Someone Else's Dream

by Colin Griffiths

  The glass fell from her hand and smashed on the wooden decking as a haunting feeling came, similar to the one she’d felt in her dream when she realised; I soaked my plate with the hot tap!

  As her phone beeped, her heart leapt into her mouth. She quickly picked it up and looked at the message, as if it would be the answer or reason why the cold tap was running. The message was from Darren. ‘Are you ok?’ it simply read.

  She held the phone in her hand, still shaking.

  * * *

  Donna had left through the front door that morning, when Kelvin had come to pick her up, making sure the Yale latch clicked shut behind her.

  At around the same time Darren had left the flat, in a bit of a daze, whilst Smithy showered. There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that felt like he had eaten something nasty. The feeling seemed to be travelling from his stomach until it reached his head. That feeling would then tell him he had to get her back and it would keep telling him, over and over, until his head pounded. It was worse than any hangover he had ever had. With his stomach churning, feeling the need to vomit and his head pounding him into submission, he left the flat and in a daze walked across the sands to where Carla’s dream home stood.

  He walked up to the side lane towards the front of the house. He heard the four by four coming up the lane and hurriedly hid in the bushes that run along the side of the lane until it went past. Knowing that the only destination the vehicle could possibly be going was to Carla’s, he watched, as the man he had been dining with the night before got out of the vehicle and stood waiting. He saw Donna close the door and both of them got in the vehicle. They did a U-Turn in the clearing outside the front of Carla’s house and drove past him as he hid behind the bush.

  He sat and waited for a couple of moments and watched the vehicle disappear into the distance. When he was sure it wasn’t returning, he come out from behind his cover and walked slowly up to the front door of Carla’s beach house.

  Darren had no idea what he was going to do, he didn’t have a plan, he wasn’t even sure how he got to be outside the home of the girl he loved, never mind what he was going to do. He took his credit card out of his wallet and easily slid it into the jamb of the door to open the latched door. He closed the door gently behind him. His heart was racing now and for a moment, he thought about leaving. He had no idea why he was there and at that time was sure this was not the way to get the girl he loved to love him back.

  For reasons, totally unknown to himself, he quietly walked into the kitchen and turned the tap on, then he left the building, realising that he wanted her to be frightened and perhaps he would be the one she would call. He walked around to the back of the house which was where the veranda overlooked the sea. At the end of Carla’s garden, past her veranda was a sheer drop held by a six-foot retaining wall. He sat down against the wall waiting for his phone to ring; waiting for a cry for help. But no cry for help came and as he held his phone, willing it to beep, he sat and cried; wondering how he was going to cope.

  He tried to compose himself after a few minutes of sobbing and felt an instant regret as he did so. He wished he hadn’t let himself in the house and left the tap running. Still holding his phone, he typed the message, ‘Are you ok’ and pressed send.

  Carla was somewhat pleased to receive the message, not because she wanted to hear from Darren but because she wanted something to break her from her thoughts of someone being there and turning her tap on. She somehow thought it was related to her nightmare, that the person in the nightmare had come to life and turned on the tap.

  Standing, she walked a few paces off her veranda and stood on the small lawn looking out to the distant sea. She held her phone to her chest as if it brought her comfort before replying to the message from Darren. ‘Thanks for asking, I’m sure I will be, just look after yourself, Smithy is looking for you’ she immediately pressed, send.

  Within seconds, she heard the beeping of a phone coming from the end of the garden. Walking slowly to the edge, she looked down at the six-foot drop, to see Darren sat there, huddled up with a phone in his hand. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard her voice.

  “Darren what the hell are you doing?”

  He clambered up the retaining wall like a little boy who had been caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. He could see the anger on Carla’s face when he stood beside her. Carla noticed him shaking and her own head filled with emotion.

  “I’m sorry,” was all Darren could think of saying. He looked down at his own shoes.

  “Did you get into the house? Did you turn the tap on?” Carla asked him.

  Darren raised his head, he did not say anything but the look in his eye told Carla that it was him.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I wanted to scare you, so you would ask me to come over to help,” he said sheepishly, before adding, “I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, Darren!” Carla cried. She could not be angry with him, she felt for him. She knew the hurt he was feeling was caused only by her. For one silly moment, she felt like taking him back, just to mend his broken heart, but she knew she would only end up breaking it again and that would be far worse for both of them.

  “Do you know how scared I was?” she asked him. There was no answer, not that she was expecting one. “Please don’t come here again Darren,” she told him.

  “I won’t Carla,” he promised. Carla watched him clamber down the wall and didn’t take her eyes off him until she saw him cross the sands and was out of sight.

  She walked into her beach house and put the lock on the front door, making a mental note to get a sturdier one. She picked up her laptop and with a cold drink, she sat on her veranda and booted the laptop up. With the passwords Donna had given her, she logged into her sales site. With 118 sales since yesterday. ‘Charlotte Fights Back’ was rocketing up the charts. That brought the first smile of the day to her face. Since yesterday, she had made a couple of hundred pounds all because of her friend Donna. She logged onto her Facebook page, it was awash with notifications for friend requests and messages from friends wishing her well for her new book.

  * * *

  Darren had done what Carla had asked and walked across the beach to go home. Seeing her again had cheered him up a bit and he swore that when she saw him, her eyes lit up. He thought he could see the passion in her eyes and as he walked he realised it was the passion he saw so many times in their relationship.

  He now realised that back in the beach house she wanted him sexually. For Darren, the eyes of pity and the eyes of passion were very much the same. The further he walked the more sprightly his steps got. This is just a cooling off period while she does her writing stuff, he told himself. He imagined himself soon to be lying between her legs once more, only, this time, she would have a ring on her finger. He got out his phone and looked at the messages Smithy had been sending him. His face lit up when he realised just how lucky he was to have such a good friend and a partner who both cared for him. He rung Smithy, it was answered immediately.

  “Where are you? I’ve been worried shitless.”

  “It’s okay, I’ve been to see Carla, she just wants some time to finish her books; we haven’t split,” Darren said into the phone.

  “That’s good news,” Smithy told him and disconnected the call.

  Smithy wondered what sort of world his friend was living in. The texts he’d received from Carla indicated quite the opposite. He thought about texting her and toyed with the idea for about 15 minutes before he did so. He needed to find out what was going on, not just for the sake of his friend but for his own mind too. He typed; ‘Glad to hear you both sorted it out’.

  He waited for a reply, but by the time Darren had come back home, no reply had been forthcoming. Darren came into the flat looking a lot happier than when Smithy had seen him that morning and at that particular moment he thought that they must have worked something out and he was pleased for his friend, even though he was unsure how the hell he had managed
it.

  “I’m going for a shower,” said Darren, “then I’ve got some reading to do.”

  Smithy just looked at him, dumbfounded.

  Darren showered and shaved; spruced himself up and sat on the small sofa in the flat. He got out his tablet and opened the reading app. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d read a book, other than the textbooks he’d had to read from school. It dawned on him that he had never, in fact, read a novel. He didn’t understand reading, not when there were so many good films you could watch, but this was one book he had to read if he was going to rekindle his relationship. He needed something to talk to her about, something they could share and he needed to let her know he was interested in what she had done. It was the only way he could get her to marry him. ‘Charlotte’s Dream’ was downloaded in seconds and he was soon reading the first chapter.

  * * *

  Carla had never been a big fan of Facebook. She had an account but very rarely used it. She didn’t get why people would want to broadcast, to the world, how they were feeling. She thought photos were a private thing only to be shared with friends and family. She didn’t understand the reasoning behind posting a picture for everyone in the world to see. What she did now understand, through Donna’s advice is how useful social media could be, if you wanted something to be out there.

  She wanted to be the writer everyone knew. The picture that Donna had put up as her profile picture was one of her favourites. She’d taken it herself when they had spent a weekend in Paris. Thinking about it, she decided, that was exactly what she needed. A break away with her best friend Donna. Then she thought of Darren and wondered why they had never been away together. He had never asked her, or her him. Maybe that’s where it went wrong? She thought.

  She shook her head as she realised a weekend away would not have changed a thing. She clicked through the friend requests, declining the requests from bare-chested man or any of those that looked a bit suspect. It appeared a lot of them were from other would-be writers and she happily accepted their requests. She found herself judging the requests from men, by looks, almost as if she was on a dating website. She friended a lot of them.

  One, in particular, she thought was very handsome was a guy from Doncaster who called himself a stargazer and daydreamer. She thought that sounded romantic. There were soon lots of posts on her wall, some simply saying thank you for the friendship, some saying she looked hot and they should get together. She remembered Donna had told her how she could block their posts without them knowing, so that’s exactly what she did.

  Then she saw that the guy from Doncaster had posted on her wall, it read. ‘Thanks for the add, keep chasing those dreams’

  She thought that sounded sincere. It was one post she replied to. ‘Thank you, and keep chasing yours?’

  It wasn’t long before there was a further comment, ‘Together we can make our dreams come true’.

  She looked at the words and tried to interpret them. They unnerved her a little, but she did not give it much thought. She went onto Twitter and was amazed, she had never before held a Twitter account. Since Donna had set it up over five hundred people had added her. She felt her life was about to change and it was because of her friend Donna. She had saved her, just as she did all those years ago.

  She recalled the events with a chill, re-living every second of every moment as if it was yesterday. She’d hoped by now it would have gone from her memory, but it was still vivid and clear. It was like it was yesterday, not eighteen years ago.

  It was later that evening Donna came around to see how Carla was. She brought along a Chinese takeaway and two bottles of red. They ate and drank outside as the evening sun dipped below the horizon and you could hear the sound of the sea splashing against the rocks. Carla had told Donna about Darren and his trick with the water tap. Donna wanted to go and give him a slapping and certainly would have if Carla had persuaded her not to. Music played from the portable radio as they sat and drank the wine.

  “I had a nightmare last night,” Carla admitted, completely out of the blue. “It was horrific, it felt like I was awake and there was someone lying beside me, but he was also on my chest.”

  Donna just looked on in shock, she could see the fear etched on Carla’s face as she spoke about it.

  “It seemed to go on for ages and I was paralysed. It felt like I knew the man and then, all of a sudden, I just snapped out of it, but I swear I was already awake. It felt so real.”

  “What did he do to you? In your dream I mean,” Donna prompted.

  “He didn’t do anything, he was just there. Somehow that made it worse.”

  Donna topped the glasses up realising it would be yet another night she would be stopping with her friend. She leant across the patio table and took her friend’s hands.

  “You need to see a doctor, you need to tell someone what happened.”

  Carla immediately removed her hands from Donna’s, snatching them away, as if they were burning. Carla picked up her glass and emptied it, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

  “NO!!” she shouted, “no one must never know about that.” She paused and her voice became soft and gentle. “Sometimes I even wish you didn’t.”

  Donna took her hands again and Carla accepted it, letting a tear fall on her cheek.

  “I’m glad I was here Carla.”

  And that was the trouble, if Donna wasn’t there she wouldn’t have known what had happened, and that didn’t bear thinking about, but nevertheless it didn’t stop her thinking it.

  * * *

  Darren spent the next four hours reading ‘Charlotte’s Dream’, not because he was engrossed with the story, however. He just wanted something in common with the girl he loved. He wasn’t expecting it to be so intimate and heart-warming. It felt like he was reading the life story of Carla Reid. He shut down his tablet and just sat staring into space thinking about the book he had just read. He didn’t understand some of it but he knew he had gotten the main message. As he sat there thinking about the book, the only conclusion he could reach was. She just wants to be loved.

  For the first time in his life, he had gotten something right about Carla Reid. Mistakenly he thought he was the man to do it.

  * * *

  6. Revenge is Best Served Cold

  Dale Simpson was not the type of man that could let things go. He certainly wasn’t going to let Matt Connor get away with sleeping with his wife to be. As a criminal lawyer, he had met and represented some nasty people. Which, he thought gave him an advantage as to how people ticked. He would get his revenge and find a way of hurting Matt. Dale just had to find out what was most precious to him and then somehow set about to destroy it.

  He had so many contacts in the criminal world and Matt Connor was going to regret taking him on. The things he had in mind were perhaps a bit drastic, but he thought drastic times needed drastic measures. He knew the history of Matt through Carla; how the depression set in followed by the nightmares, after the death of his daughter Aimee. He knew that a lot of the time Matt was medicated as he found life difficult to cope with. He did have some empathy for the man, having daughters himself he could not imagine what it would be like to lose someone that close. But, there was a line in the sand and Matt Connor had crossed it. That would be his downfall.

  * * *

  Hayleigh understood the coldness coming from her fiancé. She had just cheated on him with her ex-husband. As a strong willed independent woman, she would never allow any man to dictate terms. On this occasion, though, she accepted it. She would do exactly as Dale requested. One of the things he insisted on, even though she was still in the early stages of pregnancy, was that she immediately took maternity leave. She’d done what her fiancé asked and did not return to the office. She knew Dale would delegate the work and the practice would run efficiently with or without her. She also knew she was good at her job and would miss it.

  Dale had also removed the sim card from her IPhone and replaced it with a new one
, giving her a new number. The reason being so Matt could not contact her and she did not have Matt’s number. It was, in fact, a futile attempt. Hayleigh knew Matt’s number off by heart but, for her, it was quite convenient he no longer had hers. She was soon on Facebook when Dale had left for work giving her FB friends her new number and before very long her address book was full again.

  Hayleigh wasn’t the type to sit at home twiddling her thumbs, or being the good, little, housewife who cooked and cleaned for her family. She had a career, she had a life, and she had aspirations. She had already been thinking about nannies after the baby was born so she could get back to work and continue her career. She did love Dale, of that she was sure of, but she knew deep down that part of it was the lifestyle and opportunities he could give her. As she sat at the familiar kitchen table, drinking strong coffee and looking out onto her vast gardens, there was only one thing going through her mind.

  I’ll play the good housewife bit, it will give me plenty of time to think of revenge.