NetherWorld: A Dream You Cannot Escape

Chapter3

CHAPTER 3:

"DIVINA."

The voice was stern, almost scolding, and it seemed to be coming from somewhere far.

"Divina, you need to wake up," the voice said again and, as if from a far, far, far away place, it kind of pulled her from her sleepy state.

Groggily, she snapped out of her drowsy state, and that's when the smell hit her.

She sprung up from the chair she fell asleep on, but her legs gave way under her, and she clumsily fell into a pair of strong arms.

Strong arms?

Where did that come from?

More importantly, where did the owner of the arms come from?

She quickly looked up and... straight into the eyes of the stranger of this morning.

Jeez, did he want her to faint some more in his arms?

She was so caught up in the moment that for a second she forgot where she was or what was happening before she got so caught up in this... stranger's embrace.

And, what an embrace.

She was still staring into his eyes when reality settled in.

She might have been in his embrace, but she smelled smoke.

Very thick smoke at that.

That put her in a much more energetic mood... If one could even call it that.

She pushed the stranger from this morning away from her body and steadily tried to stand on her own two feet.

What was up with her body, and its reaction to this guy?

She basically ran towards the stove to make sure that her house was not going to burn down. Only to find it completely safe.

Her house was fine, nothing was burning down.

The stove was fine, and no harm was done, the pan was in the sink and all seemed to be well.

The perfect stranger, who seemed to have everything in order, reached from behind her... and leaned in so close she could practically feel the heat coming off of him... and smell him.

And sheesh did he smell good.

It was a strong scent, not something you would ordinarily smell... cologne maybe?

She wasn't sure, but then again, she didn't usually go around and smell strangers.

She felt his lips barely brush her ear, but her body took note and her arms broke out in little goosebumps over the barely there contact.

"I just need to grab the cups. Can I make you some coffee?"

She nodded her head slightly, trying not to think about this stranger in the ways that she was.

Who was he anyway?

She had so many questions... and she had yet to open her mouth and actually speak to him.

Think Div, think.

What would be the right way to start off a conversation to a guy you didn't really know, but might like to get to know in the near future?

At first, she started off by being polite and thankful.

"I..." She quickly cleared her throat to get rid of the lump that had lodged itself there in all the excitement of the evening.

"I want to thank you. If you were not here..."

Well, luckily she did not have to think about that.

He inclined his head slightly as he pushed the button on the kettle to get it to start boiling.

She felt so... weird... and out of place. Which was ridiculous, because this was her home.

But he filled up the space so much, she felt like she was in another place.

It was strange that she did not know this person, felt like she did, but knew that she did not.

It was a very peculiar and new sensation, but she knew that she hated the feeling immensely.

"You are very welcome," he said in return, and returned his attention to the cups that were on the counter in front of him.

"How did you..." she waited until he turned before mentioning towards the front door.

She could see by the slight tilt of his eyes that he was smiling and turning back towards the cups and his duty at hand.

" I have experience of lock picking," he said nonchalantly.

Uh huh. And yet that did not give her the creeped out feeling she thought she might be feeling after just finding that out.

"I came by to drop off some documents for your mother. I knocked and after I got no answer..." He left the sentence hanging in the air.

So, of course, she just jumped to the only conclusion that could come to her at that very moment.

"You decided to break in?" She asked.

He started laughing.

He started laughing properly and his entire body was moving with the laughter.

"No," he responded after he got his voice back.

"I smelled the smoke and after calling and not hearing any answer, I decided to check the window to just make sure everything was fine. I saw you slumped over, assumed you had fallen asleep or... worse, and decided it was better to rather pick your house lock and risk being beaten by you or your mother than hear about a house fire that burned the entire neighborhood down," he teased.

She smiled slightly at the last part of his sentence and his attempt at lightening the situation.

In times like this, she appreciated it.

There was just one more thing that bothered her...

Just then, the kettle clicked off, indicating that it had finished boiling, and that caffeine was on her horizon.

He put a cup in front of her, and she did not even notice that he got it perfect, until she was about halfway with her cup.

Two sugars, one heaped teaspoon of coffee and just the right amount of milk.

But I'm getting ahead of myself now.

She breathed it in and frowned over her cup at him.

And then she remembered there was something that had been bothering her from the first moment that she had seen him.

Apart from the fact that she kept calling him a stranger in her head, he was still wearing a scarf around his neck and half of his face.

And even though she had loved suspense books and movies from a very young age, she still did not find it very... trustworthy.

If she could see it, she could believe it.

But she thought she should leave it... Or at least ask her mother about it.

After all, it was her mom who had invited him into the house in the first place, was it not?

So she would accept it for now.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? For me to say thank you," she added the last part as an explanation.

"Let's make it another night."

"Sure, you just name the date," she smiled at him.

"I'll bring take out," he teased.

"Harharhar, funny guy," she said, but still had laughter in her voice.

She noticed his rushed reaction before she heard her mom's car stop in the front.

He placed his cup in the sink and washed it out before turning to her.

She was struck once again by how tall and masculine he was.

He leaned in just then (showing off) and stretched a hand above her head and for just a second she held her breath kind of hoping... but that was silly.

She did not know this man.

"I should head out..." he said, and closed the cupboard above her head.

Her heart was beating to its own drums inside her chest, and she finally released a slow whoosh of a breath.

"I'll walk you out," she said and led the way to the door.

She unlocked the door slowly, not wanting to seem like she was throwing him out.

"I just wanted to thank you again for saving the house from a fire... waking me up and the coffee. And the neighbors might not know this, but I know that you saved all their houses tonight."

It was a really, really lame joke, and she knew it as she started saying it, but by the time that she had already started saying it, it was much too late to stop.

But he gave a throaty laugh, and it did not sound forced at all, so she smiled.

"It was a pleasure and hey, I've always enjoyed those comics where the superhero saves the damsel and the neighborhood all while leading an ordinary life," he joked back, and it was so lame, but he was being very polite, and she did find it oddly funny.

"Thank you," she said solemnly.

And she meant it, more she could not say and even if she could, she was not sure how she could thank someone enough for coming to save her and basically preventing her from becoming a melted human roasted marshmallow.

"You are very welcome. Thank you for the coffee," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice, even though she could not see much behind that darned barrier over his face.

She laughed.

"Thank you for the coffee."

Her mother was stepping out of her car just then, Divina could see, and she seemed to have dropped something that she bend to pick up and her stranger in shining leather boots turned to leave, and he was about halfway down the stairs when she was reminded of something.

"Hey you!" She called to him.

Puzzled, he turned back to face her, halfway across the lawn to what seemed to be his car.

"I don't even know what your name is," she said accusingly.

"My friends called me Griff. Have a good night, Divina. Sleep tight. And be safe."

He stepped into the shadows just as her mom came around the corner and Divina got the odd sensation that if she did not see her mother coming around the corner she would be fully convinced that she was having a very realistic dream at that very moment.

But, alas, her mom reached her and looked at the very shadowed spot where the stranger - Griff - disappeared.

"Were you just talking to someone?" she asked, puzzled.

Divina looked at the shadows one more time before facing her mother, knowing what was to come next.

"I was. I was having a nice chat with a... man."

Divina looked over to check her mother's response to the news, and she did not know why she would even attempt to put it off for long.

Her mother seemed to hate the male species.

No, let her rephrase, her mother seemed to hate the male species when they became too close with Divina.

Why, she had no idea, but it was like that from a very early age, and it just seemed to continue on as she got older.

Divina was a quiet child, and she had a pretty ordinary life, but in her middle stages of being a teenager, she started getting a little curious about boys. It has always been a thing where her mother warns her off.

Maybe it had something to do with Divina's father, but she did not know many details to go back on that.

So that was why she was monitoring her mother's reaction closely.

"A man? Do I perhaps know who this man is? Have I met him before? Maybe your friend-Nick, is it?"

So they have also had this conversation a few times before.

Her mother has always suspected that she might have feelings for Nick, and even though she never seemed to approve of Divina's close relationship that she seemed to have formed with Nick, she never tried to keep them apart.

Which all in all was just a very weird and unusual circumstances, but Divina has learned to just accept it and move on from it all.

Which is also why she kept things under wraps.

A few years ago her mother suspected she might be dating someone who, might I just add she was, but assumed that it was Nick and Divina kind of just went with it in a very 'play it off' type of vibe.

Which was her exact approach for this situation.

"You might have met him, Mom. But we have talked about this. No boys talk until it gets serious."

Her mom let out a sigh, a typical mom sigh that told Divina she was not happy about the agreement that they had, but kept to it anyway.

"Okay, fine, but why does the entire house smell like smoke?" she asked.

After twenty-five agonizing minutes of explaining in full detail that she had been getting only a few hours of sleep in a night and being so tired all day while running from class to work and struggling to make all her projects in due time, she fell asleep while trying to make dinner for the two of them and basically almost burned the entire house down, but luckily she woke up when a good Samaritan came to check on the house and saved the entire house from burning to the ground.

Anyway, she also mentioned to her mom that she has only read that it takes 10 minutes to start a fire via a stove, but she was not too sure on the facts on that one, but she promised to do some research on it and get back to her.

After she had explained the entire ordeal to her mother in full detail, like she was asked to do about three times, Divina ate a quick supper of some lovely sandwiches that she and her mom put together and then she went to bed.

Which gave her time to think.

Maybe she was just really stressed out and a little overworked with school and work.

And because of that, she was sleeping bad, and the dreams just made her more tired.

She recalled the dream from this morning and another one from earlier when the guy's mouth brushed her ear. Gosh, his lips.

A sexy pirate captain at that.

No, she thought she might just be over tired and a little lonely.

If she got them again, and she got even less sleep, she would definitely look into it, but until then she would just have to keep her head down and focus on all the deadlines that were piling up on projects.

In a few more weeks, she would be much better, having a load of stress taken off of her shoulders when things calmed down a little.

Oh, she really could not wait for that, she thought as she fell asleep.

She did not dream that night of the forest and the man with the funny accent or the sexy pirate that made her body speak.

No, that night she didn't recall having a dream, but she had one anyway.

It was just a normal dream, of herself - her younger self - but I'm not going to get into that for now.

Her mother, sitting up a little later, had a lot on her mind, too, but she was mostly concerned for her daughter.

As she finally made her way to her bedroom, switching off lights as she went, she saw a pile of documents and sharply put two and two together.

So it must have been the 'good Samaritan' that came to her daughter's rescue.

She could not help but hide a smile.

Her smile was quickly replaced by a look of concern.

Concern for her only child.

Because she knew that whatever would follow this new challenge of events would not bode well for her family.