Out of Time
A Paranormal Romance Short Story
Michelle Wilson
Contents
Out of Time
About the Author
Michelle Wilson’s Books
Also by Michelle Wilson
He came to me at night. When I was deep in the recesses of my mind, I heard it.
“Blair.”
The first time it happened, it woke me. I sat up in bed and looked around my bedroom for him, sure that the past month had been nothing but a bad dream. After a few breathless minutes, reality washed over me. It was a dream.
Then it happened again.
“Blair.”
This time, I knew I dreamed.
I clung to the dark.
“I’m here.”
I tried to call out, but the words were lost in the dark.
“Blair.”
My name. Over and over.
“Blair.”
It was the only word. For weeks I called into the darkness, searching, hoping to find him. But always my name faded as consciousness overtook me each morning.
This time would be different. This time I wouldn’t wake until I found him. As I fell asleep, I entered the darkness. It was the only place I wanted to be. The blackness surrounded me. I was no phantom in the dark. The blackness folded around me like an old friend.
I didn’t have to wait long. It traveled through the night.
“Blair.”
It was faint at first, like a whisper on a nonexistent wind, but I knew that voice. I was certain he looked for me.
“Soren, I’m here.”
My voice sounded loud in the darkness, like the clang of a wrong note.
“Soren. Where are you?” I whispered into the black.
“Blair.” Louder this time.
“Soren! Soren, please. I’m here. Please find me.” I raised my voice again. The back of my throat ached.
“Please find me.”
“Blair.”
His voice faded away. I couldn’t let that happen. I spun in a circle, trying to find even a pinprick of light in the vast void that surrounded me. Though warm and inviting before it now pressed on me from all sides. Something solid met my feet as I lurched forward. I couldn’t see where my feet landed, but still I walked on.
“Blair.”
My name sounded louder this time.
“Soren!”
My voice filling the void.
“Soren, I’m coming.”
I lost the passage of distance and time to the dark. I stopped. The dark still pressed at me from all sides.
“Soren! Talk to me. Help me find you.”
“Blair?” The voice said again. Then something changed. “Blair? Is that you?”
My heart caught in my throat. I strained my ears for some sound, anything in the dark.
“Blair? Are you there?” His voice sounded elated. It was him.
“Soren?!” I called again. “Soren? It’s me, it’s Blair. I’m here. I’m here!”
I ran toward his voice.
“Blair? Blair, where are you? What’s going on?”
“Soren, I’m here. I’m coming to find you.”
I was still running. His voice sounded so close now. I would see him at any moment.
But then I sensed it. The tug on my mind, pulling me back into consciousness.
“No!” I yelled, falling to my knees, “No! Not yet, I’m so close.” I swiped at the tears that were falling out of my eyes.
“Blair? Blair, what’s wrong?”
His voice was so close. I reached my hand out into the dark, hoping to touch him, to see him once more. There was nothing. I closed my eyes with a cry.
When I opened them I was back in Cassandra’s apartment. The soft light of the afternoon sun coming through the curtains caused me to blink a few times as I returned to reality. A tear leaked out of my eye and down my face. I wanted to jump up, but my body protested, so I uncrossed my arms from my chest and pushed myself up off the mat where I had been sleeping. Hollowness crept from deep within my chest out into the rest of my body. I looked around at the faces of the witches in the surrounding circle until I found Cassandra’s.
“Cassie, what happened?” I asked. “Why did you wake me up? I was so close that time.” I paused and took a deep breath, trying to stop more tears from flowing out of my eyes.
“Blair, you were asleep for almost 24 hours. Your vital signs were becoming unstable. We had to wake you up.”
I busied myself with unhooking the monitor strapped around my wrist and pulled off the electrodes stuck to my forehead.
“Well?” I looked over at Marie. The witch sat at the kitchen table in front of a computer.
Marie shared a glance with Cassandra. Cassandra cleared her throat.
“Come on Blair, let’s get you some water and some food. Once you’ve had something to eat, we can talk.” She stood and grabbed my hand to help me up.
“No.”
I jerked my hand away from Cassandra and glared up at her friend.
“I want to know what you found. Where did I go? Where is Soren?”
Cassandra shared another glance with Marie and whispered, “Blair, you didn't go anywhere. None of our readings were abnormal. We kept you under as long as we could, but you were just dreaming.”
I felt like someone kicked me in the chest. I sat there in the middle of the floor as the surrounding witches cleaned up the candles and herbs they had been using for the spell casting. Someone handed me a cup of hot tea. I took a sip. The tea ran down my throat and out to my limbs, rejuvenating me.
Cassandra’s words echoed in my head. You were just dreaming. My feet ached from walking so long. And Soren had answered me this time. There was no way I was dreaming. Wherever I was going when I was asleep was real, and Soren was waiting for me there.
“No worries. Next time we will see what we can tweak. Maybe if I go to sleep first, and then you all start the spell, it will show something different. Isn’t there a tracking spell? If you tell me the words once I get there, I can say them. Or, if I can find Soren next time, he can say them, and you’ll be able to track us.”
I laced up my tennis shoes sitting on the ground beside the mat and stood up, straightening my clothing as I did. I drank the last of the tea and sat it on Cassandra’s table.
“Thank you, you guys. Let’s regroup and meet back here tomorrow? I was so close this time. We can get it soon.”
I refused to let their apprehension get me down. I smiled at Cassandra and waved to the rest of the witches who had stopped what they were doing to watch me.
“Blair, you really need to drink water and eat something before you leave,” Cassandra said.
I smiled and grabbed an apple, pulling the apartment door closed behind me.
Once out of Cassandra’s apartment my feet automatically took me down the stairs and onto the street. The buzz of New York City surrounded me as I melted into the throng of people walking down the sidewalk. I stuck the apple in my mouth, holding it with my teeth, and pulled on a headband to keep my short hair off my neck. It was only April, but the heatwave of the last week had made the weather miserable.
I continued to munch my apple as I made my way down the familiar streets and alleyways. A man in a suit ran into me, knocking the last of the apple out of my hand as he hurried down the street. He grunted and moved on without offering an apology. My typical angry words welled up inside my throat, then dissipated. I didn’t have the energy to bother today.
Instead, I glared at his back as he hopped onto a flying carpet waiting on the corner. The driver grabbed the tassels on each end and steered the carpet up over the heads of everyone and sped on down the street. He pulled it to the left to avoid a broomstick that was carrying a w
itch in the opposite direction. I kicked the apple core that had fallen out of my hands with vigor. It rolled to the edge of the street near one of the storm sewers. A large, scaled paw crept out of the sewer and grabbed the core. A nearby maintenance worker prodded me in the arm with the wand he was using to make the trash in the nearby cans disappear.
“Don’t feed the sewer gators,” he told me disapprovingly. “Next time use a can.”
I rolled my eyes at him and continued on down the sidewalk. All too soon, I came to the familiar brick building. I paused before pulling the door open and going inside.
The stark white floors and walls greeted me as I entered. The stillness of the hospital settled over me. A few nurses moved here and there. They all wore dark green scrubs. A few had wands tucked behind their ears. I saw another with a necklace of healing stones around her neck. I nodded to the ones I recognized as I passed. It seemed like a quiet day. There was only the low murmuring of doctors and nurses talking and the occasional beeping of medical machines.
A quick ride in the elevator and a walk down a hallway later, I was standing outside room 206. I paused at the door. Going in was a little harder each time. The sound of a cough from down the hallway made me jump, breaking me out of my stupor, and I walked in.
Soren lay in his hospital bed like he did every day. His eyes were closed and his hands were by his side. There was no movement except for the even rise and fall of his chest. He had IVs in one arm and a monitor on the other. There were electrodes on his forehead. Computer screens around the bed monitored every vital sign.
I walked all the way into the room, passing the dying flowers well-wishers had sent when Soren was first admitted with barely a glance. The petals had all fallen, and the stems were brittle now, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. I walked over to the foot of the bed and grabbed his chart, flipping through it to see what the doctor had written for today.
There it was like always: no change. I flipped the chart shut with disgust. Tears welled up in my eyes. So often it felt like they waited there, waiting to spring into action at a moment’s notice. I gripped the foot of the bed with both hands until my knuckles were white.
Once I semi had it together, I pulled up a chair as close to the side of the bed as I could get it. I sat down and swung my legs over the arm of the chair, tucking them up into the seat with me. For a few minutes I sat in silence.
“I almost found you today, Soren.”
As always, my words sounded loud and hollow in the stark white room. I kept talking anyway.
“I know you’re in there. I wish I knew how to find you. Maybe you could tell me how to help, how to get you back here, with me.”
I stopped. A hard lump was starting in my throat, and if I kept going, I would soon be a weeping mess.
A knock at the door distracted me. I paused for a moment and waited. The nurses just knocked once and came on in. Instead, there was another knock. I scooted my chair back to open the door. Cassandra waited with flowers and a drink.
“Cassie.” I smiled at my friend. “Come on in.”
I ushered her into the room.
“I brought flowers. I figured the ones I sent a few weeks ago had died by now.”
Cassandra gave the dead stems still in the vase on the windowsill a long glance before turning back.
“How are you feeling?”
“I'm not sure. I was so close to finding him, Cass. But now everything seems so muddled and scattered. But I can rally and we can do it again soon. I was so close.”
“Blair—” Cassandra started. She sat down in front of me and grasped my hands in hers.
“That’s what I came here to talk to you about. My coven, we can’t help you anymore.”
“What are you talking about?” A sensation like cold water trickled down my back.
“We’ve tried everything we can think of. And between you and me, that’s a lot. You know, my coven is one of the most powerful ones in the country. Still yet, none of us can get any readings on Soren.”
“You think I’m making it all up.”
“No, Blair. I don’t. I know you believe if you try a little harder you can reach him. But Blair, it’s time to face reality. You’re dreaming. He may never come back.”
I jerked my hands from Cassandra’s and stalked to the window. I counted the taxis waiting in front of the hospital as I fought to get myself under control. Cassandra stood with me. The warmth of her hand on my shoulder kept me grounded.
“If you all don’t help me, that’s it. I’m not a witch. I’m not magical. I can’t do anything special.”
“Oh, Blair. Just because you’re not a witch doesn’t mean you can’t do anything special. Soren never cared you weren’t a witch. He loved you for being you. And I think if he was here now, he wouldn’t want you to keep obsessing over this. The doctors are working hard on his case. If there’s a solution, they will find it.”
“You’re right.”
I turned and gave Cassandra the best smile I could muster, even with tears threatening to pour out of my eyes.
She gave me a hug.
“I love you. And I love Soren. I miss him too. You sure you’re okay?”
I nodded. She gave me another hug and then said her farewells to both Soren and I before leaving. Once again, I sat down close to his bedside. This time I laid my head on the side of his bed and reached my hand out to grab his still hand.
There, I cried. I let the tears flow and muffled the sound of my sobs in his sheet. My soul felt like it would burst out of my body as I released all of my pent-up grief. Eventually the tears stopped flowing and my sobbing ceased. I continued to sit with my head down and my hand holding his until the sun dipped behind the horizon.
Over the speakers, the hospital announced visiting hours were over. I stood and smoothed the sheets where my head had been. I hesitated a moment and then leaned down to give Soren a gentle kiss. Even though we were alone, I leaned in close and whispered.
“Don’t worry about what Cassie said, Soren. I’m not giving up. I’ll reach you. Just please, keep hanging on.”
I woke the next morning and just laid in the bed for a while. My roommate was moving around the room next to mine. I remembered something about classes at our university that started soon, but found I didn’t care. I didn’t care about my classes; I didn’t care about my professors.
The only thing that made me care enough to get me out of bed was the thought of going back to the hospital to sit with Soren. So that’s what I did. By brushing my teeth with one hand and picking through the clothes piled on my dresser to find ones that didn’t look dirty with the other, I prepared to leave in a matter of minutes.
When I arrived at the hospital, a group of people milled around the front door. I pushed my way through the throng and tugged on the door. It was locked. An employee grabbed my wrist.
“I’m sorry, Miss, but you can’t go in.”
“What?”
His words didn’t register in my brain.
“You can’t go in. The whole hospital is under quarantine.”
A heavy weight sprouted in my chest and took over my body.
“What do you mean?”
“Something about an illness that causes a coma. It started with one guy, and now five or six people have it. No one is allowed in, no one is allowed out.”
I wandered the streets for hours before plopping down on a park bench from exhaustion. Quarantined. I couldn’t see Soren. My life seemed like it was happening far away. Like I’d separated from my body and was looking down on this poor girl sitting on a park bench all by herself. What was I supposed to do?
Rain sprinkled. I stayed where I was, ignoring the droplets as they plopped on my head and arms. As I managed to pull my disjointed mind back together, a plan formed. The only way to find Soren was to stay asleep long enough. If Cassandra and her coven didn’t want to help me, there was only one other option.
The droplets changed over to mist. It clung to everything
it touched. Just wet enough to make roads slick and annoyed everyone that had to be out in it. I left the bench, pulling up the hood of my jacket and hiding my hands in my pockets as I weaved my way in and out of people on the sidewalk. I moved around them like they were as interesting as lampposts. Sometimes it was easy to forget other people were in the world with me.
I’d never been to the side of town I was venturing to. Soon, I saw the building I was looking for up ahead. The “Marty’s Market” sign was lit up above the door in a bright green neon, flickering in places where the lights were going out. I pulled my jacket closer and lowered my hood as I pushed the door open. A little bell on a wire jingled as I walked inside.
A regular looking convenience store greeted me. Fluorescent lights lit up aisles of nondescript drinks and snacks and knickknacks. To my right was a counter with no one behind it. I could hear the muffled sound of a radio or tv somewhere in the back. I roamed up and down the aisles picking up a candy bar and a pop on my way. Towards the front, I passed a turning shelf of quick spells. They had advertisements like “Read a Book in a Flash” and “Turn Your Face Blue.” I spun it around and pretended I was browsing. The good stuff wouldn’t be on display out here.
After a few minutes, a store employee lumbered out of the back and to the counter. He was a large man with a heavy five o’clock shadow and disheveled clothing. I could tell by his appearance he didn’t want to be here any more than I did. The candy bar wrapper rustled as I slid it across the counter. My heart was beating so hard against my ribcage I was certain the man could hear it. There was a moment while he scanned my items I considered just paying leaving.
But this was my last chance. The only way I could see Soren again.
“$2.50,” the man grunted at me once he had finished scanning my stuff.
“I need something else.” My voice held a hard edge I didn’t feel on the inside.
“What?”
“Something from Marty’s personal collection.”
I felt like I was in some bizarre improv group. Nothing about this came naturally to me. The word around campus was that this was the place to get what you needed, but the words tasted awkward as they fell off my tongue. I was sure the man was about to tell me to get lost. He’d figure out I was an imposter. To my surprise, he raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. His eyes flicked up and down.
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