JOHNATHON!
I sit up in bed, shivering and covered with sweat.
Good bye Johnathon.
My heart races and it feels like it’s about to leap out of my chest.
I feel like I’m going to throw up but I breathe deeply and the moment passes.
It had been two weeks in a row that I’d had horrible dreams.
I couldn’t remember them at all.
I just knew that I was terrified.
Something or someone was chasing me and there was fire, so much fire.
I could feel the heat burning me and I woke to the smell of burning flesh.
It didn’t make sense.
“What is happening to me?” I whisper to the darkened room.
I rub my face, then get up and go take a shower.
By the time I came out, the sun was already rising.
I shut off my alarm and go get some breakfast.
I had been living in California for about six months now. I had moved here from Chicago.
I don’t know the reason why, I just woke up one day and decided to leave everything behind.
I was a business man gone bookshop owner.
I loved it.
My mother didn’t understand why I was desperate for change; the love of my life hadn’t understood either.
Violet hated it when I was always away on business, then she hated that I was so bent on change; a change I couldn’t explain because I didn’t know why I needed it either.
I just knew I was looking for something.
Something I needed to find soon.
I felt a tension as I had tried to keep the life I had formed for myself. The anxiety threatened to take over me and a desperate need choking me every day.
So I left.
I had kissed my mother good bye, told Violet I was leaving and went on my way.
I wasn’t even sure of where exactly I was going I just let the need guide me.
I went overseas to Europe first; the good mood lasted me a week only. Then I booked a flight for California and this is where I have found what I have been looking for.
For the first time in years, I felt human again.
The town I now lived in was called Clovis.
And this is where I have placed my book shop. Something about the old looking town put me at ease.
As I said, the nightmares had barely started.
The first time I had them, they were too vague for me to even understand. But as the days passed, they started getting more and more intense.
Now I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing the fire.
The sound of the screams tended to stay with me all day.
By nine o’clock, I was opening my shop.
It was cold today, cold enough to snow.
But it didn’t snow here, which was good I suppose. Today there wasn’t much fog but even if there was, it wouldn’t keep shoppers away. Something about an antique looking bookstore had people intrigued.
