The night Ava made to leave her boyfriend's, she had used his bathroom more than twice as her bowels kept yelling to be emptied almost every five minutes. All of a sudden, his home nauseated her.
Her temperature started to rise in a matter of hours but she told no one about it.
When Poor Ethan tried to feel her neck, she moved away from him like someone suddenly stung by a black ant. He already made her night by promising to find a way for both of them to travel to New York because she insisted she wanted to be with him, but that moment, she needed to cry and do some ranting and didn't want to ruin his good mood too.
She had the urge to leave immediately, against his wish, but she fought it hard, and forced her smiles.
She remembered eventually yielding when it became so unnerving
"Ethan, I have to get back home now, to bed, please see me off" and he stared at her like she just uttered gibberish.
Ava saw his face fall as he gently and insistently pulled her out towards the road that night.
It was insane for her to want to return home at half past 10, they both knew, and so they turned back into his house after dragging their feet a few minutes down the alley, like lost souls.
"What's up? You don't look too good"
"I'm okay" she simply said, her boyfriend locking the door firmly behind her.
It was not something she regularly said to him because he took it as a common lie, but now, she wanted to be left alone to her weird world, because even he would not understand if she explained to him what it was that troubled her.
Funnily enough even, For the first time since it's been happening, say four years, Ava craved the warmth of her stranger's damp towel on her chest and forearms that night. He touched them everytime she was wounded, like now, emotionally, even if it's only in her dream.
She needed him, and so she expected him to come that night, as she snuggled close to Ethan on the couch once more.
Sleep kept trying to escape her eyes and she thought of a way to call it back quicker.
"Ethan, please sing me a lullaby" she mumbled.
And so, he began to sing, with his sonorous, budding masculine voice a song that brought back good memories that didn't look too good when you think about them now. The sound of it brought tears to her eyes and she let them flow.
It was Tyler's favorite song to her.
The tears allowed her drift into sleep faster than she expected, and there in her dream was her stranger, with his damp towel wiping the tears off her face. Ava named him after her late brother, 'Tyler' even though he didn't look anything like him facially, but at least he was as caring. Tyler used to wipe her tears and rock her whenever she got scolded by either Mam or Papa.
Ava knew her stranger's face perfectly but never saw him in real life. His reappearance in her sleep could have made her uncomfortable but all he did was wipe her tears and wounds, so it was okay.
"Thank you Tyler" Ethan heard her mumble sleepily. He stopped singing immediately, and kissed her on the cheek.
"It's okay, baby. I'm here" he whispered, rubbing her hair.
**********************************
It was exactly 5am when Ava flashed her blue eyes open. Her wish had come true but it had come along with a bad luck. She got up slowly and found herself already neatly laid on a bed, instead of a couch.
Ethan's body was rolled up in a sleeping bag on the floor very close to the bed.
"Oh my!" She watched him on the floor and shook her head. She was tempted to wake him and talk to him about her dream, and tell him that she was dying to know who her stranger was. She was uncertain if he existed in real life.
"How could he wipe my tears and make me cry again? Why did he make me cry after wiping my tears?" Ava soliloquied absentmindedly.
"Why did he have to hurt me this time?"
"I don't even know..."
"Babe" Ethan's groggy voice broke through her thoughts. He had not been asleep afterall. Ava fell back to bed and shut her eyes tight when she heard his sleeping bag's zip snap open.
"Ava?" He called, shaking her half awake body.
She waited for him to give up and he did after five minutes. He must have known that she was not about to talk to him.
They soon fell asleep again but at quarter past 6, Ava screamed out of sleep and this time, she had to tell him everything.
"It's high time I spoke to you" her quivering voice echoed through early dawn.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I'll tell you everything. I don't know if you'll understand it because I don't, but I'll tell you nevertheless" Ava swallowed hard.
"Go on please" Ethan held her and rocked her on his thighs.
"Something bad is about to happen to us, Ethan"
"This is your one thousandth time of saying that. Why do you keep saying it?" His face fell
"You have to believe me, Ethan. I don't just say anything and I'm not trying to be negative." She swallowed again, fidgeting with her hands.
"What is the matter then?"
Ava got up and knelt before him. "I think I have bad luck. Believe me or not, I tell you. It might be true.
I don't want you taken away from me. Please break up with me, Ethan." Slowly, the memory of the day he didn't attend a test and she went to find him flashed in her head. She was certain that someone had been following him but ran into the woods because she was there with him.
"Nonsense. You need more sleep I think" he got up to leave.
"Sometimes I think they want me, not you" she uttered, standing.
"You don't make any sense right now. Go back to bed" he said, walking out of the room.
"No Ethan. Granny died because I held on too much! Tyler too! I don't want to lose you too. I keep seeing this guy in my dream and all he ever did was clean my wounds and calm me but last night, he tied my hands and tortured me. I saw his face very well but I don't know him. I have a feeling he's one of the boys of Tuscaloosa and he's out to get me or you" She said without stopping to catch her breath.
"Sometimes I think it's just you they want" she whispered, flopping on a chair, almost totally surrendering to her inner battles. "Or me,", she said, "Or us" she sobbed.
"Ava" Ethan turned back and made her sit on the bed instead. He scratched his hair and breathed in deeply.
"Talk to me, slowly, carefully. I'm listening now" he held her shoulders and stared into her frightened eyes.