This time the dream was violent. A
man, a different man, was chasing her. She kept just out of his reach, but
she could tell it was because he was toying with her, like a cat playing with a
mouse before it kills. Through streets, between parked cars, through
alleys she ran from him. Finally, he grabbed the back of her dress,
yanking fiercely, cutting off her air momentarily before throwing her to the
ground. She raked her fingernails down his face before he could secure her
hands. His blood dripped onto her neck and she shuddered as he licked it from
her. Tearing at her clothes, he bruised her flesh as he ripped them
from her body. "Please, I need your help!!!" Her screams
were silenced as the man held a knife to her throat, slicing the skin just
enough to start her blood flowing. He bent again to lick it from her, but
he was torn from her body before he could. She gathered her wits and began
to ran again, his screams echoing in her ears. The man, the good man was
waiting for her at the end of the alley, arms reaching for her. She flung
her naked body into them, shaking in terror. He wrapped her in his coat
and suddenly they were back in her room. He washed her body from head to
toe, removing the dirt and dried blood from her bruised skin. Laying her
in her bed, he kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. "I have to
keep you safe, beloved. Our child's future depends on
it."
"I have no child" she answered,
confusion in her voice. He only smiled and kissed her gently.
"Sleep........" he whispered and
faded from her dreams.
She examined every inch of herself the
next morning and found no evidence of any attack. The dress she had
been wearing in the dream was still hanging in closet. She wasn't sure
what was real and what was imagined anymore. Dressing quickly, she grabbed
her purse and a book and headed for a nearby park. She needed to be in the
open, to feel the sunlight on her face, to hear the normal everyday sounds of
human existence. She needed to escape from her existence.
The morning passed quickly. She
could lose herself in a book as easily as she could in a museum. The sun
was high overhead when she headed back. She almost felt normal again, it
was like the mist that had clouded her vision for so long had lifted. She
knew she had to quit this job before she lost her mind. She had no
intentions of going back to the States, instead she planned to settle in
Venice. There was something about it, some sort of unseen pull that she
couldn't explain. She just knew that it was to be her home. Tomorrow
night was the final show of the European leg, she would tell them then.
She knew that they would hire a new accountant to audit what she had done.
She also knew no one would be smart enough to find the millions she had stashed
away, commissions on the investments she had made for them. Once they saw
what they were worth, they would stop scrutinizing what she had done, her
portion was a mere fraction of what they had.
She would never know what made her stop on
the way back to the hotel. She was now sitting in her bathroom pondering
her future. Luckily she had bought two, because she didn't believe the
first one. One could be defective, another one, a totally different brand
giving her the same results, was a different story. The sound of water
running in the bathroom next door made her jump, her hand instinctively covered
her stomach, protecting her unborn baby.