The Rosaries (Crossroads Series) by Sandra Carrington-Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

looked sadly in her direction without speaking. Her skin was ghostly white, and her light blond hair was dirty and matted. She touched Natalie as the two came close, and Natalie felt her bony fingers tighten on her arm.
    “Please, help me, he wants to kill me!” Natalie pleaded with the stranger who just stood silent.
    The stranger opened her cracked lips and softly whispered words that were almost too quiet to be heard, “It will be okay, Natalie. It’s all part of the design. You already have half the power.” Then the stranger hung her head low and started to cry, rubbing her abdomen; her soft sobs echoed in the empty street.
    “But how? What power? Help me! He is trying to kill me!”
    The sad woman said nothing, only looked at Natalie with eyes haunted by personal demons.
    Natalie could feel the shadow closing in…he was only a few steps away now. She broke free of the woman, and started running again when she heard someone sing, so she stopped for a moment and turned around. The same woman was kneeling beside the street light and looked small and even younger, only a few years older than a child. She sang to herself, a soft and haunting lullaby, her skinny arms wrapped around herself, rocking back and forth. She stopped singing and extended one of her arms out toward Natalie.
    “Don’t be afraid, Natalie; it will end soon and you’ll be safe.” The woman was crying again; her wails impregnated the night air and seemed to come from all directions.
    Natalie covered her ears, but the sobs became so loud that she soon felt that her head was going to explode.
    “You are like me, a lost soul, but soon you will find completion.” The woman said.
    “Stop it! I am not like you.”
    “You are” The woman said between sobs, “you just don’t know it yet. But, unlike me, you won’t walk alone forever.”
    She heard another sound behind her – he was right there. She could feel his energy even if she couldn’t distinguish him from the rest of the shadows.
    “Who are you?” She screamed at the dark figure inching toward her, “Leave me alone! What have I done to you? What do you want from me?”
    She saw another woman, walking toward her. This new figure appeared more peaceful, stronger than the first one, and she wasn’t scared. Natalie rushed toward the woman, and when their eyes locked, her breath caught in her throat. Natalie was standing in front of herself.
    She screamed, and suddenly the strange scene was gone. She sat up in bed and tried to control her breath, looking around the dark room to see things that were familiar to her. She turned on the lamp on the bedside table and threw off the covers. Her mouth was parched, so she got up to go get a drink of water and shivered when she looked down the dark hallway. She reached out for the light switch and felt a wave of relief as light suddenly flooded all the dark corners. She went to the kitchen and searched for her cigarettes. She normally didn’t smoke inside, but the thought of venturing anywhere outside her safe haven, right now, seemed to border on the unthinkable. She lit a cigarette and went to sit at the kitchen table.
    What had happened? Natalie hadn’t had a nightmare in years, and certainly she had never had one quite so scary! Just thinking back about the shadow in the dream made her tremble and she quickly pushed the memory away. After crushing half the cigarette in the ashtray, she saw Billy sleeping soundly on the small love seat in the adjacent family room, so she marched right up to him and picked him up. She needed to feel a warm body, and Billy was a purring bag of melted sugar. She held him tight despite his meows of complaint at being awakened so abruptly, and walked with him toward the bedroom. She gently laid the cat on the bed and lay beside him, stroking his soft fur. Billy looked up and pushed his face into her hand, letting her know she was forgiven.
    Wide awake now, she tried to relax but sleep was nowhere near. After lying