The First Touch (11 page)

“No you are not wrong.”

She looked smug
ly
relieved
,
before saying aloud, “Then I am not crazy.” The words seemed to give her a sen
se of pleasure, and a huge smile
broke across her face.

He cleared his throat and gestured toward the sidewalk repeating her expression from be
fore, “Shall we?” She returned the
smile to him almost giddy with joy as she reached for his hand again and gave him a playful tug. He smiled widely almost feeling her joy as she touched his hand
, the fire in his hand increasing
,
tempting him to pull her in for a kiss,
un
wanted or not
.

He watched as she looked up at the night’s sky and seemed to appreciate the view with new brighter eyes. His thoughts turned serious again, as usual, but as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off. She suddenly had a deep sadness and concern in her eyes and asked a question, that tightened his chest immediately, “You weren’t serious before were you?”

He replied sounding a little ashamed of his earlier taunt, “No I would not hurt you.”

She retorted angrily, “Good because in my last vision, you ate me.”

He looked at her with surprise and disgust, replying, “Then why did you come with me?”

She frowned, “I told you, I thought you were in danger...I had these dreams... and I might be a bit crazy.” The last p
art was a little more to her
than to him. He looked at her thoughtful, puzzled face and broke into a smile.

He replied
,
half teasing, “Yes I think you might be right.”
She frowned and he grinned
,
his stress melting away and his elated sense of joy began creeping up on him
, as his hope returned.

S
he retorted
stubbornly
, “I really thought you might be in trouble Ivan.”

Repressing his emotions,
he asked, “
what
did you see?’

Autumn replied
,
wincin
g, “Something about
you
bursting in
to flames, well I think it’s you…I can’t quite tell…
.”

His eyes widened and he replied
tightly
, “I see...”

“It’s not that precise, I must admit, but I keep picturing a k
iss.
I don’t think I have ever seen one like this before or after it though.... It comes in bursts
…
”

He said nothing for a long moment before asking, “And the hungry eyes?”

She blushed again and looked away, “That was the first thing I noticed about you...” Then she reached into her pocket of her jacket and pulled out two scraps of paper
, one from each pocket
. He watched her cautiously
,
as she handed it to him. He opened it and looked down at the words written on the sheet. His eyebrows shot up as
he
looked at her for clarification. She continued, “I wrote those a few years ago after I had a
dream, the second I wrote today
.”

He looked at her with an inexplicable look on his face, “Tell me more about this dream...” His voice faded away as she stared at him blankly.

“I dreamt that I was standing in front of a coffee shop, and I walked away from it holding
someone’s
hand. However, just as the sun was at its highest in the sky, my hand felt hot then
,
s
uddenly
he burst into flames. The strangest part was that he asked me to kiss him
, like it would put him out or something
.”

Autumn looked at him as if she where trying to remember, just so and closed her eyes tightly to see
it more clearly, “He said ....But only if you want to.
I knew that he had a look of agony on his face even though I could not see it, which made my heartsick. It hurt for days afterwards as if my body did not want me to forget, it was the strangest feeling. I really wished I had kissed him before I woke up.” She blushed again recalling the dream
s intensity
.

Ivan looked at her and replied, “I had a similar dream
…
but in my dream
,”
he said hesitantly, “I had a different outcome.”

Autumn perked up,
“A dream really? Like mine? What did you see?”

He did not make eye contact as
he nodded, replying, “
I did not ca
t
ch
fire.”

“Weird.”
She hesitated, almost afraid to ask, “
What did she look like? This girl I mean, from your dream.
”

He tightened, “I do not know I only remember her lips.”

“Well what did they look like?”

He hesitated, deciding not to reveal the truth just yet, “They were full.”

Autumn thought for a moment, rubbing her small heart shaped lips absently,
“
Well that rules me out, s
o maybe I am su
ppose
d
to help you find
your
...
um ... kiss girl.”

He
looked at her with guarded eyes
, replying, “Perhaps...
,”
though he was
doubtful.

She frowned, “Or I could be interfering, though I did not get that feeling in my dream. How about your dream? Anyone watching while you two kissed?”

He shook his
head
, “No I was alone with her.”

She rebutted with, “Maybe her
kiss will make it seem like the rest of the world melts away.” She giggled a little and then sighed as he looked
to her
for an explanation. She replied, “Either way I am glad that the pressure is off of my shou
lders now. I thought for a minute
there that I was suppose
d to kiss you
to stop you from goin
g into the alley or something, but that’s not
it.
It’s strange usually my dream are warnings, dangers for me not others, and definitely not… she let the words fall off, before adding jokingly, “
Let me tell you
if my dream had been for real
,
and I had to kiss you to
stop you from burning up in the sunlight,
the chances of you
ending up a crispy critter
were
looking
pretty bad
.” He flinched
at her words, and she added,
a
s she pulled him along again, “
In my defense, y
ou did jump
over the table and kill
me
in my first vision
.”

He winced and replied feebly, “I did not know.”

Autumn
replied dutifully, “I know.
T
hat
was
wh
y I followed you into the
alley,
you seemed very upset after you had done it, like you made a mistake, or something
.”

Ivan asked, “Why did I attack you in your vision?”

She frowned and replied
hesitantly
, “You thought that someone had betrayed you and that I was working with him. I think you thought that I had tricked you or something. You seemed very hurt and angry. You jumped across the table and ripped my throat out.”

He stifled a gasp and replied, “What did I say? Who betrayed me?”

She shook her head and replied, “No,
no one
betrayed you, that’s just it,
you simply
thought
that we had.”

He jumped at the word, “We?”

Her voice caught as
she continued
,
without answering his question, “In the end
…
you wept over my body and apologized
….
” Her voice trailed off
again
but he heard every word. His chest tightened as he thought,
so you are the one
.

Voices

“Who is this
man and why did I think that you worked for him?”

She shook her head,
“I think I would rather not live that moment again Ivan.”

He looked at her
seriously
, “Please tell me, it would help me, help me greatly to understand why I
thought I sh
ould harm you.”

She shook her head again,
“I would rather not
,
I
don’t know why the name se
n
t you spiraling out of control exactly or if it would again.”

He
scowled at her mention of his emotions, and
tried
a different tact
,
asking, “You spoke his name first?”

She nodded her head yes, and he continued, “Where did you meet him?” She looked confused and said, “I have never met him; I have never even seen him before.”

“So you heard ab
out him from someone else, in one of your dreams then
?”

She shook her head, “Not exactly, I can hear him when I close my eyes at night.”

His alarm was now apparent, “For how long?” He now looked around eyes wild his pupil’s dilating.

“
Calm down Ivan.”
She replied, with a scared look in her eyes.

He snapped back, “How long
Autumn
?”

She replie
d, “A
couple of months, no more like three or four, I think
, I don’t know
.”

His eyes were fully dilated now and his breathing almost stopped, “For months
,”
he looked at her questioningly, “Are you sure?”

She nodded yes
,
and echoed it in a whisper, “Yes.” Her happi
ness had fallen away as
she
meekly whispered, “I told you this would upset you.”

Those words seemed to touch him and he l
ooked at her and his pupils beginning
to shrink back slowly. He spoke then as gently as he was capable, “I am not angry with you
Autumn
.
You are in danger. If this man was talking to you in your sleep then he was in your room. Do you understand?” He shook her to insure that she understoo
d, “Your dreams w
ere right
Autumn
, you are being hunted.”

She took a second to process,
“What?” Ivan was searching the streets looking for any signs o
f danger. His attention returning
to her when she spoke again, “He couldn’t be in my room.”

Ivan shook his head and retorted, “Yes, he could have.”

She looked at him and replying,
“W
hat a
bout all of the other voices, Ser
ena and Flanagan, all the others? They were all in my room each night?” She shook her head now with more confidence, “No way, I hear almost a hundred different voices
sometimes
. There is no way that they could all be in my room. I don’t have a big enough apartment for all of those people.”

This c
aused his head to shoot back to
her, “What?”

She looked at him and said, “He is just one of many
,
I listen to at night before I go to sleep.”

His eyes stared at her and said, “He is one of many? Besides Serena and Flanagan, Who else do you hear?”

She looked at him with thoughtful eyes, and watched his pupils receding again, satisfied with his leveling state of emotions she continued, “There are so many.”

He encouraged her gently, “I am listening.”

She smiled, “Ok well let’s see, H
enry, Flora, Helen, Galen ...”
She continued for quiet some time and eventually he stopped her b
y raising his hand.

“
I never would have thought it possible...”
His voice trailed as he looked at her his skin turning grey and sickly. She placed her
hand on his arm and he looked down
at her as if he had just heard some of the worst news of his life.

She asked
, “
Are you alright?”

He gave her a weak smile asking, “What is the name of the man that talks to you each night?”