Snowscape Trilogy Read online

  I drove home blasting the radio to keep my unwarranted promiscuous thoughts at bay.

  Chapter 3

  The image of the stranger had somehow invaded my dreams. It was a beautiful spring afternoon that held a crisp, chilly wind but standing in the sun made you feel warm and cozy. Too warm in fact, and as I walked along the path that cradled a small stream I was amazed at the temperature difference between the sun and the shade. Much like life, there was no in between here. No warm shade. You were either too hot or desperately chilled. As I continued walking the colors of the grass and creek stood out in their natural boldness. In an inviting patch of clovers I sat down and put my feet into the cool running water and I watched small golden fish scurry by my toes, my mind touching upon many things but finally laying claim to the blonde stranger I had seen twice yesterday. Most people took a bath or relaxed at the beach. I preferred the isolated arena of my dreams in which to mull odd occurrences or important crossroads.

  The sensations in the bar were not unfamiliar to me, and in fact were stronger than anything I had ever felt before while awake. He had obviously noticed some of it, either my discomfort or the images that passed in my mind. The idea felt ludicrous so I let it go and focused on the beauty that surrounded me.

  I felt him approach before I saw him, so as the shade loomed closer over my shoulder I moved to the side so he would have room to sit and join me in my private solitude. As he neared, his shadow fell over me and I noticed that it held none of the chill that the others did. It felt warmer than the sun and as he kneeled behind me I leaned back into his warm inviting embrace. I closed my eyes as the sun beamed through my lids in a soothing, snug cocoon of relaxation. I could feel his heartbeat against my back, and could smell the warm spice that had always accompanied him.

  I had imagined many different scenarios as to which this man was, each more fantastic than the last. A lost magician. Another wayward dreamer. An extraterrestrial? I could feel his smirk without even having to see his face. I had never seen his face in all of my years with him in my shadow. He was always entertained by my musings and I never felt ashamed of them. The sudden thought that he wasn’t real spiked a chill up my spine to my core. Simultaneously he reached his arms around me and held me close to him as he always did when I began to doubt my sanity. I knew that soon my quiet would be coming to an end. That was the way of things and I knew this stranger that invaded my thoughts was going to be the one to break the spell of normalcy I had recently cast over my life.

  My warm, robed friend ran his hands down my arms and held my finger intertwined with his. He stroked our finger together as I felt him nuzzle down into the nape of my neck. He kissed me tenderly below my earlobe and trailed up to where my hair met my chin. I felt goose bumps run their length down my arms and both of my legs. I wrapped his hands around my waist and he held me tighter as I reached up behind and pulled his head closer to me and ran my fingers through his hair catching only a glimpse of black. My memory flashed briefly back to the bar and I imagined my fingers running through dark blonde strands instead of black.

  Suddenly I was alone and cold. I looked up and the sun was gone. He had taken it with him in his jealous retreat.

  Chapter 4

  I sat at The Spot Coffee enjoying a skim latte mulling through the latest development. Alistair had informed me that Ted would be moving in. And although I enjoyed Ted’s companionship greatly, I wasn’t sure how long they would want to deal with a third roommate while they were playing house. Oh and dark strangers in my dreams that were jealous of my waking life. But mostly I didn’t want to have to move.

  Kayla slipped into the seat across from me breaking up my reverie. “You look like hell, Amy.” She sipped her iced chai our of a small paper cup that all employees of The Spot were required to use when on their break and flipped back her long blonde and purple dreads.

  “Thanks,” I sighed. “I slept horribly. You know, the usual.” Like Alistair, Kayla knew I suffered from disturbing dreams but I had never shared how deep the disturbance was. I have been having dreams like this for as long as I could remember. He was always there. He was always trying to control me. He never once did, but the tension between us never seemed to end. There was always a little give and take on either end and I knew he was always holding back from me. I had done a lot of study on Freudian dream theoretic while I was a teenager, but had not come to any forgone conclusions. Once, when I was younger I had tried to share the content of my dreams with my Aunt Evelyn, but she had dismissed it easily as a fantastic 8 year olds imagination and I never spoke of it again. It had taken me weeks to build up the courage to talk to her about him, but her blank face when I spoke of having strange dreams quickly confirmed that she did not know or care how to raise a child.

  I stretched my legs out a bit under the table in a futile attempt to unwind and relax.

  “What about you? How did you sleep last night?”

  She laughed. Loudly. “Well, for your information, I slept quite well after I kicked Steven out of my apartment.”

  “Sorry. The date was that bad?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No, not specifically. He was fine until he decided to get a little too greedy with my tits without permission.” I paled at the thought and she laughed dramatically at my face. “I’m just kidding. He didn’t try anything. I don’t know… It was just a vibe, ya know? Something about him just wasn’t right. I couldn’t quite place it, but…I had a feeling.” I laughed. Kayla, who quickly became one of my close friends after moving to Olympia, was a feeling kind of girl. All of her decisions were based on the aura of the opposing situation or person. Her life choices were rarely based on cold hard facts, and those were limited to the ones out of her control such as rent or doctor visits. Still, after first walking into Spot Coffee and Kayla peering at me through her wire rimmed half glasses, I was declared a positive influence for her chakras. She claimed that she immediately had a ‘good feeling’ about me being a friend and we had decidedly become daily caffeine buddies. In my experiences it had never hurt to become close acquaintances to someone with unlimited access to caffeinated beverages or alcohol for that matter. Plus Kayla turned out to be a pretty good listener when I needed to vent. “Listen, my break is almost over. You good?”

  I nodded, complete with fake smile. “I’m good.”

  Five hours, and two lattes later I found myself in a gay bar called Marco’s Triangle. Alistair had decided that I needed to accompany him despite my desire to sit at home and catch up on some very important books that I thought required way more attention. Despite my lack of enthusiasm I sat at yet a different bar, drinking a different cocktail, dressed in my finest, sleazy, low cut outfit. I doubted if I had told my fellow partiers that I’d prefer to be in bed, they’d have believed I meant asleep.

  Escapism had always been a bit of a bad habit of mine, and to be honest my dreams were far more entertaining than my real life. Somehow I had always managed to thwart off every attempt at love any friend had tried to gently force upon me. Not that I was unhappy about that. The guys some of my closer friends found to set me up with were just not… well they were just not him. My dark robed visitor.

  I was just starting to feel tipsy and ready to dance, when I noticed miss sorority blonde from the previous night walk in. Complete with the tasty looking tall, scowling stranger as arm candy. A saw the way their hands were held, finger wrapped loving around finger and I tensed up inside, jealously suddenly overtaking me with her claws.

  I was not a stranger to jealousy. In fact I would say jealousy and I were close personal friends. One does not grow up poor, mousey, and as an orphan without knowing a thing or two about jealousy. I believe jealousy was also close personal friends of someone called inebriation as well. The three of us had an unbreakable bound that had always helped me overcome any obstacle that had entered my path. Until this moment… Something about this new situation had changed inside of me and quelling anger rose up in cohorts with my old friend jealousl
y. I quickly downed the rest of my martini and grabbed Ted, Alistair’s boyfriend to take me out on the dance floor. Shake your way to a happier Amy.

  I was just entering that fuzzy, melancholy place where self-consciousness doesn’t exist. Ted was an excellent dancer and despite my complete lack of coordination, I found myself enjoying the heart thumping rhythm that surrounded me. The colored lights blurred around my body and I could taste the sweat on my top lip. I was a perfect moment of sound and vibrancy when Alistair approached with the pretty blond. They both started dance with us as a group and I leaned over to Alistair’s ear, shouting above the music. “What’s with the girl? You switching teams on me?”

  Laughing, he grabbed me and swung me around the dance floor before planting a chaste kiss on my forehead. He leaned over and said, “She noticed us hanging out and asked about you. I think she has a crush.” He kissed my cheek quickly and winked at me. Before I could stop him, he passed me off to her and grabbed his boyfriend, pressing against him passionately on the dance floor. They kept swaying to the music, but I could tell they were way more interested in things other than dancing at this point as I saw Ted reach over and rub his hand up and down Alistair’s back before settling on his ass.

  I stood somewhat awkwardly looking at he stranger in front of me. The swirling lights had stopped moving and the haze of alcohol evaporated inside my blood. “Let’s dance,” she said smiling sweetly and grabbing my hands to swing to the music. I didn’t understand who this girl was, but much like the man, her persona sung out a familiar tone inside of me. The emotions coursing through my heart were confusing but not negative so saying fuck it and throwing caution to the wind I wrapped my hands lightly on her waist and let her lead.

  My curiosity was getting the better of me. “Do I know you?” I asked.

  “We’ve never met until I saw you at Blake’s last night.” She really was very pretty and now that her boyfriend wasn’t draped on her arm, I could appraise her more objectively. She had a perfect dancer’s body, lithe and flexible and she was totally at ease in the crowd of people swaying. Clearly this was her element. Her blonde hair was so light and reflective that it looked to be mixed in with pure white strands that hung beautifully strait down her back without any sort of a wave She had done her makeup to be more dramatic today with sparkly pink lip gloss and dark pink eye shadow that made her light blue eyes look violet. Violet. She really was beautiful, I though to myself and took notice of several men and women eyeing her up as well.

  Suddenly I felt my contrasting nature stand out like a beam of light in the crowded room. It hit me with such force, that I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I was not her. I was not beautiful or blond or wore perfect pink lip-gloss. I was inadequate to even dance with her. I sobered up immediately as if hit by a giant wave and started to leave the dance area, but she saw my sudden departure, grabbed my hand and pulled me back. The music was so loud she had to pull me up against her body and I stiffened at the close contact.

  I tried to pull away a second time and leave the thriving bodies of dancers, but she held my hand firmly. I felt the blood begin to pulse through it, trying to make its way to my fingertips. She continued to smile at me despite my attempts to escape and I scanned the crowd for Alistair and Ted, but couldn’t find them in the crowd. Suddenly she leaned in next to my ear and whispered. “Please don’t run.” Immediately a familiar jolt of electricity ran through my body just as when I had seen him peering at me over the magazine rack yesterday. I immediately stopped my struggle and looked at her carefully, assessing the motives that were hiding under the perky pink lip-gloss. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with mischief and the corners of her lips were turned up in a pleasant smirk. The soft request from her had piqued my curiosity more and suddenly brought an onslaught of unexpected emotions with it. Violet was not a threat to me. I was very certain of that.

  “Your name is Violet. Like your eyes.” The word rushed out of my mouth without context, but I could see her eyes widen slightly at them. It was not a question and she knew that.

  She kept my hand I hers and wove her fingers through mine and as I looked down at them I thought of how she entered, hand in hand with her partner. My thoughts turned to him briefly, hoping and fearful that I would see him standing guard watching my silent abduction. We stopped pretending to dance and she led me to a table on the side of the bar that was discreet and quiet enough to have a conversation, but close enough that I could see the exit door form my vantage. She wanted me to feel safe. I sat down silently and started playing with the curly brown hair that had escaped from the flirty bun I had started my night with. When she seemed satisfied that I would wait for her, she left and went grab some drinks. I was intrigued by the situation and frightened at the same time. While she waited on our drinks I replayed her voice through my head over and over again. ‘Please don’t run’. It immediately made me think my dreams. Had he said that to me? I couldn’t recall him ever saying anything to me like that.

  She came back and put down a glass in front of me. “Martini?”

  I nodded as she sat and noted that she had ordered a glass of white wine, but didn’t’ make a move to touch it after putting it down.

  She smiled from across the table. “Yes, my name is Violet. Although my eyes tend to be a bit blue nowadays”

  “I’m Amy,” I answered as nonchalantly as I could despite my racing heart.

  “Amy?” She paused a moment. “You looked like more of a girl with an exotic name. Seraphina, Letha… Ambrosia…”

  My racing heart skipped a beat as I sat looking at her. Dumbfounded, I swallowed, but my throat was dry and I suddenly felt panicked. I took a quick drink before thinking better of it. What if she had slipped something in? Too late now. “How do you know my name if we’ve never met before”

  “How do you know mine?” She smiled again and there was a sparkle in her brilliant blue eyes as she very delicately touched my arm. “I would say divine intervention, but I don’t think you’d believe me.”

  “I don’t believe in God,” I stated matter of fact.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “That I don’t believe in God?”

  She shook her head. “I can see the truth below the surface. You do believe in God. You believe in a lot of things, don’t you?”

  I frowned. “You mean like aliens?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Are you an alien, Violet?” I asked only half jokingly.

  Her laugh cut through the tension. “No. I am 100% human. No alien parts here. And I’ve never met you before… in person. Ambrosia, don’t be afraid of me. I’m here only to help you in your journey.”

  “What exactly does that mean? What journey?”

  She moved to stretch across the table and dropped her voice as much as she was able to in the vibrating atmosphere. “I know what you dream of, Ambrosia. Or should I say whom?”

  I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The words managed to slip past my lips in as much of a convincing matter I could drum up despite the terror that lay beneath the words.

  “Relax, Ambrosia, we’re not here to hurt you. Take a deep breathe. You look like you’re going to pass out.”

  I shook my head. “No one calls me Ambrosia. Did Alistair tell you that was my name?”

  She moved her chair closer to me and took both of my hands in hers. She smiled a sweet perfect smile that held a twinge of sadness and shook her head. “He’s a good friend.”

  “Violet,” I played with her name across my lips again. Her name floated across the table and the word held a hint of familiarity in it. Despite the uncomfortable situation I now found myself in with her, saying her name and holding her hands as I did, I suddenly felt completely at ease. We sat there like that for a moment, not wanting to disturb the sensation of clarity and comfort I suddenly had felt. Who is this girl? In the back of my head I could hear the music in the bar thumping in rhythm and the sounds of the crowd talking, laughing, making out, but it was
all just background noise. Nothing was real except the sensation of her hands in entwined between my own and suddenly, without movement, I felt her mouth on mine.

  She tasted like strawberries and lilacs and in one beautiful moment of time I felt whole. It wasn’t the first time I’d ever been kissed, or ever been kissed by a girl, but there was something in this kiss that drew me into a sensation I had never had. I felt like I as flying and dreaming all at once. The ground had no meaning and the sky was made of effervesces. Nothing in the world made sense anymore. Just as suddenly as it began the sensation stopped and I felt the table jarringly appear under my arms.