Perception

XXIV

The trip she'd made a thousand times before seemed to take forever, today. She just wanted to get to her friends, to Sarah, to Eli. She needed her tribe around her so she'd feel like at the very least she had their support.
Fragments of the dream, or whatever it had been, were floating through her head the whole time, and she kept smelling the forest all around her, even though she was stuck on the Metro, where the smell of trees was the approximate last thing that existed.
In her haste to get there she actually started jogging on the last bit from the Metro stop to the university building; and then she saw Sarah, standing in front of the entrance, waiting for her.
An overwhelming feeling of gratitude washed through her as she slowed down and walked towards the small but powerful figure in front of her. Really, what would she do without such a great friend, who knew she'd need to see her before going into a full lecture hall?

"Hey." she said, but then she simply stepped forward and threw her arms around Sarah, burying her face in her black curls, which as always smelled faintly of the extra virgin coconut oil she used to keep them happy.
Sarah said nothing for a moment as they stood there, she simply held her and rubbed her back.
"Hey. You alright? What happened?" she said then in her ear, and there was concern in her soft tone. "Did he hurt you?"
Anna stepped away and rubbed her eyes. "No, he didn't hurt me at all, in fact, the evening was perfect in every way. I'll tell you all about it later."
She couldn't help but smile as she thought of it again now.
"It's just... I had another one of those dream things last night and I'm well freaked out. Have you had any luck with the seer?"
Sarah's eyes only widened ever so slightly before she recovered herself.
"Shit, Anna, why didn't you call me?"
"What, at five?" Anna grinned.
"Yes, at five. I'm not just your friend during the day."
Sarah's loving comment almost started her crying again, but she kept it together.
"I know, and I love you for that. And I will tell you that I was looking in my bag for the phone to call you when I found those beads again, and they...." she paused for a second.
How to put this?
"Well, let's just say there's some weird shit going on with them. I fell right back to sleep as soon as I had them in my hands, it was like I was being comforted by a real person."
Sarah shook her head slightly.
"For real? Man, well, I'll be buggered if I understand any of this shit."

Anna threw her head back at that strident comment and laughed out loud, and it was a healing laugh. Having Sarah here next to her, having her down to earth expletives in her ear? Somehow she felt like she was okay again.
"Anyway," Sarah said then, "to answer your question: yes, I did call the seer last night and we can go to her tomorrow."
"What, really?" Anna exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth of its own accord.
"Yep. Really. I basically just told her who my grandmother was and she went real quiet for a moment, and then she told me to come tomorrow. I've already reserved a ride-share car, so we can leave at like eleven to be there with plenty of time."
Anna stared at her wordlessly for a moment.
Whoa. Efficient Sarah strikes again, huh?
"Wow, Sarah, thank you so much, that's... that's just awesome. Who knows, maybe she can help me, hey?"
Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I really hope so. Anyway, my dearest Anna, there's two guys more or less patiently waiting for us upstairs to do some useful work. You ready to face that?"
An involuntary quiver, just a little bit of that special electricity, pulled through Anna's body as she thought of who exactly would be waiting for her upstairs.
Eli.
And clearly her feelings must have showed on her face because Sarah smiled that Cheshire cat smile of hers and raised her eyebrows ironically.
"Yep, uhuh, I can see you had a nice evening." she said, all but sticking out her tongue.
"Oh, shut up." Anna murmured, and she led the way into the building and up the stairs to the library.