He opened the door and walked through, into the apartment where he was greeted by the smell of something cooking on the stove. He went to the kitchen where his mom was washing dishes, glancing back and forth to keep an eye on the pot of boiling water. Jace went up and gave her a little hug from behind and a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey ma'. How was your day?" She shook her head.
"Not so good. They let me go."
"No... you're kidding, right?" For as long as Jace could remember, his mom has always had a hard time keeping her jobs. But it wasn't ever as bad as it has been lately.
"Don't worry about it. I'll just get another one and all will be fine." She gave a sad smile which distinguished the lines on her forehead and side of her face. It also brought out the sadness in her deep blue eyes.
"Are you sure?" She nodded. "Okay, I guess..." He gave her shoulders a light squeeze and started to walk away in the direction of the fridge. "You know, I could help with stuff around here by getting a job too."
"No, you don't need to." That response always made Jace shake his head. The moment was interrupted by the pot of water, she was keeping an eye on, boiled over, causing her to drop everything to clean it up.
"I got this ma' just clean up the dishes." She slowly turned and went back to the sink, cleaning up the broken glasses from her reaction to the boiling water, while Jace cleaned it up. "What's for dinner, anyway?"
"I don't know... I was thinking pasta, but not anymore." She paused to think. "How about pizza."
"Are you sure. We can't just go on a spending spree."
"I know, but I don't feel like cooking."
"Okay, I guess." Jace just dismissed her logic and turned off the stove. He then picked up his backpack and headed to his room, closing the door behind him. He threw it down on the bed and rummaged through it to pull out a sketchbook and flipped to a page specifically marked so he could find it easily.
The picture was of a dark urban alley with buildings surrounding a figure in the middle. It was a small, skinny figure straddling something on the ground facing him. Its arms were stretched towards the bottom of the page but its hands were cut off at the edge of the page. What was so significant was its face. It was blurred.
He just stared at the image. Something was off. In the dream, the body looked familiar. The dress style, the feel of the hands. He couldn't point it out. It made his head hurt if he thought about it for too long.
He threw the book down on a desk next to the window and sat down, grabbing a box of other pencils and pens. He continued to work on it, dressing the figure in closely similar clothes as he could remember from the dream.
He finished the sketch and it made him realize what he couldn't moments before. He thought back to this morning, meeting his friends at his locker, Lori... She has the same hoodie, but in the picture, it's all torn at the sleeves and riddled with holes along the chest.
He also thought back to another closely related detail. They also matched in physical features. She was a couple years younger than him, only because she was born late in her birth year, and she was significantly shorter than him.
"None of this is making sense...!" He said. He put his head down, the palms of his hands resting on his forehead. "Wh-" He was at a loss of words. "What does this all mean?"
His thoughts were cut off by the sound of the doorbell. He dismissed everything and pinned the drawing to the bulletin board, hanging just above, on the wall.
It was the end of the week. He constantly had to be reminded of his dream by waking up and staring at the picture, wondering why it led back to Lori. He also made a couple of adjustments to it in the passing days. He changed the buildings to a crowd of shadowed people, but Jace knew exactly who they represented.
Jace continued with his usual morning routine after questioning the image. Everything from the cup of coffee, laying the picture down, to meeting Elijah at the corner. And even his after school routine, his rendezvous with Lori at her door. He had decided to tell her about the dream.
"Hey, can I come in?"
"Sure." They walked through and he sat her on the couch.
"I got something to talk to you about and you might think I'm crazy."
"Of course I won't, anything you say, I'll take seriously, since you're talking like it's really important." Jace nodded with sincerity.
He told her about everything in the dream he had. He pulled out the picture and showed it to her. It caused her eyes to widen.
"You're right about me thinking you're crazy." She paused to think. Then she looked over at Jace, who had a sleepless expression, bags forming under his eyes as well as an amount of terror that she had never seen from his eyes. That told him that he wasn't joking about any of what he told her.
She wrapped her arms around him and stroke the back of his head. He responded by doing the same but keeping his arms around her. He started to tremble.
"Are you going to be alright?" He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
"I, honestly, don't know..." He pulled back and looked her in the face. "I don't understand anything about it. Not even Elijah's appearance in it, or why his face wasn't blocked out like the others."
"That is something weird now that you mentioned it." She got up and went around the corner, into her kitchen, returning later with a blanket and pillow.
"What are you doing?"
"I told mom about how you were feeling and she said you should just spend the night since you're already here." She placed them on the couch and held out her hand. Jace stood up and took it. They went into a tight embrace, as Lori mumbled a sympathetic apology over and over again.
