Soul Searcher Book 1
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I wait patiently (sort of), as I am now accustomed to finding myself in this dream state. Instead of chilling on the ledge as I usually do, tonight I find myself leaning against one of the cement pillars trying to look casual as I anticipate Cassie’s arrival. About five minutes after I arrived, she made her appearance. Her eyes light up when she spots me and then she rushes towards me, throwing herself into my arms. My arms automatically wrap around her, and I chuckle before asking, “hey, are you okay?”

Cassie shakes her head no against my chest and then pulls back from me so she can look into my eyes. “After Ginny and I arrived back at my apartment, we got into a wicked fight. We’ve never fought like that before.” I can see the hurt and sadness in her eyes, and I lift my right hand placing my thumb against her cheek to wipe away a runaway tear drop.

“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Resting the side of her face against my chest she shakes her head no, “just hold me for a second.” Cassie whispers as she wraps her arms around my waist, squeezing me closer to her. Lowering my head, I place a kiss on the top of her head before hugging her tight to me. We stand that way for a few minutes before I feel her sigh against me and then loosen her hold upon me. Stepping away from me she looks into my eyes giving me a sad, tired smile. “Thank you, I needed that.”

“Of course,” I laugh that she has felt the need to thank me. “I will hold you forever if you want me to.” I know it’s a cheesy line but it’s true. The stupid grin slips across my face. “You want to do something we haven’t done in this dream yet,” I ask with a wicked glint in my eyes.

“Uh, should I be nervous?” She laughs as I slip my hand into hers and pull her from where we are standing, tugging her hand to follow me.

“No, well, I don’t think so. I thought we could explore this place. You know, to see if either of us recognize anything so we can try to figure out why we always end up in this same place... I mean if I’m sharing a dream with you, there are definitely many other places I could think of to meet rather than an empty abandoned building.” I shrug nonchalantly, trying to give the impression that it’s not something I’ve thought about or questioned although I have asked myself plenty of times as to why this is where we always end up meeting.

“Okay, sure. I’ve been curious about why here, too.” Cassie smiles as she squeezes my hand a little tighter and we begin to wander down the quiet if not creepy darkened hallway.

Cassie walks with Rim curious as to where the hallway will lead them. As they wander aimlessly with no general direction a strange feeling begins to creep up her spine causing her to shiver. “Are you cold? Do you want to wear my hoodie,” Rim asks as he notices the shiver.

She shakes her head no, “I have this weird nagging feeling like I should know this place. There’s a sense of familiarity but when I try to grab the memory, it skitters away, just dancing at the edge of my mind. I don’t know it’s weird.” Cassie glances around, peeking into the deserted rooms as they walk by them. Before Cassie can elaborate on this feeling, she has a weird sensation of being pulled from Rim before she realizes it though, it is Rim who is being pulled away from her and out of the dream state this time leaving her standing in the dark and empty hallway, her hands grasping at nothing but air as he disappears. Stomping her foot like a toddler Cassie shouts, “dammit!”

**

“Fa-ah-ck!” I exclaim as I sit upright in bed, pissed that I have been unceremoniously woken in the middle of the night. Looking around the room, I try to figure out what has caused me to be pulled from Cassie so suddenly and see my phone lighting up as it vibrates and rings on the top of my nightstand. Grabbing it, I swipe my index finger across the screen and hit the green phone icon. “Hello.”

“Hey buddy, what you doing?”

“I was sleeping Samael and you woke me in the middle of a dream...” I’m sure he can hear the aggravation in my voice, but he doesn’t acknowledge it in the slightest.

“My bad dude,” Samael laughs finding it funny that he has woken me from sleep. “I’m not used to you taking on human habits and taking on their sleep patterns.”

Not wanting to continue a conversation I ask, “what do you want? I’d sort of like to go back to sleep...”

“Oh, right so I called to let you know I’m coming down that way. I’ve a few ‘jobs’ to attend to in the area so I thought I’d visit with you, see how things are going.” For some reason Samael telling me this causes me to become more alert and focused. The last thing I want is for him to be down here especially because I haven’t attempted to search for his pure soul since having acquired the amulets.

“Uh, really? Um, cool. When will you arrive?” I run my hand through my hair nervously as I wait for him to respond.

“The way things are looking; I should arrive Sunday evening.” I breathe a sigh of relief because this gives me roughly two and a half days to prepare for his arrival and hopefully, I’ll be able to provide him with a location of the soul and he won’t feel the need to stick around and visit with me.

“Alright, cool. I’ll see you then. Now, can I go back to sleep?” I pretend to yawn, and I hear Samael chuckle because of my human habit.

“Yeah, sure dude, I’ll see you Sunday.”

“Bye.”

Sighing, I glance at the screen of my phone to see the time and grumble to myself because it’s only 4:45 in the morning. Throwing the blanket aside, I get out of the bed and head into the kitchen. Nothing like being woken up and then knowing there isn’t a chance in hell of falling back to sleep. I need a very strong pot of black coffee!

Polishing off the last of the coffee I had made, I walk to the front door to put on my favorite hoodie because just like yesterday, today will just barely make it into the seventies and it gives me reason to wear it as a means to ‘keep warm.’ “Damn,” I mutter to myself. I had forgotten that I leant Cassie that particular hoodie and she hadn’t given it back before we parted ways yesterday. I’m not mad though as an image of her drowning in it pops into my mind causing a small smile to appear. I walk to my bedroom and grab a nondescript grey one that is insanely soft on the inside causing me to sigh as I slip it over my head.

As I go to leave, I turn back around and mutter to myself again as I remember I haven’t put the amulets on yet. Quickly I go and retrieve them from the bathroom and slip them over my head, placing them under the white tee shirt I have on, so they rest against my chest. The stones feel weird for just a moment and then their weight seems to just disappear from around my neck. Finally, I leave the house.

***

Cassie wakes up more curious about the abandoned building she and Rim shared their dream world in. Picking up her phone from off the nightstand, opening an app., she pulls up the search bar and types in burned, abandoned hospitals near me’ and waits as information populates. To her surprise, only a few results appear. Clicking on one of the links offered, she pulls up a news article and begins to read it: It is still unclear at this moment what has caused the explosion in the west wing of the Saint Claria hospital days ago. All the patrons have safely been relocated to the nearby hospitals and no casualties have been reported. Some employees were said to have incurred minor injuries but that is all that has been said. As the story develops, we will continue to report. At the end of the article there is the journalists’ name and the date. Cassie stares at the date as she does the math in her head realizing that the explosion at the hospital coincided within the time frame of her car accident.

What are the odds she thought as she backed out of that link and continued to pull up the other few offered to view. All articles pretty much reported the same information, but no further updates were included. I wonder if I had been in that hospital? I wonder if there’s some way for me to find out...

Pulling the first link up once more, Cassie looked to see who had written the article. Tanya Wolf was the author, and it was lit up in blue indicating a link tied to the name. Cassie moved her mouse, positioning so the arrow hovered over the name and then clicked it. Excitement began to run through her as the attached link was connected to the journalist’s email. Without a second thought she began writing asking Tanya if any more information had come up in regard to the explosion. She explained that she had been a patient in that hospital and that she had amnesia and was hoping for any knowledge Tanya might be privy to that had never been released to the public. After proofreading it, Cassie smiled satisfied with the letter and then sent the email. Crossing her fingers in hopes of a response, she went into her bathroom to shower and ready herself for the day.

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