Amora opened her eyes slowly to meet Lesley's huge brown ones staring down at her, and the nurse's fingers feeling her wrist area for a pulse. She felt a banging headache as she tried to sit up. Lesley and the nurse helped her to sit, she groaned and looked around .
"ugh! My head aches. What happened ?" she was asking Lesley who had little tears in her eyes.
"your friend and some students brought you here. They said you fainted in the bathroom. May I ask you what happened ?" The blonde nurse was touching her forehead for any sign of fever and asked her if she felt nauseated. Amora gave the nurse a negative nod.
" I'm alright ma'am, just this headache " Amora winced from the headache as she held her forehead.
The nurse smiled at her and began to look through the medicine cabinet. " well, all I see is stress" she said as she found what she was looking for.
"here is aspirin, it'll help with the headache" The nurse handed Amora the Aspirin and a bottle of water. Amora gulped down the drug and then, the nurse dismissed her.
"What happened in there?" Lesley finally spoke as soon as they were away from the clinic.
" uh, I don't know what you are talking about Les" Amora kept walking, hoping that Lesley would drop the topic. She had seen the faceless lady again and the last thing she remembered was the lady reaching for her with her wrinkling hands. How was she going to tell Lesley that she was seeing things? Things that she couldn't explain why she was seeing them.
"I heard you scream Amora, I heard you" Lesley accused.
"um, I thought I saw something but as the nurse said, it's just stress, Les, let it go already. I'm beginning to get more headaches from your many questions" Amora was flinging her arms here and there just to get her point passed to Lesley.
Lesley knew Amora was hiding something from her and she wouldn't take it. They were best friends after all. Lesley blocked Amora's way, hands akimbo, and began to press her for answers.
"come on Les, can't you just let this go? Jeez!"
" let it go? My best friend has been acting all strange today, she yells and passes out in the bathroom, and you ask me to let it go? Come on Mora, what are best friends for? What are you hiding from me? I am your best friend for hell's sake Amora" Lesley glared at Amora demanding answers, answers Amora couldn't give, answers she did not know how to give.
"oh, Les!" Amora started with a sigh. She placed her hands on Lesley's shoulders, she was a foot taller than Lesley.
"we've been friends for like forever Les, I wouldn't hide anything, come on. Nothing is going on with me alright? I need you to trust me when I say I'm perfectly fine. It's just the stress like the nurse said". Amora searched Lesley's eyes for any sign of doubt. She had never had a reason to lie to Lesley before, but she just did and she felt terrible for it. She hoped Lesley bought what she just said, she didn't want to drag her into these unknown twists and turns about her.
Lesley sighed and hugged her friend. "I'm just worried about you"
"you don't need to worry so much Les, I'm fine I swear"
The two friends hugged a little longer before changing the discussion as they continued their walk.
...
Louisa's gym had only a few clients in it as it was evening. She moved from one person to another, instructing and sometimes helping with the equipment. She had retired from the military , a year after her husband's death just to raise her daughter. She had opened the gym some months after retirement and it was always packed except in the evenings when she has to coach older people looking for small fitness routines. She was nice and was always smiling with her clients and the two people who worked for her.
"Louisa can I have a moment please?" a tall dark skinned man well into his fifties, called for her attention.
"um, please excuse me Layla, I'll be with you shortly" She smiled at the small woman whom she had been helping with her glute exercise. She walked over to the man that had called for her. She had her towel over her shoulder just long enough to cover her flat belly a little bit. The joggers she wore, hugged her curves slightly and they moved beautifully as she walked.
"How may I help you Mr James? Trouble with the treadmill?" The man she was talking to was on the treadmill flashing her a million dollar smile.
" no no thanks Louisa, the mill is great. I uh, just wanted to ask if you would be free this Sunday" The man came down from the treadmill and was now standing close, slightly towering over her.
"uh, I'll be hanging with my daughter but I'd be free that evening, why?"
"err I was thinking maybe you would love to go out to dinner with me" The man had a little bit of shyness in his voice as he spoke to Louisa who smiled broadly at him.
"are you asking me on a date Mr James?" Louisa smiled with her reddened face from flushing.
" uh, um, yes, yes you can call it that, please call me Edward or Ed. It'd be nice to have a pretty lady as you to dinner" He smiled at her again. Louisa flushed when he called her pretty. She hadn't gone out in a long while just a couple of dates after Mario's death, nothing serious.
She was about to give him her reply when her eyes caught the black smoke outside the gym. She immediately felt cold as she saw a pair of eyes in that smoke.
"uh, Louisa? Are you alright?" the man turned to check what Louisa was staring at but did not see anything. "um, you can say no, I'll understand" the man added.
"um, no, uh, I mean yes I'll have dinner with you Ed, but right now, I need to close the gym" She replied with a stiff smile as she constantly stared at the "thing" outside. The man gave her his card before stepping out.
Louisa ordered everyone to move their stuff so she could lock the gym and leave which was very strange to her clients.
"I'm sorry Madeline, I'll give you a discount when you pay next month," She said to a woman who had just come in a few minutes before she started talking with Edward.
The figure disappeared and Louisa locked the gym quickly. She got into her car and texted Amora to come to meet her to have dinner before embarking on their trip to SouthPrisford.
Amora arrived at the restaurant that her mother mentioned in her text. She stepped in eyes all over, looking for where her mother sat. She soon spotted her sitting close to the window.
"hey mum, what's up? Why are we leaving here? I thought we would go home and pack our bags?" Amora took a seat opposite her mother.
" Well, I thought maybe we could just go from here and stop by at the Walmart to get nighties, when we settle in, we go shopping" Louisa forced a smile as she spoke. Amora sensed that she was a bit troubled. "everything alright ma?" She asked.
"ah! Yes, yes dear, everything is fine, just uh, work stress. Why don't we order something and you can tell me about your day" Louisa didn't want to tell her about the image she had seen again. She knew Amora might disagree again, little did she know that Amora had also gotten her fair share of seeing things.
Louisa twirled the card the man at the gym had given her.
"What's that?" Amora asked.
"oh it's just the card Mr James gave me, nothing serious" Louisa flushed a little when she remembered her encounter with Mr James.
"ah, I see the flush, I see the flush mum, spill it. Who's Mr James?" Amora's face gleamed with a mischievous smile. Louisa covered her face with her palm, laughing into it like a typical high school girl who was telling her best friend about her crush.
Louisa began to tell Amora about the charming man at the gym and how he had asked her out to dinner Sunday night .
"so are you gonna go?" Amora asked as she sipped on her soda.
"oh I don't know, he's charming and all but I haven't done dates in a long long while" .
"I think you should go. It's been so long since dad died and you've been a lonely Louisa. Come on mum, who knows you might be lucky to take a ride on this James guy" Amora winked at her mother who was red from laughter and environment.
"Oh jeez Mora, rides don't happen like that you know, besides it's been so long. I don't know if I would be able to"
" I trust you will, just let everything flow"
They ate their dinner amidst laughter and random discussions, each one of them avoiding the topic of seeing and hearing strange things.
The drive to SouthPrisford was just three hours. They had played road games and came to a halt just in front of a Walmart to get nighties.
As they neared the door, an automated male voice welcomed them in. Lexi turned herself on when she heard the voice.
"oooh, such a hot voice" She cooed. Her face showed on the watch and she had a blush on her cheeks. Amora had designed her features to be of a blonde teenager.
"seriously Lexi? You are drooling?" Amora and her mother laughed at the android.
"what? So I'm not allowed to drool? You drool all the time when you see Casper" Lexi had a taunting note in her voice.
Amora immediately turned red with embarrassment when Lexi mentioned her drooling on the school's basketball team captain, Casper Merridale.
"you don't have the right over that information Lexi, now shut the hell down," Amora said to Lexi.
Louisa laughed as she watched the drama between her daughter and her android companion.
"so there's a guy?" Louisa asked as they walked towards the clothing section of the Walmart.
"er, it's not as serious as Lexi makes it seem, I just love his scent when he passes "
"ha! You sniffed him?"
"Not like the mum, he just has this scent you know, the one you'd want on your shirt, your palms, and everywhere"
Louisa listened with glee to Amora as she described her crush. She didn't want it to end, but the happenings around her threatened their closeness. She knew sooner or later, they would part ways so she was going to make every moment of it count, she wasn't going to let her baby go that easily, she wasn't going to let whatever it was that was following them take her baby away, not without a fight.
They checked in at the Tents Resort pretty late. The Tents resort, just as the name implied, was a hotel with a camp theme design. It had large furnished tents for rooms. Each tent room had its own veranda and hammocks and bathroom attached to it. The resort had an artificial lake that ran in front of every tent rooms, so instead of pools, the occupants had the lake just in front of them.
"this place must have cost a lot mum" Amora wowed at their tent which had a large bed, television, a fridge filled with chocolates and free Wi-Fi .
"nah, not really expensive baby, I'll do anything for you" Louisa drew Amora in and planted a kiss on her forehead while trying to fight back her tears. She didn't know why she felt emotional all of a sudden, all she knew was that something was coming for them and she wasn't going to let it in without a hard fight.
Amora drifted into a twisted dream. This dream was different from the ones she'd been having for long now. She was standing in an empty bright space. Suddenly, a rocking baby cot appeared and she could hear gargling baby noises. She began to hear a smooth feminine voice humming a lullaby but she couldn't find the owner of the voice.
There was a sudden darkness in the room and the baby began to wail out loud. She could hear the humming voice coughing violently like she was being strangled. Amora tried to get to the baby but there was something blocking her.
"no no let me in please" She yelled but the darkness kept enveloping the space until all she saw was darkness.