Dream Wakers: The Veiled Prophecy (Book One)

Chapter 5

Emmy watched her gather plants. She had to adjust her eyes to the darkness of the forest. There was a foot path in front of them, and birds flustered in the branches above their head.. Flickers of light popped and danced around her, brightening the places between the shrubbery. The air seemed to move freely here, as if nature dictated the pace. She smiled despite the strange setting and looked around with wonder.

A shadow moved between the trees and walked out in the middle of the trail in front of them. He stood stoic and vacant as they approached. She strained to make out his face, but even the light she fabricated from her body could not illuminate him. Emmy tried calling to both of the strangers, desperate to know their identity, but no one seemed to hear. She was getting frustrated. She wanted to talk to them, wanted to know who they were. Her body started to separate itself from her spirit and Emmy gritted her teeth. She had felt this before. The woman rose from her clippings and screamed at the sight of the dark shadow, jolting Emmy out of sleep.

She stretched and rose from bed, readying in haste. One slender leg slipped through her shorts after the other. She strapped an arm over her chest. She would not be repeating yesterday's disaster. It was time to start over. Her dream had been inspiring. She had felt free walking behind the woman. She reminded Emmy of the Indians Henry used to tell her about. She looked softly to the book she'd carried with her as the only reminder of home. He'd read it to her since she was little. Now, it made her homesick, and she resisted the urge to open it. She couldn't continue reminding herself of the past if she expected to move forward. Cutting the fat out of her life. Stop thinking about the past.

"So what first," she asked herself, deliberately changing her focus. "The post office. Then coffee."

She set her errands in a list, and walked less tragically toward town. Ethan wasn't here to control her choices anymore. Whatever she wanted the people here to see, she had to make it known now. She would not be the crazy outsider in a town she was determined to make her home. The chances she'd find another one so isolated from the world were slim.

Emmy set her jaw as she approached her first stop. Her fingers curled around the handle of the door. It was time to make her first impression. Her heart skipped. She glanced sideways to notice a drop box on the outside of the building and slipped her addressed letter through the opening before she could think. Her eyes shot to her feet, and she hoped the people behind the desk hadn't seen her as she hurried into the diner.

"Seriously?" the waitress moaned.

You're doing what you said you wouldn't do. With effort, she recollected her composure, taking a deep breath.

"My name is Emmy. I'm gonna be here awhile."

She stuck her hand over the counter, praying the harsh, fried hair on the lady's head was no representation of her personality.

"I'm Sherry Jean," she whined with practiced judgment but made no effort to take Emmy's hand.

Emmy turned her back to the woman.

"So can I just help myself to a seat, or do you wanna show me one?"

Sherry Jean held back a snort as she slid a menu off the bar.

"Pick whatever seat you like."

Emmy set her eyes on a booth in the far right corner. It was time to do something productive.

"I'll have a cup of coffee, a water, and the eggs and bacon. May I have hash browns and white bread for toast, please?"

She intended to stay there until closing, hoping to figure out what she had decided to get into. There was no mistaking that work would be hard to find, so she needed to start making connections immediately. Her grandfather had always teased that her good looks would get her everything in life. She had kind of believed Henry then, and beckoned the seventeen year old version of herself from within. If that's what she needed to survive, she'd use it.