Nikki Shore - Ghost Beneath The Ashes

Chapter 7

???, ??:??

What I saw I couldn't believe my eyes. It was not my idea. It was hazy with those cobwebs that don't move. Lots of color lights, predominantly red and blue circled around me. I hear screaming and shouting. I wanted to shut them up but I couldn't. I was like moving and stationary at the same time, can't tell which is which. My head hurt more like multiple jackhammers running at the same time to chacha.

Swirling clouds of white and red along with flashes of the past three days emerge. Beams of light linked them one over the other. Multiple voices kept on passing through me ...

One by one I thought of something, like words, phrases, and finally a sentence ...

"This does not make any sense ... Something ..."

"Something is wrong here ..."

"How did he have the means to do such thing as an arson? He might have gone easily and just done other things, begging for one, getting another job is another. He acted oddly on all this. He somehow managed to have the resources to do so. Where did he get all this?"

It was still not enough, my head kept on hammering.

"What does Kara have to do with all of this? What did Kara know that I didn't? She was one step ahead of me the entire time. Just who does she work for? What does her client know that I didn't?"

Then I felt as if there was no floor to step on. I descended upon a swirling abyss full of colors, each time I blinked, the colors change hue.

"Why was Kara there? Who does she work for? Doesn't make any sense at all ... At A L L ... aT A l L ..."

I fell from all that color into the middle of a sidewalk. Everything was pitch black, except for a woman in white standing in the middle of the void we were in, illuminated by a single lamp post barely showing a part of a sidewalk like in a spotlight. Her sun hat was down, barely revealing her face. The only thing that was clear to me was her blood red lips. She was smiling, the corners of her lips are like touching her cheeks. In that point, I suddenly got closer with no apparent movement, and I could see her lick her lips as if she was a predator who is about to devour her prey.

I tried to run away, but I can't move. And then I fell over to some sort of fissure. Everything went dark again.

The picture slowly builds, shifting more and more ... And then the orange sky of dawn pierced my eyes.

***

Private Wing, Room 202, Southern Medical, 5:45 AM

Morning has just broken. Everything was silent. I looked up and saw a slightly plain ceiling with an affixed strip of fluorescent lights. I checked my clothes, I'm wearing a tacky hospital gown with some teddy bear patterns. Coming to grips with reality—with me in a bed, in a clean plain looking pastel room with basic amenities and a flat screen TV with a cable set top box to boot—I think I am in a hospital. I tried to get up the bed, but I was too sore to be able to stand. Somebody entered the door.

Erin looked like some kind of manager, with her designer executive clothes and all. Her blonde bangs was kempt with hairpins. Her left arm was in place with an arm sling wrapping her arm and hand held together by bandage, the right arm carried her designer bag and in her free hand was vendo coffee.

"Nikki! Glad you've awaken now. I got you coffee."

"Huh, Erin, what's with the getup?"

Erin placed the coffee and bag on the table. She then posed herself her arms swinging from shoulder to her hips.