Page 2 of Little Sparrow

The screams of faceless people surround me. Men and women getting closer and closer. Their blurred faces and bloodied clothing are ready to grab me. I clutch my head and beg them to leave me alone, knowing I sound weak.

They stop reaching for me, and silence coats the room. When I look up, they are splitting open a path for someone else. A young woman bathed in light takes small steps toward me, looking around.

Pink shorts with little red hearts on them. She looks young, maybe around sixteen, but I can’t be too sure. I stare at her and work my way up her body- from her legs. She has a slim figure, and her honey-blonde hair tumbles over her shoulders. The memory of the woman earlier today flicks into my mind before I shake it away and turn back. The faceless still surround me, but not as close anymore. Are they my own demons haunting me?

It’s like she’s an Angel scaring away the faceless demons as the light surrounding her makes her glow. However, I don’t even get to see her face properly. Her arms were bent up to shield her eyes like this was her nightmare.

Chapter two

Rose

London, United Kingdom

Ahoardofscreamingpeople stands in front of me, all facing away. I don’t know where I am or how I got here. I could have sworn I was in bed a moment ago. I’m even still wearing my pyjamas, and the cold floor beneath my bare feet makes me shiver. As I walk toward the people, they all fall silent and turn to watch me approach. They have no faces and I stumble back. Then they part, as if creating a path for me to walk, and that’s when I notice the man standing there. He’s clutching his head as though he’s in pain and he’s looking down at the floor. But when he notices me, his gaze travels up from my feet. I’m feeling slightly self-conscious. I’m not curvy like the girls you see in magazines or on television. My body is slim and I barely have an arse to fill out a pair of shorts.

His almost black hair covers half of his face, but I can see his dark eyes between the strands. I notice a fresh tattoo going along his forearm, a beautiful piece of art on his sun-kissed skin. My eyes narrow as I try to get a better look. I’m too nervous to step closer. When one of the faceless steps forward, I cover my eyes in hope it will leave me alone.

Swiftly, he fades away, curiosity gets the best of me, now that he’s not watching, I rush forward to look around. The faceless people observe me with tilted heads. My breathing gets deeper as panic sets in. The pain on his face looks too real for him to be a dream.

What is happening? I need to talk myself out of this craziness.

The surrounding monsters kneel. I recoil and run back to the way I thought I came, not completely sure which direction the way out was. The room is white like a canvas ready to be painted on.

My eyes flick back to the people, and I know it is insane, but I need answers. A blonde woman raises her head to me as though she has something to say. Warmth spreads over my body. Do I know her? My feet carry me over to speak with her, I try not to stare at the blood stains marking her clothes.

“How do I get out?” my voice is shaky as she rises to her feet. She’s not that much taller than me. Her arm reaches out as she points me toward a small blur on the white wall. I can’t see it until I squint. “Thank you,” I whisper. Still not understanding what’s happening, but it’s a dream and they have been strange and vivid recently, so I’m going with the flow.

My eyes flicker open as I realise I’m back in my bed, the soft sheets covering half my body as I curl up on my side. A pitch-black darkness completely encases my room, and the only sounds are cars outside my window driving past. The coldness of that strange white room slowly melts away the longer my eyes are open. It felt so real.

My phone illuminates as I press the button on the side to check the time. It’s just past one, I’m wide awake now. Not wanting to go back to sleep just yet, I get up and sit at my desk; the man’s face is scorched inside my head. I open my drawer and pull out my sketchpad and pencils, wanting to try and capture the moment I saw him when he looked up at me. I draw him, the hard set of his jaw, dark hair that was longer on the top, faded on the sides and some of it was hanging down, almost covering those haunted eyes like they had imprinted darkness on him, they were seeing, but unseeing at the same time. My hand cramps as the sun comes up hours later; I had drawn him. I stare at it hoping I capture his whole soul into it. Wondering how he would have acted if he had stayed longer. Would his voice have sounded as deep as I am imagining if we spoke?

I breathe in the smell of eggs on toast and pull myself away from my desk. My Dad is cooking me breakfast. As I walk into our small kitchen and sit at the oak round table, he turns to me “Hey sweetie, how did you sleep?” he asks. My eyebrows furrow as I consider my answer. Since my eighteenth birthday, he’s been asking me this like he’s waiting for a new answer.

It’s just me and him here in this small apartment and has been for the last eight years since my mum left. We’re close and share our thoughts, although when I turned sixteen, he became even more overprotective than he already was. I’m not allowed to date and late nights out with friends, I have to be home earlier. He always said to me‘you look just like your mum, people always tried taking advantage of her beauty, I don’t want that to happen to you.’

“I had some weird dreams and couldn’t sleep well.” I shrug as I pour a small glass of orange juice. He stiffens before looking at my face and he gives me a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Too much phone time before bed will do that to you,” he says easily as he waves it away with his hand before placing a full plate in front of me. Poached eggs are my favourite.

As he turns away from me and pours coffee into his travel mug, asking me “Would you like to talk about these dreams?”

I push the egg around with my fork across my plate while resting my chin on the other hand. “It’s like I was trapped in a white cell, but I was in control of what happened there. Monsters kneeled for me. It felt so real. I woke myself up and have been awake since.”

He pulls his lips in and breaks eye contact while sliding back into the chair opposite me. I touch his arm lightly to get his attention. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re just like your mother. I was worried this day would come.” He shakes his head and stands. My spine straightens, “What do you mean?”

He sighs. “I don’t have time right now to explain everything you need, but we will discuss this later in more detail. Just know that for now, your mum saw that room too. It makes you very special.” He kisses me on the forehead before rushing out, the click of the door closing keeps me from asking questions. I give up eating my breakfast as it’s got cold and clean up quickly before changing into my 50s-style blue waitress uniform.

I try to put everything with my dad in the back of my mind when I walk to work. Smiling at the chalkboard outside the door with today’s special on it; our popular butterscotch milkshake. It will be busy.

The small silver bell chimes overhead when I walk in, but the chatter of our customers doesn’t lower in volume at my entrance. They are already sitting in our light blue booths. The smell of bacon coming from the kitchen fills my nose, making my stomach rumble. I guess I’m still a little hungry after skipping half my breakfast. My best friend Jenny looks up at me from a table she's serving and smiles wide. I love it when we get a shift together since she got me this job six months ago.

During the rare moments I get between customers, I think back to my dream. It was strange and I’m wondering what it means. I’ve had nothing like this happen before, not having dreams of people I don’t know in great detail. I’m missing something. My dad mentioned my mum and I’ve been anxious to know all day what he had meant.

Jenny kept looking up at me when she wasn’t busy, I could feel her eyes on me. Everytime I glimpsed at her, she sent me a questioning glance; I shook my head, knowing I have no answers for her anyway. She deflated and carried on with her work, so did I.

Time passed quickly and on my way to the kitchen, Jenny stopped me by gently holding onto my arm, her brown ponytail swinging as she looks around us. “Hey, what's up? You’ve been ignoring me the whole shift. You look terrible, no offence.”

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