decided to watch some daytime television, something she rarely ever got a chance to do. She flipped on the tv, and saw some daytime talk show. There was a lady and a man looking over a device on a table, the woman talking avidly about it. "So then you can watch your dreams back, and even upload them to the new website, dreamtube!" Those words caught Sarah's attention, and she rewound the show slightly to the beginning of the segment to see what they were talking about.<br /><br />"So today we have Scott Brenner, the creator of Dreamsight!" the woman clammered on about joyfully. "He is going to show us how to use this clever dream catching device, and how you can show the world your dreams!" Sarah was stunned at how the woman could say everything with so much excitement in her voice, but honestly this excited Sarah as well. She had heard about this Dreamsight before, but had never actually seen one before. She listened closely to the show, waiting to hear all about the Dreamsight.<br /><br />"Oh well yes, this is the Dreamsight." the man on the television said. "You simply place the Dreamsight on your head before you sleep, and it will record your dreams." He demonstrated by putting the Dreamsight, which looked a lot like a set of portable headphones, on his head. "All of your dreams are recorded and stored in this portion of the device." He showed a black box that was connected to the headphones. "Then you can upload it to your computer or cellphone to watch it back." He pulled out a USB cable from inside the black box portion of the and showed how one could connect it to a computer. "It's easy!"<br /><br />"But how does it work?!" The woman somehow made it sound like she was excited even when she was just asking a simple question.<br /><br />"Well it's a lot like the devices that allow mute people to talk. It takes your brain waves and manifests them into data. Instead of just communicating those thoughts into speaking, it records the whole thought process including the things your brain sees while you are dreaming. This data is then transferred onto your computer or phone, where you can see what you had dreamed."<br /><br />"So then you can watch your dreams back, and even upload them to the new website, dreamtube!" The woman said again, Sarah recognizing the place where she had started watching the show.<br /><br />"Oh yes," the man said, "Dreamtube.com is becoming a very popular place. It's a lot like Youtube, but with dreams instead. In fact, here is a video I uploaded myself to the site just today."<br /><br />The view switched over to a computer screen. Sarah's heart started pounding. She had always wondered how other people dreamed, if their dreams were anything like how her dreams were. She watched as the dream started to play.<br /><br />The man was sitting in a car driving. Except it looked to Sarah as if he was not sitting in the front seat where he should be, but in the backseat instead. Panicked words came from the television "Oh no! How can I drive like this I AM GOING TO CRASH!" Except he never did crash. The video ended shortly after that. Sarah sighed and turned off the television.<br /><br />That wasn't like her dreams at all. Her dreams seemed so much more, well alive than that. She decided that she would have to look up that site at some point and see how some of the other dreams were, but she knew she'd probably be disappointed. At the same time she really wanted to purchase a Dreamsight for herself. She didn't want to get one right then and there with her job possibly being on the line, but if she didn't lose her job the next day, she would go out and buy one right away. It would be fun to see what other people's reactions to her dreams would be.<br /><br />Sarah spent the rest of the day cleaning. She knew her mom wouldn't be home until around ten at night so she decided to be nice and make her dinner. Sarah wasn't the best at cooking but she managed. She made her most favorite meal, porkchops with mashed potatoes. She also got the applesauce out of the fridge, since you can't have porkchops without applesauce! As the time got closer to when her mom would arrive home, she got more and more nervous remembering how her mom wanted to talk to her about her job. Sarah didn't like to worry too much about stuff like that, but once she got a worry in her head it was hard to let it go.<br /><br />As she sat at the kitchen table worrying, she heard the front door open. "Ma!" Sarah yelled towards the front of the house. "Welcome home!"<br /><br />"Oh hello Sarah." Sarah's mother said as she came into the kitchen. "You made dinner?"<br /><br />"Sure did! Take a load off your feet and join me." Sarah's mom put her bag down on a table near the kitchen and joined Sarah for dinner. "How was your day Ma?" Sarah asked her quickly, trying to deflect her mom from asking her any questions about her job.<br /><br />"Oh it was the usual. Well one thing did happen, you know that cashier, Becky?" Sarah's mom continued without really waiting for an answer. "Well she did the silliest thing today. She was checking out a customer, and she just started crying right there! Well it turns out she just broke up with her boyfriend, and the customer was buying her boyfriends favorite brand of cologne, and it reminded her of him and she just broke down. The customer was really nice about it once she explained it to her, but the whole situation was pretty crazy. I sent Becky on break after that so she could calm down, but we had a huge rush then and I had to end up working the register. It was such a long day!"<br /><br />Sarah's mom was a manager at a department store, and even though it made her crazy sometimes she loved it. Sarah's mom was so unlike Sarah, she loved dealing with people. If shyness was genetic, she sure didn't get it from her mother. Sarah managed to keep the conversation away from herself for the majority of the dinner, and when asked about her job, Sarah kept avoiding really answering, saying that everything would be fine, this was the first time she did a no call no show, it was an honest mistake, she was sure they'd forgive her. Sarah didn't mention how much she hated working with other people, how much she rather just be dreaming. Her mother had enough to worry about with the added worry of her daughter.<br /><br />Sarah headed to her room soon after eating, with the excuse that she had to be up early in the morning to work. She wasn't really sure she was going to work, but she knew she had to at least talk to her boss. Sarah picked up her book reader and sat on her bed to read. She remembered when she was younger and all books had been on paper. This seemed so much more logical, all the books being electronic. It really helped with the environment not wasting so many trees just to make books. But this somehow seemed colder, and Sarah missed those paper books. She remembered how all the book stores had shut down, and then the libraries followed shortly after that. Then it was impossible to find paper books anymore. Sarah didn't really mind all the much, but she laughed at how her past self would've reacted to not being able to read because the battery was low. She read until she feel asleep.<br /><br />That night she found herself in the familiar land of her dreams.<br /><br />Words This Part: 2764<br />Words Total: 2764stormoftarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17670896545221378483noreply@blogger.com0