Madd Dreams

Complete darkness surrounded Joni Shaw as she slowly stepped from her front porch onto the sidewalk and proceeded to the end of the driveway. In the middle of the night on Halloween Eve, she walked down the deserted street on which she’d lived most of her life. Her eyes darted back and forth cautiously trying to make sense of the situation. She heard an animal howling in the distance. Immediately she tried to find the source, but didn’t see anything.

On her stroll, Joni came across a side street that normally wasn’t there and noticed a shiny blue truck parked along the shoulder. Joni stopped walking at the intersection and out of nowhere, someone appeared at her side. Normally she would’ve freaked out being in the dark with a stranger, but that time she felt calm. She just stared at the guy.

He looked to be her age and very striking. Staring right back at her, she noticed he had really dark hair, almost black, and it looked a little messy but the darkness only accented the brilliant green eyes fixed on hers. She’d never seen eyes like those. Almost cat-like. He wore a short chain around his neck with a silver cross hanging on it. In the middle was a brilliant green stone, the same color as his eyes.

She’d never seen him before, but thought he was beautiful. Before she could ask who he was, he reached over and took her hand. It felt like a low volt of electricity flowed through her veins as they slowly began to walk toward the end of her street.

They studied each other while walking, neither saying anything. They hadn’t met before but she didn’t think of him as a stranger. When the road ended, they turned around in silence and headed back the same way they’d came. As the side road appeared again, Joni looked up at the street sign. It read “Maddox”.

She started to ask again who he was but the moment she turned, her hand became empty and the guy disappeared. The soft sound of metal hitting concrete caught her attention low to the ground. Joni looked down and found the necklace worn by the stranger. Quickly, she looked for the blue truck that sat nearby, but it was gone, too. Shocked by everything, Joni picked up the necklace and continued back down the street, ending up on her door step again.

Suddenly Joni woke up and realized she wasn’t outside, but actually in her bed. She looked around her room frantically, finally calming down. Drenched in sweat, she sat up and hung her legs off the edge of the bed. What the hell had just happened?