Intuition Detective Agency

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

         Amy walked into her new apartment.  She looked around the small studio room.  Boxes were strewn about, half unpacked.  Her bed was unmade.  The dishes from last night and this morning were in the sink.  She knew she should finish settling in and clean up a bit, but all she wanted to do was curl up, zone out, and think.  Her mind was swimming with all that had happened.
         
She walked to her bookcase and picked out a book, taking a seat in her small arm chair.  She looked at the cover.  She had pulled out her World Encyclopedia of Folklore without even thinking.  She flipped absentmindedly through the pages, browsing but not really reading.  She had read the large tome many times, and had its pages almost completely memorized.  Its familiar stories which had always seemed so soothing now gave her a twinge.  What Ain had told her swam through her mind.  These stories and legends that she had loved weren’t right.  Well, she thought, when had they ever been truth?  They’re just stories.  But now she knew they weren’t.  These creatures that she had always hoped were real actually were.  But now she was afraid that her childhood hopes would be destroyed if her favorite creatures turned out to be the things of nightmares.
         
She stared down at the open book in her lap, her mind a whirl.  The faces of the people she had met that day swam before her eyes.  Everything Ain told her about them.  Suddenly, her head snapped up, her brow furrowed.  So much had happened that day that she’d forgotten about her strange visions.  She wished she could bury them at the back of her mind.  Out of everything that had happened, those visions scared her the most.  What had happened?  Should she tell one of them about it?  But who?  Then she remembered Fox.  He had a look that said he knew what had happened.  I’ll ask him about it tomorrow, Amy told herself, and successfully pushed the incidents out of her thoughts.
         
She felt like doing something mindless and looked around the room.  She smiled, realizing she had plenty to do.  She got up, physically shaking herself, and dove into unpacking and cleaning.
         
She finished hours later, exhausted.  She had intentionally done everything quickly without a break so she would tire herself out.  She didn’t want to think anymore, she just wanted to be able to go to sleep.  She jumped into bed and was asleep in minutes.  That night, she had a dream.
         
She was a little girl.  She was running along, playing a game with rules only a child could understand.  She skipped, chasing butterflies and shadows, when she looked up and noticed she’d run into the trees.  She wasn’t supposed to go that far.  She was only allowed to go near the lake.  She turned around, heading towards the sound of water.  When she reached the shore, she looked around.  Where was he?  She grew frightened.  Not out of fear of punishment; he would never punish or tattle on her.  She was afraid because she was alone.  Her eyes started to tear.  She should never have run from the lake shore.  She shouldn’t have gone to the trees. 
         
Suddenly, she heard her name called.  She turned towards the sound and gave a cry of joy.  There he is!  She ran towards him.  He scooped her up in his arms, his piercing blue eyes smiling that rare smile he had only for her.
         
Amy’s eyes snapped open.  She sat up, looking around, wondering what had woken her.  Her brain finally registered that her alarm had gone off.  She hit the snooze button and fell back down against her pillows.  She yawned, snuggling back down to catch five more minutes of sleep, when she remembered something.  She had dreamed.  She rarely dreamed, or she never remembered them.  She could almost remember this one, but it was fading fast.  She turned into her pillows, trying to keep it from slipping away.  She remembered she had been a child, but that was it.  Then she remembered emotions; playful, concerned, frightened, and then happy.  She tried to remember why she had felt those emotions, and then she gasped.  She remembered one more thing.  She wasn’t alone in the dream, there was someone else.  A man.  A man with piercing blue eyes.
         
She sat bolt upright.  She knew those eyes.  They were Zash’s eyes.