To the Moon and Back

Chapter One

The petals from the trees fall in a circle around her. They look as if they are a part of her as they land on her bare skin, in her curly stark white hair, on her soft delicate hands. The sun reflects off of her dark toffee skin. She smiles a small, welcoming smile toward me. I decide at that moment that I want to see that smile more often. She whispers for me to stay, stay where I belong; with her. As I nod, her face transforms into a look of horror.

"No!" Her screams fall on the deaf ears of the forest surrounding the meadow. I look down at myself, seeing a bloodied hand coming out of a wound in my chest. I tilt my head slightly, not understanding what was going on.

Then I feel the pain. It's agonizing, filling my whole body with fiery tendrils. I hear a distant scream, briefly recognizing it as my own. Everything slowly turns black around the edges, until all I see is her amazing green eyes flowing with tears.

"Come back to me Nadia. Don't leave me all alone, please. Not again."

****

I wake up with a start, almost rolling off my full-sized bed. I look around, not recognizing immediately where I am. I soon realize I'm in my apartment, laying next to my girlfriend of six months, Sam Boxer. She is beautiful, with a red bob and lip piercings. She starts to stir when I woke up, but quickly fell back asleep. I get out of bed, and start my day.

I make my usual cup of coffee, with cream and sugar, thank you very much. Making breakfast is usually Sam's job, since she gets up before me most days, but I can cook well enough. Besides, I'm hungry and impatient.

As the eggs scramble, I think about my dream. I had been plagued with it for weeks now, and it hinders my sleep almost every night. Bags have appeared under my eyes with the loss of sleep. I feel arms winding around my waist, and the familiar presence of Sam.

"Good morning beautiful," she says in my ear, speech still slurred from sleep. "Food smells good. Did you sleep well?"

I shrug the best I can given my position, and flip the bacon. "Had that dream again."

Sam hugs me tighter, knowing how much the dream has been keeping me from sleep. She lets go, and pours herself her own cup of coffee. "Have you considered talking to someone? Alexis knows some therapists."

I roll my eyes so deeply I'm pretty sure I saw my brain. "I do not need the help of your ex-girlfriend's shrink friends. Or any shrink for that matter, Sam. We've talked about this."

"You need some kind of help Nadia! I mean look at you-"

She stops talking when I glare at her. I finish making the food quickly, and get us both plates. I take mine and sit down on our leather couch, worn by many people sitting on it. Sam plops down next to me, and took a bite of the eggs.

"It's good," she comments, with a mouth full of eggs. I merely hum in response, which seems to annoy her a bit.

We finish breakfast fairly quickly, and Sam leaves to get ready for work. She's a manager at our local bar, Brandy's. It's also the place we met, interestingly enough. Her uniform consists of black pants, shoes, and a red button-up shirt. She rolls the sleeves up to her elbows as she walks out of our room.

"I'll be back."

"Okay. Love you."

She doesn't respond, but just walks out the door and down the steps towards the parking garage.

****

The dream keeps running through my mind throughout the day, no matter what I do to try and get rid of the memory of it. I clean every room, I cook until we ran out of ingredients, though we didn't have much to begin with. I decide to go out shopping for the things necessary for chicken alfredo, which is Sam's favorite dish. I felt bad for how I have acted toward her the past few days, and wanted to apologize.