Chapter 2: You Remind Me Of A Dream
Five and some years later...
"You got a table where?!"
Sarah eyeballed the cordless telephone in her hand as if it had just turned into a snake.
"It'll be fun!" Wheedles the voice on the other end.
"Jenn-"
"Uh uh uh! You said I could plan your party. You don't get to back out, no take-backs."
"But cowboy themed? Are you out of your mind?"
Sarah slumped down at the kitchen table, catching the smirk flitting across Karen's face as she brewed coffee. Her elbow landed in something red and sticky left over from Toby's breakfast. Raspberry jam, on closer inspection.
"It's at Stars and Stirrups, you loved it for Natalie's party!"
"You loved it." She waved at Karen to pass her something to wipe the jam off, holding the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she un-jammed herself.
"Come on, don't be like that. I've already bought you new boots and a cowboy hat." Jenn laughed on the other end.
Oh God why did I ever think letting Jenn throw me a birthday party would be a good idea? My only 21st birthday and I put it in the hands of Jenn.
"But can't we just-" Sarah started, about to plead her case for a quiet night in just her and her friends, rent movies, eat popcorn, order pizza...
She's never been one for loud rowdy nights out, and didn't expect that to change despite suddenly being of drinking age, but Jenn cut her off.
"Look Birthday-Babe, I've got to go, just don't worry yeah? I'll come round at 8? Find some nice jeans and dig out that leather vest you wore to Brian's Princess Bride halloween party when you went as Fezzik-"
"Inigo Montoya."
"Whoever. I still don't get why you didn't go as Buttercup."
"Because I'm not blonde, Jenn." And because I've very much done dressing up as the heroic princess. It always ends... badly.
"That didn't stop David from dressing up as Westley. Think he was hoping you two would be a matching set."
"Moving. On."
"Fine, I'll see you tonight. And find a flannel shirt!" The line cut and Sarah dropped the phone down on the table just as Karen handed her a mug of coffee.
"Uuuugh." Sarah groaned.
"I'm sure it'll be fun." Karen pats her on the shoulder with an expertly manicured hand.
"Uuuuuugh." Sarah groaned louder.
"After all there might be some nice boys there you can... square dance with-"
"AAAARRRRGH-"
"Oh ALL RIGHT, God forbid I try to help!"
She pinched the bridge of her nose. Sighing deeply. Maybe it will be fun. Jenn was right, she'd had a good time at Natalie's birthday. She knew she'd been in a bad mood all week, and it wasn't really the party. She did want to stay home, but it felt more like turning tail and hiding, rather than wanting an easy no fuss evening. Something had been hovering around her for a while and she needed to shake it off. Shake off this feeling that she was being watched.
Although 'watched' wasn't quite the word. There was some prickly uncomfortable heat underneath the feeling, making her irritable. Something was pushing her blood pressure up. Like she was being hunted.
A soft hot hand on her leg made her blink. Toby was standing next to her chair clutching a sheaf of papers to his round stomach. His blond curls were getting unruly but neither of the women in his life seemed to be able to bring themselves to take him to a salon to divest him of his babyish locks.
"Hi." He smiled toothily.
She smiled back.
"Hey, Trouble. Comin' up?" He nodded, and she skooched her chair back so he could sit on her lap, long legs straddling hers as he spread out his papers.
"Been coloring in?" She shifted him further back so that he was sitting up straight instead of slumped against her.
"Mmhmm." He grinned, sorting them in front of her, turning them over like tarot cards so she could appreciate them one by one, grinning wider as she made suitably impressed noises. A house, three tulips in a row, a big messy rainbow heart, an abstract piece resembling early Jackson Pollock.
And a strange bird with abnormally long legs. Sarah laughed. It almost looked like it was wearing waders, thick black boots all the way up. It could be a heron, if not for the short beak and big round eyes, scribbled in creams and browns.
"What's this one?" Sarah asked, lifting up the paper.
Karen leaned over her shoulder.
"It's his new imaginary friend," she chuckled. "He's an owl man."
Toby turned in her lap, smilingly up at her.
"Jarry."
Sarah smiled, but it didn't really reach past her lips, or go any deeper than the surface. She lowered the drawing back into the pile carefully. Holding Toby imperceptibly tighter, gripped by a suddenly uncontrollable feeling of deja vu.
The way the birdman's eyes looked out from the page... it sends a slight shiver up her spine.
"I look ridiculous."
"You look amazing!" Jenn grinned ear to ear. Sarah rolled her eyes.
At least she liked the boots. Jenn never cheaped out on costumes and was always more than happy to splurge on her friends. Dark, supple leather black boots, knee high, the lengths of which are eclipsed by her bootcut jeans in dark denim. Jenn knew her well enough not to buy cowboy boots, which would have been discarded at the back of the closet and eventually donated to Goodwill.
These looked more like riding boots, with a slight heel and pointed toes.
The jeans were a little tight, since she'd bought them when she was a teenager and had filled out significantly since.
Alright a lot tight.
It had taken a deep breath in to get the button properly closed, and they hugged her hips hard. Hugged everywhere rather hard, but they were the only vaguely cowboy-ish pair she owned. She'd borrowed a wide leather tooled belt from Jenn. Despite herself she liked the intricate pattern swirling across the leather. It looked almost elven.
She'd managed to dig out a flannel shirt in red and blue. Paired with the leather vest it all worked well. At least she didn't have to work hard on her hair. She'd styled it up into a simple ponytail, picking her dark cascading hair up off her shoulders. Not her usual get up, or anywhere close to her comfort zone, but she had to admit Jenn was right. She at least looked the part.
Jenn held out the hat to her. A wide, flared cowboy hat in brown that matched the vest.
"No way." Sarah chuckled.
"Uh, yes way."
"I'm not driving in it! I'll barely be able to see out from under the brim!"
"Brian's picking us up, remember? Designated driver, Miss Twenty-One? Put the hat on."
Sarah rolled her eyes and took it, fitting it on her head. The amount of glee it brought to Jenn's face was, very very marginally, at least a little worth it.
"Fantastic."
"Yeah, yeah."
She insisted on buying the first round of drinks despite the vehement objection from the rest of the gang, keen to wield the new unlimited power her driver's licence afforded her.
"ID?" The bartender asked in a bored tone. Despite his nonchalance towards her there's something familiar about him. Tall and thin. Deep high cheekbones that look even sharper under the lights of the club. Swept back blonde hair that fell to one side. A slight crookedness to the teeth underneath his thin lips, and eyebrows so pale they were almost invisible.
And those eyes...
Probably knew him from school, Sarah thinks. She doesn't push it, hardly enjoying the thought of striking up a familiarity with a man who's seen her in full cowgirl.
She fished her drivers licence out from her wallet and handed it over. He studied it, for what seems like an extra couple of heartbeats necessary. A soft slight smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
"Sarah Irene Williams?"
"Yup." She smiled.
Come on, man, just serve me.
"Pretty name." He held out her ID between two extremely long white fingers and Sarah lets out a small sigh of relief as he turns to fill up a pitcher with beer.
"Present time!" Jenn declared, pulling a box out from underneath the table.
Brian, Natalie, and David pull more boxes out from a bag at her feet, piling them around Sarah's side of the table.
"Oh, jeez." Sarah flushed.
"Happy birthday, birthday girl!" Natalie crooned sliding over her gift.
"I went halves on that." Jenn called over from the far side of the table, "my real gift is not forcing you to keep the hat."
"How generous." Sarah smirked, pulling off the wrapping paper and opening the box. Inside a blue box is a shimmering green stone on a silver chain.
"Oh wow, you guys it's gorgeous." Sarah gasped as it caught the light.
"Better than the hat?" Grins Brian.
"Miles better than the hat."
She opened the rest; a book of Myths and Legends from Brian, a small cactus in a teacup shaped planter from Natalie, a leather jacket from David which she couldn't help but slip on immediately, the black leather hugging her curves tightly.
"You guys are so sweet, thank you all so much!" Sarah grinned, hugging each of them hard, nearly spilling the pitcher of beer.
She saved David for last.
"I love the jacket, it's gorgeous."
He blushed as she laid a smacking kiss on his cheek.
A sudden prickling heat seared her neck, and she turned her head.
Nothing. Just the bar, and it's staff. A few patrons milled about getting drinks. But for a moment, as her lips had touched David's cheek, she could've sworn it felt like something, someone, was watching her.
"Oh wait there's still another present!" Brian cried, dragging a long flat box out from underneath the table, "weird that I missed that."
"Who's it from?" Jenn raised an eyebrow at the size of the box.
Brian flipped the label over.
"Doesn't say, just says Sarah. Nice handwriting."
"Not my handwriting then." Jokes Natalie.
He pushed the box gingerly over to Sarah who unwrapped it delicately, lifting the lid.
She blinked a couple of times. Not knowing what to say.
"Who's this from?"
"Don't know." Shrugged Brian.
"No seriously. David?"
"I got you the jacket Sar, it's not me."
"What is it?" Jenn demanded impatiently.
Sarah carefully lifted a long shimmering dress out of the box, white gauze and glittering gold embroidery. It almost seemed like it moved on it's own, sparkling, pulsing silk cascading down to the floor. Completely out of place for Stars and Stirrups. It flares down into a deep wide skirt. Sleeveless but with a bodice heavily embroidered with swirling vine patterns and intricate flowers. Corseted at the back.
"Whoa." Natalie breathed
"Jesus." Jenn mumbled.
Sarah swallowed hard. She can't place it but she could swear she saw something similar years ago.
"It seriously doesn't say who it's from?" Natalie reached over to check note attached to the box. Sarah felt frozen in place. The feeling of being watched doubling. Tripling.
More than that, it suddenly felt like a hundred beady eyes were watching her...
She tucked the dress back into the box carefully and made a conscious effort to put it out of her mind. Brian piled the gifts up and went to load them into the backseat of the car, and they all settled comfortably into the rest of the evening, buying more drinks and occasionally dancing to the endless country music blaring over the sound system.
The evening wound on and Sarah loosened up more and more. Forgetting the dress. Forgetting the bad vibes she's had all week. Forgetting the owl man of Toby's drawing.
Edging towards midnight Jenn decided to ride the mechanical bull down in the club's dance pit and Sarah laughed hysterically as she was flung off immediately the moment the thing is set in motion.
"Your turn then, birthday girl!" Jenn hollered, grinning hysterically, as she dragged her towards the bull.
"Not a chance in hell!" Laughed Sarah, "besides I gotta visit the bathroom and it's gonna take me ages to zip these stupid jeans back up, they're starting to fuse to my skin!"
Jenn giggled and let her go, latching on to Natalie instead. Sarah headed towards the women's bathrooms, turning her back on Natalie's protesting screams.
The country music was inescapably being piped into the bathrooms, making it tinny and echoing like it's being forced through a tunnel. There's a strangely long pause after the last song before the stringed beginnings of Fairytale sung by Elvis. It's sounded ripply and odd, like a warped record.
Sarah finished zipping herself back up into her jeans, casting a look to the speaker mounted on the wall. Washing her hands in the sink as the music faded precariously in and out.
The backing music drops out, leaving just the vocals warbling in over the system and Sarah frowns.
"You used me, you deceived me, and you never seemed to need me, but I'll bet you won't forget me when I go... seems I've been lost in a dream..."
The music cuts, along with the lights, pitching Sarah into darkness.
She could hear her heart beating, thumping in her ears like a hot raging river, her breath hitching.
Aren't they supposed to have emergency lights for a power cut-
There's a scuttle behind her and she freezes. Something shadowy at knee height skitters from one side of the bathroom.
What the fuck was that?
A gurgling throaty sound reverberates around the tiles of the bathroom. Something brushes over her boots, something large and scurrying, and she leaps back.
Oh God was that a rat? Another noise behind her makes her spin, this time sounding more like a wet chuckle. Oh please, let it be a rat.
What kind of rat makes a noise like that though?
Panicking, she gropes blindly, finding the door out and pushing her way through into the pitch beyond.
It's completely silent. No noise of the bar, or the patrons, or her friends. She wants to call out to them but fear has shut her throat, frozen her in place in the corridor leading down to the bathrooms.
It's a bad dream. It's just a bad dream, and I'll wake up and-
Something behind her clatters, followed by another raspy gurgle, and suddenly she's flying down the hall back to the dance floor.
There's some light from the windows looking out to the parking lot, but the entire club is empty. Deserted. And there are things moving in the dark. Things that could be large cats if you were half blind or half drunk. Fur in wrong sort of places, and... and hands and feet... moving and running underneath tables. A flash of light falls across a gnarled and hideous face and Sarah screams. It's gone in a flash but her head is feeling light with fear.
I've seen this before.
Something heavy bangs at the windows. An angry fluttery shape that looks almost like an owl, frantically bashing against the glass. Again and again it beats at it, cracks forming, and Sarah feels herself thinking far off in the recesses of her terror drenched mind that it should be dead. That there should be bleeding from the force, broken feathers, something, and suddenly the window breaks inwards and there's a rush of air and feathers. Shards of glass sparkling like glitter. Sarah screams, covering her eyes, trying to shield them from the sparks of flying glass but nothing reaches her.
After the sound of gurgling laughter and scattering feet die down and the wind blowing in drops, she moves her arm back from her face.
In the gloom, coming in from the shadows is a tall thin figure, and her stomach turns. The deja vu from early hitting her like blunt force trauma to the head, her eyes all but popping from their sockets as he moves into the light. As if no time had passed. Looking just as he had five years ago, backlit by moonlight behind Toby's crib, leaning as if he weighs nothing on a leather riding crop like it's a cane.
"Sarah," he smiles as his face comes into the light cast from the window. Flared eyebrows, mismatched eyes. Feline features on an angular face, and sharp crooked teeth. "It's been forever."
