It felt so good to run, plus it was her secret to maintaining her well toned legs and perfect sun kissed tan. All her other friends wasted forty dollars a month to go bake in a tanning bed, but running the trail around the lighthouse was much more satisfying, and much less expensive. She would never tell anyone of her secret retreat, not even David. It was her chance to have her alone time and reflect on the current status of her life.
Even though Hallie was confident with her body, she felt a little self conscious running in just her sports bra and shorts but hardly anyone knew about this trail so she figured mostly likely no one would see her. As beautiful as she was, she wasn’t the type of girl that felt the need to go around flaunting herself.
Colorful flowers on the side of the trail blurred while Hallie ran faster and faster. The slope was becoming increasingly difficult to run but she greatly accepted the challenge anxious to get to the top. She could feel her face becoming flushed with redness and her hair starting to soak with perspiration. She was relieved when she saw that she was almost at the lighthouse.
Hallie came to a halt once she approached the bottom stairs to the lighthouse trying to catch her breath. She looked up at her destination in awe even though she had seen it several times. Something about it was beautiful, it felt like a part of her. It was a historical landmark that aged over a century. It had once served for sailors lost at sea, but had been empty for a long time and now simply stood as an adornment to the scenery.
Hallie normally climbed over the harmless little “ No Trespassing” chain and made her way up the long flight of stairs to see the view of the ocean, but she desperately needed to rest first. The run took more out of her than she thought. She plopped down in the long grass that surrounded the lighthouse, promising herself she would get up in a minute. Christian unexpectedly floated into her mind on the breeze that began lulling her into slumber.
“ Do I have to think about Christian everywhere I f*****g go?,” Hallie asked herself.
S
he closed her blue eyes trying to put him from her mind. The tall grass shaded the view of the sun and so she easily drifted to sleep. She began dreaming about already being on top of the lighthouse and simply staring out at the gorgeous view.
In her dream the sun was beginning to set and the lighthouse was brilliantly lit as it swirled along the surface of the ocean. For some reason Hallie dreamed she was wearing a long navy blue Victorian dress which gracefully fluttered in the wind. The breeze gently turned into someone’s arms and made their way around her shoulders.
“ I’m here,” a said a distinctive voice.
She stood in place without fear as if she’d been waiting for this moment a long time.
“ I knew you’d come,” Hallie sighed feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off of her.
Hallie felt the touch of fingers clasp a necklace around her neck, a gold locket. She clutched it tightly as if she’d finally been given her heart back. She closed her eyes somehow feeling completely renewed. Before she could open her eyes to look, her face was slowly taken into a long-lasting warm kiss that made her shiver. She could still taste cinnamon even after she parted her lips from him.
When she opened her eyes Christian stood before her, and was dressed in a vintage type suit covered in a long black cape, he looked gorgeous. His hair was tied back and he looked like a character out of a Jane Austen novel. Hallie had no idea why this was. Looking around she noticed that the sky appeared golden brown, like that of an old photograph withered away with time. Her body fell so light as if she might float away.
From behind her Christian wound his arms snugly around Hallie’s small waist resting his chin on her shoulder.
“ What year is it?” Hallie asked over the tranquil wind. She didn’t dare move from her comfortable spot with him around her.
“ Oh no that doesn’t matter here,” Christian replied softly. Hallie could tell from his voice that he wasn’t high on drugs, or drunk, or angry. He was just Christian, just the way she loved him. It felt comfortable seeing that again after so long.
“Are we in another world?” Hallie asked.
“ We are in another time, and another life, but not another world. As long as we are in this world you and I belong together forever. Long after we die we will be together again and again and so on. It is a cycle that can’t stop,. No matter how much one of us won’t want to be with the other in the next life, or the or the next one after that, that’s where we will naturally end up, together,” Christian explained to her looking out at the sea.
“ I could never imagine wanting to be without you,” Hallie said turning around. She suddenly became filled with worry.
“ This is all going away isn’t it?” Hallie cried.
“ Yes for now, but I’ll come back in time,” Christian said reassuringly.
“ No! You are not going again,” Hallie grabbed hold of his arm with one hand and tried to clutch her locket with the other but it was gone.
“ Where is my locket? Why do you have to go?” Hallie sobbed looking into his face which stood out bright from the rest of the background.
“ I have your heart. If I go I have to take it with me, I’m sorry that is just the way it works. I love you Natalie.”
Hallie didn’t know why he called her Natalie but it felt like her name. “ I love you too William, please stay,” the word that came out of her mouth felt like his name too.
“ You know I can’t,” Christian, or William or whoever he was smiled. He then descended down the spiral stairs of the lighthouse and his image disappeared like a ghost.
Hallie looked to the beach below for him but saw nothing and stood there alone.
“ Hello? Hello Ms.? Uh are you alright?”
“ Huh?” Hallie woke up squinting at the harsh sunlight. She shielded her face with her hand.
“ My name is Ted, I’m a park ranger here. You fall asleep or something?” a fat slightly balding man asked.
“ Yeah, oh my gosh I’m sorry. I was on my run and fell asleep,” Hallie said in disbelief. “ I was just….having this dream…,” Hallie said looking up at the top of the lighthouse.
“ That’s nice…it’s getting pretty dark and no one is allowed up there Ms.” he suspiciously said as he watched Hallie eyeing the lighthouse. Apparently he took his job quite seriously.
“ I’m sorry,” Hallie nodded and picked herself up. She could feel that she had marks from the grass all over her face, thank god it was kind of dark. She was about to make her way down the trail but turned herself back around instead.
“ Hey do you know anything about this lighthouse?” she called after the ranger.
“ Like what Ms.?” Ted asked tiredly walking back to her.
“ Like who first owned it?”
“ It went through several owners, but the first people who founded it were the Fenris family,” he rattled off as if he’d said it a thousand times before. “ They didn’t have it too long, after they were gone it immediately got bought by someone else,”
“ Why what happened?” Hallie asked curiously.
“ Well Mr. Fenris went out to sea one day and never came home. After a few years of waiting Mrs. Fenris eventually ended her own life. Some people say they saw her walk right into the ocean there,” Ted pointed. “They say she was trying to return back to him.”
“ Wow,” Hallie uttered.
“ Yeah she’s buried in the cemetery a few miles away from here. They never found his body but in respect they made one for William Fenris right next to hers.”
Hallie froze at the name lost in shock. It stayed silent for quite a long time before the ranger said, “ Well…I better get going, you should too. Nice talking to you,” he said turning around to leave.
“Wait!“ Hallie exclaimed, “His name was William?”
“Yeah William. William and Natalie Fenris.”
“No….” Hallie had to sit back down on the grass.
“ You ok Ms.?” The park ranger asked confused at her reaction.
Hallie placed her hand over her mouth. This couldn’t be happening. Talk about a bad case of deja-vou. No god damnit this definitely couldn’t be happening.
“ I’m gonna go now!” Hallie yelped hysterically and quickly got up to head down the hill.
“ Alright….take care” Ted said bewildered.
Hallie sprinted into what was now nighttime, her heart nearly pounding its way out of her chest.
“ What the hell!” Hallie screamed out loud not caring if the park ranger heard her or not.
“It was just a dream,” she kept repeating to herself silently concentrating as hard as one could while running.
Hallie always thought of herself as a little bit psychic. Every now and then she would be in a random conversation which she felt she’d had before, possibly in her dreams, but this was downright ridiculous. She wanted to kick herself for asking about the damn lighthouse. It was probably just some ghost story the guy made up.
If that were true then why did she dream the exact names? And why in the hell did she feel like she really was those people? No, she was Hallie Marie Harris. Not some dead girl that drowned herself over a guy. When Christian left her she didn’t drown herself. So she might have had months of watching sappy movies like “Jerry Maguire” and “Dirty Dancing”, and then eating chocolate frosting straight out of the can without icing it onto anything except into her mouth, but she definitely wasn’t the type of girl to kill herself over a man.
Still she couldn’t help but feel for a woman who lost the one she loved. She remembered the pain of waking up to Christian being gone, and not knowing for years if he was dead or alive.
There had always been that strange connection she felt to the lighthouse . Maybe she had such a connection that she simply dreamed about the history while she was asleep, and since she had been thinking about Christian so much he had accidentally worked his way into her dream.
What could the other possibility be? That she was some girl named Natalie in another life? Married to Christian? Or William….and both of them got reborn into completely different people? He explained it so well in the dream, and Hallie remembered the words clearly: As long as we are in this world you and I belong together forever.
But that wasn’t true. It wasn’t true now and it wasn’t even true then. Christian left Hallie, William left Natalie. Guys were a******s even back then.
Hallie finally reached her little white BMW parked in the beach parking lot. She opened her car door, sat down, and leaned her head against the leather seat out of breath. She couldn’t believe how fast she’d ran back, usually it took her at least a good half hour, but this time it only seemed like a few minutes.
“ It’s just a stupid coincidence,” Hallie commanded herself before she could think any longer about it. She’d be home soon enough and she’d forget all about what happened. Hopefully.
Hallie pulled off the dirt parking lot and headed out on the road back home. She couldn’t help but take one last glimpse at her lighthouse, especially since she didn’t have any desire coming back. This was all far too creepy.
She was about to put her eyes back on the road when she surprisingly saw the lighthouse flicker on and rotate across the dark water the same way it did in her dream.
The park ranger must have turned it on for some reason, Hallie explained to herself quickly.
She couldn’t help but stare at the mesmerizing light and pulled over to the side of the road so she wouldn’t crash her car. A memory of her dream unexpectedly struck inside her. The golden locket. She had one just like it since childhood, that she got as a Christmas present when she was seven years old.
Hallie couldn’t help but wonder if Natalie Fenris had one just like it. What was real and what was a dream became a haze of uncertainty, except for the one thing she couldn’t deny: That Christian took her golden locket with him when he left. He still had it, she was sure of it.
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