Take a break and give your soul what it needs - Audrey Kitching
Ah, Sunday. The most boring day of the week. Nothing to do, nothing to watch on TV. Everything opens late and closes early.
I had the weirdest dream last night. The same girl as before, Aubrey, was standing in front of me. I could make out her features more clearly this time. She had slightly pointed ears, almond shaped green eyes and a beauty mark above the left side of her lip.
Last time she wouldn't speak to me which I assumed is what would happen again. But I was wrong.
I looked around partially expecting to see Mr. Haggerty since she seems to have some sort of connection to him.
After a few moments of looking around, I heard, "You won't find him." I whipped around, brows raised. "You're looking for your teacher, correct?" I slowly nodded. "He won't be joining us tonight."
Okay. This just got real creepy real fast.
"Your name is Aubrey, right? What do you want from me?"
She refused to answer my question. "Don't help him. He is one of them. He will betray you. He cannot be trusted. None of them can."
"What are you talking about?"
Then I remembered Mary asking me to help Damon.
"Are you talking about Damon?"
"He cannot be trusted. He cannot be trusted. He was born of them. He will become the same. He cannot be trusted."
"I don't know what you're talking about. Look, I know who you are but I don't know you. His mother asked me to look out for him. He hasn't wronged me substantially yet. Thus he has given me no reason not to trust him."
I began walking away as if it would allow me to wake up or at least leave this dream.
Suddenly I felt a hand grab my wrist, yanking me back.
"You must listen or you will end up like me. Like us."
I looked behind her to see a plethora of women, all different heights, ethnicities, though most Caucasian, and hair colours.
"What the? What is this?"
"This is your future if you're not careful."
I again trying to pull my arm from her tight grip, to no avail.
"Don't fight. I only want to help you. We want to help you."
The other women remained where they stood, silently watching as I struggled to break free.
As I was struggling, I saw a bright light appear.
"Let her go!" A female voice said sternly.
Wait. I know that voice.
"Mary?" I asked before the bright light finally dimmed enough for me to see that it was in fact Mary, Damon's mom.
"I won't say it again. Let her go."
Albeit reluctantly, Aubrey finally let go.
"You're putting her in danger. You know that? Asking her to look out for your boy. You know what he is capable of. What they are capable of."
"I would never ask this of her if I thought her life would be in danger. Besides, when he gets his sights on someone, he doesn't give up. You of all people should know that better than anyone else."
I stood back as the two of them carried on a conversation as though I was no longer there.
Finally, Mary turned to me. "Please help my boy. He will find things out. Things that will shock him. He's going to need a friend to be there for him. Can I count on you to be that friend?"
Wow. That is a ton of pressure. I still have no idea what's going on. Yet, here I stand, with the ghost of my friend's mom, asking me to look out for him.
"I'll try," I replied, not wanting to make a promise I wasn't sure I could keep. "I'll try my best."
After that, my dream seemed to fade away.
I was brought out of my flashback by a rapping on the window.
Slowing getting up, I made my way over, pulling back the curtain, and unlocking the latch.
"Hey Jon," I said as he let himself in. He was dressed in a nice button down black shirt and dark jeans.
"What are you up to?"
"Just thinking." I sat back down on my bed, him joining me. "Not much to do on Sunday's."
"True. But isn't Florence's baby shower today?"
I jumped up. "How could I forget?!"
My mom reminded me last night and everything.
"Okay. This case is beginning to mess with my head."
"Beginning?" Jon teased, chuckling to himself.
"Ha ha. Very funny. Don't make me grab my bat and live up to my namesake."
"Okay, okay. I surrender." He relented. "But have you decided what you're going to wear?"
I shook my head. "Considering you just reminded me a few seconds ago, not really. Help?"
He laughed to himself before following me into my closet.
My closet was pretty organized so finding an outfit shouldn't take too long.
"Let's have a look. I don't want anything too revealing. This is a baby shower after all. Her parents and other adults are going to be there."
"True. But, you've grown up around all of them. They should know how you dress by now."
"Fair enough," I said, rifling through the portion of hangers that held some of my tops.
After showing him a few options, he picked a black ruffle spaghetti strap off the shoulder top with red roses on it that criss crossed in the back. Thankfully I had slept in my strapless bra last night.
I decided to pair it with a match pair of black shorts with roses that had an attached billowy skirt, almost like a version of a fohawk dress only it was a top and skort.
I began pulling of the shirt I'd slept in when Jon said, " Whoa! What are you doing?"
"What? Changing? What's the matter? We change in front of each other all the time. Okay, not all the time. But you know what I mean."
He laughed, though it sounded skittish.
I furrowed my brow as I pulled on the top he'd help choose. I struggled with doing up the ties on the back. "Hey. Can you do me up?"
"What?!" He exclaimed.
I turned around, seeing him wide eyed. "My top. Can you help me do it up?"
"Oh, right. Sure." I turned around, holding my hair up as he began tying the back. I'd decided to just leave my hair in its natural curls.
"I'm just glad we have a little bit of a day off. All this investigating the disappearing girls and Miranda's murder has really begun to take a toll on me. I keep seeing them in my dreams."
"Again?"
I nodded. "Last night Aubrey visited me again. Only this time she talked. She seemed shocked that I knew who she was. There were other women there too. I think they are some of the missing women and girls. None of them talked. They just stood there. Watching."
"That is really freaky. Why do you think she keeps contacting you?"
"I have no idea. Clearly there is something she's trying to tell me. First it had something to do with Mr. Haggerty. Now, she's telling me not to help Damon."
"Did you tell her about Mary?"
"Yes. Then guess who showed up."
"Mary for $200, Alex."
I slapped him playfully. "You're ridiculous. But yes, Mary showed up. Aubrey was grabbing me." I lifted my arm, showing him the bruise on my wrist. It was lightly red and you could see faint marks of fingers.
"I woke up with this on my wrist. The dream felt so real. They always do. It's like an out of body experience."
"Well thank God I haven't been getting them. It sucks that you have though. Are you any closer to finding out what she wants?"
"In the first dream she didn't talk. She only pointed at Mr. Haggerty then she watched as he basically bled to death. There was a sense of relief I felt from her after he'd died."
"Well we know they were connected. Maybe there's more to the story. The photo in the yearbook suggests they dated. Maybe they broke up and she's mad at him."
"It's possible. But how did she die? And why is she haunting me?"
"We could always look it up online." He suggested.
"Good idea," I ran into my room and grabbed my laptop before returning. "Aubrey Jacobson, Willow Creek." I said aloud as I typed.
A few headlines popped up. But one really caught my eye.
"Missing Local Girl Found Dead." Jon read over my shoulder.
"That's her connection. She was one of the girls who disappeared. Which means all those other women must have been too."
"Okay. Let me see something." I scooted over, allowing him to type something into the search engine. "Maybe this will help you understand your dreams better."
I watched as he looked over various psychologists interpretations on the meaning of certain dreams.
Just as we began reading, a knock sounded on my bedroom door
"Harley, hun. Are you getting ready?"
"Yes mom. I'm almost done."
"Alright. You and Jon come down when you're done. I'll be in the kitchen."
"How does she always know you're here?"
He shrugged. "She must have a gift." I stared blankly at him. "That or she hears me coming in through the window."
"Probably. Alright. We'll look into this later. The baby shower should be starting soon. We don't want to be late."
"Remind me why I'm going again. I thought it was mostly for women."
"Yeah. But sometimes couples have joint baby showers where they do gender reveals."
"I'm excited for cake." He said, rubbing his hands together, jokingly.
"Of course you are. You know, you eat my mom's desserts all the time."
"I know."
I chuckled. "Let's go."
We headed down the large staircase and descended into the kitchen where my mom was running around, double checking she had everything.
"You need help mom?"
"That's alright. I've got everything. If you wouldn't mind help me carry it to the van, that would be great."
Florence's father had lent his work van to my mom to carry all the desserts over because the Charger wouldn't be able to fit it all plus all of us.
I grabbed two carrier trays with cupcakes while Jon carried three trays of brownies.
My mom followed behind with the main event; the cake.
She was walking very cautiously as if the smallest move would cause her to drop her illustrious creation. To be fair, it's quite possible, especially with the occasional uneven sidewalk.
Jon and I made a few more trips in carrying at least two trays each time.
Homemade rice krispie squares covered in blue and pink melting chocolate, little onesie shaped cookies, again in pink and blue, as well as various other assorted treats. My mom went all out. But Florence deserves it. She's been with my mom since the beginning.
After our fourth trip, we'd finally managed to grab everything. Now we were just waiting on my mom to secure the cake for travel.
Once she was content that it would not suffer damage during transport, we all hopped in and headed to the banquet hall across town.
The trip wasn't long, about fifteen minutes.
When we got inside the room was already bustling with bodies, even though the baby shower didn't start for another half hour.
Florence was moving around, carrying on conversations, and double checking everything, her belly on full display in the beautiful blue summer dress she wore. Her brown hair loose, held back by a beautiful pale blue rose flower crown. Clearly she thought it was a boy.
"Oh! You're here! Thank goodness!" She exclaimed as she finally noticed us, walking in with the desserts. "Are these the cupcakes?" She asked, looking into the container I held.
"Yup. They contain little chocolate candies the colour of the baby's gender." My mom told her.
Florence squealed. "I'm so glad you catered the desserts for this party. Though not nearly as much as I love working at the bakery."
My mom chuckled. "The girls and I worked around the clock. We have the cupcake reveal as well as the cake reveal."
Florence bounced. "I can't wait to see the cake. I know it will be absolutely amazing. Especially since it's been made the best baker ever and the best boss ever."
"Aww Florence. You're too sweet. Now why don't you have a seat. Michael said the doctor told you to be on your feet as little as possible. Don't worry. We can help with last minute details. Just sit back and enjoy yourself."
"Alright. Love the outfit by the way, Harley." I thanked her as she hugged us all before having a seat at the main table.
"Let's get the rest of the treats set up on the display table. People should be arriving any minute now."
In a frenzy, mom, Jon and I, with the help of Florence's dad and one of her sister's, brought the remaining treats inside and began setting up the display table that was covered in pink and blue plastic table coverings.
There were pins people could grab to say whether they believe it was a girl or a boy. I think it's a boy. Jon thinks it's a girl. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Just as we set down the last of the treats, guests began arriving.
All the girls from the bakery were here; Jenna, Elisa, Katerina, and Faith, one of the newer employees.
Quickly everyone got settled in and began having conversations amongst one another.
Jon and I stood back, talking as we looked around at everyone enjoying themselves. Kids running around together, laughing. Their parents enjoying my mom's baked goods and the food.
What can I say? I'm a people watcher. It's what I do. It has always been a habit of mine.
"I'm just relieved you agreed to take a day off. You've been working this case non stop since you found out about it."
"I know. I just can't help it. These women and girls can't rest until someone knows what happened to them. Maybe that person is me. Maybe that's why they keep visiting me in my dreams."
"I don't know. That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. But we'll talk about all this another day. Today we're going to enjoy ourselves. We're going to gorge in your mother's delicious creations and forget about all the chaos for one day."
"Gorge on my mother's creations? So like any other day only I'm not allowed to work on the case?"
"Precisely."
I shook my head with a smile. "Fine. Let's go."
As promised, for the remainder of the baby shower and the following hours, I neglected to bring up one detail of the case. Even though I was thinking about it.
I just can't help but feel these women were reaching out to me specifically for a reason. Now I need to find out if my hunch is right.