Dreams, Spells, and Closet Monsters - 2
Copyright 2022 by Heather Rose Brown

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I squinted at the pinkish-gold beams of sunlight slanting through the windows when I wandered into the kitchen the next morning. I found Sophi sitting at the table, staring into space, with a spoon held halfway to her mouth. I slumped into the chair next to my sister, rested an elbow on the table, then used that arm to prop up my head.

I nudged Sophi with my other arm and asked, "You awake?"

A soggy cornflake slipped from her spoon. She blinked when it plopped into her cereal bowl, then looked at me and made a noise that sounded vaguely like, "Huh?"

I smirked and said, "Nevermind. Just finish your breakfast."

Her mouth scrunched up to one side while she looked at me through half-open eyes. She made another noise, then dipped her already full spoon into her bowl before shoving it into her mouth. My sister yawned in the middle of chewing, then said, "Shorry," before swallowing.

I rested both arms on the table, and did my best to not yawn back as I said, "It's okay." I laced my fingers together, then asked, "Didja get any sleep at all last night?"

My sister shrugged while scooping up another spoonful of cereal.

While I was pondering what that shrug meant, Dad strode into the kitchen and said, "Good morning girls."

I smiled at those three words ... especially the last one. Even though I'd come out to our dad a long time ago, being accepted as his older daughter still felt amazing. I looked at the way he was dressed, then asked, "They making you go into work on a weekend again?"

Dad gave me a tight-lipped smile while sitting at the other side of the kitchen table, then said, "Not this weekend." When I gave him a questioning look, he added, "I'll be taking you in to see your therapist today."

I squealed while bouncing in my seat, then asked, "I'm finally gonna get interviewed for hormone blockers?"

He shook his head and said, "Sorry, sweetheart. That's still a few weeks away."

"Oh," I said while slouching in my chair. "So ... how come you're taking me in to see her?"

Dad rested one of his large, warm hands on top of mine, then said, "After what happened last night ..." His adam's apple bobbed a couple of times, then he said, "I just ... I want to make sure you're really okay."

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Dr Kreblauski gave me a friendly smile, then leaned forward and asked, "Do you know why you're here today?"

I squirmed in my overstuffed chair. "I guess ... 'cause Dad thinks I'm crazy?"

My therapist placed her tablet on the low table between us and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Well ... " I said while trying to think of something that didn't sound crazy, "I've been having them dreams again."

"About your mother?" she asked in a neutral tone.

I sighed with relief. We'd already talked about the dreams I'd been having over the past month, so I felt relatively safe when I said, "Yeah."

"Were you able to remember any details from this one?"

My shoulders tightened as I said, "Sorta."

"What do you re--" she started asking before being interrupted by her beeping tablet. A message appeared on its screen, but my therapist picked it up before I could read anything. After tapping the display a few times, her brows lowered as she said, "That's ... unexpected."

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing serious," she said as she stood, "but I need to go take care of something." She walked out of her office in a way that made me wonder how serious 'nothing serious' actually was. "I'll be right back," she said while closing the door.

Almost as soon as my therapist had left, the door opened without making a sound. A woman in a grey business suit walked in, then sat in the chair across from me. Something made a faint clicking noise when she pressed the side of her mirrored glasses with a slender finger.

While I was trying to figure out what was going on, she asked, "Are you Michelle Elise Lynsdel?"

I stared at the stranger, then asked, "Who the heck are you?"

The woman frowned and said, "Without name verification, I can't provide that information."

I frowned back and said, "You can't just barge in here, and start asking questions, without even saying who you are!"

"I was warned you'd be a handful," she said. One side of her mouth turned up in what almost looked like a smile. "You'll need this," she said while placing a black card on the table in front of me. When I picked up the card, she said, "Keep that someplace safe," then stood and walked out of the room. The door closed as quietly as it had opened.

After a few seconds, I gave up trying to figure out what had just happened, and looked at the card. It said P.A.C.T. in bold, grey letters on the left side, and had a square made up of a jumble of white dots on the right side. I slipped it into my skirt pocket behind my phone when the office door cricked opened again.

Dr Kreblauski's smile looked forced when she entered the room and said, "Sorry for being away for so long." After sitting where the stranger had been less than a minute ago, my therapist asked, "Shall we continue our session?"

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Sophi dozed off on the way home. While I was checking the straps on her booster seat, Dad asked, "She doing okay?"

I glanced at the back of our dad's head, then looked at his reflection in the rear view mirror and said, "Yeah, she just had a rough night."

Dad had a meaningful look in his eyes when he said, "So did you."

I couldn't think of a good come-back, so I shrugged and sighed instead.

Of course, that didn't stop him from asking, "Are you doing okay?"

I shrugged again and said, "I guess so."

When we stopped at a traffic light, he looked over his shoulder and asked, "Do you remember what your therapist said about keeping things bottled up?"

I folded my hands in my lap, then studied the pale pink polish on my nails while saying, "Yeah."

Dad reached under my chin, then tilted my head up and said, "I know you're going through a lot, but you don't have to go through it alone." His eyes glistened in the late morning sunlight when he said, "While I may not understand everything that's happening with you, I promise, I'll always be here to listen to whatever you're willing to share."

"Thank you," I said a moment before the car behind us started beeping.

Dad gave me a smile that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He faced forward and started across the intersection after the car behind us blared their horn for several seconds. His focus seemed to be more on the road than me after that, which meant I had more time to ponder while he drove us home.

The ache in my chest came back when I thought about the dream I'd had about Mom. Even though it had been strange, it had also felt more real than an ordinary dream. Then there was the dream I'd had while in Sophi's closet.

Or had it been a dream? Even though I didn't remember falling asleep, I did wake up in the closet after a very weird ... experience? Having a stranger walk in and hand me a card while my therapist was away had been weird too. Had that been a dream as well?

I reached into my pocket, and felt the stiff cardboard rectangle resting against the smooth plastic of my phone. I pulled out the black card and looked it over again. There was just the one word on the front, along with the odd square beside it. I flipped it over and found a shiny silver circle in the top left corner, but nothing happened when I touched it.

I took another look at the front. While I had no idea what P.A.C.T. stood for, the pattern of dots in the square seemed familiar. I fished my phone out of my pocket and started up an image search app. After I scanned the card, a window with a progress bar popped up on my phone, with the word "processing" above it.

I frowned when the progress bar froze, then grumbled under my breath when nothing else on my phone seemed to be working. The screen on my phone went blank after I held the power button for a couple of seconds. Rather than restarting when I let go of the button, my phone began vibrating.

Sophi groaned, then asked, "Whazzat noise?"

"It's just my phone," I said while pressing the power button again. Instead of turning off, the screen lit up with a deep red glow, and the buzzing got louder. I bit my lip and panicked a little when my phone started heating up.

"Did that girl from school get past your call blocker again?" my dad asked from the front seat.

"No," I said while staring at my phone, "It's just--" I started saying, then paused when the screen switched from red to grey. Large, white text that said [Reconfiguration Complete] appeared in the middle of the screen.

"Just what?" Dad asked.

"Umm ..." I said when the screen went blank. I tried pressing the power button on my phone again, and it started up like it normally did, so I said, "Something weird happened when I tried doing an image search, but I think it's okay now."

The back of Dad's head moved in a way that might have been a nod, then he said, "You may want to use your security app to check for malware."

"Okay," I said as I slipped the mysterious card and my cooling phone back into my skirt pocket.

While his advice made sense, some unexplainable dread chilled my bones when I thought of doing what he'd suggested. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as what happened last night, but I wasn't willing to take any chances.

I leaned back in my leatherette seat and closed my eyes, then silently wished the rest of today would be an ordinary, quiet, Saturday. That wasn't too much to hope for ... right?