My Cherie Amour (Fully Posted)

Chapter 39

Warm, dry, and safe next to Blaise in his Thunderbird, Cherie couldn't stop thinking about the events of mere hours before.

***

The dream started almost as soon as she laid down. Her first impression of the other world was that it was blue in both feeling and color. The next thing she realized was that it didn't have walls, a ceiling, or any semblance of ground. Then came the most obvious, yet delayed awareness of all.

She was underwater.

"When did you get here, Cherie?"

The voice came from behind her, so she turned, and that's when she saw Karina as she'd never seen her before: pale, bruised, and with tendrils of hair floating around her face. Torn skin, rips in her clothes, the absence of shoes, and the wedding and engagement rings glinting on one, badly scratched hand, drew her singular conclusion.

Karina must've looked like this as she was dying.

"I just got here," she said. Attempting to move closer, she was surprised when her body remained stuck in place.

"We can't move," Karina informed her. Her words sounded distant. "What happened? How are you here?"

"All I did was go to sleep," Cherie said. "Is this what you call limbo?"

"Yes," Karina said. She sounded exhausted. "Do you feel the cold? It's always cold."

Cherie frowned. At most, she felt cool, the way she might in a swimming pool during summertime. Sharing this observation with Karina, she saw the other woman looked unmoved.

"Of course. You belong to the world of the living. For me, it gets colder every day."

"How can that be?" Cherie asked, less to Karina and more to herself. "How come you aren't staying at the same temperature?"

"I'm not sure," Karina said. "In the beginning, there weren't any changes. But ever since the first time Blaise drew me out, the temperature's dropped. And lately I've been sinking, pulled deeper every day."

Cherie looked around and saw that they were alone. "Do you ever see anyone else here?"

Her lips parted but nothing came out.

"Are you not able to say?"

"No, I can," she said. "But I don't know if it's real."

Cherie's instincts told her that the answer to this question was of crucial importance. "Karina, listen, even if you have doubts, even if you think it's minor, I need to know. Have you ever come across other people?"

"Not that I've seen, and not for a long time, but I have heard things. Screams. From small children." She closed her eyes tightly. "I used to hear them, but I don't anymore."

***

"It won't be long before we reach Tia Mirela's," Cherie said once they were only two cities away from Santa Fe. They'd stopped for gas, and she'd convinced Blaise to let her buy snacks. Her observation slipped out when she re-entered the car.

"I don't get it," he said.

"What's not to get?" she asked as she fastened her seatbelt. "We're making excellent time."

"Not that, Cher. I don't get how you don't hate me by now. I mean, you woke up drenched in water at dark o'clock in the morning after talking to my late wife, whose spirit is probably in peril. How are you not mad that I dragged you into this? What have you gotten that makes this worthwhile?"

She reached out to pat his shoulder. "Drive."

"What?"

"If we sit here all day our progress won't mean anything. Drive, and then I'll start talking."

Visibly puzzled, Blaise did what he was told, and she held up her end of the bargain.

"My life was good before I met you, Blaise. There's no arguing with that. It wasn't a fame and fortune kind of deal, but my bills got paid, and people liked my work. I had, as I've always had, my family, and although I've been in a bubble since we met, I did and do have friends outside of you. In my old world, I couldn't complain."

She saw his grip tighten on the steering wheel.

"But you should know that as good as things were for me, I wasn't really content. I had thoughts about advancing my career, but I was scared to make the leaps. I told everyone who asked that I was married to my work, but in reality, I'd sworn off romance. And as much love as I got, and get, from family and friends, I was starting to feel disconnected."

"The blues," Blaise said. Understanding had taken the place of his confusion. "You were starting to get the blues. The ones without the funk call it depression."

"Yeah," she said. "I was depressed, and I believe a big reason why is because I've spent too much time keeping my feelings bottled up. The closest I ever come is putting them into music, and even then, I can hide behind the excuse that it's art, especially if I think I've been over-exposed." She looked at him. "But then I met you."

"And what did I do?" Blaise asked, not jokingly, but with great anxiety.

"Look to your name, the French name that I love," Cherie said. "The homonym of it, the one with a 'z', makes a promise that you've delivered on. You set my world ablaze, reminded me of my own fire. With you, I can't run from my emotions. You've forced me to reckon with myself."

"Wow," he said in a whisper. His soft laughter followed. "Want to know what I'm thinking?"

"Yes."

"A, you've done the same for me. B, my father gave me my name because, when my mother saw it in a baby book, she hated it."

Cherie's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Yep. He held onto that tidbit right up till the day I was born and saddled me with it for life. That's bothered me since I found out. But now that I've heard how you think about it, I feel a lot better."

"Good," she said.

"Thanks, sugar."

She smiled a little. "Because you kind of like your name now?"

"Because you don't think I'm a waste of time."

She touched his shoulder again. "Blaise, our bond's helped me to remember the difference between existing and living. If that's all it was meant to accomplish, that's enough for me to treasure you forever."

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