by Ryan Sova
“I know what you’re thinking Garry. Believe me, I have asked all the same questions myself and none of it makes any sense. The recording of the 911 call is chilling when you listen to it and it sounds real. I played the tape of the 911 phone call back to Sarah Strong, Dalen’s wife and she claims that she has no memory of making this phone call. The only reason that I haven’t already dismissed this whole thing is because of the warning that you gave me about Dalen.” Detective Grant paused for a second and then as an afterthought he added, “One other thing about this whole thing that was strange. When we arrived at Dalen’s house there was a strong smell of bleach in the house. He apparently had been doing some extensive cleaning just before we arrived.”
Detective Grant left the room. It was clear to Garry that he was supposed to watch what was happening from the observation room. Garry didn’t know what to expect. He watched on intently for what was going to be happening in the other room. Garry hoped that these psychic abilities that he had would give him something more than just a feeling this time.
CHAPTER 3
The look on Detective Grant’s face mirrored the way that Garry felt. “You got nothing?” he said in disbelief.
Garry didn’t want to talk about it. This whole thing disgusted him far more than it did for Detective Grant or any of his associates. Garry was the one who had to be terrified of this guy for weeks now without a single rational reason as to why. He so hoped that he would get some kind of answer today, but what he ended up with was more nothing.
Dalen and Sarah had stuck to their story through the whole interrogation. They continued to claim that they both did not know where this 911 recording came from. They appeared to be just as baffled about this recording as the detectives were. Detective Grant had threatened the couple with criminal charges for making a phony 911 call and wasting the police department’s time. Whether or not he intended to actually pursue criminal charges, Garry didn’t know, nor did he care. Whatever these two were responsible for, Garry had a feeling that it involved more than just making a prank call.
Detective Grant was talking with two field officers and another detective about the recent disappointing turn of events. Garry knew who they were, he had dealt with them many times before. The two officer’s names were Cory Sanders and Jake Blanchard. These were the police officers who took turns shuttling the evidence to and from Garry’s apartment and, as such, were very familiar with Garry’s special gift. The other detective’s name was Kelly Klaben.
Detective Klaben was the only woman that Garry had ever attempted to pursue romantically. She was single, beautiful, intelligent, funny and most importantly, she knew about Garry’s special condition. He would not have to explain anything to her like his fear of sleep, screaming in the middle of the night and waking up in agony. She had worked with Garry for as long as Detective Grant had and was always so friendly to Garry every time that he would see her. It seemed to Garry like they were the perfect match for each other. Unfortunately, Detective Klaben didn’t see it that way. She was at least friendly and polite about it, but she made it very clear that she wasn’t interested in Garry that way.
Garry took his rejection hard. He had never even attempted to pursue another woman after Kelly. It had now been six years since his rejection. Detective Klaben was now married and had two children of her own.
Detective Klaben looked at Garry and said, “It's ok Garry, maybe you didn’t see anything because there is nothing to see.”
Detective Klaben had never stopped being nice and friendly to Garry though and she could always be counted on to do whatever she could to try and lift his spirits up. It was nice to know that she was still his friend, but it didn’t make it hurt much less. Garry wasn’t focusing on his feelings right now, though. His thoughts were totally absorbed in the reason that he came to the police station in the first place. There has to be more to this than just a prank phone call, Garry kept repeating to himself in his head.
After some thought, Garry made a suggestion, “All of us knows that there has to be more to this story than just a couple making a prank phone call. There must be something more sinister behind all of this. I just know that there has to be! The question is how do we prove it? In the 911 call, Sarah Strong claims that she is being stabbed to death by her husband Dalen Strong. Detective Grant, you told me that this recording sounded real to you. You also told me that he had cleaned the house with bleach just before officers arrived. Doesn’t that sound just a bit suspicious?! I have felt all along that there is something wrong with Dalen. We can’t both be wrong, can we? Maybe it wasn’t Sarah Strong that he stabbed, after all. Maybe it was a woman that sounded a lot like her and Sarah is actually just Dalen’s accomplice. In any case, the evidence is right there in that house. You can’t get rid of it all, no matter how much you clean up after yourself. So if you go there and search, I am sure that you are going to find something.”
Detective Grant shook his head and then answered, “Garry, we have no victim! There is not a judge in his right mind that is going to grant me a search warrant to go tearing through that man’s house searching for forensic evidence.”
Officer Sanders offered a suggestion, “Garry, I think that we are all missing something here. When have you ever had a vision about anything when you were awake? It always happens when you are sleeping, so why should we expect anything different this time?”
Garry answered, “I have been expecting a vision for the last month now, ever since he started giving me the creeps and I have had absolutely nothing.”
Officer Sanders answered, “Yes Garry, you had no vision about Dalen, but he gave you the creeps, didn’t he. Because somehow your psychic abilities told you that he was bad news, but you couldn’t see a vision because there was nothing to see. He hadn’t done anything yet. Now he has! I think that we all can agree to that. So now you should be able to see a vision about him, where before you couldn’t. You all have to agree, it makes sense when you think about it, right?”
Detective Grant commented, “I think that officer Sanders has a point, Garry. Why don’t you sleep on this and give me a call in the morning if you learn anything.”
Garry said goodbye to all his friends from the police department before leaving. He was getting tired and was ready for sleep. The car ride home was longer still than his ride was to the station. Garry was still disappointed in how things turned out that night. You would think that after all that I have already been through with this man, that I would have learned something tonight. Garry was frustrated and irritated. The one time that he actually wanted to have something horrible happen to him was the one time that his psychic abilities showed him absolutely nothing.
Once Garry had reached his apartment, he considered pouring himself a drink. After some reflection, he decided against it. What Officer Sanders had been saying made sense, but Garry didn’t believe it, not really. He had been waiting so long for this horrible dream to come about the man he kept seeing at his store, that he didn’t believe that this dream would ever truly come. Still, though, Garry hoped that Officer Sanders was right. Not that he wanted to have something horrible happen to him, but he desperately wanted an answer to this whole thing that finally made sense and he knew that there were many people at the police department that shared his enthusiasm.
At the very least, Garry prepared himself for the morning by setting out pills for himself and a glass of water. He was not going to have any trouble sleeping, though. He had no fear and without fear, he knew that sleep would come easy.
****
The sun was just starting to rise. Nephal rolled over and gave his wife Debra a gentle kiss on the cheek. He wished that he could stay in this soft, warm bed next to the woman that he loved for just a moment longer, but he had work to do and the farm was not going to tend to itself.
There were three farmhands who worked for him. Two of them, Jestal and Gabriel were his shepherds. They primarily took care of the sheep herd, but also watched after the oxen, horse
s, and chickens as well. Their first task of the day would be to milk the ewes (mother sheep). The butter and cheese derived from this milk was a constant source of income for Nephal’s farm. However, the profit that he made from the wool, butter, cheese, and eggs that his livestock produced for him paled in comparison to the income he received from the wheat, beans, barley, and rye that his farm produced with each year’s harvest. Nephal’s farm produced oats as well, but this was used primarily for feeding his livestock.
Nephal’s farm consisted of the house that he and his wife lived in and a barn that housed his livestock which consisted of twenty-eight chicken, six oxen, two horses, and fifty-two sheep. Just outside the front door of the house was also a small outhouse. The land that he owned was a six-acre plot of land that he had divided into three fields. The first two fields were harvesting fields. One of them was active with crops from the fall sowing already growing, while the other field was fallow or barren. The fallow field would remain barren for the rest of the harvest so that nutrients in the ground could replenish once again. Then, coming at the start of the fall season, the fallow field would become active again and the active field from this year’s harvest would become fallow. The third field was a pasture that Nephal used for grazing his livestock. At the far side of this field was a river. Water would be carried from this river daily by buckets for Nephal’s family and his workers.
There were two dressers next to the bed. One dresser contained Nephal’s clothing, while the other contained his wife Debra’s. At the foot of the bed was a crib. No baby slept in this crib yet, but in another three months all that would change. The strain of bearing a child was starting to wear on Debra and, as a result, she had been staying in bed for much longer lately than she used to. As a result of this, he had taken upon himself to do many of the chores that she used to handle herself, such as tending to the garden and curing the milk to make cheese and butter.
The house Nephal and his wife lived in was rather large compared to most other people who lived in the village. The design of the house was not fancy or special in any way, but it was very spacious and would undoubtedly hold a large family one day. It consisted of three rooms on a bottom level as well as three rooms on a top level. The three rooms upstairs would one day be used as bedrooms, but for now they were empty. For the downstairs level, just after entering the front door was a large living area which also doubled as a dining room. This room was used primarily for entertaining guests and as such, there was a large table and multiple pieces of furniture that decorated the living area. At the far side of the living area was a door that led further into the house. This doorway led to a small narrow hallway that divided the three downstairs rooms. On the left was a doorway the led to the downstairs bedroom where Nephal and his wife Debra stayed, while on the right was the kitchen. The downstairs hallway led directly to the stairs leading to the second floor. This stairwell would have completely blocked off access to the back door of the house, if the house had a backdoor that is. Metal hooks lined the walls of this hallway which were used to hang lanterns from at night. Each room of the house had a window and a fireplace with one extra window located at the top of the stairs in the hallway. The fireplace for the kitchen, however, was substantially larger than the fireplace for any of the other rooms as it was used primarily for cooking, as opposed to warmth.
Nephal made his way to the kitchen. His shepherds were undoubtedly already in the process of milking the sheep and bringing eggs from the barn for breakfast. Nephal went to work on getting a fire started in the kitchen fireplace and, after a short time, he had a fire going that was hot enough to cook breakfast with. After he was done readying the fire, he gathered a pre-made loaf of bread and a block of cheese from the kitchen and made his way to the table in the living area.
The boy was already there. “You’re early,” Nephal said slightly surprised.
“I wanted to make a good first impression,” the boy replied.
“Good, why don’t you go out and help Jestal and Gabriel with the sheep,” Nephal replied.
The boy turned on his heel and marched out of the house. He seemed even younger today than he did yesterday when Nephal hired him as a farm hand. The boy had straight black hair and was very clean cut, probably very attractive to all the young ladies also. He was surprisingly muscular for his age and claimed that he had some experience working on a farm, though farming was not his first choice in jobs. He had apparently been apprenticing for a local blacksmith in his hometown before he was driven from his home due to the king's decree.
Many such refugees had been arriving in the village lately which was a perfect stroke of luck for Nephal. His last farmhand suffered a terrible injury at work and was crippled by it as a result. Nephal was desperate to find a replacement for him when this boy turned up out of nowhere.
It was not long before Jestal, Gabriel, and the boy returned with the milk and eggs. Nephal already had the table in the living area set for that morning’s breakfast by this point.
Nephal turned to his most experienced farm hand, Gabriel, and said, “Why don’t you take the boy with you and finish preparing breakfast, I am going to get Debra up.”
Nephal crept into the bedroom where his wife Debra was still sleeping and gently nudged her awake. “Honey, Honey, it’s time to get up,” he said quietly.
Debra moaned, rubbed her eyes and slowly started rising from bed. Her hand instinctively went to her stomach as she sat up. “How long till breakfast?” she asked.
“It will be ready momentary, Gabriel is finishing it up now,” he said.
“Good, we are getting hungry,” she said looking down at her stomach.
Nephal led Debra to her spot at the table and took his seat right next to her. Nephal served her a portion of bread, cheese, and milk. The food from the kitchen arrived moments later.
The three farm hands joined Nephal and Debra for breakfast. Debra introduced herself, “I see that we have someone new here, it’s a pleasure to meet you, young sir.”
The boy responded, “It is a pleasure to be here, I am very grateful to your husband for that honor.”
Nephal smiled at the boy, “Your coming couldn’t have been at a better time for us. I hope that you are up to the task. I am going to have a lot of work for you to do in the coming weeks and months. Tending to the needs of a farm is no easy task.”
“I am up for the task,” the boy said enthusiastically.
“So what brings you here?” Debra asked.
“The king’s decree,” the boy said.
“I heard that they are evacuating all the outer towns and villages. Do you know what is going on out there?” Jestal asked.
“Probably an attack from the Vestillian Empire,” Gabriel commented.
“The Vestillian Empire? The last war between Empires ended over sixty years ago. You don’t think that the Vestillian’s have broken the treaty do you?” Jestal asked, both curious and alarmed.
The boy answered, “I don’t know what is happening out there, but from what I saw the better part of the army has been moved there. I even saw a sorcerer out there stationed with the army.”
“A sorcerer? Why would a sorcerer leave the capital?” Gabriel asked shocked by this new revelation.
“I don’t know,” the boy responded.
“Wow, very frightening. I hope that danger does not make it this far inland,” Debra stated, frightened by the news.
The boy answered, “I hope so too. My father died in a farming accident almost two years ago and I have had to support my mother and two younger brothers ever since. We had to sell our farm and almost ended up homeless until I started apprenticing as a blacksmith. Then our lives got turned upside down again by the king’s decree. If it was not for you and your farm, I don’t know what we would have done. I can’t afford to be moved again. I need this farm and I need all of you.”
“Well, I am grateful to have you. I don’t think that I have ever asked you what your name is,” Nephal asked.
The boy responded, “Oh, I am sorry. I thought that I told you that already. My name is Eliak.”
CHAPTER 4
“What a strange dream,” Garry said out loud as consciousness started returning to him.
Garry lay in bed reflecting, still very puzzled at the strange dream he had just awoken from. What does some farmer’s life have to do with Dalen, Sarah and the possible murder they committed together? None of this made any sense to Garry. He certainly didn’t have any clue as to what he was going to tell Detective Grant later today. Thinking back to the previous night, though, Garry realized that Officer Sanders was at least right about one thing, he did have a dream.
Time was growing short. Garry knew that he had work that day and he had to start getting ready soon if he wanted to show up on time. He still had to call Detective Grant though and fill him in on what he saw last night. Garry was no closer, though, in knowing what he was going to say to the detective.
An hour till work turned into thirty minutes till work. Garry needed to call now or wait until that evening and, in so doing, keep the police department waiting that entire day.
Garry finally made the call. Once he reached Detective Grant, he briefly summarized the dream that he had the night before, not knowing what to expect. To Garry’s surprise, Detective Grant actually laughed when he heard the story.
“Welcome to the human race,” Detective Grant told Garry.
“What do you mean?” Garry said puzzled.
Detective Grant explained, “Well Garry, it sounds to me like you just had your first real dream. Not some terrible vision of something that just happened in real life, but an actual normal dream for once.”
Garry stood frozen. He had never considered that possibility before.