Chapter 8: A Brush with the Unknown

DANICA

I woke up feeling more refreshed than I ever had before. It was as if I’d slept without any burdens, without any pain. Then, I remembered why…it was because of him.

He had taken away my pain. And then there were my dreams. That man with the stones…had I been dreaming about him all this time?

I had never met him before. I had assumed he was a figment of my imagination. But now, I wasn’t so sure…

Why him? What did it all mean? For three years, I had dreamt of a stranger. Now, I had met him, but the dreams hadn’t stopped.

I woke up alone. I wondered if he was still here. I was curious to know if he was still in the house.

I got out of bed, my knees trembling. I was still in the clothes I had worn the night before. The house was silent as I made my way downstairs.

I entered the living room where Ms. Moore was sitting with him. She was engrossed in a newspaper while he was absorbed in a book. I stepped further into the room and my shadow must have caught their attention because they both looked up at me.

“Good morning, Danica,” Ms. Moore greeted me cheerfully.

“Good morning,” I replied. I glanced at the man who was already watching me.

“Why is he here?” I asked Ms. Moore, but my gaze remained on the man.

“He’s your guardian angel, Danica,” she said, her eyes still on her newspaper. Had he filled her head with such nonsense? Of course, she would be the one to believe it.

I knew he had taken away my headache, but I refused to believe there wasn’t a logical explanation for it.

The man put down his book and looked at me calmly. “Thought you’d be happier after the night we spent.” My cheeks heated up and he almost smirked. Only Ms. Moore gave me a side glance.

I swallowed hard and looked away from him. “If he won’t leave, I will call the police,” I declared.

Ms. Moore sighed. “No need for that. He isn’t doing anything that would get him arrested,” she said, finally putting her newspaper down. “What you need is a shower to pull yourself together and then we can talk.” She stood up. “It’s time to be completely honest with you.” Her sincerity was palpable. But I was afraid of what she might say.

I went upstairs and took a shower. I didn’t even bother to dry my hair. I pulled on the first pair of pants I found.

I grabbed a sweater from my closet. I paused in front of my mirror and forced a smile at my reflection. I looked as miserable as I felt.

I had never been the smartest, but lately, I felt like the most clueless person on earth. I felt like I knew absolutely nothing anymore. And I hated feeling like that.

I just wanted to continue my life as it was. Simple and peaceful. Even if I had nothing going on for me. Not everyone was meant to be someone great, some were just ordinary people. That’s what I wanted to be.

I was about to leave the house when a voice stopped me. “Where are you going?” Ms. Moore asked. The man was already on his feet, walking toward me, stopping a short distance away.

“I have work.” I forced a smile at them and walked out the door. I stopped in my tracks and turned around when I heard him following me.

“I’d like to go alone,” I said, but he didn’t even flinch. I ignored him and continued walking, slower than usual.

I was almost at the park I usually cut through to get to work when I stopped. I wasn’t in the right state of mind to work, I looked like a mess and felt even worse.

The man was still close behind me. I realized I was going to work just because I wanted my routine back. I wanted normalcy back.

I turned around to go home but I stopped yet again. If this day wasn’t normal anyway, why not do something I would never do.

I hurried into the park and made my way to the bench where that strange man always sat. The man with the dark features. I walked quickly toward him and he looked at me.

“Hello,” I said to him. Behind me, my stalker called out.

“Danica…are you all right?” he asked. But I ignored his question.

“Why are you always here?” I asked the sitting man. “Why is no one ever with you? And why do you keep giving me these weird glances?” I asked him. I had always been the one to watch from the sidelines and never speak up.

“Danica, there’s no one there,” my supposed protector insisted, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the man on the bench.

“He can’t see me,” the man murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. “No one can.”

I glanced back at my guardian, his expression puzzled. “You can’t see him?” I asked, my voice wavering.

The man standing before me studied me, his gaze intense. “Am I losing my mind?” I asked the man on the bench.

He let out a soft chuckle. “That’s what she thought when she first heard me say that,” he replied, though I had no clue what he was referring to. I was about to ask him when my so-called protector interrupted.

“What does he look like?” He asked, his voice filled with curiosity.

“Dark hair, dark eyes, long coat. He’s always here. Just sitting and watching,” I tried to explain, but he cut me off.

“It’s Death,” he stated, his voice flat. I turned back to the man on the bench, my heart pounding.

“Death?” I echoed, disbelief lacing my voice. Everything that had been said by this man and Ms. Moore over the past few days had me questioning my sanity.

I turned on my heel and headed toward my house, not sparing either of them a second glance.

“Danica!” My guardian called after me, but I ignored him, continuing to walk until I reached my house. I shut the door in his face, just like I had done so many times before.

I retreated to the one place in this house where I could be alone. I locked my bedroom door and crawled into bed, the same place I had spent the majority of my day.

Occasionally, Ms. Moore would knock on my door, asking if I was ready to talk, but I had nothing to say.

As night fell, a headache began to throb at my temples. I chained my wrist to the bed once more.

“Danica, please, let’s talk. It’s time for you to understand everything,” Ms. Moore pleaded from the other side of the door.

“There’s nothing to talk about! I’m tired. Leave me alone!” I yelled, burying my head under the blanket.

“Danica!” A man’s voice roared, causing me to lift my head. Why was he so angry? His shout sent a shiver down my spine.

“Come out, now!” His voice was filled with rage, a tone I had never heard him use with me before. He was yelling and my head was already throbbing.

“Open up now or I’ll break down the door!” He threatened. I didn’t respond, but he made good on his threat, bursting into the room with a force that made the door splinter. It seemed to cause him no trouble at all. My door was now in ruins.

“What are you doing?” I screamed at him as he approached me.

“Where’s the key?” He demanded, his gaze fixed on my chained hand. I remained silent, staring back at his furious expression.

“Danica, where is the key?” He asked again, his voice stern. I continued to stare at him until Ms. Moore answered for me.

“Her bedside drawer,” she supplied, earning a glare from me. She didn’t seem to feel guilty in the slightest.

The man yanked open the drawer, causing its contents to spill onto the floor. He retrieved the key and walked around to the other side of my bed, attempting to unlock my wrist. I raised my other hand to stop him, but he brushed it aside with a bit of force.

He unlocked my wrist and pulled me up from the bed by my hand. “Be careful,” Ms. Moore cautioned as the man led me out of the house by my wrist.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked, my headache intensifying.

“To the forest. So you can finally see what you should have seen a long time ago!”

The forest? I knew about the terrifying wolves that lurked there. Was he planning to abandon me there?

As we stepped onto the porch, tears began to stream down my face. I was terrified.

“Please, don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything. Please!”

He stopped and cupped my face in his hands, his eyes searching mine. “I would never hurt you, Danica. Everything I’ve done has been to keep you safe.” His face was so close I could feel his breath on my skin.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

His gaze shifted to Ms. Moore, who was standing in the doorway with a confused expression. She was hiding something from me. But the man seemed to understand her.

“My head hurts so much,” I whined, feeling weaker by the second.

“I know…,” was all he said.

We stopped at a car, which turned out to be his. He opened the door for me and I had no choice but to get in.

I cradled my head in my hands as the pain worsened. He started the car and drove off, clearly exceeding the speed limit.

“Why are you torturing me?” I cried out.

“Everything will fall into place, I promise. Just hear me out this once. You’re not the ordinary human you’ve always believed yourself to be,” he insisted.

His driving was wild, overtaking every vehicle in sight until he swerved onto a road devoid of any other cars, but his speed didn’t decrease.

“You’ve been kept in the dark. They’ve convinced you that you’re just a regular human, but you’re so much more. These headaches you’ve been having, they’re a result of your body not getting what it needs. It’s as if you’re gasping for air, and it feels like your head is about to burst,” he explained, panting from the intensity of his words.

He steered the car onto a deserted road, surrounded by nothing but forests. After enduring ten minutes of excruciating pain and a flood of tears, my head throbbed with a pain I’d never known before. It was a level of agony I’d never experienced.

The man got out of the car, walked over to my side, and opened my door for me.

Leaning on him for support, I managed to step out of the car. He guided me, his arm around me, toward a small clearing in the forest.

He turned to face me, cradling my face in his hands. “I need you to trust me, okay?” he asked.

I didn’t respond, too weak to utter a word.

“I’m going to place something in your hands, and I need you to look up, okay? You need to feel the sky within you, gaze at the stars as if you’re familiar with them, believe that you know them. Look up and believe that you are one with the sky.”

He placed a silver necklace in my hands. It was cold to the touch and I almost let it slip, but he caught it just in time.

“Give it a shot, try to see beyond what’s logical. Try to envision what your soul is yearning for.”

I lifted my gaze to the sky, a canvas of a million stars…