STRANGE DAYS

Chapter 37

See first chapter for disclaimers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.

Last chapter: BTVS and Ben 10

And now…

Medium and ?

WHY ALLISON STARTED DRINKING

Allison remembered the woman all too well and had hoped to never see her again. Yet there she was, standing in Devalos' office. Stopping in the doorway, she stared at the unexpected visitor.

She had met the woman while taking courses at the University of Arizona at Phoenix. The woman had been in town with her younger sister checking colleges for the girl. It had been a brief meeting, but, for Allison, at least, an eventful one.

OOOOOOOOOO

12 YEARS EARLIER

She had gotten used to the ghosts, she really had. Ignoring them generally worked and for the truly persistent voices in her head an occasional beer would quiet things down. The strange dreams were fewer in number these days, and she found them easier to dismiss. Getting on with her life, a normal life, was not only something that was possible; it was something she was determined to do.

Allison Dubois, attorney-at-law. She liked the sound of that, and if her determination ever started to waver, all she had to do was picture herself in a carnival booth with a crystal ball. That mental image never failed to focus her. There had been some… awkward times over the last few years, making high school more difficult than it needed to be. She'd lost more than one friend trying to warn them against things she'd dreamed about. They either thought she was nuts or worse, believed her. It never ended well, and she quickly learned to keep things to herself.

Now, in college, that was all behind her. She had a good life, a loving, supportive husband and things were definitely looking up. She was focused, she was on course. "Ow!" She had just been flattened by an excited freshman.

"Sorry! Sorry!" The girl helped her up. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. What's the rush?"

"Oh, last minute registration. There's an opening in a history class I really want." The girl grinned. "Can you tell me where the Humanities building is?"

"Beth!" Both turned to see an older woman approaching them with an annoyed expression. "Making friends already, I see." She smiled at Allison. "Sorry about that. She's excited to be starting here."

"So I gathered," Allison answered. "No harm done, and the Humanities building is that one over there. I've got a class there, starting soon, follow me." She led them to the building and pointed out the office of the professor they were looking for.

"Thanks," the older woman nodded, "ah,"

"Allison. Allison Dubois." She put her hand out. The other woman took it.

"I'm Eli-" Allison didn't hear the rest. She heard screaming as the woman fell. And fell. And fell. That wasn't what was foremost in her mind, though. All of her attention was focused on the ferocious looking winged monster diving at her.

"Are you okay?"

Allison blinked, her vision clearing. "W-what?" The woman stood before her, alive and well, and looking concerned. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine." Allison backed slowly away from the woman, whose name she didn't remember. She wasn't entirely sure of her own, at the moment. "I, uh, gotta go." Wasting no time, she beat a hasty retreat from the woman who, it seemed, was going to have an eventful, but very short life.

A few days later she saw the woman again.

Allison sat bolt upright in bed, breathing hard. The image of the blue-skinned winged creature pointing a very large gun at her burned into her memory. She knew she was dreaming about the woman she had met, but wasn't sure how she knew.

Over the next month more dreams and visions came and went. Each one more bizarre than the last. She had learned in high school that alcohol quieted the voices and blurred the dreams, but drinking had never been one of her vices. Now, however, she began to embrace it. A couple of beers every night before bed blurred the details of the dreams until, though they occasionally awakened her, they didn't linger in her mind. Eventually, they stopped coming, and Allison wondered if the woman had died. She felt bad about that but was able to get back to her routine. Eventually, she forgot about the woman and almost forgot about the dreams and visions.

Now the woman was here in her boss's office.

OOOOOOOOOO

Manny Devalos noticed her and gestured for her to enter. "Alison, come in. I want you to meet someone." He looked at the woman. "Detective, this is Allison Dubois, one of my best investigators." The detective smiled and held out her hand. Allison took it out of reflex. "Allison, this is-" She didn't hear him. She was too busy seeing. Seeing the woman before her in a white dress, standing face to face with the same fierce creature from that first vision. They were smiling at each other while a brown-skinned creature with a gray beard spoke somberly about love and challenges ahead. The vision faded, but she still couldn't hear Devalos. A rapid, repeating thump-thump blocked all other sounds in the room. She knew she had heard it before, but it took her a moment to realize what it was. She had heard it before, on three occasions.

She quickly pulled her hand back, surprising both the detective and Devalos. "Ah, it's, um, nice to see you again detective. I… I really need to go, though. Um, congratulations?" She backed out of the office, leaving two confused people behind her. I need a drink.

THE END