I was running away from them.
My baby was crying in my arms as I tried to shush him.
"Please don't cry baby, we need to get as far away as possible from them," I spoke urgently as my frail legs ran as fast as I could.
The biting cold was harsh my already thin frame. My baby's lips started turning white. I glanced at how my baby boy stopped crying. I continued running until the town was far behind us and all I could see in front of us were just a field of thick snow.
It was hard to walk through the snow. Each step took all I had to forge on.
My baby's lips turned blue.
"Oh Lord, please don't let anything happen to him," I prayed to God and caught sight of an old church up the hill to the left of the snow-covered path.
"Hang on there, baby, we are almost there," I whispered to him.
The falling snow was heavier as the minutes ticked by. Soon we were caught in a blizzard.
With much difficulty we managed to reach the old church.
My heart sank as I saw that it was a dilapidated and abandoned church. It only meant one thing, no warm fire to save my baby.
I went inside anyway as that was the only shelter available for miles on end. There was no fire wood by the fire place. No blankets, no rugs or anything that I could use to warm us up. All my baby had was me. I cuddled him closer.
"I'm sorry baby boy. I'm sorry I don't have enough fat to warm you up. I am so sorry my baby... please forgive me, I am not a good mother, I cannot even keep you warm," I cried as I felt his pulse slowing down. His entire face was blue and his breathing was shallow.
I was losing my baby.
"No, God! Lord if you can hear my prayer I am at your House right now please let my baby live! You can take my live, please let my baby live!!! Please Lord I beg you," I kept repeating my prayer believing if I prayer hard enough God will really grant my wish and let me trade my life for my baby's life.
I did not know how long I prayed. When I finally checked on my son he was cold and dead. God did not help us. My prayers went unanswered. I wished the Earth would just open up and swallow me up as I lost the will to live on. I had lost my son, what else was there for me to live for?
I wailed and howled like the wolf. The pain in my heart was too much to bear. After crying my heart out, still cradling my baby in my arms, I felt sleepy and lay down on the cold stone floor of the abandoned church.
My last thoughts before I lost consciousness was, "God failed me."
*************************
Theeya woke up in cold sweat.
She was sobbing uncontrollably.
"Theeya, are you alright? You look like someone just died," Jeff's concerned face looked at her.
She sobbed even harder.
"I dreamt that I lost my baby. I could not protect him. He died in my arms," her body was shaking with her continued sobbing.
Jeff took her into his embrace and hugged her tight.
"It's just a dream. You don't have a baby," he reminded her.
"But it's so real! And it felt so real! I was running away from the red eyes again!" She shouted in anger, pushing him away and wriggling out of his embrace.
"How dare he say it was not real," she thought to herself.
"Okay, I'm sorry. It must have been terrible to relive the memory of losing a child like that," Jeff looked at her and sighed.
"Do you want a glass of water?" He asked and poured a glass of water anyway when Theeya did not say anything.
She continued to sob uncontrollably. There was so much sadness and grief inside of her it did not make sense because she never had a child ever in her 25 years on Earth.
She refused the glass of water from Jeff and cried herself back to sleep.
Early the next morning at 6am, after a fretful dreamless two hours of sleep, Theeya was up. The memories of a mother losing her child flooded back to her and she started tearing up again. Jeff was already up doing his morning routine when he heard Theeya crying again.
"Here we go again," he groaned inwardly.
He decided to take a shower and let her be.
The two times that he tried to interfere with her dreams, the first time she bit down hard on his hand, drawing blood. The second time he was shouted at and his help was not wanted.
"Women," he counted his blessings and reminded himself of his good choice of not getting attached to a woman and get stuck with raising a family.
After a good 30-minute cry, Theeya calmed down and finally went into the bathroom and took a long shower. The clock showed 7.30am and she had been in the shower for a good 45 minutes. Jeff got worried as she never took such a long time in the bathroom so far. The shower was still turned on, never turned off the entire 45 minutes. There was also a possibility that Theeya would try to drown herself. Jeff was prancing around the room as he looked at the clock.
"At most she would just take 20 minutes for a shower. This is getting too long," he thought.
He started shouting at the door, "Theeya! Theeya! What is taking you so long? Come on open the door!"
He waited for half a minute. No response. He could hear the shower was still running.
"Theeya, if you don't answer me I am coming in!!!" He shouted.
The bathroom had no door anyway, only a door curtain.
Jeff waited another 30 seconds and there was no reply, the shower still running.
He went through the door and saw a fully clothed Theeya huddled up under the shower, laying down on the bathroom tile.
"What are you doing!?! You may catch a cold!" He turned off the shower and threw a towel over her body and carried her back out to the room.
Placing her on the water bed, the bed sank down with her body weight.
Theeya's eyes were dull and unresponsive. It looked like she had lost the will to live.
Jeff did not know what to do with her wet clothes that clung to her body like a second skin.
He picked up the phone and dialed Dawood's number.
"Dawood can you please spare a chambermaid for a bit?" Jeff then explained the predicament to Dawood.
Five minutes later an elderly lady came into the room and helped to change Theeya out of her wet clothes into a dry outfit.
Jeff gave the lady a generous tip and took a look at Theeya whose eyes were fixed to the ceiling. Her eyes were listless, it looked like she lost a big part of her soul.
"We are meeting the Dream interpreter today. Maybe you can talk to her about your dream?" Offered Jeff.
Finally she turned to look at Jeff dead in The Eye and said, "I am your mother, Jeff. And you didn't wait for me, you chose to be reincarnated first."