Fading With Time

Dreams?                   “Who are you really?”  The young woman asked staring Elizabeth down from where she sat on the other bed.                  “Elizabeth Foster.  Who are you?”  She shot back startling the other woman.                 “Annabel Bennett.”  She stated looking at Elizabeth with confusion.  Elizabeth shook her head refusing to believe the woman’s words and yet she had seen the pictures in the photo album herself.  There was no denying who she said she was.  The last thing Elizabeth remembered doing was falling into bed exhausted.                   “Am I dreaming?”  She whispered to herself but with the unnerving quiet of the house Annabel heard her loud and clear.  She giggled as she watched Elizabeth reason her way through it.                 “If you’re dreaming then so am I.”  Annabel had barely gotten the jest out when Elizabeth pinched her arm hard leaving a dark red mark behind.                 “Ow.”  She cried out rubbing the sting out of her arm looking back to Annabel with fearful eyes.  Annabel had been snickering at her before the look on Elizabeth’s face sobered her.  She realized how freaked out Elizabeth was.  She threw the blanket off of her legs to rise and join Elizabeth.  Just as Annabel started to rise Elizabeth shot up in bed wide awake with her heart beating wildly in her chest.  Freaked out her eyes fluttered erratically about the bedroom only to find she was back in her bed in the lower bedroom where she had initially gone to sleep.  Taking deep breaths Elizabeth tried to calm herself down.  She reached up to push back her hair out of her face when a sudden pain had her hesitating.  With a shaking hand Elizabeth rolled up the sleeve of her shirt revealing a deep red mark that had started to bruise.  Her breathing became choppy as she just kept staring at the mark on her arm.  There had to be a reasonable explanation for it.                  Getting up for the day Elizabeth went through her morning routine robotically.  Her head was full of the encounter she had dreamed up the night before.  Every time she thought about the pinch her eyes would automatically drift down to her bruised arm.  It had all felt so very real to her at the time but was it possible that she pinched herself in her sleep and it translated into the dream?  It wouldn’t be the first time when something she encountered while she was sleeping made it into a dream, like the sound of an alarm.  There were even times when the dream would change to fit the sound or sensation her body was experiencing instead of waking her up.  Elizabeth had even had dreams that felt so incredibly real they were almost tangible.  That had happened more since her families passing.  She wondered if that was what she had experienced.  Not some across time meeting but rather a vivid enough dream that it seemed actual to her.                  Sighing Elizabeth poured herself a steaming cup of coffee yawning as she did so.  She had been up way too late last night and should just stay in bed for the day.  After the dream or whatever it was, the last thing she wanted to do was sleep.  The night terrors she had of her brother were disturbing enough but throw in conversations with someone she couldn’t plausibly meet, and it was a little more than disconcerting.  Her thoughts drifted to William Bennett and his letters.  If she was going to meet anyone in her dreams, she would have liked to encounter him.  The questions she had and the connection she felt for him made her so curious she could taste it.  She probably wouldn’t have freaked out so bad if it had been him she had dreamed up instead of his younger sister.  Gazing out the window as the sun rose over the horizon, she decided to get her mind off the subject at hand before she inadvertently caused herself to have the same dream again at bedtime.  Physically shaking herself to banish her current thoughts she went over a list of options.  She could go though the stuff from the attic, but for some reason it just didn’t hold its normal appeal.  She could take her painting supplies out into the forest and paint the day away, but that did not motivate her either.  Looking around her kitchen for inspiration Elizabeth noticed how much fine dust had built back up since the last time she did a good cleaning.  It was probably due to her opening the windows all the time to let in heat.  Sighing she pushed away from the window taking her mug to the sink.  Since she didn’t have any other options, cleaning house seemed like a decent one.  A little mindless cleaning might do her some good.  With that decided Elizabeth headed back to her room to put on the grubbiest set of clothing she owned.                 She had decided to start at the top and work her way down.  She wasn’t sure how filthy the attic was and after the avalanche of dirt the first time she opened it up Elizabeth was determined to not have a replay of the debacle.  If she was going to spend the whole day cleaning, the house was going to stay that way for at least the day.  That and since heat rises it was smarter to start at the top while it was still cool outside.  She just hoped the windows opened up and weren’t just for decoration.  She was careful as she climbed the attic stairs toting her bucket that she had hung the triggers of the other cleaners on.  With her cleaning cloths hanging out of her back pocket and her broom and mop held tightly in the other hand she ascended into the attic cautiously.  Once she reached the last few steps Elizabeth tossed the mop and broom onto the attic floor freeing up her hand to help lift the heavy bucket into the attic.  With that placed firmly on the floor and pushed back away from the entrance she hustled the rest of the way up.  Looking around the large open room she cringed at the filth scattered all over the floor.  Cobwebs clung from the rafters just over her head and the windows were so caked with dirt they hardly allowed any light to shine in.  She had a feeling she was going to be spending most of the day up there.  Steeling her resolve she bent over to retrieve the glass cleaner from the side of the bucket.  First thing she was going to do was get a little light coming in.  It wouldn’t do her any good to clean if she couldn’t see if she was getting all the dirt.  It was too bad that the electricity in the house was never run up into the attic.  She may have to look into having that done.  It was honestly a decent room and would make a rather spacious art studio.  If she moved the studio up into the attic, then she could get a bedroom set for the room she was using now for guests that stayed over.  Elizabeth took out a pair of ear buds that were attached to her phone.  Opening up her music app she cranked the tunes and set to work.                 A couple hours later Elizabeth was singing at the top of her lungs while dancing around the attic with her broom.  Sometimes using it as an impromptu dance partner and sometimes acting like it was her mic stand.  When someone tapped her on the shoulder, she let out a blood curdling scream while falling onto the floor.  Looking up her eyes landed on the figure of Clayton doubled over laughing and a man she had never seen before stood slightly behind him looking on in slight horror.  Huffing out a breath in annoyance Elizabeth reached up to take her ear buds out of her ears.  Glaring at Clayton she stood and tried to dust off her rear end.  To her dismay her butt was soaked from the puddle of mop water she landed in.  Turning to the side she tried to get a look at her carpenter pants only to see that it was almost black in color from the muddy water.  Clayton laughed even harder when he caught sight of the back of her pants too.  Elizabeth crossed her arms and tapped her foot in impatience while waiting for him to collect himself. Clayton held onto his side as he brushed the tears from his face.  He gasped for breath as he made slight sounds of distress while calming down.  Elizabeth watched him not feeling bad for him one bit.                 “Are you about done yet?”  She asked impatiently getting thoroughly irritated with him at this point.                 “I’m good I swear.  Who knew you were such a performer?  I hate to tell you this Lizzy, but you shouldn’t quit your day job.”  He snickered while teasing her.  Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him.                 “Ha, Ha, Ha.  What’s going on?”  She asked him reminding Clayton there was a reason he had come over.                 “Dewy and I came over to refinish the nursery pieces so they’re ready for when Addison comes home with Emily.”  Elizabeth gasped having completely forgotten about the pieces.  She turned to face the new face and extended her hand in greeting.                 “You must be Dewy, I’m Elizabeth it’s nice to meet you.”  He smiled earnestly in return as he shook her hand paying little attention to the dirt that covered it.                 “The pleasure is all mine.”  He told her once he finally released her hand.  Elizabeth raised a questioning eyebrow in response but said nothing in return.  Clayton cleared his throat throwing a look at the man beside him.                 “If you’ll excuse us, we’re going to get to work now.”  He bit out grabbing Dewy’s arm and leading him back over to the attic opening.  Elizabeth watched the two of them leave slightly confused as to what was going on with Clayton.                 “I didn’t bring you over here to flirt Dew.   Besides she’s off limits so I suggest you back off.”  Elizabeth’s brow rose in shock as she listened to Clayton warning the other guy off.  She hadn’t even been aware that he was trying to flirt with her.  In her defense she was paying more attention to Clayton and how much she wanted to hit him.  She really hadn’t even looked in the other man’s direction except a quick glance when they had been introduced.  She honestly felt a little bad for him getting chewed out by Clayton.  It was nice to know though that the guys were good to their word.                 Turning back to her task Elizabeth put one ear bud back in and turned the volume down a bit.  She wouldn’t put it past Clayton to sneak up on her again just to watch her freak out.  The main room was almost done but she had come across two smaller rooms to either side of the attic.  From the front of the house to the back of the house was one room but instead of the sides being a part of the attic as a whole there were walls up with door size cut outs in them.  Each of the smaller rooms were about a third of the size of the main room and it made her wonder what they were used for.  For the first time she wished she had been up in the attic when the guys had been clearing it out to see what was stored in each one.  It was quite an interesting set up and she was going to have to search around each to see if there were any clues she could find.  Gazing out the back-window Elizabeth’s eyes were drawn to the shacks in the back yard.  Everything was so overgrown that unless you knew it was there it was hard to miss.  Looking at it, her brows furrowed when she thought about just how many secrets her house held, and she’d barely scratched the surface of them.