Shadows

Part 4: Carissa

      I finally got out my of the maze of tunnels and out into the café where a young woman greeted me with a smile. She had a bob of black, curly hair. She tucked her hair back, revealing dark brown eyes.

"Hi, my name is Laila," she said, doing a weird salute and making brackets with her hands when saying her name.

A girl with red hair down to her waist chuckled behind her and asked, "Would you like something to eat or did they treat you well down under?"

"I'm good, I'm just leaving," I said turning around and heading towards the door.

I pushed open the door, not looking at the dead surrounding me, and saw my mom heading to her car. Like nothing had changed. Like time had stopped. I ran up to my mom and hugged her, by the look on her face she didn't expect me to be back this quickly.

"Well, that was quick," she said, putting her arm around me.

"I guess it was," I answered.

"Come on, let's go," my mom said continuing walking over to our car.

"So what happened?" asked my mom.

The whole car ride I explained what happened down in the underworld.

When we got home Max came over to me and looked up at me and started to whimper. I guess he could tell that I was worried about something. To be truthful, me and Barsha had pretty similar things happen to us the day that they stayed over. I remembered how we sat on my bed facing each other.

~~~

She started, "I had a weird dream last night."

"I did too," I answered.

She shifted uncomfortably then said, "Well it was more like a nightmare."

I nodded encouragingly, understanding that this would be the first time in awhile that she had had a dream.

"Well," she continued, "it felt really real. You and Bane were there too. The city was in ruins and Bane shouted something at me, but I couldn't hear him. I was just laying there unable to move then some kind of bomb went off and I guess I died again."

That is weird, isn't it? I thought. "Well," I said looking at Barsha, "there's nothing we can do about it now, so we might as well get dressed."

After we got dressed we headed downstairs to eat some breakfast. [My mom had improved her baking skills over the past two years.] We were eating some waffles when a shadow passed over me and I had some sort of vision.

A soothing voice came into my head. "Hello, Carissa."

I almost dropped my fork, but I managed to keep my composure. "Who are you?" I asked.

"You'll know soon enough," replied the voice.

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"Oh, Carissa, always too curious for her own good," the voice chided.

Somehow the voice drew me in, in a sort of calming, safe way.

"I still don't understand," I said, not harshly, but just confused.

"I've been watching you, Carissa. Every day and night, you're the person I always needed. You can be my one and only, Carissa," said the voice in an affectionate tone.

"Oh?" I said in a surprised but affectionate way.

"Yes, my dear Carissa, I've been there the whole time," the voice told me. "The whole time."