Shards of Kairos

IV - Deju Vu

“Evie?”

Evie hears Katie’s voice but she doesn’t respond to it. Evie’s too exhausted to try at the moment, staring at the stranger who’d called himself 'Julian' in her dream the night before as he leaves the cafe after paying for his order.

Without the moment they’d had before - in her nightmares.

And Evie hadn’t gone anywhere near him this morning, making excuses in her panic, adding to her already increasing fear about whatever had happened in her dream - her nightmare.

Evie was too confused to even process what it was or how it had happened. But her ‘day’ yesterday had repeated today just like before. Exactly. With no differences despite her best attempts.

Evie had woken up like she’d been in a coma for years. It had actually hurt when she’d taken those first gasping breaths through a raw throat and she’d sat up so fast so that Evie felt sure she had whiplash in certain parts of her body. Especially her neck.

There had been some lingering burning pain on her upper thigh, her back, and her arms. Lingering from the brutal wounds inflicted in the nightmare? The pain had disappeared almost too fast for her to register it.

Tabitha and Kenton had been gone to work already this morning, just like before, so they hadn’t heard Evie screaming or witnessed the nightmare. The moped wouldn’t start and the fog... the fog had seemed somehow more oppressive than it had in the nightmare - if that were possible.

It had obviously been a dream. A night terror would be the better term.

Because she’d died.

Evie knew that had been the ‘ending’ of that nightmare. She couldn’t interpret it any other way. But that didn’t explain how it was repeating right now. Was she still asleep? Evie didn’t even know.

Everything felt just as real as before and she couldn’t manage the energy to even feel all that panicked. It was there, lingering under the surface and waiting to find her if she thought too hard about it.

But right now Evie just couldn’t. She felt resigned to whatever was going to happen. And deathly cold at the conclusion.

Evie felt trapped.

She felt numbly like she might be going insane. Her brain had definitely reached it’s limit of what she could process. Because whatever was going on, she couldn’t even begin to grasp or understand it.

“I don’t even remember going home yesterday.” Evie murmured to Katie instead, to her query of concern, which was probably as good of an answer as any. She was not all right.

Evie was definitely, absolutely not all right.

Katie fixed concerned and confused, deep brown eyes on her. Eyes that Evie had once related to the darkest of espressos. And Evie could feel Katie’s troubled gaze. Could feel her trying to understand the situation, her worry and concern was palpable.. And Evie wanted to wipe it all away, reassure Katie that she was fine, but she couldn’t.

Was she having a life crisis? Was this was insanity felt like?

“Evie, Mitch took you home last night. Around eight last night.”

Mitch. He had. Evie remembered that now. Evie straightened up slightly from where she’d been leaning against the counter, turning her eyes back onto Katie. “He did.”

The day had been normal, mundane. The usual. She’d worked a lighter shift because they’d gotten a rush in the afternoon like was typical during the work week. And she’d stayed later to restock for the next day. Time had just passed quickly, like it usually did in her best friend’s presence when they were working together.