Thanks so much for reading my first chapter. This is new territory for me, but I'm excited to explore it! Chapters will be short since I want to keep this story moving at a pretty brisk pace. Also, shoutout to my loyal fans from my other stories who have come to support me here. You're amazing! Anyway, let's get on with it! Enjoy the next chapter.
Chapter 2
Sarah jerked awake when she felt Jessica's hand nudging her shoulder.
"Hey, I'm leaving. Last chance if you want to join."
Sarah's dream was dissipating around her, but what she had been dreaming of, she couldn't remember. She groggily sat up and responded, "I'm just going to make dinner and go to bed."
Jessica snorted. "Suit yourself. Get some real sleep, okay? Being tired all the time like this can't be healthy."
Sarah nodded and pushed herself up from the couch with a groan. "Have fun," she said sarcastically as a fully made-up Jessica skipped toward the door in her black body-con dress and high heels that Sarah knew would be kicked off shortly after she arrived at her party.
"Oh, I will." Jess bounced her eyebrows in Sarah's direction suggestively before scurrying out the door.
Sarah locked the door behind her and wandered over to the fridge to scrounge up something to eat. Eventually, she decided on a microwave meal and the last diet soda in the fridge. While her food heated, she changed into a baggy T-shirt and oversized sweatpants. She stretched and groaned again. Jess was right. If her sleep didn't get any better in the next week or two, she might actually go see somebody about it.
Food in hand, she decided that now was as good a time as ever to get started on her project for her film class. They were currently breaking down the success of classic movie stars on the early silver screen, and Sarah had been assigned a paper on The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer starring Cary Grant. She figured she could at least watch the film while she ate, even if she procrastinated working on the paper until tomorrow.
Sarah sat cross-legged on the couch and pulled up the movie on her laptop. She pressed play and began to eat her freezer-burned meal while the opening credits rolled.
An hour later, Sarah was slumped back down on the cushions, absentmindedly jotting down a few notes to help her with her paper but also checking her phone and scrolling through social media. She saw Jess had already posted a few pictures from her night out with Alex. Sarah clicked on them and began thumbing through…
Suddenly, something in the movie caught her attention.
"Hey, you remind me of a man," Cary Grant proclaimed.
"What man?" Shirley Temple responded.
"The man with the power."
Sarah slowly lowered her phone.
"What power?"
"The power of hoodoo."
Her brow furrowed as her eyes locked onto the screen.
"Who do?"
"You do!"
"Do what?"
"…Remind me of the man," Sarah finished in perfect sync with the dialogue in the film.
For reasons she couldn't explain, she felt her blood run cold.
What on earth?
The movie was still playing, but all Sarah could hear was a low muffle in the background as she fell into her thoughts. Why did she know that line already? She knew it, but from another place…But that didn't make any sense, did it?
For some reason, she wanted to remember something. It was like something was trying to come back to her, almost like from a dream…
Almost before Sarah could register what had happened, the movie was over. Still shaken and confused, she cleaned up her dishes and compiled her notes. She would write her paper tomorrow. It was already 11:40, and this lack of sleep really seemed to be getting to her, making her imagine all sorts of strange things…
With a final cautious glance over her shoulder, Sarah turned off the lights in the living room and fell into her bed, letting the darkness of sleep claim her.