by Cege Smith
“C’mon, now,” Ellie joked. “There’s a lot more to you than that.”
“No, my life was pretty boring until now,” David said.
“Have you ever been married?” Ellie asked.
“No, but I haven’t had a lot of time to date. Medical school and all,” David answered.
“You have any brothers or sisters?”
“Only child,” was his short reply. “What about you, Ellie?”
“My parents died when I was little, and we didn’t have any close family. So I was pretty much an orphan. I grew up in foster care here in Minneapolis.” Ellie sighed.
“That must have been really tough,” David said. “You’ve really made something of yourself, owning your own business and all.”
Ellie heard admiration in his voice. “Nah. It was something that sounded fun and I’ve always wanted to work for myself. That’s all. I’ve made plenty of bad decisions. One of them, of course, you met up close and personal today.”
Ellie was starting to feel the wine. She didn’t drink very often, and it seemed that it was going straight to her head. She looked at the glass, and David reached over to refill it even though she tried to wave him off.
“We all make mistakes, Ellie. You need to relax a little,” he said through her protests.
“I still need to go over to Linda’s,” she argued.
“I’m here to help with that,” David said. “You’ll get everything done. You are safe. It’s okay. Relax.”
Ellie felt herself acquiescing. Having him there completely relaxed her. They finished eating, and David insisted on doing the dishes after parking Ellie on the couch in front of the fire. He set the new computer on her lap.
“It’s all set and ready to roll. Try it out. Get familiar with it,” he said.
Ellie couldn’t focus on the screen, and found the wine glass in her hand again. She heard water running, and then the sound of pots and pans bumping together. “I do have a dishwasher,” she called out. Was that her voice? All the words slurred together.
“There are some things that I like to do the old-fashioned way too,” was David’s amused reply.
Ellie felt her eyes starting to close and rested her head on the back of the couch.
“Ellie. Ellie.” David’s voice was close by. “How about I go over to Linda’s for you? You can just stay here and relax in front of the fire. Where are the keys?”
Ellie was so tired that she couldn’t even argue. “In my purse.”
“I’ll be back soon.”
She felt a squeeze on her shoulder. She relaxed into her dreams.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
David felt strange walking up to Linda’s house. He replayed the strange story of the Bradfords in his head, and thought about what life would be like to never have to worry about money. He considered himself a simple man. He wanted nothing more than to have a satisfying job, and a happy marriage that lasted forever. For as long as he could remember, he knew that he wanted to get married and have kids. He had been looking for “the one.” Now that he had met Ellie, he was pretty certain that he had found her.
He smiled as he remembered Ellie sleeping comfortably in front of her fireplace. The more he learned about her, the more he just wanted to wrap his arms around her and protect her. He was dismayed at how aggressive her ex-husband had become and wanted to do whatever he could to help that situation.
David spotted the mailbox at the end of the driveway on the side of the house that led around back. He made his way there and pulled out the stack of mail that had accumulated. He glanced at it quickly, but there were only circulars and other assorted pieces of junk mail.
As he made his way back around to the front of the house he frowned. It looked like a light was on in a room on the third level. He remembered Ellie telling him over dinner that she and Kevin had explored the house during their visit the evening before. They must have forgotten to turn off one of the lights.
He went to the front and was unlocking the front door when he heard heavy footsteps behind him. He whirled around. The man approaching him put up his hands with wide eyes.
“Who are you?” the man demanded.
David peered closer at the man’s face. He looked familiar. “Mr. Klein?” he asked.
The other man looked confused. “Do I know you?”
“We met the other night, Mr. Klein, at Linda’s dinner party? I was here with one of Linda’s friends, Ellie? Remember, you told us the story about the house.” David stepped closer to the agent. The man looked disheveled and like he hadn’t slept in days. David noted the deep circles under the man’s eyes and the glassiness of his pupils. He wondered if the man was taking drugs.
“Oh yes. The house.” Joe Klein ran his fingers through his thinning hair and looked up at the house. “I forgot about the party.”
There was a moment of awkward silence, and David cleared his throat. “Can I help you with something, Mr. Klein?”
“I’m here to see Linda,” Joe said, glancing over his shoulder.
David wondered if this had anything to do with the glances and furtive looks he had seen the two exchanging at the dinner party. He had been sure there was more to the story than just a simple real estate agent and his client. David thought Joe Klein may be cheating on his wife, and he was disgusted.
“She’s not here, and won’t be here again for a while based on my understanding,” David said, crossing his arms.
“What are you doing here then?” the other man hissed.
David realized with a start that he was being considered competition. “I’m helping my girlfriend house-sit for Linda. I was just stopping by for a few minutes to pick up the mail,” David said, holding up the stack of circulars in his hand. He realized that it felt great to call Ellie his girlfriend. He hoped she wouldn’t mind.
Joe grunted, and David wondered what the man was hoping to accomplish. He watched Joe study the house. His gaze kept going up to the room with the light on.
“‘I guess I’ll just stop back some other time,” Joe said, backing away from David.
David was going to repeat that Linda was out of town indefinitely, but the man had already fled down the steps and was moving out of sight.
“Strange,” David said to himself.
He turned back to the house and slipped the key into the lock. He pushed open the heavy doors and stood in the foyer. He felt a rush of warmth through his body, all the way to the tips of his toes. He took a deep breath. He felt incredibly relaxed, like he was at home.
He flipped on the light on the panel next to the office and tossed the mail onto the table just off to the right at the bottom of the stairs. He admired the cherry wood paneling that lined the walls moving down to the library. He gently tapped the side of the wall as he walked down the hallway, intending to do a quick sweep of the first floor. He stopped when he realized one of the knocks sounded different.
He knocked again on that part of the wall with his ear close to the surface. It was hollow. He examined the wall closer and saw that there was an outline for an opening. He started pushing on the edges when suddenly the door swung open.
David looked into the dark opening. Was it a storage area? He felt around inside the doorway, trying not to think about how jumpy this secret entrance made him. He sighed in relief as he found the switch and flipped it on. He was standing at the bottom of a staircase that wound up into the air. David couldn’t see all the way to the top, but it appeared to go all the way to the top floor.
“Interesting,” he said out loud, just to hear something other than the silence of the house.
He started to back out of the doorway when he thought he heard movement at the top of the stairs. He remembered the light on the third floor. Did Linda have someone else watching the house as well?
“Hello?” he called out.
There was no answer. David shook his head. “I’m hearing things.”
Did he really expect someone to answer? David knew that he was alone. “Sc
rew it,” he said, and then he started to climb up the stairs. He had to go to the third floor anyway to turn that light off and this seemed like a shorter alternative.
Ellie’s face popped into his head, and David felt the tension ooze out of his body. Ellie was his ideal woman, and he was so lucky to have found her. He wondered how she would react if he went back to her place and pulled her into his arms so she could sleep against his chest. He could feel her hair tickling his nose, and he would stroke it and wish her happy dreams.
David found himself standing in front of two French doors on the landing of the top floor. He turned around, confused about how he had gotten there. What was he doing up here? He had been thinking about Ellie and then time seemed to go all hazy. David opened the door but was greeted with a deep darkness.
If he remembered correctly, this was the empty master bedroom that Ellie mentioned. He closed the door and looked across the hall. “Ellie’s Room” was written on a gaily colored piece of paper. He briefly considered taking a look inside, but it felt a bit like invasion of privacy even though he knew Ellie hadn’t moved any of her things in yet.
David glanced at his watch. He had been gone for almost twenty minutes, and he didn’t want Ellie to wake up and find him gone. He needed to get back. He took the stairs down to the front foyer two at a time and glanced one more time around the front entryway and down the hallways. Everything seemed intact and in place.
He looked up at the elaborate chandelier and thought again how nice it must be to have this kind of money. He sensed that a house like this was in his future; something about it just felt right. He left the light on in the foyer and then slid out the front door whistling a happy tune. He couldn’t wait to see Ellie again.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ellie knew she was dreaming. Her whole body felt heavy. Consciousness, though, seemed so far away that the effort required to wake up wasn’t worth it. She would stay here, wherever here was. That decision made, she tried opening her eyes.
A moment of panic followed when she realized that her eyes were open, but the blackness was still complete. That seemed odd for a dream and it didn’t help that Ellie was scared to death of the dark. It was a childhood fear, something that afflicted her after her parents’ death.
She remembered advice that a child therapist had told her. “I want a beautiful dream,” she said out loud. Her voice reverberated back at her and she winced. She was on her knees, and the floor underneath her was carpeted. She stretched out her hands and touched something solid. A wall. Carefully she stood up, not wanting to hit anything or knock something over. She felt exhausted from the effort. Why was she so tired? She was sleeping, for Christ’s sake.
She followed the wall, shuffling forward slowly. Eventually she ran into a corner so she turned to her left, following that wall. Ellie hoped that eventually she would find a door and not just four solid walls in a black nightmare.
Under her breath she continued to mutter, “I want a beautiful dream. I want a beautiful dream.” She tried very hard not to remember the dream that Jake told her about. “This is just a dream.”
The texture of the wall changed, and Ellie was relieved. She had found something. She could feel the smoothness of glass under the pads of her fingertips and then frames of wood. Then she found two handles. She realized she was standing in front of two French doors.
This reminded her of someplace, but she couldn’t remember where at that moment. She braced herself, grabbed the handles of the doors, and pulled the doors open. She brought her arm up, surprised by the brightness after the complete gloom of darkness.
“Emma?” she heard a voice ask. Her eyes started adjusting to the light, and she blinked. She knew that voice.
“Linda?” she croaked. Her voice sounded awful.
“Emma! What is the matter with you?” The voice was filled with concern.
“Is that you, Linda?” she asked. Her eyes were adjusting, and she could make out details now. Linda’s hair was pulled up high on her head with ringlets framing her face. It was her face, though, that made Ellie gawk. Linda was younger, much younger. And although her voice was the same, it had a lilt to it that Ellie didn’t remember. Linda was wearing a lace A-line dress that fell to tips of her shoes. It was quite old-fashioned.
But Linda walked right past her and stopped in front of a figure that was standing just off to Ellie’s left. Ellie took a small step backward. The girl standing next to her looked like she was barely out of her teens and was pale with a pained expression on her face. And as Linda started fussing over the girl, Ellie realized that Linda did not see her. In this dream, she was invisible.
“Emma?” Linda asked again. She placed a hand on the girl’s forehead. “Are you not feeling well? Do you want me to tell Henry that you aren’t well enough to go out?”
Who is Henry? Ellie wondered as Linda pulled the girl forward. Ellie realized that Linda was not the only one that was wearing strange clothing. Emma was dressed in mauve skirt that fell to her ankles. Chunky black heels with straps dressed her feet. Her blouse was loose, pale yellow, with mauve flowers that matched her skirt. Emma’s hair was short, like a pageboy, with curled tendrils coming forward and framing her face. A mauve hat hugged her dark curls and completed the outfit.
Ellie saw that Linda held out a pair of mauve gloves to Emma, who slowly took them from her. The girl still had said nothing.
“Honestly, Emma, you are being silly. There’s nothing there! I was just coming to see what was taking you so long. Henry was worried,” Linda said, putting her hands on Emma’s shoulders and looking at her sternly.
Emma’s head swiveled to her left, and Ellie realized with a bolt of surprise that Emma was looking right at her. Ellie reached out her hand and saw a look of fright cross the girl’s face. Emma whimpered.
“Girls! Are you ready? We’re going to be late!” Ellie recognized Randall’s booming voice.
Emma skittered in front of Linda and allowed the older woman to guide her down the hallway. Ellie followed.
“Emma, you are acting so strange. Henry is very worried about you. Let’s try not to do anything that would cause him to get upset, okay?” Linda whispered to her as they approached two men standing in a foyer just around the corner.
The men turned as they approached. Ellie stopped in her tracks. A man who looked very much like David stood there with Randall, although Randall had taken on the same youthful features as Linda had. Instead of being in his sixties, Randall could easily now be taken for a man in his thirties.
The other man (Henry?) was by Emma’s side in an instant. “Emma, I’m glad to hear that you are feeling better.”
“Oh, yes, thank you,” Emma finally spoke. Her voice was soft and had a faint Southern lilt to it.
Had Emma been sick? What was this strange dream all about? Ellie wondered.
“Henry, I know she is delighted to see you,” Linda said in a mothering voice that Ellie knew well.
Linda patted Henry’s arm and her hand lingered just a few moments too long, in Ellie’s opinion. Then Linda walked to Randall’s side and clasped his arm, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. “And I am delighted to see you,” she said flirtatiously.
Ellie felt ill watching the exchange.
Then she watched Emma double over, groaning. Henry was trying to hold her up. She thrashed away from him, falling to her knees. Emma wiped her hand across her mouth and was trying to take deep breaths. Ellie saw blood on the back of the girl’s hand at the same moment Emma did, and then Emma started to shriek.
Henry was trying to calm her. As the edges of reality started to get fuzzy, Ellie saw Linda and Randall watching Emma, apparently unfazed by her condition. Their faces were emotionless. Ellie felt nauseous and felt bile rising at the back of her throat. Why didn’t they try to help? The world stretched and disappeared. Then Ellie’s eyes opened to her own living room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ellie’s thoughts were fuzzy, and she still felt a bit sick to
her stomach. She glanced at her watch. It was ten o’clock at night. She heard soft snoring, and saw that David was asleep on the couch next to her. His head had fallen backwards against the soft pillows that cushioned the back of the sofa.
Despite the fact that the residue of the strange dream remained with her, she felt warm inside looking at David. It felt natural to wake up and have him there. She studied him. His eyelashes were long for a man. His cheeks were slightly flushed from the warmth of the fire in front of them. His dark green shirt accented his dark complexion and his light curls seemed to beckon for her to touch them. His nose was perfectly sculpted and his chin was strong with a dimple in the middle. He was breathing deeply. Her finger reached out, and she gently touched the shallow depression.
David’s eyes fluttered open. His head turned, and he smiled at her. “Hey there, sleepy girl,” he said.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, turning to face him and resting her head on the pillowed back of the sofa. There was just a small gap between them.
“It’s okay. I was waiting for you to wake up, and it looks like I accidentally fell asleep myself,” he said sheepishly. “What happened there? You were out like a rock.”
“I don’t know,” she said, frowning. “I know I’m a lightweight but that was ridiculous. It was almost like I passed out. I had a weird dream too.”
“What was it about?” he asked.
“It wasn’t really about anything. I woke up in a room that was pitch black, which I hate to say freaks me out more than any other part of the dream. It’s a stupid irrational fear that I have, and then when I finally found my way out, Linda was there. With another girl, and Randall, and a guy that looked just like you.”
“I’ve made my way into your dreams already, huh? Cool.” David grinned.