Nightmares

Candy and a Nightmare

“So, what brings you here this time of year honey. Aren’t you working at the preservation floor now?” questioned my father. 

            “Well if truth be told dad, I’ve been having those nightmares still. So far just Egypt, Greece and France, but Immend has decided to make himself known to me this month. He stole one of my friends from out of the lounge of the museum while I was pulling an all nighter. He also used Ancient magic to make me see him when he was somehow in the Valley of Death here the whole time. He had also left his rose on my car at the museum and somehow on the window of my bedroom. I thought I had made myself invisible so that way I wouldn’t have to feel him near or ever see him.” I said with a worried look on my face. 

“Sweetheart, why did you call us as soon as this started to happen?! We know you moved out so that the nightmares from Egypt didn’t wake everyone up, but you know we would have helped you if we could have.” my mother said while wrapping me in a tight hug while trying not to cry. 

            “I didn’t want to worry you and dad with these problems mom. I thought If I was working in the place that all of your finds went to, I would be able to make sense of all of the things that I saw in those nightmares. I was hoping that I would be able to move past them and get away from the past. I knew I was special the first time we came here as a family, and all the items I saw from the vendors was something I had owned from the life that I had here." I said with a far off look on my face

            .I was trying to walk out of the room so that my parents wouldn’t see the sad look on my face, but my father knew me too well and grabbed my hand before I was even a step away from where I had been. “You know we will always do everything that we can to help you, even if that means just being here to listen to you and try to help you through what has happened to you.” 

            “I didn’t want to worry you with all of this. I know what I’ve seen would help you find a great many items that have been lost to history, but I don’t feel safe looking into the past when I know that he is there somehow.” I said with tears in my eyes as I grabbed onto my father’s shirt while he wrapped my in a tight hug to keep me on my feet while I cried. 

            “I didn’t want to worry you and dad with these problems mom. I thought If I was working in the place that all of your finds went to, I would be able to make sense of all of the things that I saw in those nightmares. I was hoping that I would be able to move past them and get away from the past. I knew I was special the first time we came here as a family, and all the items I saw from the vendors was something I had owned from the life that I had here.” I said with a far off look on my face. 

            I was trying to walk out of the room so that my parents wouldn’t see the sad look on my face, but my father knew me too well and grabbed my hand before I was even a step away from where I had been. “You know we will always do everything that we can to help you, even if that means just being here to listen to you and try to help you through what has happened to you.” 

            “I didn’t want to worry you with all of this. I know what I’ve seen would help you find a great many items that have been lost to history, but I don’t feel safe looking into the past when I know that he is there somehow.” I said with tears in my eyes as I grabbed onto my father’s shirt while he wrapped my in a tight hug to keep me on my feet while I cried. 

            I decided to go lay down after my little cry just to try and clear my head. I knew I had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow, but it wasn’t a restfully sleep. I was tossing and turning too much for it to help me any. I knew that my mother came in at one point to check on my and put my clothes away for me. I figured it would be about time to get up and see if I could talk my thoughts out with my parents. I was just coming out of my room when I knew my mother had made me a fresh cup of French press to help with the headache, I always had when I wasn’t able to sleep. 

“So, would you like to talk this over with us honey?” my father asked with a small smile. 

            “I think I would. I was told by Immend to “Come back to the place where this all began, and that everything would be made even.” I’m not sure what even he would be talking about, but I knew that the place he was referring to would be Memphis. I think it had something to do with the first nightmare that I started having after the first summer we ever came here. I just hope that my friend wasn’t hurt to badly by this scum of the Earth.” I said with hatred in my voice. 

“Well that seems like as good an answer as your mother and I could come up with honey. I just hope that everything goes smoothly for you. Your mother and I will want to see you back here when all of this is squared out and to also meet this friend of yours that he took.” My father said with a chuckle in his voice. 

            I think I’m gonna go for another walk this evening before I head out for Memphis tomorrow morning, if that’s okay with you guys. Hopefully I can get my head clear with a good amount of Egyptian junk food and cooking fires.” I said with a small giggle. My mother and father just shook their heads. Every summer we had been coming here I always went for night walks to stock up on sweets to keep me busy with the next day at a dig. I had made the mistake one summer of finding some Egyptian taffy that ended pulling all of my fillings out of me teeth. My mother was so mad at me forever getting that stuff that she said I wasn’t allowed to go to that vendor anymore, even though I still go there and get taffy, just not as much as I had during that summer. 

            I had just managed to find some of the little stick candy I loved so much when I passed a cooking fire that had an off smell to it. I knew if I didn’t sit down quickly, I was going to hit the ground and look like another tourist that just couldn’t handle the heat. I und the closest café and took a seat with my phone out and my stick candy in my mouth to make it look like I was waiting for someone while this nightmare decided to play out. 

            I could tell that this was a different one altogether. I was in what looked to be early American in a small settlement that looked to be Boston. I was walking through the town when someone called after me. I turned around and it was someone named Elizbeth. 

“I was calling after you my friend, but why did thy not answer?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face. 

            “I’m sorry Elizbeth. I was lost in my head and did not hear you. ‘Twas here something you were needing me for?” I questioned her as we were still walking in the small town. 

“Did you forget that today was the burning of the witches from the trial a fortnight ago? I thought you would be one of the first to see them mt the flames?” Elizbeth asked. 

            “I do not feel like going to that. You and I have known those poor people all of our lives. How can you be excited to see them meet the flames? I asked with a sad look on my face. I was getting ready to leave when she grabbed my hand and made me drop the basket I had just gotten. “Why did you grab me there just so? You know I burned my arm there a day's past with the cooking fire.”  I made to show her the burn, but when he saw it, she screamed. I looked own at my arm and saw that the burn was in the shape of an “X”. With that burn having just been seen by Elizbeth, she thought it was he mark of a witch. She ran all the way to the priest and the next moment I was being taken way to be tried as a witch myself. My parents were not allowed in the room with me for fear that I would witch them to talk on my behalf and get me released. I had my hands bound in front of me, but there was no way to escape the guilty call when it came for me. I was led to the stake and tied up before everyone. I only had enough give with my hands to try to get to the folds of my dress to take out the small cutting knife I kept there for when I went for my walks with a snack, but the flames were already burning my legs before I could get the first cut done. I could tell that I was screaming while I was still clutching the knife in my hand. 

I sat straight up in my chair so fast that I almost threw it backwards. I got up and ran back to the house that my parents were in.