The post slid through the letterbox and hit the bare wooden
floor. Saria stirred in the bed of her run down New York
appartment. She lay on her back with her eyes wide open, her
memory flashing through the horrid pictures from her dream,
backwards and forwards as she relived the brutal killing. She
shivered slightly as the thought hit her head 'what if its not
just a dream... what if its like last time'.
She slowely climbed out of bed and walked trembling to
the door, she steadied her hand as she picked up the bundle of
bills from the floor. She flicked through the usual looking
letters and came accross one, a white envelope, with a black
handwritten address that appeared to have been drawn with a
quill. The writing was sharp, jagged and barely readable. She
reached for the letter opener on the desk but her eyes
remained focused on the letter. She fumbled around for the
letter opener and pricked her hand on its sharp blade. It
bled, but she didnt notice. she clenched the opener as she
tore open the letter. As soon as she saw the newspaper print
she knew, it wasn't just a dream.
She pulled out the torn piece of newspaper and flicked
her hair behind her ear as she began to read. Her eyes watered
as she read the story of the childs week of torture and the
images flooded through her mind once again. She screwed up the
paper as she clenched her fists, breathing heavily she
realised, she had to do something.
After half an hour she managed to calm herself down. She
left the house with the article clenched by her side, her legs
trembled as she walked down the empty, badly decorated
corridor. The door slammed behind her, sending a cold chill
surging through her whole body, sweat began to drip from her
forehead as she walked down the echoing stairway. She walked
through the seemingly abandoned streets until she got to the
police station, it was about a ten minute walk but it seemed
like hours as she passed by house after house. She entered the
door and was suddenly surrounded by people, working, it calmed
her down, she felt safer now she wasn't on her own. She walked
swiftly to the front desk.
"Can I help you ma'am?" enquired the old dark skinned
lady sitting behind the glass shield.
"Erm..." She swallowed hard to clear her throat "I'd
like to speak to the officer incharge of the murders" thats
all she could say, the newspaper hadn't said much, only the
name, but the woman seemed to know what she was talking about.
"Yes, take a seat, he'll be with you in a moment" the
receptionist told her, in a mono-tone voice. Saria sat down on
the seat, the fabric was slightly ripped down one side. She
sat with her hands on her lap, still clenching the newspaper.
She gazed into open space trying to think of what she would
say to the officer. 'Maybe I should just tell him about the
newspaper, no, I have to tell him about the dreams too, but
would anyone believe that? probably not, maybe if I say
something about it that wasn't in the newspaper? yeah that'
her thought was interupted by a heavy handed tap on her
shoulder, her body shuddered and a wave of coldness flowed
through her spine.
"Hi, my names detective Eardley, I'm incharge of the
recent murders, how can i help you?" the man stood towering
over, he must have been six feet tall at least, he had a young
looking face, but appeared quite old. After a moment of
silence he raised an eye brow at her to prompt her answer.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just a little shocked" she replied
"I got this through the post this morning, and theres
something else" she paused. The officer looked puzzelingly at
scrumpled newspaper being held out infront of him.
"Hmm" the officer looked puzzledly at the piece of
paper, "I think you better join me in my office" he said in a
quiet voice, his eyes remaining fixed on the piece of paper in
his hand.
While Detective Eardley looked through some files,
Sarias eyes explored his office. The office seemed like a
friendly place, not somewhere you would bring any old
criminal, Saria felt quite relaxed here, she looked around at
the family photos and personal awards framed on the wall. The
detective seemed to be particulary proud of his daughter,
there were a lot of pictures of her randomly placed around the
room. Judging by the photos, he had a wife of age around 40,
and one daughter of age around eight. Saria suddenly realised
why she was here.
"It came in an envelope, with the rest of the post,
well... I think it did" her voice came out louder than she
expected, but died down after her first sentance. "It could
have came earlier I suppose"
"Its not that I was worrying about" he interrupted "I
was more interested in where this came from" he held up the
paper, his eyes reading through it once again "This story
wasn't in the paper today, the body was found earlier this
morning, and the boy has not been identified as of yet."
Sarias heart began to pound once again, and sweat
regenerated on her forehead, she swallowed hard as she tried
to put what she wanted to say into words. "Theres something
else," she cleared her throat by swallowing again. "I've been
having dreams, dreams of the murders." She went on explaining
about her dreams and what she had seen of the two previous
killings, the snatching, the week long torture, and then
finally after seven days, the killing.
After a few hours the detective had asked all he wanted
to know, he asked Saria to come back if she had anymore
dreams. He handed her a business card as he showed her out to
the front of the building. Saria had to go straight to work,
she worked at a hairdressers, it was about the same distance
from the station as it would have been from her appartment.
She got there just on time, although she didn't feel like
working at all. She made a few mistakes but nobody seemed to
notice. At the end of the day she walked home on her own, it
was just beggining to get dark, and the street lamps just
turning on. The appartment block seemed abandoned as it always
seemed to, she went straight up to her room. she turned on the
shower, usualy she would wait for it to warm up, but today she
didn't care. After she got out, she lay on her bed, still
dripping wet, and fell straight to sleep. She woke up after
about five hours of deep sleep, she'd had no dream, but all of
a sudden fealt thirsty. she got up to get a drink and fell
almost immediately back to sleep.
This time she did dream. She was standing at a road
crossing, it looked like it was a posh part of the city,
children were rushing into a nearby school. After a few
minutes children had stopped crossing and she heard the bell
ring at the nearby school. Time seemed to speed up, the clouds
moved faster, the cars moved faster and the people walking
seemed to run. As a small girl began walking down the street,
the time seemed to slow down again, a cloud had appeared above
were Sarias viewpoint was, leaving it in darkness, the girl
was wearing the school uniform and carrying a bag on her
shoulder like the children who had crossed before. The girl
seemed familiar to Saria, almost as though they had met
before, but not in a long time. The girl walked down the path
and began to cross the road opposite where Saria was standing.
The girl had just reached the pavement closest to Saria, when
Saria saw something move, out of the alleyway, came the
figure, dressed in all black and a black bowler hat blocking
the sun from his face. Saria tried to move, but she had no
arms, no legs, no body, it was like watching something on tv.
Unable to respond to what was happening Saria watched as the
child was swept from the pavement and into the alleyway from
which the figure had appeared. She awoke sweating, it was
nothing compared to the other dreams, but this girl, why was
she so familiar.
By 9am Saria was awake and dressed, although it had been
3 weeks since her dreams began, she had not grown used to it,
and was still shaking as she stood, terrified of what was to
come. Before she knew it she was standing in the reception of
the police station once again, the dark skinned woman looking
at her with an intrigued expression on her face, she walked
forwards.
"I need to see detective Eardley, please" her voice
sounded shakey, she didn;t know wether it was because of fear,
or the fact that it was the first thing she had said that day.
"He's not in yet" replied the woman, in a more
interested voice this time "he's running late, he shouldn't be
long, take a seat dear".
Saria walked over to the seated area, and sat on the
same seat she had sat on the previous day, and once again she
sat thinking. Her cold hands pressed against her face in a
refreshing way, she couln't control her thoughts, she
attempted to think of something else, but she couldn't get
this girl out of her head, and what might become of her.
"Saria" detective Eardley greeted her in a cheerful
voice, but seemed to tone down a bit when he ramembered why
she would be here "What have you came to tell me?" Saria
starred up into his eyes inviting him to ask her to his
office, but Eardley didn't notice.
"Can we talk about this somewhere private?" she mumbled
slightly in mid sentance but her voice had steadied "it's
important" Eardley turned round and she followed him to the
office. She was sat down for a few seconds when something
caught her eye. She gaped wordlessly at the wall, suddenly
her body went cold. She had seen that girl before, the
previous day, when she had been sitting in this very seat.
Saria could feel the blood drain from her face, but she
couldn't speak. She breathed heavily trying to get words out,
but failed.
"Thats my daughter" said Eardley looking at the same
photo as Saria "so, what has happened?" he asked cluelessly.
"Your daughter, I dreamt of your daughter" she said in a
half whispered voice "he has her, he got her on the way to
school, it happened, in my dream"
The detective stood shocked, he had been with his
daughter only 15 minuted ago, how could this woman possibly
know this, it can't be true he thought. He didnt believe her.
"It was on the way to school. At the crossing. Next to
her school. She was late." she said in short sharp sentances.
There was a growing ache in his stomache as the feeling
that she may be right crept in, he had dropped her off a
little way from school because he was running late, she was
also late. There was no way Saria could have known this. His
heart pounded, as he finally realised the truth, she was
right. He looked at his watch, she would just be arriving at
school, maybe it wasn't too late.
"Come with me" he said whilst getting up and grabbing
his coat "she would only just be arriving at school now, maybe
its not too late"
But Saria knew it was, she could tell by the lack of
confidence in his voice and the fact that her dream seemed so
real, asthough it had already happened. She followed him
anyway clinging onto the one tiny bit of hope she had. In the
car she tried to make conversation with Eardley and found out
his real name was Andy and his daughters name was Jess, but he
seemed to be concentrating on driving so she didn't ask much.
As they turned a corner she recognised the street, it was the
one from her dream, the sun was shining, again and the street
was empty, without a sound, they were too late.
Andy got out of his car and began to run, Saria tried to
keep up, but couldn't. It didn't matter though, she knew where
he was going. Saria arrived at the schools reception, Andy sat
clutching his face with his hands on a seat opposite the
reception desk. It burnt inside, though she knew it all along,
she finally realised the girl had been taken, her dream was
true. Without a clue of how she should handle the situation
Saria did the first thing that came to mind; comfort him. She
put her arm around him and it wa sonly now that she realised
he was crying. They sat, wordlessly, for what seemed like
hours. Andy raised his head, he had tried to disguise the
tears, but the reflection of the lights could still be seen on
his cheek.
Without a word Andy got up and walked out the building
and in the direction of his car. The receptionist stared at
them, but did not break the silence. Saria walked behind Andy,
not wanting to dissrupt him, but she didnt even know where she
was. She sat in the car next to him.
"What else did you see? Where did he take her? Is she
ok?" he suddenly seemed eager to get something done but there
was nothing that could be done, Saria had seen nothing else.
"Well he never kills them right away" she meant to
comfort him but then she remembered the gruesome things he
could be and probably was doing to her while she was still
alive. She realised Andy probably knew this too and therefore
this wasnt much comfort to him and probably made things worse.
Tears gathered once again in the corner of his eye, he must
have been thinking the same thing as Saria. He asked Saria to
come to the station the following morning and dropped her off
at her appartment. Saria had work, but she didn't like to say
anything and she did have an hour spare.
That night she had trouble sleeping, knowing that her
dreams would be more important now and missing one part, could
mean the death of a young girl. She woke after about 3 hours
of sleeping, sweating slightly, but nothing compared to the
previous night. She had dreamt, nothing had happened to the
girl, or atleast nothing had been revealed by her dream. She
had seen Jess, tied, but not gagged, this indicated she was
somewhere she wouldn't be heard. There was a concrete floor,
and a moist feeling to the room that made her think it was
underground. She driffted in and out of sleep for the rest of
the night, but nothing happened, just the same room, and the
same damp conrete floor, it could be anywhere she thought.
She sat down in Andy's office nervous of how Andy would
feel about the little information she had to give him.