Don't Let Them Find You

by Brandy Isaacs

  Rolling onto her side Sydney reached for her phone just as it began blaring the alarm. “Ack,” she grunted snatching it up and silencing the electronic bleeping. The sound jarred her already aching head and caused her to wince. Even if she didn’t have to open the store this morning she knew there was no way she would have been able to go back to sleep. Taking a few more deep breaths, Sydney slid from the bed and stumbled to the bathroom. Groaning, she peed and rested her head on her knees. Why does my head hurt so bad? She hadn’t drank much and weed never left her feeling hung over. What’s more she had went to bed early enough that she should have been well rested. So, why was her head pounding?

  When Syd opened her eyes she was startled to see a drop of blood on the floor between her feet. At first, annoyed surprise tilted her head, her period wasn’t due for a couple of weeks. But then logic took over and questioned why there would be blood on the floor but not on her underwear. Another drop plopped onto the white tile next to the first and she put her hand to her face. Feeling warm liquid she tilted her head back and stared at the blood coating her fingers. Grabbing a handful of tissue she pinched her nose and leaned her head forward. By the time she made it to the sink the blood had already soaked through the wad of paper.

  What the hell? Keeping her head balanced over the sink, Sydney fumbled for more tissue. The blood ran in a steady, thin stream from her nose and splashed almost silently against the porcelain. The sharp contrast between the red of her blood and the pristine ivory of the basin was jarring. She wondered if you could die from a nosebleed as it continued to gush steadily. The nosebleed was painless and most unpleasant part of the ordeal was trying not to make a mess and the tangy, metallic taste in her mouth. Grabbing another handful of paper, Syd realized that the throb in her head was easing. As the pressure in her head subsided her ears popped and the flow of blood began to slack off as well. Soon, wiping her nose revealed only faint crimson streaks.

  Sydney cleaned the blood from the floor and the splashes from the sides of the sink before sitting on the closed lid of the toilet. Weird. Now that she had a moment to digest what happened she almost laughed. Good thing I’m not a fan of snorting drugs, she chuckled to herself. The bleeding had stopped, but her nose still felt congested and uncomfortable. Figuring she should get it out while she could easily wash off, she blew her nose. Other than watery looking blood splatters she didn’t find anything too alarming. “Ugh,” she muttered as she undressed and noticed the tiny drops of blood on her tee-shirt. “Great.” She tossed it in the corner and hoped she wouldn’t have to throw it away.

  After showering, Sydney washed four ibuprofens down with a glass of water thinking that maybe she was just dehydrated. Dehydration would cause a headache but she didn’t know if it could cause nose bleeds too. Shay was still in bed when she grabbed an apple and made her way down the stairs to open The Bark and Meow. The smell of dog and cat food and rubber toys greeted her and she laughed at the new display of hand sewn dog costumes that Shay had placed near the door. Sydney fingered the smooth material of a pink ballerina costume small enough to fit a Chihuahua. Bless Shay, she laughed to herself. The woman’s cuteness was downright inspirational.

  The shrill yap of a tiny dog snapped Sydney out of her admiration of her friend’s handiwork. The bark was followed by the tinkle of the bell that hung over the door. Syd cringed as the sound spiked through her still sore brain. Turning, she forced herself to smile at the older woman who was yanking on the leash of a toy Yorkie.

  “Matilda! Hush!” she begged the little dog. “I’m sorry, she’s normally much friendlier than this.”

  “I bet,” Syd’s smile felt rubbery and fake as she lifted a foot out of the range of the dog’s snapping teeth.

  Chapter Six

  “Syd!” Shay’s voice reverberated through the wall that separated the shop from the stairs. “Guess what?” she exclaimed bursting through the door.

  Syd turned to her friend. “What’s up?” she asked, trying to sound as normal as possible, her weird morning was still hanging over her making her feel leery and paranoid.

  “I found the perfect cat for us!”

  Syd raised an eyebrow. “...OK…” she chuckled uneasily remembering the woman’s yapping dog.

  Shay thrust her phone in Syd’s face. “Look!”

  Sydney involuntarily stepped back to avoid being hit in the nose. The cat on the screen caused her to laugh out loud, almost forgetting her strange mood. The cat was solid white, with one green eye and one blue eye, and they glared out from the screen. What was more unusual was the fact that the cat had no ears. Instead, scaly skin marred the smoothness of his head. “What the hell is wrong with that cat?” she laughed.

  “Nothing is wrong with it. He was in a fire. And he’s deaf.”

  “Well, apparently. He has no ears.”

  Shay rolled her eyes. “He needs us,” she insisted.

  Syd hesitated. She had no idea how cats would react to her. Dogs hated her. But would cats? After a couple of awkward moments she shrugged. “If you want him, get him.”

  Shay squealed. “The shelter is going to bring him next week. I already emailed them and got a response.”

  “Cool,” Syd muttered trying to forget her misgivings.

  “You OK?”

  Syd turned back to Shay who was looking at her with a tilted head. “I just had a really weird dream last night.” Syd wasn’t even sure why she said it. It just came out of her mouth on its own.

  “Yeah?” Shay looked at her seriously. If anyone would take strange dreams to heart it was Shay. “What did you dream?”

  “Meh, doesn’t matter. It was just a dream.” Syd tried to take everything back.

  “Oh, come on! Dreams mean things! What was it about?”

  Sydney didn't want to look at Shay because she knew she wouldn’t be able to resist the look on her friend’s face. Finally, she couldn’t ignore her any longer and she met Shay’s excited and curious stare. “Oh, alright,” she laughed. She made her way towards the counter where they could sit on a couple of stools while they talked.

  “It was really weird,” Sydney began as she slid up to the counter. Once she was done describing the dream she glanced at Shay. She had purposely avoided her friend’s gaze the whole time. Feeling exposed and paranoid, she watched the door or straightened the counter displays and she certainly didn’t mention waking up with a bloody nose.

  “Ugh, that is weird,” Shay reached out and put her hand, comfortingly, on Syd’s arm. “But I bet it means something.”

  Sydney was relieved by the laughter that bubbled out of her. “Of course.”

  “No! Really. I’m going to look it up.”

  “OK. If you want,” Syd shrugged.

  Shay ignored her poo-pooing and pulled the business laptop out from underneath the counter and Syd made her way to the cat toy aisle. She let herself get lost in organizing and straightening, willing herself to not think about yapping dogs or weird dreams until Shay’s voice interrupted her distraction.

  “Dude!” Shay exclaimed sounding surprised and confused at the same time.

  “What?” Syd barely paid attention at first. Shay often exclaimed over things.

  “Apparently, you weren’t the only one to dream about people not being able to understand you.”

  “Huh?!” Shay finally had her attention. She poked her head up from the row of cat food she had been facing to stare, perplexed at her friend and roommate. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” Shay nodded towards the laptop. “That I just found a blog that is talking about how a lot of people dreamed that they were speaking and no one could understand them last night. A couple even mention strange glowing lights in the dream.

  Sydney tilted her head at Shay who wasn’t making sense. “What?”

  Shay shrugged. “Apparently, you and a bunch of other people had the same dream last night.

  “How’s that possible?” Sydney wrinkled her nose at Shay’s declaration.

&
nbsp; “I dunno,” Shay shrugged. “Look.” She turned the computer around so that Syd could see.

  On the screen was an amateurish looking blog site. The background was spotted with fantasy looking women and half-human, half-animal creatures. Syd raised a brow.

  “Just read it,” Shay insisted.

  Syd scanned the blog and the more she read the more attention she paid to it. Finally, she put down the rag she had been dusting with and leaned over the computer. According to the blogger, he had dreamed about trying to walk down a warped and misshapen street and everyone that he asked for help acted like he was speaking a foreign language and the whole time a strange, floating light followed him. The part that caused the hairs to raise on the back of her neck was when the blogger described waking up with a bloody nose. “How did you find this?” Syd asked Shay in a hollow voice, worrying what Shay had searched for and if it could be connected back to her.

  “I just Googled ‘what does it mean to dream that no one understands your language?’ Keep reading though.”

  Relaxing a bit, Sydney began reading again. After the initial description of the blogger’s dream experience were multiple lines of hyperlinks. Several looked like other blogs but the rest were Facebook or Twitter profile links. Above the links were explanations. They were connected to other people who had written about similar dreams. Apparently, this guy had stumbled upon them the same way Shay had. Syd clicked on a couple of links and read enough to know that all of them had seemingly dreamed variations of the same thing. Being dizzy and lost in a confusing place and no one could understand what they were saying and most of them also mentioned orbs of light somewhere in the dream.

  Reason tried to argue against the eeriness of what Shay had found but once Sydney scrolled back to the top of the blog and saw the date and then confirmed it on the links to other people’s social media site she couldn’t think of a rational explanation. The blog had been posted three hours ago and the other postings were within the past twenty-four hours. Not to mention, multiple posters mentioned nosebleeds. Sydney continued to stare at the computer screen for several more moments. Not because she was still reading, but because she didn’t want to talk about it with Shay.

  Sydney’s reluctance to discuss it confused her. Shay didn’t even know about the nosebleed. And knowing Shay, she would be excited by the mystery of it all—not scared. But Sydney was scared. Her mouth went dry and her palms were sweaty. She couldn’t even begin to process what the hell this meant considering her past. She gripped the edge of the counter to stop her hands from shaking before she met Shay’s eyes. She forced a smile on her face but it felt like a pained grimace. “Weird.”

  “I know! Right?” Shay grinned at her. “I wonder what this means?”

  “Heh,” Syd croaked. She swallowed and tried again. “Probably nothing. There was probably something on TV or radio that we all heard and it got into our subconscious. Hey, maybe it’s some kind of subliminal message that we all picked up.” She picked up her dusting rag again and turned back to the shelves.

  “Maybe,” Shay conceded. “Or maybe it’s something else.”

  “Like what?” Sydney didn’t look up from her work and wondered if Shay noticed the hopeful note to her voice. Part of her wanted Shay to have a viable answer that made sense.

  “I don’t know. Maybe you guys are all sensitive to some kind energy based messages or something.”

  Sydney wasn’t sure if she should laugh at her friend or take her seriously. How was she supposed to react to this? How would a normal person who wasn’t afraid for her freedom, sanity, and life supposed to react to having the same dream as ten strangers. “I don’t know, Shay. The simplest answer is usually the right one.”

  Shay gave a loud sigh pretending to be more offended than she actually was. Shay knew she was eccentric. She wasn’t crazy—just enjoyably unique and open-minded. “You’re such a party pooper.”

  Sydney smiled at her. “I’m just a realist.”

  “Oh! Shit!”

  “What?” Syd spun to face Shay expecting the worse.

  “I forgot I’m supposed to meet Zak for lunch!”

  Sydney shook her head and relaxed. “Tell him hi for me.”

  “Will do. I’ll be back in time to take over the evening shift.”

  “K.”

  Once Shay was gone, Sydney stopped dusting and made her way back to the counter. She opened the laptop again and returned to the blog. She scanned the page until she found the links to the other “dreamers,” as she had come to think of them. Most of the profiles had pictures and Syd couldn’t find anything that stood out as a commonality. A couple were non-white, genders were pretty much equal. Granted, not all the profiles had pictures, nor could she see all the information on their sites due to privacy settings and there weren’t many pictures on the blogs. However, from the information she did have she assumed that the Dreamers were a random collection of people. Was there something they all had in common that wasn’t obvious? Highly likely, but she had no way of knowing without contacting them. And she could. The blogger, who went by the name Pandaren87, asked, at the end of his blog, for anyone else who had experienced similar dreams to contact him and left an email address.

  Part of Sydney really wanted to message the guy. One question that she had in particular was if the guy, or any of the other Dreamers, had memory problems. Judging by what she had access to, no one else gave any indication of memory lapses or amnesia. Sydney scrolled through Pandaren87’s other blog posts and quickly ascertained that the guy normally posted about online video games. She almost expected him to be someone interested in the occult or mystical sorts of things. A new-ager looking for strange occurrences. But he seemed like an average guy in his twenties. The other Dreamers seemed pretty normal too from what she could tell.

  Sighing, Sydney shut the computer and rubbed her eyes. Her headache was returning and she was feeling exhausted. What could cause a handful of people, at least, to dream the same thing? Had something happened to them all? Something they weren’t talking about and something that Sydney couldn’t remember?

  ***

  After waking up on the muddy beach, Sydney had hurried through the woods looking for civilization and by the time she found the gas station, her feet were cut and bleeding. She was exhausted, filthy and hurt all over. Her nose had stopped bleeding but it still felt brittle, bruised and stuffy. She was sweaty and her head pounded brutally. At the edge of the trees Syd paused to catch her breath and tried to get her bearings. She was somewhere rural and secluded. One side was covered by the trees in which she hid. The other side, behind the gas station, was a sprawling field of corn stalks. Only a few cars had passed by as she walked. Each one caused her to pause in fear that the driver would spot her, stop, and someone would jump out to come for her. But apparently none of them had seen her because no one even slowed down. Between hiding in the trees and her injuries, it took her most of the day to make it through the woods.

  The gas station was an old fashioned place that featured a garage and only a couple of pumps, none of which were in use at the moment. Sydney leaned against a tree and tried to come up with a plan. Obviously, she couldn’t just walk in and ask to use the bathroom. She was a wreck and anyone who saw her would at least assume that she needed help and insist on calling someone. Or they wouldn’t bother offering help, but they would definitely remember her later. And Sydney still had no idea if she wanted anyone to remember having seen her. She assumed the bathrooms would be located outside. How she knew this, she had no idea. What are the chances they are unlocked? Slim, she answered her own question.

  Deciding to at least try the bathroom doors before giving up on not going inside, Sydney stepped back deeper into the trees and hurried further down the narrow road. Her plan was to cut across the road far enough down that any attendants wouldn’t see her approaching the gas station. A couple hundred feet down she darted quickly across the road whimpering as she went. The day had finally heated the blacktop bu
t was still cold enough that a deep ache settled in her feet along with the cuts and bruises, walking proved painful. She limped as fast as she could to the grassy shoulder and groaned in relief when she stepped in the soft turf.

  Sydney hurried towards the station as fast as she could. Up close, she could see that she had been right. The bathrooms were on the side of the building, designated for gender by faded pale blue pictures above the door. The parking lot was covered in loose gravel and Syd hobbled across to the building trying her best not to cry out in pain. Holding her breath she twisted the handle of the women’s bathroom. It didn’t budge. She wanted to believe that maybe it was just occupied, despite there being no cars in the parking lot. But when she tried the men’s room she got the same result. Shit! They were locked. To get in she should have to get a key from an attendant.

  Sydney rested her head against the door trying to think of a story that would explain her state but that would discourage an attempt to help her. Before she concocted a believable story, the sound of a loud motor caught her attention. Looking up, she saw the top of a tractor making its way slowly over the crest of a hill a quarter mile away. Still unreasonably averse to being seen, Syd darted towards the back of the station, nearly falling over as a result of the pain in her feet. Tucking herself against a stack of pallets, she slid down the wall and sat with her head resting on her knees.

  At first, she hoped the tractor would pass by, however, after it roared and clattered into the parking lot she came up with an alternate plan. A hay filled trailer stretched twenty-five feet behind the tractor. The driver had stopped by a pump to fill up and Syd realized this might be her best chance. After a few moments she heard heavy footsteps crossing the parking lot and the jingle of a bell signaling the opening of the station door.