Damsel Of The Damned

Chapter 1

Avangeline pov

I woke up in a cold sweat, my dream slowly fading away as I gained awareness. I've  had  this dream every night for weeks but I  never remember anything about it other than complete darkness surrounding me and a womans soft voice whispering "He's coming".

I slowly made my way to the bathroom to get ready for the day, but I can't shake this feeling that something dangerous is headed my way. Every time I have this sort of premonition it's never been wrong. Something is coming, I'm sure of it.

As I look in the mirror and I see dark bags underneath my emerald green eyes, and my shoulder length blonde hair seems almost lifeless with its grey undertones. I guess only having at most four hours of sleep a night does tend to take it's toll on the body. Nevertheless I took a shower and dressed for the day, in a pair of light grey  jeans and a thick, plain black sweater.  Then I slipped on my tall black boots to protect my feet from the light layer of snow that had fallen and had yet to melt. In Oklahoma, winter was a bipolar affair. Some years it was intense (at least in our point of view, nothing compared to northern states) and some years we were lucky to get one small dusting of snow. Needless to say we were never prepared.

As I walked downstairs I was shrouded in silence. I'd been living by myself for two years with no living family to keep me company.   A little after I turned 15 my family decided to take a road trip and it ended with a devastating crash that left not only my parents dead but my only sibling as well. She was my twin sister and my best friend.

We both shared a rather peculiar gift that we were born with and kept between us and only us. We had the ability to see the souls of the  deceased. Im not sure how we were able to do such a thing but we could and when she died I watched as she led our small family towards what I could only assume was the afterlife leaving only a whisper of goodbye behind her. After that I moved between foster homes until I turned 18 and grew out of the system.  At that time I  inherited everything my family had left behind including the small cottage  I currently live in.

I grabbed my keys as well as an apple and headed outside, the light  snow crunching under my feet as I trekked  towards my old, broken down car and headed to work.

The scenery can only be described as bland in this small town. We had tons of trees and acres of farms.  Other than that there wasn't much interesting going on. The town itself got by with only a few restaurants and a total of exactly two grocery stores on either end.  If you wanted something more you had to drive an hour away to a larger city.

I parked  my rusting car in front of Bleu's Cafe, one of the oldest food stops in this town and walked inside.  The bell rung when I opened the door, notifying everyone of my presence. I noticed the off white tile floor was recently cleaned and that some of the old blue-grey  wallpaper has started peeling off the wall in one of the corners.  With a quick glance around I noted that there were only three customers at the moment.  Not an uncommon amount considering it was barely six in the morning and business wouldn't pick up until around noon when most people finished the morning farm work.

Two of the customers were sitting together  at one of the four tables in the middle of the cafe, and the last customer was sitting alone in one of the far booths lining the three walls to my left. The fourth wall being occupied by the front counter and small kitchen behind it.

I made my way to the counter, grabbing my apron off the hook by the kitchen door on my way there. My friend Sophie, who was the only other waitress in the morning greeted me when I got to her.

" Ava! You look terrible! Did you not sleep again last night hun? You know that's bad for your health."she said.

"I know, but I was watching tv last night and lost track of time" I replied leaving out the fact that the real reason was because I didn't want to have that reaccuring dream again.

"Alright" she stated raising one of her manicured eyebrows in disbelief. " "Table two needs a coffee refill" she said.

I grabbed the nearby coffee pot and made my way to the table where the two men were eating. They were both tall with the same crooked nose and work worn hands but one had graying brown hair and slight wrinkles. The other looked just like him but younger leading me to believe that they were a father and son.

"Is there anything else I can get for  y'all?" I asked while refilling their coffee cups.

"No thank you dear just the check please" he replied.

Soon after, they paid and left leaving the store silent once again. After  they were gone Autumn leaned against the counter her silver dyed hair falling out of the ponytail she had desperately tried to keep in place with countless pins but to no avail as her  layered hair kept escaping. Her apron hugged her petite curvy figure in a way that mine never could. I was blessed with the body of a young boy. Lanky and flat as a board. 

With a sigh, she said, "Today is going to be a slow day, I can feel it. Since we have no other customers I'm going to take a break and grab some breakfast if that's alright with you."

"No other customers? There's one over there in the booth in the corner of the room Sophie. I can handle it though so no worries. " I told her.

"No there's not, crazy. I think the lack of sleep is getting to you" she replied as she walked out the door, her purse in hand.

I was extremely confused. Could she not see the dark haired beauty that resided in that far booth?