Fortune teller

"The Dark Stranger"

© VeGirl 2014

"Please come with me!" My friend begs me. "It won't take long." We are at the town fair and I have to sidestep some kids that are running toward us, as she's doing her best to persuade me to join her for some art of divination to predict her future.

"But I don't believe in that psychic stuff!" I laugh a bit. "Fortune-teller; come on! You can't believe that some crazy old lady knows what your future will be like!" I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her.

"But I've heard great things about this one," Eddie exclaims. "She's supposed to be really good!"

I wish that my friend would get her head out of the clouds. "Would she work at some small town fair if she knew what she was doing?" My tone of voice may be a bit too demeaning, but how can you take these things seriously when you are an adult smart woman.

"I'm telling you she's good," she claims. "I think you're scared." She flicks her long blond hair over her shoulder and raise her brows challenging.

Well that certainly hits the nail. "Scared? That is the silliest thing I have ever heard of!" I am not scared of some silly bint! Just because I don't believe it, doesn't mean I'm scared.

"Please Sam, pretty please," she begs when the reversed psykology fails, and that pleading expression in her wide blue eyes makes me smile. I sigh "Alright, I'll better come before you fall on your knees and beg!" But I roll my eyes.

We walk over to the place where a sign says 'Se the Future Here; Esmeralda'.

I snort. "Just look at the name; Esmeralda! Why can't they ever be called Amanda or Berta?" I hiss snickering as we walk in through some beaded curtain into a small room. The walls are covered in red heavy curtains.

Cliché much?

I sigh. This is so going to be a rip off. I look over at my friend who is totally excited; I mean her blue eyes don't just sparkle, they shine like beacons. I can't help but smile at her and shake my head. Eddie has been my friend ever since college and she has an energy and lovable air surrounding her that makes it impossible to not just love her to pieces. The curtain opens and a woman in a long billowing paisley dress, with red long curly hair appears in the room. She stops for a fraction and furrow her brows with her eyes closed, before looking straight at me flinching ever so slightly and a wide smile emerge on her face. "Welcome! My name is..."

"Esmeralda, yeah we saw the sign," I blurt out, feeling that I'm not really the supportive friend that I claim to be, but come on; how many scam-artists are there in this line of business; approximately ninety eight per cent? "I'm not in here to get my future read, she is!" I know I am rude, but really?

The girl is still smiling at me, and I have to say she is actually pretty, even beautiful, I'll give her that and she seems much younger when I take a closer look at her, even my own age. "So, you're not a believer?" she asks with a teasing smile lingering on her face as her green eyes capture me.

"What gave me off?" I think, but realize that I said it out loud; Eddie's glare is seething. "Perhaps I should wait outside?" I suggest shamefaced, feeling like the idiot I am.

"No, by all means; take a seat; this is going to be interesting," the Esmeralda-girl says with a challenging smile and gesture towards the round table. It is covered with a crimson tablecloth that hangs down to the floor, and has a crystal ball decorating the top. Candles are burning on several places, and thoughts of the danger in combining fabric with the element of fire flutters through my mind. My eyes meet Eddie's excited, smiling ones as Esmeralda and she take their seats; I can't help to give her a smile back even if I roll my eyes as soon as she looks away.

She is so gullible!

"Hi." Esmeralda says, smiling towards my friend and takes her hand as the two of them sit down across from each other. I find a chair that I pull up with a scraping sound next to my friend's.

"Hi, I'm Eddie." My friend introduce herself in a giddy way and receive what looks like a genuine smile from the girl.

"Hello Eddie." The psychic girl looks a bit puzzled and I predict that my friend will soon reveal that her christian name actually is Eldoria, and not Eddie. She really hates that name, and I have asked myself how her parents could have been cruel enough to give her a name like that.

"Are you here for a palm reading?" Esmeralda asks, still smiling.

"Eh... sure, whatever works best for you," Eddie giggles and offer her hand to the psychic girl.

Esmeralda's face changes slightly as she takes Eddie's hand in hers and she close her eyes. How can you see her palm with closed eyes? I wonder, but decide to drop that question. The Esmeralda girl open her eyes and start to talk to Eddie about the lines in her hand that represent her life, health and love.

When she talks about those lines, I get an urge to open my own hand and observe what my handprint looks like. I realize that would make it look like I'm interested, so I suppress that impulse and keep my attention on what is said between the two girls.

"I can see on your love-line that you fall in love easily, and that you get your heart broken just as easy. This line curves here..." she points in Eddie's hand. "...and that says that you have no problem in expressing emotions and feelings."

I am actually impressed by how accurate she describes my friend.

She says things about Eddie being logical, having good sense of math and economics, probably being a good entrepreneur. The smile on Eddie's face is a dead giveaway and I want to sigh by the fact that anyone could read her like an open book.

This psychic girl is beginning to turn her hand to look at her fingers, nails and stuff and before she takes the left hand and does it all over to talk about more recent changes in life. She is dead accurate about her being well organized and practical. She is actually right about everything, even her love-life. "All I can say is: Be careful when it comes to love, so you won't end up with another broken heart."

"You're not gonna predict anything about my future?" Eddie ask in her usual spontaneous way and the disappointed tone is clear.

The Esmeralda girl keeps searching that sweet smile on her face. "You can't tell the future in a hand reading, but it looks like you're on the right track in line of business, with a creative partner by your side."

We're just about to get up from that table when the girl reaches over the table and grab my wrist. Some weird energy that I've never felt before flows through me and I just stare wideeyed at the girl with the red hair. Her eyes has a shimmering green color that I've never seen before and they're totally captivating; it's impossible to look away.

"You are in for some changes." She's using a soft voice, that it is absolutely hypnotizing and there isn't even any desire to look away. "You'll meet a dark stranger," she says and at that statement I snap out of my dazed mode.

I blink surprised before I recall her statement. Pfft! I think. Dark stranger; Yeah right! "I'm actually not available," I inform the imposter and take a defensive stance. "I'm engaged." I hold my hand up and wiggle my fingers with the engagement ring glistening on my finger and with a gloating smirk on my face.

She just smiles at me, almost condescendingly. "Yes, but Peter isn't right for you." Her tone is patient and I lose my cocky attitude instantly. How can she know his name? This must be a set up! I turn and glare at Eddie. "Have you said anything that I missed?"

My friend shakes her head. "Of course not!" She looks shocked.

I turn my head to look at Esmeralda in the most scrutinizing way. "How could you guess that his name is Peter?" I ask suspiciously.

She leans in closer to me. "I sensed it," she whisper and her scent is making my head spin. I think my mouth falls open as I stare at her. How could she know that? Suddenly she leans closer to me again. "Actually it says so on your necklace," she reveals with a wicked smile, making my hand reach the silver necklace Peter gave me three years ago.

I blush at my own stupidity and grind my teeth as she smirks at me. With a grim face, I pull my hand out of her grip and annoyed get up from the table.

"Samira, you need to watch out for that dark stranger, he's-" She stops midsentence and furrow her eyebrows in the most confused way. "Dangerous?" she seems to ask someone above her before she gives me the most confused look-over. "Just be careful!" Her voice is tender and caring in a way that confuse me.

I don't know what to say, so I just nod and then we walk out of there. "What the bleeding hell was that about?" I hiss breathless as soon as we pass the cue by the roller coaster, well out of hearing range.

"I have no idea, but she seemed sincere." My best friend seems just as wound up as I am. "It sounds exciting," Eddie says with sparkling eyes. "But what could she mean by dangerous?"

"How the freak should I know? Why couldn't she say what I'm supposed to watch out for and why?" I feel hyper, not knowing what to do. Suddenly it hits me. "She knew my name!" Most people assume that Sam is short for Samantha, but how could she know my real name?

* * *

The encounter lives with me for several days and I keep coming back to the prediction she casted on me. I can't understand why her words affected me like that; I am a girl that don't believe in that kind of mumbo jumbo and I don't get why this should be any different.

A few days after that stupid visit at the fair, I wake up to find a lorry standing at the house opposite ours. That house has been empty for so long that I have given up any thought other than that it would remain abandoned until it falls to pieces. Now people are carrying boxes and furniture into the house, obviously some moving company are using their musclepower to make sure the population on this outlying street increase.

I imagined a younger couple or a family taking residence in the house next to the forest, but according to the renaissance style of the dark wood furniture, it looks like it's an old couple or perhaps a crazy cat lady that is moving in. They say curiosity killed the cat, but I can't help but to openly peer out through the window while I prepare breakfast. I expect to see the old couple or person that is moving in, but I can't see anyone as long as I stand there. Strangely enough nobody is seen arriving to the house; the movers leave and nobody arrives.

The first couple of days I think about the strangers in the house next door, but soon it fades away to be replaced by my own dark future. I instead resume my pondering about the alleged guy with dark hair predicted for me. He has been taking up all thinking space, by not to think about him that is.

Even when sitting here sipping coffee on my back patio in the sun, my mind flickers to that weird visit to the crazy lady at the fair. I wonder what she meant.

A dark stranger; pfft!

My life resume its usual pace with work at the local coffee house. It is my friend Eddie's business and I'm hired as creative pastry chef there. That was not what I had in mind at first, not what I spent four years in college for, but I really like it. The job is free and creative and I get to work side by side with my best friend.

On my free time I often strap my running shoes on and just let my troubles dissolve as I run the sandy paths in the beautiful nature close by. And then there is Peter of course, my husband to bee; the guy that slowly crept his way into my life. He's not the kind of guy who's modeling look took my breath away, but he's a charming great guy that always makes me smile.

We've been together for almost four years now, thanks' to his persistence in the beginning. Even if he wasn't the sexiest guy I had met; he had me wrapped around him anyway eventually. He was so very attentive in the beginning, that we just didn't have time for anybody. I didn't even have time for Eddie and she was pissed.

Still to this day, Eddie doesn't hold Peter especially high on her list, but on the other hand Eddie goes through guys in a fast pace and somehow always seem to get out with a broken heart.

* * *

The house across the street keep echoing in solitude, or at least that is how I see it. Weirdly enough I seem to be the only one along our street who has seen the movers. None of my neighbors noted the truck unloading furniture. Two or three weeks pass by and soon I have forgotten that the movers have been here at all.

One night I wake up from a dream; I don't seem to remember what it was about, but I have a feeling that it was something disturbing. I notice that it is unusual light as I walk through the hallway to the bathroom and that puzzles me. With furrowed brows I walk to the kitchen next, grab a glass and fill it with water. As I gulp it down, I notice a full moon on the night black sky; it seems to call to me. I smile and shake my head; no wonder it is so light, it's the darn moon that lights up the neighborhood.

I pour the last water from my glass into the sink and am just about to walk away when a car stop outside. At first I think it is a cab, but the black car is of an older, classic model with tinted windows in the most suspicious looking way. I can't take my eyes off it.

The door open on the opposite side and a dark figure get out, close the door and the car drives off. Even if the area is bright in the moonlight, the dark figure seem to stay in the dark. The shape and the walk reveal that it is a man who walks up to the abandoned house on the other side of the road.

Just when he reach the door handle, he freezes and slowly turns to look straight at me.

Shock reverberates through my body and I'm glued to the spot however much I want to duck away and hide. The moment doesn't last long and suddenly he's gone; he has walked inside the house and I'm able to leave my spot. I lean over the sink and breathe heavy. What the hell was that?

When the world stops spinning and I am able to walk to my bedroom again, I lie there staring at the ceiling.

What just happened?

Even through the bright moonlit surroundings I never saw what the guy looked like; why? It takes a long time for me to fall back to sleep again and when I do; I dream about dark luring strangers.

* * *

When I wake up, it is broad daylight.

For days I glance cautiously over to the house on the other side of the street, without looking straight at it. I'm scared to get caught looking again the way I was on that night of the full moon. I never see anyone near the house though, it is just as dark and looks just as abandoned as it was before, and finally I deduce that it must have been a dream that I had mixed up, and nothing more.

Life continues cruelly fast, racing ahead, with work during the days and Peter and me on the couch at nights. The only thing wrong with that is that he often want to watch some sports channel on TV, while I rather loose myself in a movie. Annoyingly enough it usually ends with the sport channel on and I end up with a book or with my laptop on my knee. Gone with the wind is my favorite and I don't even know how many times I have read it.

When there is sport on the TV he seem to forget that I am in the room at all. He didn't used to do that. Even if it hadn't really irritated me that much earlier, now all of a sudden it's too much.

The people we hang out with are mostly Peter's friends and their girlfriends. They often come over to our house for a beer or pizza and to watch sport. Often it is only the guys while I take my book sitting down on the swing on my front porch, or in my favorite armchair far away from the loud living room. When his friends are around, I feel like ground service; the maid. I am the maid and the game on TV is the wife to be; or is she the young and hot mistress and I the old shanty wife?

This has pretty much been our weekly routines and I never had any problems with that in the past, but nowadays I feel the need to get away.

I push the hair out of my face, holding it down with scrunchie while I strap my running shoes on and get out of the house. I listen to the sounds of the wind rustling in the shrubbery and trees, and the birds chirping song. My creative job has my brain on alert all the time, but this is my breathing pause. This is where I reload my batteries, letting all thoughts fade out and letting my brain rest.

The hot summer air is fading into fall, and I long for a dense forest scent to be released. I don't know why, but I have always loved a slightly moist, pungent smell of leaf and moss, even if that is a rare thing here in Phoenix. This is my favorite part of the day, where I can be alone with nature. This is the forest where I used to play as a kid; my granny's back yard. When I run here along the red sandstone paths, well known to me, I can let go of all thoughts and weird dreams of non existing neighbors.

At nights though, I start dreaming of some dark stranger, standing by my bed. He always has his eyebrows knit in a tight line and looks at me as if I'm some puzzle he needs to figure out. Those dreams always wake me up panting and they are hard to shake off.

I start to google the matter at hand and the only answer I can find is that this dream will return to me again and again as long as I haven't interpret the meaning. It seems that this is some phobia that I have to come to terms with, according to the posts on the dreamsites I find. Finally I have to tell my friend about those dreams and how they started when I dreamt that somebody moved into the house opposite ours.

"Is it the dark stranger that Esmeralda talked about?" Eddie teases.

Esmeralda!

I had almost forgotten about her premonition. It must have been her statement that has me dreaming about dark, dangerous strangers! I purse my lips in annoyance while thinking of the stupid visit at the fair. The feeling in my dreams of being watched is definitely disturbing, but it is the stupid psychic that makes me fear the dark one. Oh God, did I just refer to this guy as 'the Dark One'? What is this; the freaking 'Once upon a time'? Perhaps I'm just losing my mind?

Eddie finds it hilarious and keep teasing me, pointing out different guys when were out walking together in town. "Oh, oh that guy is good looking, too bad he's blond," she smirks.

"Will you give it a rest? I'm spoken for," I mutter annoyed.

"Oh yeah; Prince Charming!" Eddie is rolling her eyes. They have never gotten along and I don't know, but I have a feeling that she perhaps wanted him in the first place, but he was more interested in me. However I have never confronted her with that theory. "You are just so mismatched," she continues.

"Are you sure you don't want me to find some dark stranger for you?" I tease back.

"Yeah, if you can, I won't mind," she laughs, making me laugh with her. Since the day Eddie and I got to know each other she has always had a way to make me smile, and I'd do everything for her.

However much I try to shake it off though, I end up looking around at every dark-haired guy I see.

"See, now you're doing it again," Eddie teases.

Surprised I look around, just to realize what she means. "Stop it!" I snap at her.

"You stop it," she retorts with a glib smile. "What are you gonna do if you find him? Did she really say he was a looker?" With a smirk, she lifts a single mocking eyebrow, making me grind my teeth. "He might be even uglier than that guy you're sharing your morning paper with."

"Peter is not ugly!" I defend him with honesty; perhaps he's not a model, but he certainly isn't ugly. "No she didn't say the dark haired one would be a looker! And no, I'm not looking, and what if I was looking, that's not prohibited!" I'm not sure why I defend myself at that range, because I'm not looking around.

* * * * * * * *

So this is a little preview; the first chapter...

I hope I have caught your interest,

Please let me know.

Love, VeGirl

.