The Patron Saint of Monsters

Chapter Six Part Five

Oleander woke up with Trent wrapped around her, she had an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She hadn’t slept well after her nightmare that night. She was inexplicably dizzy, overwhelmed with a foreboding sense of vertigo. Things felt uneasy almost as if she was still stuck in her nightmare. Trent gave her a peculiar look.

“Are you okay?” He asked with a comforting hand on her lower back.

“I don’t know.” She answered and immediately regretted it, she really needed to find a better phrase to use ,”I don’t know” seemed to sound so unintelligent and helpless. She didn’t want to be the ditzy damsel in distress.

“What’s wrong?” He asked worriedly.

Oleander shrugged her shoulders, at a loss for what to say other than that she wasn’t quite sure.

“Oleander,” Trent began in a comfortingly stern tone, “I am unable to fix things if I am left unaware as to what is wrong.”

“I’m so dizzy that I think I may faint.” Oleander said in a rushed tone.

“Just breathe.” He replied, pulling Oleander into a half hug, running a soothing hand up and down her back. Kissing her on her forehead.

“I think I had another nightmare last night, one after the first one.” She mumbled.

“It’s okay, sometimes dreams can ruin our entire days if we let them. They are not real though.” He responded.

“But why would I dream what I dreamt?” She cried.

“What did you dream?” Trent questioned.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now.” She dismissed.

She stood up carefully and began to walk to her bedroom door, faltering only once. Trent followed her and they woke up her hungover friends in the living room, using the excuse of swiftly returning parents to clear out everyone except for Valerie, Rebecca and Trina.

“I think that maybe we should just stop with the witch shit now.” Oleander said to her friends over orange juice and a french toast breakfast that Trent had prepared.  A breakfast platter that all of the girls seemed to be neglecting, aside from Trina.   

“No! What?” Rebecca argued.

“I had this dream last night. It just, everything felt super wrong. Evil. I don’t know.” Oleander explained to an unsatisfied group.

“I have dreams every  Goddamn night Ole, you don’t see me letting them run my life!” Rebecca replied.

“Can we not right now?” Trina asked with a  hand on her head, “ Rebecca you’re too fucking loud. Being the noisiest apple in a bunch, does not  the ripest make.”

“That doesn’t even make any fucking sense Yoda.” Rebecca growled.

“What was your dream Ole?” Valerie asked.

Oleander sighed before beginning.“I’m not sure, we were in the cul-de-sac, everything was dark I could barely see except it’s like my friends were lit from within. There were these crying children whispering in some language that I didn’t recognize but I understood perfectly. They had been tied up and tortured by some witch and the witch was inside Ian. We had to get away but there wasn’t anywhere to go except to you.” She answered turning to look up at Trent with an adoration that he hadn’t seen across her face in years.

“Freaky.” Valerie said, at a loss for words.

“What language was it?” Trina asked.

“I don’t know. They were calling Ian a  so sea a or something. It meant witch  I think.” Oleander replied.

“Hmm.” Trina sounded.

“Creole.” Trent muttered.

“What?” Oleander asked.

“Creole. That’s the creole word for witch. Sòsyè.” Trent  shrugged.

“That’s really fucking convenient .” Rebecca interjected. “We obviously just  need Ian in our coven to activate our powers.”

“We aren’t witches.” Everyone said in exasperation.  Rebecca ignored them.

“Even if we were, Ian would be a bad witch.”  Oleander  reminded her in a condescendingly slow voice.

“Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” Trina mocked with a roll of her blue eyes.

“I’m a bad bitch.” Rebecca  responded with a glare.

“Valid argument Bex, if anyone was going to be evil it would probably be you.” Trina snarked.

“It’s a real damn shame that you're the one with the perfect nose for it.”  Rebecca snarked through her teeth.

“It probably did not mean anything, you probably had residual stress from your date and your subconscious was just reminding you that I exist to protect you.” Trent added in a forceful tone, Oleander assumed that he was annoyed by the two sisters and just attempting to shut them up.  She couldn’t help but lightly smile at the reminder that Trent would keep her safe always.  She wanted to be one of those fearless girls she was always reading of and admiring, but she knew that those girls probably all wanted someone to take care of them at the end of the day after they had taken care of everyone else. She couldn’t even count the amount of times she lay in her bed at night, sobbing from loneliness aching for someone to hold her as she cried. She had always fantasized about Ian doing that, but it was comforting to know that Trent was there even when Ian wasn’t. She couldn’t explain it properly, not even to herself in her own thoughts, Trent wasn’t a safety net guy, and he was a bit of a cheeky nuisance,  but he had  seen her at her most worst, the times when she thought she was home alone multiple times; and he still desired to help her.

“We are witches,” Rebecca blurted out insistently, “We have magic. The powers in the blood. I can see it in our eyes.” She finished with a certain nodd.

A chill ran down Oleander’s spine, “What?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Rebecca waved her fork brushing it off, “I can’t make it make it make sense to anyone who isn’t me.”

“No,” Oleander urged, “In my dream. The children said “The eyes, they bleed, but in that weird language.”

“Creole.” Trina reminder her. “Let’s research it.”

“Oh my God! Trina! You could not be more Velma, unless you started saying Zoinks.” Valerie said with her head thrown back,using humor to mask her irritation with the girl.

“Val, Velma said Jinkys. Shaggy said Zoinks.” Oleander  stated matter of factly.

“You’re a Velma too for knowing that!” Valerie laughed, this time good naturedly.

“There are worse things than being Velma.” Oleander countered, “ She had that lovely orange jumper.”

“And she wasn’t always off in a corner blowing Fred.” Trina added.

“Clever girls are always hotter than gingers.” Trent  quipped before looking at Rebecca and feigning a wince, “Oh yeah, sorry.” he mumbled looking at Rebecca.