The Heroes We Weren't

Chapter 6 - Déjà Vu

I was back in this world, back to the motel room that I could not wait to escape. I threw my coat on, balancing the phone in one hand; I had been checking an online newspaper for the past hour, yet nothing had been published about anyone mysteriously dying in their sleep.

Then again, if said person wasn't as famous as the fortune teller had been, their death wouldn't be the fuss of the town, especially this early in the morning. I was sure of it though, the man I had seen die last night wouldn't have made it back from his sleep.

I pushed the motel door open; I was already running a bit late for my train ride home. I gave out a sigh as the first raindrop came down from the cloudy sky and landed on the edge of my glasses.

My temporary neighbor Hyun-Soo stood waiting outside of his motel room, hands in pockets, he leant back to view the rain.

"You spoke last night!" I blurted out, no greeting. "Though I have to say, you weren't friendly."

He turned around, cheekbone still awfully blue. No greeting.

"Though, I did fix a thing or two." I buttoned my coat. "The fortune teller's husband shouldn't be a problem for us any longer."

He was tired, I could tell. Yet I went on.

"But something odd happened." Words, he wasn't interested in them but I couldn't keep them from spilling. "I saw two men who-"

Pause. The door to his room opened and the woman whom I had seen the night before joined us. Back turned towards me, she locked the door. I would have continued my sentence but there was something quite awkward and difficult about spilling the news of the dream world to someone who knew nothing of its existence.

She turned to us, raised her chin and viewed me. I had met her the night before, yet never actually faced her.

She was startled by my presence.

And I understood why.

She hurriedly fumbled with her sunglasses but soon dropped them. She knelt down, so did he. She shielded the right side of her face in a late attempt to keep me from seeing what I had already witnessed.

He placed the glasses over the tip of her nose and pulled her hair out of her bun to let it cover the sides of her face.

To cover it up.

Hyun-Soo's bruise was nothing compared to hers; Her right eye was swollen. With the protection of her hair and sunglasses she found the courage to stand up and face me once again.

"Her too?" I gasped. "But, I haven't even met her in the other world?"

Self-involved. The only thing I focused on lately was my horrible job and so there seemed to be no end to my self-absorbed train of thought. The addition of the dying man at the platform had truly pushed me over the edge and so I seemed to have rather little control over my words, if any.

"Did you wake up like this?" I placed my hand on her shoulder.

She gently took a step back to escape my touch, chin still lowered.

"I'm sorry," her voice was frail, almost too quiet to be heard, "but I don't understand."

I could feel it. Hyun-Soo's stare was piercing its way through the side of my head just to lend me a hand in slapping my mind back to its senses. No dream world, no Felicity at fault of her bruises. I saw it now. Understood it. What I had meddled in.

I lowered my hand, took it back. I had lost myself in the moment, had meddled in someone else's business. No more words. Dear Felicity town, your well of egoism has run dry, please consider not refilling it.