One month ago…  

Nora startled, a scream jumping from her throat as she sat up. She reached for a polished stone of dream amethyst on her nightstand and clasped it to her sweaty palm. This geological wonder, with patterns of purple and white chevron was anciently believed to improve the quality of sleep and reduce stress and anxiety. “Good vibes. Good vibes.” She repeated her positive energy mantra. “Good vibes only…”

Slowly the panic melted away, as she steadily returned to reality. She was alone and in her own bed. Safe. Her boyfriend wasn’t trying to choke her to death. She was just having a nightmare. The only thing around her neck was her crescent moon necklace. 

She placed the amethyst down and headed into the bathroom for a drink of water. Checking her phone, she saw several texts from Ryan. The last one read: Are you mad at me? I miss you.

He wouldn’t have to miss her if he’d show up to classes on time or at all. They had nearly identical college class schedules on purpose and yet he wasn’t taking it seriously. Obviously, she was mad that he didn’t have to try and would probably still manage to get a solid A, just like he had all throughout high school.

But she was mad at everything lately. Just a general feeling of discontent with her world. Plus, the recurring dreams were only adding fuel to the misery. How could she have the same exact nightmare for months? Not even a combination of black tourmaline and citrine could purify and overcome that kind of sustained negative dream energy.

It was more than frustrating, bordering on a severe imbalance. Though she would mindfully plan for sleep with positive mediations, still, every night it played out in nearly the same way with Ryan chasing her down and trying to strangle her to death. 

Even knowing she was dreaming, as was often the case, she couldn’t stop it. She had to fight him to wake up. Each and every time.

Why was this happening? Were these premonitions of the future? Or subconscious evidence of something unresolved inside her?

When she tried to reason it out, she inescapably came to the day several months ago when Ryan was driving her home from spending time with his family at their beach house. Everything seemed fine until he asked her about a ring. Totally out of the blue. She inwardly panicked, though outwardly she was able to avoid the question since she didn’t like rings in general and had stated this many times before. But that night she went to bed worrying that Ryan was planning to ask her to marry him. That’s when she first had the nightmare that would become a trend every night since. And she couldn’t help but connect the two.

The obvious conclusion was that her subconscious knew Ryan was wrong for her and she needed to do something before he proposed; an idea she had come to many times before the dreams ever started but had never managed to see through. 

When she had approached the topic a year ago, her communication had been lacking and he didn’t understand the permanence of it, thinking she just needed to be by herself for a little while. And knowing he always wanted to be with her made his willingness to give her space seem like a huge sacrifice. It brought her right back to where she started. And based on all the girls that always tried to flirt with him, she wondered if there was something wrong with her to even think about ending a good relationship without a solid reason. How could she even think about leaving him when they’d been together for so many years? And their relationship, though not perfect, had developed naturally.

Then there was the matter of his family. They had adopted her immediately and comprised more than half of the people she knew and loved in the entire world. His parents, grandparents, brothers and their wives, and all of Ryan’s nieces and nephews were a regular part of her life. Without them, all she had was her parents and a missing aunt who left behind no significant other or children. If she broke up with Ryan, she would lose everything and be back to that same tiny world where all she had was her parents. 

And besides, it was her motto to only spread good vibes. Passing on negative energy only invited negative energy back.

As she sat down at her vanity, determined to stay up and not sink into any more nightmares, she gazed above the mirror to admire her beautifully framed beachscape. Ryan’s brother Keith had taken the time to teach her how to use a DSLR camera and this photo was evidence that she had graduated; it took a lot to impress him since photography was his life and he not only liked this ocean sunset, but he displayed it in his shop all summer. Then, as promised, he gave the framed piece to her and even hung it up where she asked. It was a proud memory that caused her to smile daily whenever she passed by it on the wall. And right now, it made her want to take out her camera reel from the beach and look it over again. 

She set her phone on slideshow and watched each peaceful photo move by. She could almost hear the ocean, a dull rushing of eb and flow. Relaxing. Good vibes…good vibes… good -

Without warning her phone began to release grey smoke from the speaker. Fire! She leapt up and threw it out the window of her second-floor apartment. 

“No, no, no!” She yelled, cringing after she saw it hit the ground. She realized too late that it wasn’t really on fire, but now it was broken into a thousand pieces for sure. As she scanned for it, she saw the dark silhouette of a large humanoid shape moving below. She stepped back, her heart jumping into her throat. Was someone watching her?

She forced herself back to the window, attempting to close it. That’s when her fingers slipped on something wet. There was a slick ooze on the lift, and she couldn’t get hold of it. She went to the top of the pane to try pushing down from the lock, but it was covered in the same oily substance. It didn’t make sense unless it was… intentional? Had someone been in her room while she was away to sabotage her attempts at closing the window in a hurry? And was that someone below her window right now?

She grabbed a shirt from the laundry hamper to get a better grip. Thud. Thud. The wall shook, vibrating through the glass. Thud. Thud. Thud. 

She poked her head out the window and immediately inhaled smokey air. Choking and through stinging tears, she could see something on the side of the building. Thud. Thud. It was climbing and heading straight for her!

As she pulled back, the smokey air followed her inside and rapidly began to fill the entire room. She fumbled to use the shirt she had previously retrieved from her dirty hamper to close the window. This time the fabric helped secure her grip and with a mighty tug, she slid the pane down with a jolt against the windowsill. 

Wham! A huge hand slammed against the trembling glass and sent her reeling back. 

She frantically felt for the wall behind her to locate the door, but the smoke had completely taken over and her fingers couldn’t find a single object for reference. 

She ran forward with her arms outstretched and finally met the wall. But it was gliding over her fingertips as if it were growing upwards. No, the wall wasn’t growing taller, she was shrinking. 

Shrinking? 

Curiosity made her pause at the impossibility. Only one thing could make her shrink like Alice eating the wrong mushroom in Wonderland. She was dreaming. And now she had to wake herself up before he came after her.

It was just a dream. It wasn’t real. She could leave at any moment and be safe. Good vibes, good vibes, good- 

Sinking! She wasn’t shrinking, she was sinking!

That’s when the dense smoke began to fade and she realized the floor wasn’t floor, but a swampy goo under her soles. She lifted one foot and a dripping mesh of pulled black gum clung to the bottom of her boot. As she tried to extract herself from the ground, a shadow passed. Her heart stopped as she met his eyes. Cold eyes so intense that she stumbled backwards to get away from them.

This was the demon Ryan she couldn’t reason with. She couldn’t outrun. She couldn’t fight. And he only wanted one thing. To see her dead.

She pulled her feet free of the boots and took off running. The thick mud squeezing through her toes, trapping and tripping her. As soon as she hit the sludge, he was on her, twisting her around to get a grip on her neck. She struggled, unable to scream, clawing and kicking at him, as his hands restricted her airway. He pressed her viciously into the mud, intent on killing and burying her all at once. His eyes completely void of any emotion besides blind hatred…

“Vibes!” She heard herself say as if disconnected from her body. 

Her heart was racing as she looked at the time on her phone. The phone that didn’t get thrown out the window. The window that wasn’t even open. Her room clear of smoke, the floor a carpet and solid beneath her feet. She touched her neck, looking into her vanity mirror. No finger marks, just her necklace.

It took her another moment to realize she had fallen asleep in the middle of a thought for only fifteen minutes, and never stopped repeating her mantra aloud. 

There was a throbbing in the center of her forehead, and she massaged it, closing her eyes tightly. Would she never have a moment’s relief? 

She made herself several cups of tea in succession like her own mindless Mad Hatter’s tea party until it was morning. After applying concealer to the dark circles below her eyes, she got dressed and headed straight for the library before class. She was determined to find a book that could help her unravel the reason for her recurring dreams. She didn’t know if she could completely stop them from happening, but one thing was certain: she couldn’t continue like this…

She had only been browsing the shelves for a few minutes when someone was beside her.

“Can I help you find something?” 

Nora jumped until she saw it was just the librarian. A chipper blonde with black-framed glasses.

“Do you have any books about dreams?” Nora asked, trying to recover her nerves.

“Yeah, definitely.” She smiled.

She led her to a section several aisles down and pulled out a worn book.

“Start with this one.” She recommended. 

“Dream analysis.” Nora read the title aloud. “This is exactly what I needed, thanks.” She then glanced at the woman’s name tag. “Thanks, Zadie.” 

“No problem.” Zadie smiled. “And I love your hair, by the way. It reminds me of what’s beautiful about spring, even though we’re heading into Fall.”

Nora smiled back. She was still sporting the green ombre that she had all summer but was thinking of changing it again soon. She just wasn’t inspired yet.

“If I can be the cliché nosey librarian for a moment…” Zadie began when Nora put the book on the counter to be checked out, “May I ask what your dreams are about?”

“Just nightmares.” Nora responded cautiously. “Being chased.” 

“Oh!” She perked up, “There’s a great section about chaser dreams in here. It’s a very common dream type.” She flipped through the book and then handed it to Nora.

While Zadie finished typing something, Nora read down the page. ‘Chasers’ were toxic people and the book recommended eliminating them from one’s life in order to progress. Interesting…

“Oh, and one more thing.” Zadie took the book back and flipped to another page. “If you ever see this in your dreams, be sure you don’t talk to her.”

Nora received the book, studying the large illustration on the open page. It was of a beautiful woman with three eyes. This might be unusual for other people, but Nora was used to seeing representations of the third eye. Hence it wasn’t the idea of an additional eye that caught her attention, but rather the location of this one.

“I’ve never seen the spiritual Third Eye depicted below the collar bone before. It’s usually at the center of the forehead.” Nora commented aloud. 

“That’s because it isn’t the third eye. It’s the Eye of the Oracle.” Zadie pointed to the heading of the section which read “The Oracle.” 

“Oh, okay, I get it now.” Nora nodded.

“So, you’ve never seen this before, but you’ve heard of it?” Zadie asked tapping the picture.

“Well, I know what an oracle is.” Nora clarified, “They can see visions of the future. But no, I’ve never seen this particular representation before.”

“Ah.” Zadie settled back with a sigh. “Good thing, then. But if you ever were to see her, don’t engage, don’t talk, and definitely don’t look into the Eye.”

Nora wanted to ask her more about why this was a concern, but she would be late for class if she didn’t leave immediately. “Okay, I’ll be sure to remember that if she pops up in my dreams.” Nora said closing the book quickly and packing it into her bag.

“I hope you can work out your nightmares.” Zadie said as Nora was leaving, “But if not, be sure to come back and I’ll get you something else. Plus, I’m always here to talk. Things are usually slow around here in the mornings.”

Nora was surprised both by how knowledgeable Zadie was on this topic and by her friendly invitation to talk. She was by far the nicest librarian Nora had ever encountered. And what was most interesting, was the fact that it didn’t seem fake. She came off genuine. It was a nice change of pace from the curt, irritated librarians of her past.

Once Nora was in class, she pulled out a sticky note and wrote Tell Ryan on it. She stuck the yellow square to the section about the Chasers. She had an entire plan. She’d plant the book in his apartment and when he noticed and found the note, she’d be able to finally bring up the nightmares. Then he could explain himself. 

No, not explain himself. 

Of course, it wasn’t him in her dreams. He did nothing but protect her since they met. And he had never done anything to scare her. Why were her wires being crossed between dreams and reality? She was going to have to reconsider the stones she was using for her seven chakras; maybe there was another arrangement that would serve her better.

Later that evening, Nora’s monthly alarm went off. She had almost forgotten it was that day. Hurriedly she grabbed her binder and set off for her parent’s house.

Ryan was waiting in his car listening to music when she arrived. She took a deep breath and tapped his window. She caught his eye and he smiled. Soft hazel eyes, not cold at all. He immediately got out of his car and hugged her.

“Are you okay?” He asked as she pulled away too quickly from his embrace.

“Yeah, fine. I’m just tired.” She said, brushing back some emerald curls from her eyes. She couldn’t exactly tell him how not okay she was. How she had to make full eye contact and make sure he wasn’t the demon from her dreams before getting too close.

“So, you aren’t mad at me?” He asked. “You haven’t been answering my texts.”

“Oh, sorry, I thought I did. Something must’ve gone wrong.” She lied. 

As she tried to shut off her phone to hide any evidence to the contrary, he leaned down and kissed her. A slow kiss that made her think they could work out any incompatibility problems character or otherwise. She reached for his face, making it last longer so she could forget the nightmare…

When he pulled away, he took her into another embrace. She settled comfortably against his torso.

“I want to make out with you in the middle of the street, but, you know, we have to report at the meeting.” He joked. “Or we can do both.” 

It embarrassed her when he talked this way, but it was all part of his drama. He didn’t know how to be any other way. At least he didn’t say those things in front of other people.

As if on cue, her mother called out from across the street. “Oh, you guys are here! I was going to string some lights on the porch, could you help?”

Nora rolled her eyes. What she meant was she wanted Ryan and his height to help. These meetings, which were supposed to be focused on reporting any new findings about her Aunt Nova’s disappearance, were feeling more like her parents manipulating her and Ryan to do chores for them.

“Yeah, no problem, Starr.” Ryan smiled. Nora hated that her mom acted helpless around him. She couldn’t even use her kitchen stool to reach cups in the high cabinet anymore if Ryan was around.

“Mom, we don’t have much time.” She said irritated that Ryan was already in the middle of helping string the lights. “Ryan and I have to study tonight.” It was the only way she knew to subtly signal to Ryan that she didn’t want him to do a hundred chores for her mom, while still appealing to his sense of drama. 

“Whoa really?” He smirked at her, catching on to the word ‘study’ immediately. He knew it was more of a code word to mean she wanted to watch a movie with him and cuddle. Then he straightened up and looked at her mom and said, “Yeah, I forgot about the studying. But you know what? To save time, you guys go ahead and start the meeting, and I’ll come in when I’m finished hanging these lights.” 

Ryan had this strange way of trying to call attention to whenever he was lying; he even changed his tone of voice. It was part of his humor to be obvious and therefore if someone took him seriously, like her oblivious mother, he didn’t think it was on him. 

Her mom nodded happily and turned the lights on. “These are going to look dazzling and invite positive energy.” She said approvingly.

Nora rolled her eyes at Ryan’s manipulation. Eagerly doing a favor in an obvious attempt to get out of the meeting? Really? But to be fair, he did come to all of them without fail and deserved a break sometimes.

Inside, her dad was lighting the candles in the living room. 

“Hey.” He said when he saw her out of the corner of his eye. “I have a few packages that need to go out, don’t forget them when you leave.”

She looked to where he was pointing to a bag of small packages near the door and nodded.

Then she got her binder out of her bag and handed her parents a printout.

“What’s this?” Her mom asked, not looking at it.

“I found one of Nova’s friends.” Nora began. She was eager to tell them about her recent detective work. It was a series of lucky breaks and the first real lead they had in the seven years since Nova went missing.

“Diana Smith.” Nora said, referring them to the sheet. “This is the woman that Nova worked with before she went missing, and they may have been temporary roommates. No one at the restaurant could tell me what her last name was when I asked years before because they were known for hiring people without proper credentials. But by some star alignment, I was searching through old newspapers and found that a woman named Diana Smith had been in the paper once for catching a purse snatcher. I didn’t think it would go anywhere because I’d already found hundreds of Dianas that couldn’t be the one I was looking for. But this article listed where she worked and so I was able to confirm it was her.”

They were staring blankly at her.

“This is good news. We have someone to question.” She pointed to the sheet in front of them again.

They had been silent the entire time and when one of them spoke it was her dad that said, “That’s a common name.” It was unnecessary and beside the point.

“Yeah, I know, but I have a picture and a name now.” Nora emphasized, “This is progress. If we can find her, we can question her.”

They looked at her blankly as if what she had discovered wasn’t good enough to be acknowledged.

“Okay, well you should go on the internet and see if she’s there.” Her mom said finally. Nora was suddenly glad that Ryan was outside hanging lights, because if he was here, he would’ve laughed hysterically at this remark. Her parents refused to talk like normal people about technology even though they ran a crystal shop that was exclusively online. 

“I will.” Nora said, hoping to move on. “So, what do you have?” She redirected.

“I feel her close.” Her mom began. “She’s here, but her mind is far away.” She then took out a box of crystals and started to place them on a carved wooden elephant that had groves for displaying stones along its trunk and back. “I want us all to keep jasper nearby. It will ground her and bring her back.”

She took a large stone of polychrome jasper and handed it to Nora. “Keep this with you.”

Nora nodded. It was one of her favorite types of stones which typically displayed a gorgeous variety of colors including purple, pink, gold, tan, teal and blue. It was only found on the Northern Coast of Madagascar and highly prized.

“Connect it with your sixth chakra and it will release your trapped anxieties and thoughts and give you perfect dream recall.” Her mom explained.

“The Third Eye chakra.” Nora said aloud, “It deals with dreams too.” She didn’t need or want perfect recall of her nightmares, but she had forgotten this specific connection until just now; she regarded the sixth chakra as mostly dealing with intuition, not specifically dreams. It made her think of the library book from this morning. Aside from having the eye of the Oracle maybe the book would provide some information on the traditional third eye for dream interpretation.

“Yes, of course. Dreams provide insight.” Her mom said matter-of-factly. “But the Third Eye is blocked by illusion.” She dug around in her box and pulled out a smooth dream amethyst; it was a little bigger than the one Nora kept on her nightstand and had a more pronounced chevron pattern. “I charged this one recently, you should replace it with the one you have.”

Nora took it. Her line of chakra stones on her vanity back at her apartment were all chosen carefully, but maybe this was the new arrangement she needed to break the cycle. 

“I was using sapphire for my Third Eye chakra for serenity and protection against negative energies. Amethyst is the one I use for the Crown to counter confusion and depression.” Nora explained. “But I also keep an amethyst next to me while I sleep to help with dreams.”

Her mom nodded and pulled another stone from her box. “Then replace the Crown with moonstone.” She said thoughtfully. “In order to know yourself, promote clarity, and connect with the divine. Amethyst is better served as the Third Eye. It can show you how your suffering is leading you to purity and will heal wounds that occur in the process. It’s a mind stone, which allows control of evil thoughts and-” She stopped short when Ryan walked in. She then finished by saying, “Moonstone also enhances passion and reunites lost lovers.”

Ryan smiled. “I think I missed the good part.”

Nora blushed and took the moonstone. She was in a hurry to leave before her mom started giving Ryan passion crystals, which he absolutely did not need.

“It’s a full moon, so be sure to charge any dying crystals tonight!” Her mom called out as they left. 

“You have dying crystals?” Ryan joked in a harsh whisper. “What kind of establishment are you running?”

She gave him a light shove. “Do you want to study or not?” She teased while she placed the packages her dad wanted her to mail into the back of her car.

“I want to study with you so badly.” He said grabbing her by the waist and drawing her into a kiss. It made her heart skip. At least this was the positive version of heart stopping, and not the one that happened out of debilitating fear.

“My place or yours?” He broke away to ask, placing his hands lightly on her hair.

“Not mine.” She managed before he went in for another kiss.

“Good, because I don’t want to deal with your creepy roommate.” He said before adding, “I just want you.” His low tone was what she would expect from an actor in a movie; but he wasn’t putting on a show in these moments, he was serious. His large hands cupped her face and he looked into her eyes like she was the only thing that mattered to him. And in these moments, she knew she couldn’t leave him and didn’t want to. Why was her subconscious twisting him into a beast that could strangle her to death in a dream world?

“It’s good to see the moonstone’s already working!” Nora heard her mom call out to them from the newly lit porch.

The amorous mood evaporated immediately, and they settled back, laughing it off. 

“I need to make a stop at the post office drop box first.” Nora said to Ryan.

“I’ll queue up a movie.” He returned. “Is Harry and the Zombies, okay?”

He always had a few horror movies on his watchlist, but this one in particular he kept suggesting on and off for the last few months. And now she was running out of reasons to avoid it.

“That’s a Halloween movie and it’s not even October yet.” She reasoned. “And you know how they upset you.”

“I don’t get upset over movies.” He protested, “And this one isn’t even scary. It’s a comedy.” 

“So, it’s not gory?” She asked. “You don’t like movies with zombies because they tend to have realistic rotting flesh prosthetics.”

“Well, I mean, it has that stuff.” He admitted, “But let me explain the premise.”

If he got to the part of his argument where he was giving her a summary of the movie, then there was no way he was backing down.

“So, this guy, Harry, works as a courier for a lab, and he ends up transporting this serum that gets mixed in with his doggie bag from a restaurant. He leaves his leftovers in the fridge and all his friends end up stealing a bite while hanging out with him. Then they turn into these gross zombies but… Harry doesn’t even notice!” Ryan explained enthusiastically. “It’s really funny!”

“Then you already saw it?” She asked, hopeful.

“Well yeah,” He smirked, sliding his hands around her waist. “But not with you.” He said in a low voice.

He used the togetherness card and there was no way she could trump that. He knew how to manipulate with the most genuine flair and was currently giving her puppy dog eyes. And she couldn’t resist puppies. 

“Okay, we’ll watch it.” She agreed, fixing her half-moon necklace straight and breaking away from him. “I’ll see you in ten.”

She was so tired from a general lack of sleep that the movie didn’t matter anyways. After all, he’d never blame her for falling asleep on him, he usually encouraged it. And maybe resting close to his aura would correct whatever was messed up in her subconscious and allow her peaceful sleep for just a few precious minutes…

As Nora got into her car, she saw the dream book on the passenger’s seat. It was still a good plan. She’d plant it in Ryan’s apartment tonight and it would start a conversation later and they’d work it out. She could tell him they weren’t ready to make decisions about an engagement and he’d agree. Then her dreams would leave, and everything would be fine. Just being around him made her feel like the issues were less severe than they had been that morning when reality was blending closely with nightmarish emotions. 

Before buckling in, she remembered what her mom said about keeping jasper close to ground Nova and bring her back. But Nora wouldn’t just leave it up to the energy of the stone, she intended on tracking down Diana Smith and learning all she could. She had to believe that if anyone knew what happened to her aunt, it was this woman. It had to be a sign.

As Nora turned the jasper in her hand, admiring the colors, she discovered a prominent swirl of pink. That’s when inspiration struck like a keynote from the universe.

With renewed enthusiasm, she knew precisely what she wanted for her next hair color.

Want to learn more about this and other fantasy sci-fi books I'm working on? For more on maps, world building, and stunning art by amazing artists of my two worlds - Drea and Hiraeth - check out my website at: Corrinamp.com