Flash Fiction – “New”

Previous chapters  1  2  3  4  5  6  7

Chapter 8 – New

My first vision about Josh that wasn’t about his death showed up about three weeks into our relationship.  The image I’d had in my head when Miklos spoke about his family’s cottage stopped showing up and my visions went back to usual business and only showed up in my sleep.  My mom and aunts had even looked through the family history to see if there was any way that Miklos’ grandma was one of us, but they hadn’t been able to find anything.

Josh and I hadn’t exactly said that we were dating but it was obvious to everyone, and ourselves, that we were.  He came to see me at the coffee shop all the time, and it always made my day.  Evenings were generally spent hanging out with Krypto at Josh’s place as long as he wasn’t working, but there were a few times that they’d come over to my tiny little apartment too.

Flash Fiction – “Woman in White” (and a bonus chapter!)

Remember how last month I was going to post a new chapter each week so that by the time this prompt was due I would be up to date?  *nods* That never happened.  Mostly because work and life got in the way and I needed to add a chapter so that later chapters would make sense.  But I didn’t get any time to write for fun until Saturday.  So I changed up the plans a little. :p

I added this week’s photo to my new chapter and I’ll be giving you bonus chapters after that.  Then hopefully by next month we’ll be on the right track again. 🙂

So here’s the next chapter of the still untitled Jensen story. 🙂

If you missed the previous chapter, click here.

Previous Chapters can be found here: 1  2  3  4  5  6

Chapter 7 – Woman in White

After our second meeting, Josh and I were suddenly a thing.  We saw or spoke to each other every day and it was all kinds of exciting.  Each time the bell above the door at work chimed I looked up like an expectant puppy hoping that it was him that would be walking in the door.  I went from being someone who could go almost all day without checking her phone, to keeping it in the pocket of my work apron so that if it vibrated with a text from my adorable new guy friend that I could immediately check it.  He had a habit of sending me photos of every heart-shaped thing he came across in the day and would write his interpretation of what the heart meant.  Usually his theories were incredibly goofy and nothing to do with what the universe had to tell us, but it was a fun addition to my days.

Another really great thing that showed up in my life after meeting Josh was his best friend Miklos.  Miklos was a beautiful, tall, pretty, man who looked like he was fresh out of a men’s fashion magazine.  He was one of those guys who you had to take a second and third glance at when you first saw him because he was just that good looking.  He and Josh met in med school and eventually became roommates and besties.  He too worked at the children’s hospital but was a surgeon.

Flash Fiction: The Key & Bonus Chapter!

Hello darlings!

It’s time for another flash fiction photo piece which means a new chapter of my Jensen story.  I really need to think of a title for this bad boy, but I’m not one of those people who gets a title right away. The next several chapters of this one don’t have photos attached to them so I’ll be posting them in between now and next month’s photo prompt. 🙂  I’m throwing in Chapter 6 today as a bonus, just follow the link at the end of this one! 🙂  I’ve got to do a little tinkering but my hope is to post a new chapter each week this month so that I can be read for the next photo in October. 🙂

Previous Chapters can be found here: 1  2  3  4

Chapter 5 – They Key

I’m not sure how long we sat by the fire and talked that night, but when the fire had pretty much died it was definitely too late for me to be walking home by myself so Josh offered to walk me home.  Krypto woke up and came along as well; ridiculously happy to be out on a leash.  Ever the gentleman, Josh held his hand out to me, “May I?”

I smiled and took his hand, “You may…”

We walked along quietly, sometimes laughing at Krypto’s never ending excitement as he inspected everything that he could get his cute little nose on.  I thought about the things I’d learned about Josh that night and my head went a little crazy with all of the new information.  He’d been such a mystery to me for so long that anything and everything new that I learned was so damn exciting.  I wondered if I could get one of my aunts to meet him soon and shake his hand to see if they had any visions about him.  I also wondered what that night’s visions would bring, if anything.

“So…” he said and squeezed my hand in his.  “Do you work tomorrow?”

I nodded, “Yep.  My next day off isn’t until this weekend.  I think I actually have the whole weekend off, but I’d have to check my planner.  How about you?”

“I’ve got two more twelves then I have a week off.  I usually work seven on and seven off.”

“Good lord, you must be exhausted.  Why did you stay up so late?”

He chuckled and shrugged, “Good company.  I’ll feel it tomorrow but it’ll be okay.  It was worth it.”

“Come in before your shift, I’ll make you something with a ridiculous amount of shots in it.”

He laughed, “Sounds like a plan.”

I spotted something shiny just off of the path and stopped to look at it.  There in the grass was a beautiful old fashioned key.  It looked so much like the key in the blue door of my visions that I knew the universe had put it there for me.  The big difference was that the end of the key was shaped like a filigree heart.  I picked the key up with a smile and showed it to Josh.  “Do you know what this means?”

He raised an eyebrow at me, “That someone dropped a key?”

I rolled my eyes at him but laughed, “No.  When you find a key it represents the opening up, or unlocking, of new things.  It means that good things are on the way.”

“So what does it mean when I lose my car keys?”

“Most likely it means that you’re a slob and forgetful…” I said and giggled.

He laughed too, “Both true statements…”  He reached out and took the key from me to look at it as we resumed walking. “Actually, this is a really cool key.”

I nodded, “You have to pay attention to the little signs that the universe sends you.  There are clues all over the place, but most people ignore them.”

“But you don’t.”

“Nope.  I can’t ignore them.  I see them all the time.”

“Are they ever wrong?”

“No.  You can interpret them wrong, but the signs themselves are never wrong.”

“You’re sounding very Long Island Medium right now.”

I chuckled as he gave the key back to me, “Yeah, I suppose.  But it’s true.”

“So what other signs are there that I’m missing?”

I thought of the burned paper heart that I’d found the day we met.  “Hearts.  Anything heart shaped is about love.  But the condition of the heart is what you have to pay attention to.  A broken heart pretty much always means heartache, but you can have a perfectly shaped heart mean heartache too if it’s made out of something weak that can easily fall apart.  A heart shaped rock means a strong, solid love, but one made out of a thin dying leaf is more fragile.  It’s like saying that there’s definitely going to be love in your life but it’s delicate so you have to be careful.”

“Okay, that makes sense, but what about when it’s February and hearts are everywhere?”

“For one thing, it means that love is on the minds of more people than usual.  But you also have to be careful because not every heart-shaped thing is a sign.  I mean, if you buy a bag of heart-shaped red hots, they aren’t all signs that you’re going to fall in love.  But if you spill your coffee and before you clean it up you realize that it’s in the shape of a heart, that’s a sign that’s made for you, not just a random reminder of love in the world.”

He smiled at me, “I’m going to be looking for hearts everywhere now.”

I chuckled, “It happens… But don’t try too hard.  Just let them come to you.”

“Wait a minute…” he said and stopped walking.  “That key has a heart on it.”  I grinned as I watched him making the connection.  “So that means that love is unlocking for you?”

“Most likely, yes.”

“And all of those little holes in the heart… is that bad?”

I shrugged, “Maybe?  It’s not always something you can figure out right away.”

“But it’s a pretty strong key too, so that’s a good sign right?”

“Yep…” I said, still smiling and pulled on his hand to get him walking again.

“My last name has the word hart in it.  It’s spelled wrong, but what does that mean?”

“That you’re a lover not a fighter?” I teased with a giggle.

We walked along in silence for a moment before he looked at me again, “You’re kind of amazing.”

“It comes naturally…” I said and giggled.  We approached my house and I smiled, “This is me.  I’m on the top floor.”  I lived in an old house that had been turned into a duplex.  My place was a sweet little one bedroom apartment over a single mom who had adorable twin boys.

“Very nice…”

“I’d ask you to come up but I know how utterly messy it is up there right now.  Plus you need to go to bed.”

He nodded, “It’s true… maybe next time?”

“Definitely.”

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Yep…” I said with a smile and then scooped Krypto up into my arms.  He licked my nose which made me laugh, “Crazy boy.”  I placed a kiss on the top of his head and then said goodnight to him and told him to behave for his dad.  Josh watched me the whole time with a big grin on his face.  I handed the puppy to him and smiled, “You behave too…”

He chuckled and held up three fingers, “Scout’s honor.”

“Goodnight, Doctor.”

He leaned in a pressed a soft kiss to my lips that made me feel like I was floating.  “Goodnight, Jensen.”

“Text me when you get home?  Otherwise I’ll worry.”

He nodded, “Will do.”  He kissed me one more time then smiled, “Til tomorrow…”

I watched him as he walked away and just like the day I’d met him, he turned around after a few steps to take another look at me and waved before resuming his walk.  I felt like I was suddenly alive after just going through the motions for so many years.  Like I’d been standing in the bushes looking through a window on life but had never actually been invited inside.  I’d never understood how people’s lives changed so much when they fell in love with someone, but in one evening with Josh, I finally figured it out.  I desperately needed to know more about him.

But wait, there’s more! 🙂
Chapter 6 – Meeting Place

Feedback is always appreciated! 🙂

Bronwyn | Kris | Jess | Jessica | Kayleigh | Gwen | Paige

Flash Fiction – “Meeting Place”

This is a bonus chapter, make sure you read The Key first. 🙂

Previous Chapter

Chapter 6 – Meeting Place

If I’m not dreaming about the future, I don’t dream at all.  When I tell someone that I don’t dream they always look at me with this sad look and tell me that they’re sorry, they’ll insist that I actually dream but I just don’t remember the dreams, or they’ll think I’m just strange.  What they don’t know, though, is that if I’m not having a vision, I’m not just sleeping with a blank mind.  What happens is that if I don’t have a vision, when I’m asleep it’s like I’m in a different level of consciousness.  I’ll suddenly be in a house that doesn’t exactly exist in the waking world.  It’s like the place that all of the Jensen women go to relax when we’re not having visions.

It’s a beautiful old house full of soft light and the most comfortable couches, chairs, and beds to relax on.  If I happen to be asleep at the same time that one of my relatives is asleep and they aren’t having a vision either, we’ll both be in the house and can interact with each other or not depending on our moods.  We fondly refer to it as The Meeting Place.  Occasionally I can force myself to go to the Meeting Place so that I can seek out advice from my relatives, but I can’t always do it because at twenty-three my power is still considered young and not very strong.

The night that I’d had dinner with Josh I wanted to go to the Meeting Place so badly that I fell asleep in record time and without having to try I awoke in the house.  I was sitting on the couch and my mom looked up from a knitting project she was working on.  It always seemed weird to me that she would knit in her sleep, but she would just tell me “People need hand knits whether they’re asleep or awake, honey.”

She looked up from her needles and smiled, “Well hi…”

“Oh my god, Mom… I saw him again.  After I called you I was walking home and he was just there.  He lives in one of those brownstones that I love so much.  He’s been there for three years.  Three years and I’ve never run into him!  And he has a Frenchie named Krypto.”

“From Superman?”

“Yes!” I cried and bounced with excitement.  My dad had been the biggest Superman fan that I’d ever known.  I had tons of Superman memorabilia because it reminded me of him.  Emerald had even made my work apron out of vintage Superman comic book fabric.

My mom smiled and rested her hand on mine, “I’m so happy for you, honey…”

“He even said that he felt like he’d known me before and that he felt like he’d dreamed of me.  Honestly, that kind of freaked me out, but holy crap, Ma… He’s so… wonderful.”

“I can’t wait to meet him.”

“I want the twins to meet him too, but I also don’t want to spring the whole family on him.  I need to see if they can read him now that he’s real.”

“That’s actually a really good idea.  I’ll do the same, of course. “

I nodded, “But in the meantime I’m hoping that maybe finally knowing him will trigger more visions including him.  Something that’ll help me understand how long I’ll have with him before…”

My mom squeezed my hand, “Try not to dwell on that.  Enjoy this part and the rest will be dealt with when you get to it.”

“I know…” I said and nodded.  “I keep telling myself that and reminding myself that he doesn’t know that I’ve known about him for ten years.  I’m trying so hard to just enjoy getting to know him instead of over analyzing everything.  It’s really difficult though.”

“I’m sure it is.  I can only imagine all of the questions that you have running through your head now that he’s real.”

“So many questions…” I said with a sigh and leaned against my mom with my head on her shoulder.

“Is he a good kisser?”

I lifted my head to look at her, not at all surprised to hear that she already knew I’d kissed Josh.  I nodded and giggled, “Yuh huh…”

She chuckled and linked her arm with mine as I put my head back on her shoulder.  “I knew that, but I really wanted to hear you say it.”

I laughed, “So wait… did you actually see us kiss or did you just know it happened?”

“I just knew about it.  I didn’t spy on you, and I wouldn’t want to.”

“Please don’t…” I laughed.  “There are some things I don’t need you to see.”

“Exactly.”

“How old were you when you when you first started to have more control over your power?”

“Actually, I was the same age you are now.  I think the twins were twenty-three when they started to figure out theirs too.  It happens at all different ages, but for some reason twenty-three seems to be pretty common in our branch of the family tree.”

“Weird… I wonder what mine is going to be.  Other than having the same freaking vision for ten years, that is.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see.  But I think your power is going to be special.  I think you’re going to surprise all of us with what you can do.”

“I’m not sure if I like that…” I said and chuckled.  “I’m already the weirdo of the family, I don’t necessarily need my power to be all wonky.”

My mom chuckled, “Not wonky, just different.”

I laughed again, “Uh huh…”

One of my aunts, Gina, walked into the room from the kitchen and sat on a couch opposite of the one we were on, “Well isn’t this a happy little family reunion?  It’s been a while since so many of us wound up here at the same time.”

“Elle met the Mystery Guy…” my mom said excitedly.

“No shit?! Dude, tell me everything!”

We all laughed and I began to get up, “Coffee first, then I’ll give you the whole story, Aunt Gigi.”  Another awesome part of the Meeting Place was that any food or drink we craved while we were there would just suddenly appear as long as we went to get it from the kitchen.

Gina had a thoughtful look on her face as she looked at my mom, “I wonder if I can get Gen to join us… she’ll be so pissed if she misses this.”

“Wait.  You can call her from here?  When the heck did that happen?”

Gina shrugged, “Let me try…”

I stood where I was, totally amazed with my aunt and watched as she closed her eyes and seemed to meditate.  She didn’t speak or move, she just sat there quietly.  I occasionally looked back and forth between her and my mom.  Mom was the oldest of the three, older by four years.  She always had that proud big sister look on her face when Gina or Genevieve used their power in creative new ways.  All of us looked so much alike that when we were together in public people generally thought we were sisters.  We all had dark chocolate brown hair and matching brown eyes.  Our skin was a light tan year round thanks to having multiple ethnicities mixed in our family history.  My mom had the prettiest long curly hair while I had the same curls but would whine that my hair was “too long” if it came within an inch of my shoulders.  Gen and Gina both kept their hair shorter than mine and Gina tended to have pretty radical hair styles like shaving half of her head or daily straightening so that she could spike it.

A moment later my aunt Gen appeared on the couch next to Gina with an excited look on her face, “Tell me everything!”

I stared at her and Gina with my mouth open in amazement, “What the hell just happened?  How did you do that?  That’s astonishing!”

“I honestly have no idea what I did, but it worked.  Get the coffee and then get your ass back in here and tell us about your guy!”

The rest of the evening was spent dishing over Josh and what my life was going to look like with him in it.  We’d been doing that for years, but it was much more exciting to do now that he had an actual name and was really there.  As the sun came up and I realized that it was about time for my alarm to go off, I said my goodbyes to my family and promised to meet them for dinner in the real world that evening.  I woke up in my bed totally refreshed and eager about the opportunity to see Josh again but also a little bit of dread in my heart about how much time, or rather how little time, I would get with him.

Chapter 7

😃

Flash Fiction – Bonfire

Thank you for your patience while my lonely jump drive was stuck in my car during the massive thunderstorm! 🙂  Here, finally is chapter 4 of my Jensen story.

If you haven’t read the other chapters, start here.

Chapter 4 – Bonfire

My eyes were on the dimples in Josh’s cheeks as he opened the gate for me.  I’d always been fascinated with dimples because no one in our family had them and I thought they were amazing.  I could remember poking my cheeks with the eraser end of pencils trying to make my own dimples as a kid.  In all of the years I’d dreamed of him, I’d never seen his dimples, because he hadn’t ever smiled genuinely.  Each time I saw him smile though, my heart beat a little faster and I began to wonder if falling for him wouldn’t be so bad.

I realized as he I walked into the yard that there was a tiny adorable French bulldog waking up from a nap next to the chair that Josh had been sitting in.  The dog spotted me and came over to sniff my feet and then stood on its hind legs to try and get to me.  “Well hello there, you adorable little thing!”  I squatted so that the puppy could reach me and I could get a closer look.

The puppy then began licking at my hands furiously and Josh chuckled, “Oh, dude… stop with the licking.  I’m so sorry, he’s still a baby and he wants to put his mouth on everything he can find.”

I giggled, “It’s fine.  Hi, sweetie… You’re such a pretty boy!  You can kiss me all you want.”

“You’re marked now. You belong to him.  He’s never going to let you go.”

I smiled at the puppy and blushed, “That’s okay…”  I glanced up at Josh, “Can I pick him up?”

“Absolutely…”

I scooped up the dog and held him to my chest as I stood up.  I rubbed his belly and he licked the air trying to get to my face.  I chuckled again and then looked at Josh with a smile, “Frenchies are my favorite dog ever.  I can’t have pets where I live though, so I just live vicariously through YouTube videos and Instagram pictures of other people’s dogs.”

“He’s a handful, but he’s fun.  He’s only four months old, so he’s kind of all over the place.”

“I bet…” I said a kept loving on the puppy.  I smiled when I saw the personalized tag hanging from his collar.  “Krypto, huh?”

Josh smiled, dimples fully visible, and shrugged, “Big Superman fan growing up.  I couldn’t resist.”

“I love it.”  I rubbed behind Krypto’s ears.  One was standing up and the other was still floppy.  His grey fur gave way to a snow white chest that was simply adorable and he had gorgeous blue eyes like his owner.

Josh led the way, inviting me to follow, and pointed to the seat near his.  “Have a seat.  I’ll grab you a plate.  I’ve got water, Coke, apple juice, Heineken, although with the pain killers you should avoid the alcohol.”

“Water is fine, thanks…”  I sat down with Krypto and kept petting his ridiculously adorable puppy belly.  I couldn’t believe I was about to have dinner with the man I’d been dreaming of for ten years.  It all felt so surreal.  I checked out the view from my seat and decided it was perfect.  If I lived there I wouldn’t even need to have to leave my property in order to sit by the river and watch the sun turn it golden.  “This is a great view…” I said as Josh returned with a plate, silverware, and two bottles of water.  The pizza box and his plate were already sitting on the small table between the two chairs.

“Isn’t it?  The inside is cool too, but this yard and the view sold me. Plus I can walk to work so that’s awesome.”

I smiled and nodded, “Yeah, I live over on Maple so I walk to the coffee shop a lot as long as the weather is okay.”

“Oh cool… yeah, I really love this area.  Did you grow up in Lansing?”

“Born and raised,” I said with a smile.  “You?”

“No, I’m from Minneapolis originally.  But I went to Michigan State and did my residency at Riley and fell in love with it there.  Once they offered me a job I found this place and I’ve been here ever since.  It’ll be three years next month.”

It hit me that for the past three years I’d been walking past his house, sometimes twice a day or more and had never seen him.  That just made things even weirder.  Why hadn’t I met him before?  I cleared my mind and looked back to the now sleeping puppy in my lap, “I love your dog.”

Josh chuckled and I looked at him in time to see his dimples in the light of the fire.  I imagined kissing his dimples and felt my face blush all over again.  I had to stop having thoughts like that about him, at least while it was still light enough outside for him to see my face change hues.  Josh reached over and ran his fingers over Krypto’s belly.  I watched his fingers and remembered how they’d felt when he’d been examining my burn.  I really needed to stop thinking about his body touching mine.  I grabbed some pizza and busied myself with stuffing my mouth so that I wouldn’t say anything stupid.  I hadn’t been on a date or anything close to it in at least two years.  I had no idea what to do or say considering I was sitting next to the guy who I was apparently destined to fall in love with.

We ate our pizza together silently and then I remembered I needed to take my pain killers and change the dressing on my burn.  “Hey, would you mind if I go inside and change my dressing?  I usually do it when I get home from work.”

“Not at all, come on in and I’ll show you to the kitchen.”

I looked at Krypto sprawled out on his back in my lap and chuckled, “I don’t want to disturb him.”

Josh took the puppy from me with a smile, “He’s a sound sleeper.  I’ll put him in his bed.”

I followed Josh into the house and as promised he put Krypto down in a very cushy doggie bed in the living room.  The puppy didn’t even flinch, just rolled over onto his back and kept sleeping. “No, really, I want that dog…” I said with a giggle.

Josh shot me a grin as he put his hand on the small of my back and motioned toward his kitchen, “I’ll let you visit any time you want.”

“That’ll work, I guess…” I teased.  I put my bag on the counter once we were in the kitchen and pulled out the supplies I needed for my hand.  “I swear, I’m a walking first aid kit lately.”  I picked up one of the Jello patches, “These things are freaking amazing though.”

He nodded, “Yes they are… I had a burn once and those things were the only thing that helped.”  He washed his hands at the sink then dried them with paper towel before reaching for a pair of rubber gloves from a box near the sink.  I smiled watching him and he eventually paused and looked at me, “What?”

I giggled, “I love how you totally went into doctor mode like there was no doubt you were going to be doing this for me.”

I caught a slight blush across his cheeks and he laughed, “Habit.  Sorry, you can…”

“No, it’s cool… you can do it.  I was just teasing you.  You’re way better at it than I am anyway.  I always end up wasting tape because it folds in on itself.”

I slid the supplies across the counter toward him and then held my hand out to him.  He smiled at me and then flipped back into doctor mode as he put the gloves on.  I watched as he very carefully unwrapped the gauze from my hand and then removed the Jello patch.  He looked at the burn and nodded, “Looks pretty good.”

I shook my head, “I think it looks horrible.  I call it The Ugly.  I’m not at all looking forward to seeing what the scar looks like.”

“Actually, I’d be surprised if you get much of a scar.  It’s going to look bad while it heals, but after a while you really should be okay.  The patches help to prevent scarring too.”

I sighed, “I hope so.”  He turned on the sink again and began washing the burned area gently.  I tried not to flinch but it still hurt to be touched too much.  “How long is it going to be hot like that?”

He studied my skin as he rinsed the soap off and then grabbed a paper towel to pat my hand dry.  “It really depends on the person, but I would say probably a week or two.”

I nodded and handed him the jar of medicated cream that was supposed to be put on my burn several times a day.  I didn’t think the cream helped at all considering it was supposed to be numbing the pain, but at least it was cool against the heat of my burned skin.  Once the cream was applied, Josh reached for the Jello patch and placed it on my hand covering the worst parts of my burn.  I sighed at the relief and he chuckled quietly.

I couldn’t help but watch him as he continued to work on my hand.  His fingers were so gentle but very sure of their movements; no hesitation.  I found myself watching his face as he wrapped my hand in new gauze and secured it with tape. When he was done he continued to hold my hand in his and his eyes met mine.  “All set.”

I noticed that the outer rim of his blue eyes was a dark, almost navy, blue.  His eyes were amazing.  “Th… Thank you,” I stuttered and busied myself with cleaning up the old dressing and wrappers.  I didn’t consider myself a shy person by any means but when faced with this man it was like I couldn’t function.  I had no idea how to act around him.  I silently told myself to calm the hell down and not act like an idiot which then made me giggle inappropriately while I searched for his trash can.

He watched me with a grin and opened up the cupboard below the sink for me before tossing his used rubber gloves in the trash, “Everything okay?”

I laughed even harder and nodded, “My mind works in very strange ways.  You’ll get used to it.  Random giggling over conversations in my head that you’re not a part of… stuff like that.”

He crossed his arms across his body and leaned back against the counter.  He had really great arms.  The light green tee shirt that he wore stretched across his biceps and made me wonder what the rest of his body looked like.  “So you’re planning to stick around?”

I shrugged, “I have to if I want to see the puppy…”

“Very true… he laughed.  “You just love me for my dog.”

I felt the smile on my face hesitate for a slight second as I thought that he had no idea how much I would eventually love him.  How much I already loved him.  “Mmm hmm… something like that.”

“Well, if you’re going to be hanging out with my kid I’m going to need to know a lot more about you.  Right now all I know is that you work at a coffee shop, you love Frenchies, have good taste in pizza toppings, and you apparently walk home from work barefoot.”

I chuckled and looked at my feet.  I’d totally forgotten that I didn’t have my shoes on.  “All good observations, Dr. Everhart.  Anything else you’ve figured out about me?”

He stepped closer to me, close enough that I had to look up at him.  He reached for my hand and traced my fingertips with his own sending shivers of awareness through my body.  “You have the softest hands I’ve ever felt.”

I blushed, yet again, but managed to keep looking up at him.  I nodded and tried to think of something clever to say but couldn’t think of anything.  All I could think of was him.  His beautiful eyes, his gentle hands, his crazy adorable dimples, and the fact that all I wanted to do was be with him and learn absolutely everything there was to know about him.  “Cocoa butter.”

“What?” he asked with a laugh.  He stayed close and I really, really wanted him to kiss me.

“My hands… they’re soft because of cocoa butter.”

“Ah…”

“Yeah…”

“And your lips?”

“I don’t use cocoa butter on my lips.  That’s gross.”

He laughed again, “I meant are they soft?”

I couldn’t keep my eyes off of his lips, “Uh, yeah?  I guess so.”  I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts but it didn’t help.  “I think that…” His lips were on mine before I could finish speaking, not like I had any idea what I was saying anyway.  His hands held my face and I found myself fisting his tee shirt in my hands as I held on him.

When he pulled back from the kiss, that smile was there again as he looked down at me, “Yep… pretty damn soft.”

I laughed nervously but kept hold on his shirt on either side of his waist.  I hadn’t been kissed in so long I’d forgotten how great it could be.  I looked up at him and shook my head, “I have no idea what to say right now.”

He laughed too, “That’s okay…”  He took my hand and led me back toward the back yard.  He didn’t release my hand until I’d sat back down.  I hadn’t wanted him to let go but it would’ve been weirdly awkward to hold hands across the pizza on the table.  If only the table wasn’t sitting in between our chairs.

I stared at the fire for a while and pulled my legs up into the chair with me, covering up my legs with the skirt of my dress.  After a moment I looked over to Josh who was watching me silently.  I smiled, “Okay.  Tell me something about you.  Something random.”

He tipped his head to the side slightly as he studied me then spoke quietly, “I’m having the weirdest déjà vu right now.  It’s like I already know you, but I’m just meeting you.  Like maybe I have been dreaming about you forever and you’re finally here.”  He looked down at his hands for a minute and shook his head, “That’s probably ridiculously creepy and I will totally understand if you get up and walk out of here.  But I can’t explain it.  It’s weird.”

I nodded and watched him until he looked at me.  “It’s okay, I know exactly what you mean.”

____

Our group is small this month, many of the girls are on deadlines for books and Jessica is working on a tiny human. 🙂

Kris | Bronwyn

Chapter 5 – The Key

Flash Fiction : Walk in the Grass

I managed to get quite a bit written on this during the writer’s retreat and I tried really hard to work in the upcoming photo prompts. After a while, the photos aren’t going to line up, but for now they do. 🙂  Then again, if I stick to the flash fiction photos then you only get one chapter per month and well, I might want to share more often depending on how it’s going. 😉

If you’re new to this story you’ll want to read chapters 1 and 2 first because none of this will make sense. I still don’t have a title, right now it’s just known as “Jensen” because that’s my main character’s last name. 🙂  Oh and just so you know… Josh is now being played in my head by the beautiful Alan Ritchson. *rawr* Feel free to drool over him for a moment. 🙂

Enjoy!

Chapter 3 – Walk in the Grass

I was sitting on a bench swing along the Grand River after work.  The river wasn’t anything anyone would ever want to get in, by any means, and most people who fished from it did it just for the sport and not the food because of the fear of pollution.  Even so, the river was one of my favorite thinking spots.  The sun would hit the water in a way that gave it a golden sparkle toward the evening, and the slight breeze always helped to cool me down in the sticky heat of a Michigan summer.  Summer in Michigan could go from being rainy and cold to oppressively hot and humid all in just a few hours.  That day was a particularly hot and steamy day which allowed me to wear one of my favorite sundresses to work but thankfully it was starting to cool off as the day wore on.

My shoes had been kicked off as soon as I’d sat down on the bench and I had one foot in the grass lazily pushing me back and forth while my other was tucked up underneath my body.  Josh’s business card was in my hand and I kept twirling it between my fingers.  It had been four days since I’d met him.  My burned hand was still bandaged up and I was taking a regular cocktail of pain killers to keep the pain at bay.  I’d managed to return to work after two days simply because I was too broke to go very much longer than that without working. Diamond had been gracious and put me on strictly cash register duty though since it basically hurt to do anything else.  As weird as Diamond was, she was a really good boss and took good care of the few of us who worked at the coffee shop.

My fingers trailed over the raised print on Josh’s card.  I felt like every time I touched his name it helped me remember things about him.  His eyes, his smile, the dimples in his cheeks, the way his hair had a slight curl to it at the ends, his amazing arms… I shivered every time I thought about his hand resting at the small of my back when he’d usher me through a door.  Even though we’d only met once I felt like I knew exactly what his hands would feel like on my body.  I’d been dreaming about his death for ten years but in that time I’d also known his love.  I may not have dreamt about our actual relationship but there was no doubt in my mind that I loved him and he loved me in return.  It wasn’t something that I could’ve explained to many people outside of my family, I just knew it.

What I didn’t know was anything about my relationship with Josh.  Was I supposed to call him?  Would he come back to the coffee shop and we’d fall in love there?  I had no idea what I was supposed to do.  All I knew was how I was going to lose him.

I found myself wishing that I’d at least had other, happier, dreams about him.  I wondered if those dreams would start up once he was a part of my life or if I was doomed to only have the one horrible dream about him over and over again.  I had no idea how I was supposed to even consider a relationship with the guy all the while knowing how horrible things were going to end up for him.  I’d dreamt about people’s deaths many times before but had never dreamt about someone that I knew and loved.

My cell phone vibrated against my leg and I picked it up to look at the screen.  There was a text from my mother asking me what was wrong.  Most of the women in our family had the gift of dreams, but the gift was always a little different for each of us.  Typically as we aged, our power would transition from just dream visions to dreams with something extra on the side.  My grandmother had been able to have visions in her dreams but also have visions in waking hours.  Two of my aunts, who were twins, had the dream visions but if they physically touched someone during the day, their dreams would often be about that person.  My mom, though, was more of what most people would think of when they heard the word psychic.  In addition to dreams, my mom had the most control over her power that I’d ever experienced.  She could ask a question of the universe before falling asleep and then would dream the answer, and her intuition was ridiculously correct.

I smiled down at the phone shaking my head.  There was no use trying to hide my feelings from my mom because I knew she already knew them.  She knew just by thinking about me that something wasn’t right.  I figured that texting her would take too long, especially considering she was still trying to figure out her new phone, so I pulled up my favorites and tapped her face to call her.

“Hi, baby,” she answered and I swear I felt all of her warm fuzzies spread all over me.

“Hey…” I said as I watched a duck floating down the river.

“What’s got you so down, kiddo?”

I hadn’t told her about Josh yet.  She knew all about his dream, of course, but she didn’t know that I’d met him the day that I burned my hand.  I’d conveniently left that part out when I’d told her about the coffee accident.  I sighed and looked at Josh’s card again before sliding it into the pocket on the side of my bag.  “I met the guy.  The one from the vision.”

“Really?  When?”

“The day I got burnt.  He was there too.  He took me to the clinic and did my exam.  I didn’t tell you because I was in such shock from finally seeing him in person after all this time.  I didn’t know what to do.”  I shook my head and rolled my eyes at myself, “I still don’t.”

“Oh, honey… I wish I could answer your questions about him.  You know I’ve tried…”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me, “I know…”  She’d tried many times at my begging to try and give me any information on the Mystery Guy, as we usually called him, but it never worked.  For some reason, none of the women in my family could tell me anything about Josh no matter how their power worked.

“So, what was it like?  What’s his name?”

“Josh Everhart.  He’s a doctor at the children’s hospital, he’s tall…”

“Is he as gorgeous in person as he is in the vision?”

I nodded again and felt a wave of sadness wash over me as I pictured him lying on the ground bleeding to death.  “Yeah.  He has these amazing dimples, and his eyes are so blue, Mama.”

“Was he nice?”

“Very.  He took great care of me.”

I knew what my mom was going to ask me next.  Not because of my gift but just because of twenty-three years of experience of her interrogating me.  “So what else happened?  Have you seen him again?  Did you give him your phone number?”

“He gave me his business card, which I’ve been staring at for the past four days, and I assume he went to work.  I don’t know if I’m supposed to call him or just wait for him to come back in for coffee or what.”  I groaned and went to run my hand over my face but remembered that it was bandaged up and instead let it fall back into my lap.  “There is one more thing though.”

“What is it?”

“When he left me and I went back to the shop, I found a paper heart.  It was burned all around the edges.”

“Oh, sweetie…” she sighed and I could picture the look of concern on her face.  She knew exactly what the heart meant just like I had.

“How is this fair?  How am I supposed to let him into my life knowing how he’s supposed to die and not knowing anything else?  I just don’t understand it.”

“I know…” she said softy.  We’d talked about it for ten years and still had no answers.  No one in the family had experienced a dream like mine that didn’t come true within a few days.  I was definitely the only one who had gone a full decade without a dream coming true.  The elders in the family had been talking about my dream for years and no one knew how to explain it.  “Honey, I wish I could tell you anything that would help.  All I can say is, don’t fight it.  If your vision is true then fighting it or trying to avoid him isn’t going to work.  You know that.”

“If it’s true?” I groaned.  “Ma, they’re always true.”

“So far, yes… but this one has already shown us that it’s different.  We really don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Great, so I get to keep on being a freak.”

“A freak that I love so much…” she teased then giggled.

I couldn’t help but smile, my mom was a big dork and I loved her.  “I love you too.”

“I know you do.  Now, are you going to call him?”

I chuckled, “I don’t think so.  I suck on the phone.  Plus it’s been four days, I can’t just be like, ‘Hey… thanks for helping me almost a week ago.’”

She laughed too, “Well, you could.  Or you could call him and just say hi.”

“Yeah, no.”

“You’ll figure it out, honey.  I can’t tell you anything about how your relationship is going to happen, but I do know that it’ll work out on its own.”

“And then I can watch him die… good times,” I lamely joked and rolled my eyes again.  If anything I had to be sarcastic and make light of the situation.  Otherwise I’d probably just cry all of the time.

“You’ll fall in love first.”

“So that my heart will break into a million pieces.  Yay!”

“The falling in love part will make it all worth it.  Trust me.  Watching your dad die was awful and I miss him every day, but I wouldn’t take back the time I had with him.  Not for anything.”

My dad had died of cancer when I was eleven.  The love he’d had for my mom was a beautiful thing.  Thinking that maybe I’d get to have that kind of love with Josh, even if it was just for a short while, I had to admit was encouraging.  “Keep telling me that, okay?”

“I will… Now, cheer up and let the universe bring you your love.”

I smiled, “I’ll call you later.”

We said goodbye and I sat a while longer aside the river.  Just when the sun started to dip below the buildings I figured I should walk back toward home so that I wasn’t out in the dark.  I also needed to eat before my next round of pain killers otherwise I’d spend the evening sick as a dog.  I reached down for my black slip on shoes and decided that I could go barefoot in the grass.  I figured if I was careful I could avoid stepping on anything dangerous and if needed, I could always just step onto the river walk which was wooden along the river before turning to a paved path that ran through the city.  I loved being barefoot.  If it weren’t illegal to be shoeless while serving food, I would probably work all day without my shoes on.

I walked along the river slowly, enjoying the view and the breeze.  I had a car but it seemed foolish driving to work on good weather days when I could easily walk to and from work inside of about 10 – 15 minutes.  Plus, using the river walk allowed me to walk past my dream homes that I hoped one day I could afford on my own.  Old Town had all sorts of new trendy apartments and condos that were swoonworthy, but also very pricey.  I lived close to Old Town in the cheaper but still cute neighborhood next door.

One of my favorite homes to pass was the Brownstone View condos.  They were a fairly new build of two level brownstones with their own basements and back yards along the river.  Each backyard was sectioned off with a short brick wall with a gate that opened up to the river walk.

My eyes fell on a bonfire in one of the back yards at Brownstone.  It was in one of those fancy fire pits that you can buy at Target for like $300.  As I was thinking about cool it would be to ever have a spare three hundred bucks to spend on random shit at Target, I heard someone call my name.

I paused and look toward the voice to find Josh sitting by the fire pit.  He smiled as he stood and jogged over to the edge of the yard.  My eyes lingered on his dimples as he said hello.  “How’s it going?  How’s your hand?”

I held my hand out to show that it was still bandaged and I shrugged, “It’s okay.  Still hurts a lot, and it’s still really warm to the touch.  But I don’t ever miss a dose of the pain killers.  I did that on accident yesterday and it was awful.”

He chuckled and nodded, “Keep those going steadily for at least a full week.  Burns are tricky.  Especially a bad one like yours.  It’s painful to heal skin like that.”

I chuckled, “Yeah, tell me about it.”

“I just got a pizza, wanna join me?”

I started to decline but then heard my mom’s voice in my head telling me not to fight things with Josh and to let the universe bring me love.  I looked at Josh and raised an eyebrow, “What’s on it?”

“Pepperoni, ham and mushrooms.  But if you tell me you want something else or you’re a vegetarian I’ll totally order you another one.”

I smiled and blushed, “I’m not a vegetarian, and actually, it sounds perfect.”

~~~~~

Let me know what you think!  Then check out what the other ladies have cooked up for this month’s photo. 🙂

Bronwyn | Kris | Jess | Jessica | Kayleigh | Gwen | Paige

Chapter 4 – Bonfire

Flash Fiction – Burned Heart

i cheated again. I worked this month’s phot prompt into something I’d already written. 🙂 But… It’s the continuation of the story from last month’s photo prompt!  So if you haven’t read that, click here and read it first.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2 – Burned Heart

I looked up from the overpriced coffee drink that I’m making and smiled at the customer who ordered it.  Tom was a regular and a particularly good tipper.  Even if he didn’t tip I’d be nice to him though because he was just a sweet guy.  I’d had a dream about him a week before which, of course, came true.  He’d gotten a big promotion at work that was going to send his career sailing in new directions.  He didn’t know about the prophetic dreams that all of the women in my family have but I had told him the morning of the meeting with his boss that things were going to go really well.  He shrugged it off as me being nice, but came back later that afternoon to tell me in person how great the meeting had gone.  We celebrated over shots of espresso and he told me all about how his job was changing.

I always love it when my dreams are about good things.  There’s nothing shittier than waking up and realizing that I suddenly know that someone’s grandma is going to die or they’re going to catch their husband cheating on them.  Those dreams really sucked.

My most recent dream about Tom showed that his already pretty awesome life was going to get that much better because a cheery blonde with gorgeous curly hair was about to walk into his life and they were going to fall madly in love.  I could tell that this morning was the right one because everything was just as it had been in my dream.  The music on the satellite radio was playing the right song, the customer’s throughout the shop were all sitting or standing where they should be, and I’d spilled caramel on my shirt resulting in a upside down heart shaped stain right above my left hip.

“So Tom, do you want whip?”  I knew he did because he did in the dream but I asked anyway.

“Eh…” he hesitated then shrugged, “Oh what the hell, it’s Friday.  Go for it.”

I smiled as I squirted the perfect spiral of whipped cream over his coffee.  “It’s going to be another good day for you, Tommy.”

“Oh yeah? As good as the last time you told me that?  I already got the big promotion, what else is there?”

I finished off his drink with a drizzle of caramel over the whipped, “I can’t tell you.  I don’t want to jinx it.”  There was nothing I could do that would jinx it.  I could have told him in great detail what was going to happen and it wouldn’t change a thing.  But I didn’t like to do it that way.  I liked to test fate and see if the dreams were always right.  They always had been, but I kept testing just in case.  I slid the drink across the counter to him and smiled, “Keep your eyes open and be a gentleman.”  Just as I finished my sentence I saw his dream woman walk by our shop window.  I knew that in just a few minutes as he walked to his office their paths would meet and they would start falling in love.  I gave him a wink, “I’ll see you Monday.”

He chuckled and grabbed his cup while stuffing a five in the tip jar.  “You’re so mysterious, Elle.  But you make a kick ass coffee, so I guess I’ll take it.”  He chuckled and waved, “See you Monday.”

I gave him a wave and moved on to my next drink.  A butterscotch latte that made me crave one of my own.  One of the perks of my oh-so-glamorous job as a coffee slinger was that I could drink the stuff all day for free if I wanted to.  It also gave me time to read books and write when things were slow and we ran out of work to do.

We were a small shop, privately owned by a rich hipster named Diamond, I swear that’s her real name, who hadn’t wanted to buy into a company that already had a regular following in Mid-Michigan.  Instead she created her own cute little shop with drinks that had fun names from old TV shows.  We had an English tea named Mr. Belvedere, and a hot chocolate called T.Hux which was short for Theo Huxtable.  Diamond was a classic hipster but the shop was all kinds of awesome and even if I hadn’t worked there I probably would have spent a lot of time sitting in the cushy chairs of the shop reading and writing while staying happily caffeinated.

I’d been working for Diamond for over a year and made my way up from part time coffee girl to full time assistant manager coffee girl.  It was fun, paid the bills, gave me a cool place to work, and free coffee.  I couldn’t complain too much.  Plus we were in a part of Lansing that was referred to as Old Town which was full of cool shops, restaurants, and old buildings renovated into apartments and condos.  It was a really neat place to be and made me love my job that much more, even if my family didn’t consider it a “real job” and bitched about it to me every chance they had.

I served the butterscotch latte, also known as a McKidd named after Kevin McKidd from Grey’s Anatomy, and thanked the customer for stopping by.  He wasn’t a regular and didn’t seem at all like someone who was from Lansing.  Not that I could explain exactly what that meant.  He was probably someone traveling with whatever team our minor league baseball team, the Lansing Lugnuts, were playing this week.

I was making myself a McKidd when the bells over the door jingled and another customer stepped inside.  Diamond small talked with him as he decided on his order.  Just as I finished making my drink and took a sip, Diamond yelled down the bar to me that guy had ordered a double tall Screetch.  They continued to talk and when the coffee was ready I called it out, “Double tall Screetch, ready at the end of the bar.”

I turned to work on refilling the coffee dispensers that were self-serve.  I poured fresh decaf into one of the dispensers and was putting the top on when I heard someone behind me.  It must have been the guy who’d ordered the Screetch finally picking up his drink, “Thanks for this…”

I picked up the coffee dispenser and turned, “You’re…”  I stopped in my tracks.  The man across the counter from me was the man I’d been dreaming about for the past ten years.  The same man who loved me and most likely died from some weird explosion at the hospital just down the street.  The man who called me by my last name and had the prettiest blue eyes I’d ever seen.  He was taller than I expected.  His hair was a medium golden brown and styled in that messy but perfect sort of way.

I lost my hold on the coffee dispenser and instead of grabbing it the way I was supposed to, I somehow managed to flip the handle over the top which then dispensed freshly brewed coffee all over my left hand.

“Son of a monkey!” I yelled out as I put the coffee down on the counter as quickly as I could, all the while being streamed with near boiling coffee.  “Holy shit… Ow, ow, ow…”  I immediately stuck my hand in the sink at the end of the bar where we rinsed things off.  I turned the cold water on and stuck my hand under it with a whimper then put the stopper in the sink to keep the water in.

Diamond was quickly at my side, “What happened?”

I shook my head, “I don’t know… I almost dropped it and the handle got stuck or something.”

“Keep it in the water, I’ll get you some ice…” she said and dashed over to the built in cooler where we kept the ice for cold drinks.

The guy, on the other hand, was leaning over the counter to look at my hand, “Let me take a look at it.  I’m a doctor.”

Yeah, a doctor who was going to get blown up…  I shook my head to clear my thoughts and pulled my hand out of the stream of ice cold water.  As soon as the water was gone, my hand felt like it was on fire.  He shook his head, “That’s a bad burn.  You’re going to need to have it looked at.”

I was looking in his blue eyes.  “You said you were a doctor, doesn’t that count?”

He smiled a great big smile that lit up his whole face.  It was the smile I never got to see in my dream. He had the most amazing dimples I’d ever seen. “If we were at the hospital, sure.  But considering I don’t have any supplies on me… no.  You should go to the Urgent Care across the street.  They’ll get you in a lot faster than going to the ER.” I was relieved that he suggested the Urgent Care and not the ER down the road.  I already had a burnt hand, I didn’t want today to be the day I was involved in some major disaster too.

I liked that he was holding my hand, but it hurt so much I took it back from him and put it back into the water.  Diamond returned and dumped a scoop of ice for the largest frozen drink that we made into the sink.  The ice definitely helped at making the water colder and therefore numbing the pain a little, but I was starting to think the good doctor was right and I needed medical attention.

I leaned down with my forehead on my arm as my hand dangled in the icy water.  I wasn’t one to cry but I was damn close.  My hand felt like if I said “flame on” it would surely light up.  Or maybe I just read too many comic books growing up.

I heard Dr. Pretty Eyes telling Diamond that I needed to see a doctor and she agreed.  I lifted my head and looked at her, “I’ll be okay.  I don’t want to leave you all alone.  Mikey will be here soon.  I’ll go when he gets here.”

“Nope.  I ‘m your boss and this is a workplace injury.  You’re going to Urgent Care now.”

I sighed but conceded, “Can you make me an ice pack to go?”

She smiled and made me an ice pack out of a Ziploc wrapped in a hand towel.  She also grabbed my purse from my cubby in her office.  “You want me to walk you over?”

I rolled my eyes, “No.  I’ll be okay.  I’ll be back once they figure out what to do with me.”

Dr. Pretty Eyes grabbed his coffee and looked at me, “I’ll go over with you.”

I stumbled over my words, “Oh you don’t… I mean… I can just…”  I sighed and decided not to fight it.  Whoever this guy was, he was going to be in my life and I needed to just deal with it. Okay.”

He smiled and placed his hand on the small on my back guiding me toward the door.  His hand fit perfectly and filled me with a mixture of curious happiness and dread. Outside we both looked for traffic and found none so we crossed the street jaywalking and hoping no cops were nearby watching.  I always thought that giving a ticket for jaywalking was stupid.  We walked into the clinic and there were a handful of people in the waiting room.  He walked me up to the reception desk and smiled at the small red haired nurse behind the desk, “Hey, Jamie…”

She grinned from ear to ear, obviously flirting, “Dr. Everhart.  What can I do for you?”

I wanted to laugh at her horrible flirting but I covered it with a cough instead.  I think the doctor caught on too because he shot me a small grin.  “We’ve got a pretty bad coffee burn here,” he said motioning to me.  He looked at me and smiled shyly, “I didn’t get your name… I’m sorry.”

“Uh… Elle Jensen.”

He nodded and put his hand on my shoulder shooting another wave of awareness through my body, “Josh Everhart.”  He then looked back at Nurse Jaimie, “Elle has a burn that needs to be looked at right away.  I can do it myself if everyone is busy.”

“I think everyone is tied up, but you can use Room 2.  If you need any help, just let me know…” More flirting.

He thanked her without encouraging the flirting and led me to Room 2.  I sat on the exam table and kept my rapidly melting bag of ice on my hand.

After a quick evaluation, he determined that I had second and third degree burns on my hand.  He prescribed an antibiotic cream that also had pain numbing stuff in it as well as some heavy duty pain killers to take for a while.  Then he wrapped my hand up with this amazingly awesome patch covering my burn that felt like it was made out of cold Jello.  He told me what it was called but I soon forgot and just called it the Jello patch.

Josh had Jamie check me out and give me all of the required check out paperwork that I would then take back across the street to Diamond.  He once again led me to the door with a hand on the small of my back and we stepped outside.  I looked up at him and smiled, “Thank you.  For everything.  I’m sure I’d still be sitting in there waiting in misery if you hadn’t been with me.”

“Oh I can guarantee it.  I used to have to work weekends here sometimes and they were the slowest staff ever.  Good people, just really, really slow.”

I smiled, “So you don’t work there anymore?”

“I still work for the hospital, but I’m over at the children’s wing now.”  I knew that.  I also knew what it looked like when he was bleeding out from what I assumed was a fatal injury.

“Cool…” I nodded.

He pulled a thin metal case from the back pocket of his jeans, Inside were his business cards, one of which he handed to me, “Call me if you have any trouble.  It’s going to hurt for a while but if it starts getting worse, definitely call me.  Texts are good too, my phone is almost always on me.  Or you can go to the ER.”

I looked at his business card.  Dr. Joshua Everhart, DO.  “Hopefully with all those painkillers I’ll be knocked out cold tonight.  But thank you, if anything changes I’ll let you know.”

He asked me, again, if I needed anything and I told him, again, no.  He then bid me farewell, reminded me to call him, and began walking toward the hospital.  He stopped and turned around and smiled at me, “Nice to meet you, Jensen.”

I smiled and gave him a little wave. I watched him a little longer before crossing the street to get back to work. As I pushed the door open I noticed a small piece of paper on the floor. I scooped it up and felt like I’d been punched in the gut when I realized it was the shape of a heart and the edges were burned.

In the dreams that the women in our family had, there were a lot of symbols that told the future.   Pregnancy for example sometimes meant a new project rather than an actual upcoming child, rain usually represented sadness and tears. A heart, though, always meant love no matter what.  It was part of the reason why I hadn’t mined that I’d stained my shirt with caramel earlier.  The condition of the heart was what told the story though, and a heart with burned edges was never a good thing.

My future with Josh was going to end up in heartache.

~~~~~

Chapter 3 – Walk in the Grass

Feedback is always accepted!  Leave a comment below and don’t forget to check out what the other girls thought up for this month’s photo!

Bronwyn | Kayleigh | Kris | Jess | Jessica | Paige | Jenny | Gwen

Flash Fiction – The Door

I admit, I cheated a little bit on this. I totally forgot about the prompt and then wondered if I had anything pre-written that I could tweak to make it work. :). I was on vacation last week and managed to start writing something new for the first time in forever. (Damn it, now I’m singing that song from Frozen… LOL)  anywho, I ended up adding a little to it and working the photo prompt into it. I also figure if I share this, then I’ll be more likely to keep working on it. Hold me to it! I actually have another scene written, but it’ll wait. Here we go!

Chapter 1 – The Door

All of the women in my family have a gift.  We’re not psychic in the way that you’d see in a movie or on tv.  We don’t read tarot cards or tell people their futures by reading their palms or talking to mediums.  For us, it all happens in dreams.

Sometimes it’s about someone we know, other times it’s a total stranger.  For each of us, our talent is different. My mother, for instance, can make herself dream about a specific situation to have a question answered, whereas my visions are totally random. The thing about our dreams though, is they always come true.

I can remember growing up and listening to friends talk about their crazy dreams and I would wish that I could be like them.  That mine could be mini movies each night that didn’t have any meaning other than maybe I’d read too many scary books or ate too much spicy food before bed.  But that’s just not how it works work for the Jensen Women.  What we see in our sleep predicts what will happen… good, bad, and ugly.  If there’s nothing to predict, we don’t dream. At least not the normal way.

The first dream I ever had that came true was a simple one.  I dreamt that I was getting a puppy for my birthday and then two days later that exact little ball of happiness was placed in my lap.  Unfortunately not all of the visions ended up being so happy and full of puppy kisses.

Generally our visions come true within a couple of days.  But since I turned thirteen I’ve had the same reoccurring dream over and over again that has yet to come true.  Even the family elders have no experience with a vision like mine that doesn’t come into fruition right away.  For me, it’s been ten years of the same dream.  In other words, I’m the family freak.
My dream is always the same.  All of my visions start with me standing outside of an an old house with a blue door. It’s worn down and looks like something you’d see in a horror movie.  Abandoned.  There’s no grass, just dirt and old dried out rose bushes with branches and thorns that seem to want to snag my clothes.  I’m so used to it though, the scene doesn’t bother me anymore. I just know that when I step through that dirty blue door with the old fashioned mail slot in it, whatever I see will come true.  I walk up to it, take a breath to ready myself and then push it open.

It starts in the middle like someone just pushed the play button on a movie that had been paused.  There’s chaos everywhere like a bomb has gone off or something horrible.  I’m looking around and trying to figure out what’s going on but all I see is people running, crying, screaming… A sob gets stuck in my throat and I realize that I have tears streaming down my face.  I start to lift my hand to wipe my cheeks when I realize that my hands are already busy.  Beneath them is a waded up shirt and I’m holding it to a bleeding wound on a man who is laying on the ground.

Another sob comes as I look down at the man and he struggles to talk.  I shake my head, “Stop it… Don’t talk.  You’re going to be okay.”

His blue eyes stare into my brown ones and he smiles around a grimace of pain.  I don’t know who he is, but I know that the smile he gives me isn’t his truest one.  Somehow I know he’s faking it for me.  His hand moves and covers mine.  I flinch at how cold his skin feels and the words blood loss rush through my head.

I shake my head again, “You’re going to be okay.  Just try not to move.”  I look up and survey what’s going on around us.  Smoke is clearing finally and I can tell where we are.  We’re right outside of the emergency room of Riley Children’s Medical Hospital.  There’s an unnatural hole in the building.  It must have been an explosion.  I look down at the man again whose hand hasn’t left mine.  I realize then that the shirt I’m holding to his wound is a hospital scrub.  “We’re at the hospital…” I say mostly to myself.  “We’re at the hospital… you’re going to be fine.  I just have to find…”  I look around again for someone, anyone, to help.

I start making some sense of things around me.  I’m able to tell who some of the hospital staff are by their scrubs.  Some, like the man I’m with, are hurt too.  Other people are rushing around trying to help those who were clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Some in horribly small bodies.  I see people whose names I should know but I can’t remember anyone’s name.

“We need help!” I finally yell over the complete disorder swirling around us.  “Please!”

A woman, possibly a nurse, who I feel like I should know, pauses momentarily and looks in our direction.  She’s covered in blood but I can tell it’s not hers simply because she’s moving so fast.  She looks from me to the man next to me and a look of defeat and sadness washes over her face.  She mumbles something about the supplies in her hands and before racing away she promises to come back.

I’m still crying, sobbing really, and when I look down to the man he looks like he’s lost a ton of color.  The scrub shirt I’m holding to him has become further saturated with blood.  “You’re going to be…”

He speaks with a trembling voice that I somehow know isn’t his usual tone, “I just want to say thank you.”

“For what?  I don’t understand.  I don’t know what’s going on!”  I’m totally losing it.  I have no idea why we’re at the hospital, why there’s a huge crater in the building, and who this man is that I clearly care for but whose name I can’t recall.  “What happened?”

The chilled skin of his hand brings me back and although I’m still freaking out, I’m focused on him again.  His gorgeous blue eyes that I bet are much prettier in a different setting never leave my face.  “It’s okay, Jensen.”  He knows my last name.  Hearing him call me that instead of my first name feels right for some reason.  I just wish I could remember his.  “You hit your head pretty hard, everything will come back to you in a little bit.  You probably have a concussion.”

It’s then I realize that I do, in fact, have a raging headache.  I don’t care about that though because his hand is getting colder and his skin paler.  I can start to feel his blood seeping through the fabric of the shirt in my hands.  Dread fills my body as I think to myself, He’s going to die.  I frantically search the scene with my eyes trying to find the nurse who ran off.  “Where is she?  She said she’d be back.  I…”  He makes a god awful groaning noise as pain rushes through his body.  I keep my hands pressed to the wound. “What do I do?  I need you to tell me what to do to help you.”

His lips move but I can’t hear him over the disaster all around us.  I lean down so that my face is close to his, “Tell me again…”

He reaches up and his cold hand cups my face.  He pulls me closer and speaks against my cheek, “Thanks for loving me.”

I look into his eyes one more time before they close and his hand drops away from my face.

Then I wake up.

~~~~~

Chapter 2: Burned Heart

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Kris | Bronwyn | Jess | Paige | Jessica | Kayleigh | Gwen