Fever Dream

Chapter 12

It's day 3. Ethan calls me bright and early in the morning. The call wakes me up. I let it go to voicemail. After taking space, I realize that I don't wish to press charges. But I don't want to talk to him either. 

 I fall back asleep. My phone vibrates a second time. It's Ethan again. Then a third and a fourth time until I put it on silent. My voicemail is transcribed through text. The text reads: "Yo Diana, my lawyer is willing to meet with you now if you still want to go through with this court stuff. But from the looks of it, you cool now. So it's settled then." 

 He follows up with a text. "Let me know if you just wanna catch up and talk then. I mean that was part of the agreement. No?"

 I ignore the text and do my best to go back to sleep when a bird pops up near the window again. "What in the world?" It's staring at me but not doing much else." I sit upright, questioning if I should let it in. The bird stares at me, I stare back. 

Suddenly, I get a notification on my phone. It's an article that reads: "Answer when you hear the call." I look back at the window and the bird is gone. I brush it off, and begin to ease myself into a deep slumber. Finally, I am dreaming. Though my body temperature feels oddly warm throughout the night.

In the dream, a woman is holding what seems like the infant version of me over a cauldron of some sort, chanting incantations. The cauldron is boiling hot. I'm screaming and crying. The woman begins to chant louder and louder until the flames beneath the cauldron begin to bleed around to the sides of the pot. 

The woman is sweating profusely. Her eyes embody hysteria. She attempts to throw me into the Cauldron, but the man I saw at the park stops her mid motion. He puts a hand against my baby body to keep me from the cauldron.

 He looks at the woman and says "Leave her." The woman falls to the ground. He is holding me while looking over her. He seems worried. I'm crying very loudly. The cauldron is still bubbling.