Doom Sayer_A City of Crows Novel by Clara Coulson

Author:Clara Coulson [Coulson, Clara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781981444373
Amazon: 1981444378
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2017-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I wake to ash-fall sewn inside a long-forgotten dream. Or should I say a nightmare? A recurring nightmare. One of those abominable childhood memories that haunt you in your darkest moments, that batter down the doors you locked them behind the moment you grew old enough to repress experiences instead of dwell on them. One of those nasty, lingering shadow creatures that latch onto your neck in your moments of greatest weakness and strangle you until you cannot breathe. This dream…I replayed it a million times before I forced myself to lock it away. And yet, here it is, unfolding around me all over again.

Except this time, there’s something different about it. There’s a lot different about it.

I blink into awareness, standing next to a familiar fire hydrant. A few steps away, opposite the hydrant, there’s a wooden bench with metal legs. I’m only marginally taller than the back of this bench, my line of sight even with the highest board. Something about that detail strikes me as odd, and it takes me a second to remember that I’m twenty-three years old, an adult, and while I’m not a tall man, I’m not that short either. My vantage point should be way higher.

But it’s not, because in this dream, in this nightmare, in this memory, I’m eight years old. Which is a strange thing for me to remember at a time like this, strange because in the past, I’ve never been aware I was dreaming, never been aware I was remembering events long past until the moment I woke up crying, shaking, a scream lost in my throat. Now, however, I’m fully aware. Aware of my surroundings. Aware of the situation. Aware of the giant wall of flame consuming the bakery directly across the street from where I’m standing.

Aware that in a matter of minutes, my mother will be dead, and there’s nothing my eight-year-old self can do to save her.

My body makes a sniffling sound without my input, and I realize this iteration of the nightmare is more like a ride-along. I’m seeing through my own eyes, but my body and my mind are disconnected. My child self is controlling every moment, every stifled sob, every shudder, scared because a fire is raging in front of him and his mother is inside, trying desperately to save the last employee stuck inside the burning building. Little Cal is terrified, but I’m not. I’m more confused than anything else.

This isn’t how my nightmare of this day unfolds. How it’s supposed to unfold.

In front of the bakery, there should be five employees, injured but alive. In reality, my mom dragged them out of the burning building, one at a time, dropped them off at a safe distance, and then went back inside to save the rest. At this point in the memory then, mere minutes before my mother dies, they should still be in front of the bakery, coughing up a storm from minor smoke inhalation but otherwise unharmed. And yet,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.