"Are you sure you are okay?" Talon asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Vanessa shook her head as she rubbed her temples.
"Yes Talon, I told you on the way home. I'm okay. I can't believe no one believes me." Vanessa was feeling defeated. Today had started off so perfectly and ended with Talon looking at her like she was sick. Strange men pulled her out of a lake and forced her to sit in an ambulance and answer even weirder questions about herself. Questions that made no sense, especially when she was just trying to save the little girl.
Vanessa could see the image in her head perfectly. The brown hair, the little green dress she was wearing, even the bows that wrapped around her pigtails. Vanessa knew what she saw and if one more person told her she was seeing things and she needed to get some rest, she was going to freak out.
How could they not believe her? Had she given them a reason not to? The thought of the little girl laying on the bottom of the pond chilled Vanessa to the bone. Vanessa began making plans to gather some gear and head to the lake on another day, one where Talon or another stranger couldn't stop her, to search for the girl's body.
"Here, let's sit down and drink some tea." Talon offered Vanessa a glass.
"I'm already sitting." Vanessa said, slightly annoyed. She sunk even deeper into the couch, throwing her head back against the headrest. All she wanted was today to end. Vanessa felt violated, delusional, unstable, and she hated every single second of it.
Talon must not have dared say anything else since he placed the cup on the coffee table and went to take a phone call in another room. Vanessa wondered for a moment who he was talking to, but very quickly moved on to missing her own apartment.
She didn't want to be here with all of Talon's things. His movies, his blankets, food, drinks, just stuff. Vanessa wanted the comfort of her own home, her lavender spray that she'd use on her clothes and pillow when she was trying to get some sleep. Vanessa even wanted the deafening silence of living alone.
Talon's house was always so loud, so busy. His mother was chatting with friends, or watching a movie and there seemed to always be music playing from somewhere. How did anyone manage to get rest around here?
Vanessa leaned forward and grabbed the cup of tea. She blew on the surface of the liquid before bringing it to her lips. Taking a few quick sips, she enjoyed the way the flavor danced along her tongue. Smacking her lips a few times Vanessa went back for a much larger drink.
"At least this is one good thing about today." Vanessa mumbled to herself. She was feeling less than, especially since she had ruined what was supposed to be such a perfect date. Hopefully Talon would forgive her.
Vanessa wondered if she would need to spend more nights at her own house to keep the thoughts at bay. Maybe she really hadn't gotten enough sleep? But the more her thoughts started to drift in that direction the more she shook her head sending her hair flying around her face in a frenzy.
"No, the girl was real. I know what I saw." Vanessa stuttered, as if she was trying to convince herself more than anything else. She took another large gulp of the steaming tea and placed the empty cup on the table. She grudgingly grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, the one that she found super itchy and uncomfortable, and tried to find any sense of comfort in the horrid material.
The TV droned on in the background, giving Vanessa very little stimulation. Within the hour of settling into the couch the stress of the day had finally reached her, allowing her body to take hold and her eyes to grow heavy. Before long Vanessa was sound asleep on the couch listening to the hum of the episode.
The world was dark around her. But the kind of dark that made you fear the air. Where were the stars in the sky? Have they too taken cover in horror?
Vanessa could feel the cool cobblestone beneath her feet. Where was she? This didn't feel like Talon's house anymore.
"Come on, you are going to be late!" A voice shouts from the abyss echoing off of the walls around her, making Vanessa feel like she was trapped in a box.
"Late for what?" Vanessa mumbled, shaking her head to clear the fog. What had happened to her in the last hour or so?
"I said... Come On!" the voice shouted much more aggressively this time. Vanessa was startled so badly her spine nearly snapped at how quickly she jolted upright. With so much fear coursing through her body, she couldn't help but oblige the voice, and she took a step forward.
But Vanessa couldn't use her sight to see where she was going. Everything around her was the deepest of blacks she didn't even know existed. So she gingerly took each step, hoping that she was going fast enough to not get yelled at again.
In the distance, she thought she could hear a rumbling. It was slow and steady and gave her something to head towards.
"Yes, just like that. One foot in front of the other. Come on, keep up the pace." The voice felt like it was all around her, but nowhere at the same time. Vanessa's toes were freezing as they curled around the rocks digging into her skin. A liquid oozed around the pebbles, seeping between her toes with every third or fourth step, sending Vanessa's stomach twisting at the thought of what it could be. Bile began to form in the back of her throat as her hands stretched out in front of her, searching for anything to walk along.
Vanessa couldn't tell what time it was, but slowly a little blue orb began glowing in front of her. Was it morning? Was this the sun starting to lighten the world once more? But the glowing light didn't look anything like the sun. It looked like something a wizard would hold in his hand before he threw a powerful spell at someone. It looked to be about twenty steps away, but it brought comfort to Vanessa, so she continued to walk.
The light seemed to expand drastically, nearly tripling in size in just a few seconds. Vanessa could almost feel the cool temperature, and as she got closer to it the more she paid attention to the center. A tiny little village trapped like a snow globe was spiraling through the center of the orb.
"What the hell?" Vanessa whispered. Her attention was so focused on the object in front of her now that she missed every other sound around her.
"AHH!" Before Vanessa could even figure out what happened, she jumped back, stumbled over the cobblestones and came to a stop only when her body hit the ground. The image flashing in her head once more.
"What the hell was that?" Vanessa shouted. She lifted her hands and rubbed them together to get the small pebbles out of her skin. Vanessa didn't need an answer to her question though, she already knew what she had seen. It was so ghoulish and terrifying, and the jump scare had been enough to throw her heart into another dimension.
"Talon..." Vanessa felt the tears roll down her face, and a small part of her was thankful she could still shed tears.
The image flashed through her mind once more, with even more detail. His eyes, what had they done with his eyes? Vanessa grew more and more confused about what had happened, but managed to pick herself up off the ground.
"Walk." The whispering voice said in her ear in a much more soothing manner than usual. Vanessa nodded as she tried her best to slow her heart rate back down. His face, all she could think about, was his face.
Another orb appeared, but instead of burning a light blue, this one was a fiery orange, flickering and dancing like the flames of a bonfire. The color wasn't as satisfying to Vanessa, but she still felt the same pull to look into the center of the light. As she drew closer, she could see images of children running around a school playground. Vanessa could feel the warmth of the scene. A pure sense of happiness filled her stomach.
But as she looked closer and her face nearly touched the orb, she could see the edges had started to turn brown, like they were burning away from view.
"Boo!" The orb was suddenly gone, and instead was the face of the man Vanessa was starting to know all too well. But this time, instead of just his eyes being gouged from his skull, his mouth was sewn shut, stretching, struggling to get any words out. He looked like he was calling to her. Like he begged for help, but she just couldn't hear him.
"Talon!" Vanessa shouted, searching for his face once more, but it was suddenly gone. The details still haunted her in even more graphic detail than before. Vanessa could feel her breathing quicken, and before she could remind herself to take deep breaths, another glowing light had appeared, this time a deep forest green.
"Blue, orange, green, see what's inside to be seen." The voice whispered, sending a chill down Vanessa's spine. The hair dangling around her ears whipped around in the wind. Her feet betrayed her, pulling her closer to the light. Vanessa tried to stop herself. She dug her heels into the ground, but it was like she was floating on a cloud. The blue dress she was wearing, with the burn marks around the hem, and the tattered rips were flowing around her ankles, tickling her skin, reminding her of the surrounding situation.
Vanessa closed her eyes, as she mentally begged to not have to look into another light. She knew what would happen this time if she did.
"Open them now!" The voice nearly screamed. Vanessa jumped in her skin, her eyes shooting open at the same time.
"I don't want to see his face again." Vanessa cried out. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, drenching her face in her despair.
"Look into the light." The voice was calm, sturdy, as if he knew she was going to do exactly as it had said. It wasn't wrong, though. Vanessa leaned forward, taking in the scene of the kids swimming around a pond, pulling the moss out of the mud of the opaque water.
The children screamed, enjoying the beautiful summer's day, and while Vanessa watched, she tried to prepare herself for what was about to come. The air seemed to still around her. The breeze had disappeared, and it felt like Vanessa was left alone to deal with her emotions. As the orb started to disappear, Vanessa felt her body pulling back.
"Here I am!" was the last thing she heard before the image of Talon's broken neck, gouged out eyes, and sewn mouth flashed in front of her eyes, before everything went dark.
Vanessa shot off of the couch, her heart racing in her chest.
"It was just another dream." She whispered to herself, trying her best to calm herself down. She searched the room for any sign of something that could settle her. It didn't take long for her eyes to stop on Talon, his face fully relaxed in sleep. How long had she been out for? When she fell asleep, the sun was only halfway through the sky, and now Vanessa sat in a dark room, the only light flickered from the old tv.
Vanessa searched Talon's face, making sure everything was still intact. Only after she was satisfied that his eyes were still in his head, and his mouth hadn't been separated from him, was she ready to finally settle down and take a deep breath.