Speak No Evil

Chapter 5

When April awoke it was morning. There was a soft breeze through her open window. "I thought I had closed this." She said softly to herself as she drowsily made her way to the window and closed it.

The memories of the evening slowly crept into her thoughts from the back of her mind.

"Was it really a dream then?" She asked herself softly, examining her body. She had no cuts, no bruises. She was in her pajamas and clean. The puncture wound on her arm was nowhere to be found.

She rushed to her dresser and pulled out her pager. Everything was as it should be. Her GPS signal was set on her current location, in fact the program was nowhere to be found. Aside from her leg she wasn't in any pain.

"So, it was a dream." She muttered softly to herself, feeling a bit disappointed and hurt. She could never have hoped for such an am amazing adventure in her life, and desperately wanted so bad for it to have all been real, except the part with starving men suffering from bizarre plagues. She collapsed on her couch and buried her face into her pillow.

She stood and opened up the storage under her sofa cushions, needing to look through her artwork for any comfort. And there it was. She froze as chills shot down her spine and she was struck with the tingling, numb sensation of excitement mixed with fear. She picked it up with trembling hands, just to be sure.

It was the charcoal drawing she had done from the night before. The starry lake, and the mermaid. Everything was there just as she had remembered imagining it.

April flipped the paper in her hands, and then back to the drawing, just to be sure this wasn't some sort of mind trick.

"Wait a minute..." She said softly as she turned the paper back over.

Your world is much better.

These words were printed on the back in an elegant calligraphy. Simple words, but with a powerful meaning. She put the paper back inside her storage and arranged the cushions back. She took a deep breath, feeling strong with new found vigor.

"Oh no, I'm late!" She had almost completely forgotten about work. She rushed and quickly dressed herself and scurried out the door. She blended in with a group of people and made her way to her office building and walked in.

She was instantly met with strange looks.

"What are you doing here today?" Came the voice of the clerk who sat at the desk near the entrance. His job was to monitor who entered and left the building, organize meetings, and to do the filing.

"I..." April wracked her brain for all the possible reasons that she shouldn't be here.

"The physician sent message that you were to be on rest for a few days to recover and to be monitored more thoroughly. That was the day before yesterday." He added.

"I'm sorry, I must have misread that notice. Forgive me, I will go back and get rest now." She replied. Further monitoring? She thought. Do they know after all? April turned and walked back to her home. She was trembling and her heart rate was picking up. She reached into her pocket and felt the bottle of medicine.

She rushed as fast as she could all the way home without bringing too much more attention to herself. The world became hazy. April imagined walking into her home and being met by the guards in their suits, taunting her with their raspy voices as they reach and grab her to take her to some unknown horror.

The world became bathed in a black fog and each gasp made April's head spin. Giant ghostly tendrils seeped through dimensional rifts, grabbing at her to rip her from reality... or into pieces. April began to run, her bad leg nearly buckling with each step. She covered her head with her arms and ran face first into her mailing unit. Rubbing her face, the tendrils pixelated into oblivion until she was back to reality. She reached into the mail unit and sure enough there was a small paper in it.