Feels Like Heaven (CAMREN)

The Realization

After that meet-up and impromptu psyche therapy session with Vero, here is Lauren again sitting in the comforts of her couch, drinking her favorite can of beer, and swallowing all the sorrows of the world. Well she's also checking her surroundings for any movements and she was happy that the woman whom she have encountered before never came back.

Lauren, now decided to take her shower and after that she slowly peek her head out from the shower curtains, man she looked so paranoid already but she is glad that no one was there thank god. After getting out from the shower she look at her face in the mirror once more. She's hesitant at first to wipe the mist  away that form from it, afraid that the mad woman will show up again but she decided to face her fears and do it. And voila, she saw nothing and she was happily convincing herself that indeed it might be just a wild dream.

So here she goes now slowly creeping up her bed after she got herself in her favorite pajamas. Damn, this queen sized bed is so comfortable, so soft and it smells so nice too, with light grey sheets and abundance of pillows . She's now ready for bed and be sweep away to dream land. But when she's about to close her eyes a familiar voice once again disrupted her sleep.

"Are you insane? What are you doing!?" the mad woman suddenly appeared in front of her bed with her arms in her waist.

"Oh, God, what is this?" Lauren said to herself, she looked shocked about what's happening in front of her. She thought the mad woman was gone but all of a sudden here she was standing in front of her disturbing her supposedly sleep period.

"I didn't want to do this, but I will call the police." The mad woman stated in a matter of a fact tone. Meanwhile, Lauren simply grabbed one of her pillows and put it in her in order to cover her ears. No she's not hearing this, she's not seeing this neither she's not experiencing this.

 "I'm sleeping. It's a dream." She keeps on telling herself. "It's one of those dreams wherein you know you're dreaming."She's trying to mentally convince herself for the second time.

However, the mad woman now has moved to the other side of the bed and was flaming mad, "How do you keep getting in here?", she asked Lauren.

"It's you who's in here." Lauren hurriedly answered her back then covered her head with a pillow once again then pull her sheet up to cover herself like a seven year old kid.

"Oh, my. This is more serious than I thought." The mad woman simply said now in a voice of pity after noticing what Lauren is doing.

 "Go away, you don't exist." Lauren simply told her but still under her sheets.

 Meanwhile, this only brought out the curiosity of the mad woman who's standing at the other side of her bed. "I'm gonna ask you a series of questions. I want you to answer honestly." Now this has gotten Lauren's attention. 

"Has your recent alcohol consumption increased?", the brunette at her back was trying to asked. 

"Yeah, so?" Lauren answered her with all honesty while still hiding under the pillow and the sheets.

"Are you hearing voices or seeing things that aren't quite real to you?", the woman asked again while she was pacing back in fort in the bed as if she was in deep thought or analyzing something.

"As a matter of fact, yeah." Lauren replied to her once more now she slowly removed the pillow that covers her face to take a peek at the woman.

"Have you recently sought consult from a mental health care professional?" the brunette once again asked her but this time Lauren was surprised about the question.

"What? How do you know?" Lauren replied sounding so shook as she slowly trying to get up from her bed but now the woman was coming towards her which made Lauren scared.

"Stay away from me." She told the woman while her arms in a pushing manner acting like a shield from the smaller lady. But the woman continued questioning like a CIA agent, "Do you feel paranoid, like people are out to get you?"

"Why are you asking me so many questions?", Lauren feel afraid and intimidated by this mad woman now. Who does she think she was asking her this kind of personal queries. 

"I'll take that as a Yes". The woman said now in a tone like she was having pity towards her, while trying to take a seat at edge of Lauren's bed, "Listen to me. You have fantasized, quite convincingly, that you've rented an apartment that, in fact, belongs to somebody else." The woman continued telling her.

 "Pick up that pillow." She's now commanding Lauren and man she knows this woman is getting to her nerves now she was scaring all the crap out from Lauren. 

"Pick it up." The woman told her again so Lauren picked up her pillow hesitantly. 

"It's okay", the woman told her again. "There's a small red stain on the back where I once spilled cherry cough syrup", and Lauren have seen the stain indeed, she gave her a look the woman isn't lying, "Yes, that's it. How else would I know that? Or the fact that these sheets that you're now soiling are from Nordstrom", the woman continued telling her in a matter of fact tone.

"I still have the receipt, it's in that drawer." She's pointing now towards the bedside table of Lauren. "Open it up and check. I think you need to come to terms with the fact that you may be mentally ill."

"Really?", Lauren asked her like a seven year old child.

"Yes. This is my apartment. These are my sheets. That's my nightstand. That's my picture..." The woman was mumbling but then she suddenly stopped. "Where's my picture?" The woman immediately stood up from her seat to walk towards the table.

"What picture?" Lauren replied to her.

"There was a picture there of my... There was a picture right there on the nightstand." Now the woman started to be become mad again.

But Lauren knew it was empty when she moved in she told her. "There was no picture in there when I moved in."

"It was just there." The woman insisted, " You know what? I've had enough. I am calling the police."

"No, no, no, no.", Lauren sounded pleading.

"It's too late", but as the woman grabbed the phone her hands couldn't grasped it. "What'd you do to my phone? Why can't I...?" She was furious while Lauren's eyes just widened about what was happening, she was shook the woman can't take hold of the phone.

"You stay right there. I'm gonna use the one in the kitchen", the woman told her and left and disappeared again in Lauren's sight.

Lauren can't believe what she just witnessed,  was she dreaming again, she wiped and slapped her own face, no she's not awake, no she's not just dreaming. No this can't be, she isn't real. Lauren convinced herself and went to sleep.

*******************

"Hey, Normani, Lauren Jauregui here." I am calling my agent again as I made my way out from the apartment building this morning.

"The people who sublet this apartment to me, do you have their number?", I asked her over the phone .

" Why? Is something wrong?", she replied to me.

"No, no. I was just wondering about the previous tenant, that's all." I told her.

"Well, the woman that I dealt with, she didn't want to talk about it. It was some kind of tragedy in the family. I didn't press for details 'cause I don't need any more drama", she said. 

So I tried asking her if the girl who used to live here died.  "Uhm, do you think the one used to live her died?"

And she just said that I better hoped so because that's the only way they're gonna get off the month-to-month thing and to be able to give me a real lease. 

"That's not exactly the reason I was...", I replied to Normani but she cut me off.

"Come on, Lauren, grow up. Look, it has a view, a fireplace. People would kill their grandmothers for a lot less in this city", she answered me with a little bit of chuckling. She's joking right? 

God I hate the way she talked about this to me, so I just ended the phone call and I walked out from the building feeling a little bit frustrated about my discovery.