Our Fates

The First One

I may not remember it well, but I know there was a time I wasn’t like this.

A time when I was normal girl.

A time when I was happy little girl.

I remember liking My Little Pony and Disney princesses.

I remember playing soccer in little league

I remember my first and only sleepover

But what I remember most is when that all stopped. When I changed forever.

When my visions started…

>

It was an ordinary Sunday morning. I was sitting on the floor playing with Reggie, our German Shepard, when it happened.

“No!”

I screamed out so loud that Reggie jumped up and hid behind the couch.

“What’s wrong?” My mother said peering at me nervously from the kitchen counter

Instead of answering, I started to cry uncontrollably. My mother ran to my side probably assuming Reggie hurt me or something.

“Cassie, honey, what’s the matter?”

“Re-Reggie…” I barely sniffled out between my sobs.

“Laura, can you please calm her down! I’m on a work call” my father yelled from across the house in his study. He was an important business man, and worked all the time.

“I’m trying Jeremy!” She shouted back to him. She turned back to me, pulling my body into her arms. Normally, a hug from mom would be enough to at least stop me from crying but this was different. I continued to sob and wail, shaking in her arms. “Cassie, Cassie, it’s alright talk to Mama. What did Reggie do?”

“He-he died!” I stuttered out between the tears

“Oh Cassie, you must have fallen asleep. Reggie is fine. See, he’s right over there” she pointed to beside the couch where my clearly nervous dog watched us.

“No! I Saw it” I cried out once more.

“Cassie…”

At this point my father came stomping in. “Okay, what’s her problem!”

“She had a nightmare…”

“N-no it was real!” I said defiantly.

“Really, all this nonsense over a dream. Dumb girl…”

“Jeremy! She’s old enough to understand you when you say stuff like that!” She scolded.

“Yeah, yeah… get her under control, i have meetings all day”

He walked back out of the room without another glance at me. My mom just shook her head and said nothing more.

My father was always like this. Even at 7 years old, I knew he didn’t really love me but mom made up for his lack of fatherly love a hundred times over.

She then spun me around in her lap so we were face to face.

“Cassie, baby, nothing is going to happen to Reggie. He’s right there and so healthy. You don’t have to worry about this nightmare, I promise you” she consoled me.

She kissed my forehead as the sobs slowed down

“But momma…”

“No buts!” She laughed as she gentle tapped my butt. I giggled too with a small smile spreading across my face.

“There ya go” she kissed me one more time before scooting me off her lap and standing up.

Reggie seemed to sense we had all calmed down and sauntered after my mother in the kitchen. I jumped up and followed too.

Reggie then began to pat at the back door with his paw. My smile immediately dropped.

“Okay Reggie, you can go outsi-“ my mom began to say

“Momma! No!” I screamed yet again.

“Cassie, no more yelling” she shushed.

“But Reggie can’t go outside!”

“Honey, that’s where doggies go the bathroom”

“But-“

“What did we just say?” She eyed me knowingly.

“No buts…”

“Good, now Reggie needs to go-“

“Can I take him?” Changing my strategy up. If he wasn’t alone then… I couldn’t even finish the thought or my tears would fall yet again.

“Cassie, you’re still too little to hold Reggie by the leash. He might hurt you. The yard is fenced in, he’ll be fine,” even for a 7 year old I was small but I wasn’t going to let this go.

“Momma, please~” i cooed

She shook her head probably exhausted from all of this.

“Fine, but be careful!” She reached for his dog lead and attached it to his collar and handed the other end to me.

“Thanks Momma!” I smiled to her.

I opened the door and Reggie pulled me out, I ran to keep up but my grip on the leash held strong. I wasn’t let him go.

Reggie quickly did his business and I started to tug him back towards the house. He fought me slightly clearly wanting to be outside longer but I couldn’t let him. The longer we’re out here the more sick my stomach got.

After much more effort than it should’ve taken, I succeeded at bring Reggie inside.

“See Baby, Reggie is okay”

“Okay” I said quietly as she unhooked Reggie and he galloped off. It still didn’t feel right.

The rest of the day, I spent watching Reggie like a hawk. I made sure I took him out every time he need to go or when it got dark, watched intensely from the window. Only before bedtime, when mom tucked me in with Reggie laying at the foot of my bed did I feel a bit more settled.

“I love you, Cassie” my mom said softly as she kissed me goodnight.

“I love you too, momma.”

She turned off the light and i tiredly drifted to sleep.

In the morning, my mother came in to find me crying in my sleep with red and swollen eyes. At this point nothing could console me as I spent the night dreaming of Reggie over and over and over.

My parents allowed me to stay home from school for two days. I became exhausted between watching over Reggie all day to dreaming about him all night.

By day 3, I had no tears left and my father deemed this enough to get me back to classes.

By the following week, I was a zombie. I could hear my parents whispering and at times yelling about what to do with me. My father blowing off every concern my mom had by saying it was a “phase” or I was “attention seeking”

My mom was right, I did have some understanding of what he meant but I was to frozen by fear and too numb to say anything.

On the last day of school that second week, my visions completely consumed me. I was almost blinded by them throughout the school day.

I lived in walking distance from the school but on that day I ran home.

Around the corner from my house I finally stopped red in the face and breathing heavily but that’s not what stopped me.

It was all the commotion. Loud voices arguing just that short distance ahead of me.

I froze for just that second then started to run again.

In front of our house was the crowd. My mother spotted me quickly

“Cassie!”

I took a step towards her but she held her hand up

“No! Stay there! Don’t look! Jeremy!” She screeched out waving to my father.

My father who was closer to the front door on the phone looked to my mother then towards me. He quickly hung up his call, shoving his phone away and ran to me.

I’d never seen my father react so protectively to me.

He swept me up in his arms so my head looked over his shoulders.

“It’s going to be fine Cassie” he said stoically

I didn’t have to ask him what he meant because now up in the air peering over his shoulder I saw him.

Reggie.

I started to cry again after being tearless for over a week now.

“We’ll get you another dog” my dad sighed.

Between my sobs, I mumbled “no, I don’t want another dog.”

My father ignored me and took me inside.

I was never the same after that. I felt like something was taken from me. I felt like I was trapped.

My parents moved forward easily enough, my father especially. It was like they had forgotten I knew Reggie was going to die. But I couldn’t.

It was until I had another vision.

And then another

And another

Then my parents changed too.