This won't be easy to write. I made it this far, so I might as well.
A day after she had shown me the menu, I found Catherine sitting inside the library, pouring over a large, old book as far away from the wide windows as possible. In reaching distance there were two others waiting to be read, She looked more than just a little spooked, very unnerved at something. I immediately pulled out a chair and sat across from her.
"Hey, Catherine. Jeez, you look like hell. Are you alright?"
She bit her lower lip, thinking about her response. "I, ah...I had a really bad nightmare last night. Actually, a whole series of nightmares. One after another. All of them were horrific and so realistic. Then I had an insane bout of sleep paralysis that scared the living crap out of me. I couldn't sleep after that."
It explained her looking like a ghost, but I got nervous. "Do you remember them at all?"
"I kind of do. One had me walking on a forest path in the middle of the night. There were candles lighting the way, but they didn't help at all. If anything it made everything more creepy. Even worse, every step I took I knew that someone was following me. It was one of those dreams where you want to run and scream, but you can't. Another one was me just staring down a hallway in some sort of giant castle or palace. I could see large pictures on the walls that spanned the entire length down. I couldn't make out what they were of, though. But the whole time I was just so uncomfortable. Like I was seeing something forboding and wrong."
I nodded slowly, looking at the books that she had next to her. A voice in the back of my head screamed out 'it's starting again'. "What do you have there, Cathie?" I said, motioning at the other books.
She closed the book she was reading and showed me the title: Celtic Monsters and Myths. She slid over the other two books, which were about the hidden meanings of dreams.
I smiled and tried to make light of it, saying, "So...did you learn anything?"
The books were put off to the side and she continued, "Nothing you don't already know: the forest represents the unconscious, life, fertility, change in one's psyche. Candles mean illumination. And if you dream about a dark shape staring at you while you sleep, it means a dark shape is staring at you while you sleep."
We both chuckled at that little quip, but for me the mirth quickly died. "Wait. Something was staring at you? Like, an actual something in your room."
She let out a long sigh and nodded. "Yeah. I didn't really see it, per se...but I felt it.I knew it was there." Catherine checked her cell for the time. "I should head out now. I have an appointment with Dr. Frey. I'll tell him about all this and see what he has to say."
"Please do. You know how much I worry. Do you want me to walk you to your car, just in case?"
"Absolutely."
As we left for her car, she didn't seem to want to talk about anything. Even when I tried to strick up a conversation about dinner or the weather, she nodded silently and kept close by. We finally got to her car, and to my horror I heard her let out a wet cough. Not a good sign in the slightest. I tried to reason with it, telling myself that allergy season was kicking and she might be getting a cold. "Are you alright?"
She responded, "I'll get back to you on that."
My gut instinct told me that things were wrong...very wrong. I didn't want her to get into that car and drive off, lest something bad happen while I wasn't there. But my fears on that proved to be for nought: Catherine drove safely there and drove safely home. The second she was in her room the texted and then called me, saying that she felt bad for getting me worried, and that she told him everything. He was as surprise and shocked as we were, she said. He recommended that she steer away from any sort of over the counter medication, saying that most of the side effects for such drugs typically undermined the benefits, especially in her case. He wanted her to take teas, keeping with his preference for the natural.
"Say, you want to get something to eat tomorrow? That 'No Joe's About It' place is amazing." she said offhandedly.
And so plans were made for a delicious lunch and walk.
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