After Eternity

Chapter 3

I.

The barbecue was over later than usual and after everyone was gone, he locked the door of his house and climbed the stairs up to his bedroom. He felt his head a little light due to the beer and his feet were stumbling a bit as he walked. It had been an awful evening, unpleasant even. He didn't have a reason for that. The people were his friends and it had always been great, but he had spent the night with an accelerated heart and with a lump in his throat that didn't let him breathe properly.

Whenever he heard her name he'd thought he'd panic. There was no explanation, but he could only relate it to her arrival. But how? Why? In order to bury that aggravated feeling, he'd drink a bit more than usual. He had never seen that woman, he had never heard of her and still hearing her name for the first time caused him all that. Did I meet a Diana? He thought when he sat on the bed to take his Converse All Star off his feet. He shook his head; he was sure he didn't. Then he grabbed the end of his shirt and pulled it off his head. Bare chest, James walked to the bathroom and poured some toothpaste on his toothbrush. While brushing his teeth in front of the mirror he began to remember all the things he heard about her. She had worked in Aston Martin, which solely made him question why she would leave such a place to come to work in San Francisco. Aston Martin is a worldly famous car brand and not a cheap one. Then he remembered he heard Sam telling Mark she left London because of a failed relationship. She must have been really in love, he concluded, to consider abandoning her whole life just to avoid a man in her life.

Done, he put the toothbrush in the cabinet and went to bed. He unbuckled his faded blue jeans and then unzips them, pulling them off his legs and feet the second after. As he sat on the bed, he pulled the sheet up until his waist and then he lays back. He stares at the ceiling for a few seconds, feeling the bed spinning around. I've had too much to drink, he thought with a soft smile in his lips. Then he reaches for the lamp on his bedside table and shuts the light down. The room gets instantly dark and he closes his eyes.

Diana...Diana...he gazes around with this name echoing in his head. He doesn't recognize the place where he's at, but he looks younger. He is a little scared, but his heart is not beating fast. Diana... the thought echoing loud inside his head. He isn't yelling, nor calling it out loud, it is just lingering in his mind. The place is so dark he cannot see though he turns his head around like looking for something. There's this fragrance in the air that makes him stick his nose up high and sniff. Diana...again he calls her just inside his mind. Where am I? He thinks then and gazes around feeling lost. Diana...Diana...Diana...Diana...he calls mentally over and over and spins around and around trying to see in vain in such dark. DIANA...the voice echoes so loud inside his head. James jerks and opens his eyes, sitting on the bed panting and gasping for air.

"Jesus..." He mutters turning the light on. With the back of his hand he cleans the perspiration on his forehead and takes deep breaths to stabilize. "I must be losing my mind." He said then laying back again.

He stared at ceiling wondering why that dream seemed so real. It was him but at the same time it didn't seem to be him. He couldn't recall where he was just that it was dark. James was impressed for the first time in his life with a dream and not in a good way. He was scared even. There was something in the air that was scaring him deeply. Still he turned the light off and went back to sleep.

II.

Lars and Angela were enjoying the rest of the night sat on their porch, contemplating the ocean. They balanced the chair back and forward and she rested with her head against his chest. His arm surrounded her shoulders and for a moment they were silent. It had been a rough night for her, he knew. Losing Diana had been such a huge loss for Angela that he sympathized with her situation now.