Pushing Fate

Ainslie Croft threw up her hands to fend off the man who charged toward her, slamming her into the ground. She swore as she felt the sting of gravel bite into her knees. When she looked up he was nowhere to be seen. Who was he? Where am I? She scanned her surroundings. Ainslie picked out old weathered gravestones, faded silk
flowers, and neatly maintained lawns. I’m at the cemetery. Why? A wild shiver ran down her spine and Ainslie knew she was not alone. There was someone approaching her— another man. She sensed he was different from the first. She felt hot and uncomfortable, almost as though he knew more about her than he should. As he moved closer toward her, Ainslie’s heart beat wildly. She knew instantly this was someone she would never be able to walk away from and the thought terrified her. He is my destiny.
Ainslie woke with a start, her arms lashing out as if she was trying to protect herself. Her heart was beating madly and she was breathing hard as though she had just run a race. She switched on the bedside light, narrowing her eyes at the brightness.
“Two o’clock in the frigging morning.” Ainslie groaned tiredly as she pushed back
the tangled sheets and looked down at her knees. They were scraped and bloody. “Of course they are.” She expected nothing less. Her dreams were as realistic as they were painful. She dabbed at them with the sheet, which was already stained with the blood from her knees. “Why can’t I be normal?” Even as she said the words, Ainslie knew normality for her would never be an option. She sighed as she pushed her hair back from her face and reached for the cordless telephone beside her bed. There was only one person she could call who would understand what had just happened. Ainslie punched in the number she knew off by heart. Even though it was two o’clock in the morning, Lucretia Bell, her contact within the Spooky Girls, listened to her intently.
“Who do you think he is?” There were no recriminations from Lucretia at having
been woken so early.
“Which one?” Both men had meaning in the dream. “The first man.”
Ainslie blew out a frustrated breath as she pushed her tangled, shoulder-length hair back from her face again.
“I think he’s a ghost and you know I hate dealing with them. They never bloody go to the light easily.” Ainslie knew this only too well. Ghosts were constantly visiting her; boring and stilted as her life was, she was not looking to change it. Ainslie felt safe in her own little cocooned world. “I believe he is my fate.” She just wasn’t sure how, though. Fate was fickle. It had a way of smacking you in the face when you least expected it. Just glimpsing the small amount of what was destined to happen was enough to make Ainslie wary.
“Ah, well, you know what you have to do then.” Lucretia’s voice was calm and
matter-of-fact.
“I have to go to the cemetery.” It was not something Ainslie looked forward to
doing, but she knew there was no other option. She had to answer the call in her dream, as she had answered similar calls before. “Maybe I can just forgo the search for meaning this time.” Ainslie could almost see the cynical eye roll Lucretia would give her at those words.
“It’s what you have been summoned to do, Ainslie.”
But I’m tired of being summoned. “I am just a little weary of constantly pushing fate
like this.” She got up from the bed. The burning pain in her knees forced her to sit again. “Why do I have to look for it at all? Why can’t I just let fate come to me naturally?” Why can’t it be someone else?
“Ainslie, you know that’s not going to happen.” Lucretia’s voice was very patient as if she hadn’t been through this conversation many times before with her friend. “Some people would be thrilled to know what’s going to take place before it does.”
“Yeah, but the problem is I only see pieces of the puzzle in my dream and having to
interpret it pisses me off.”
“I know, but you have to solve it regardless. You have no choice.”
“Yes, I’m screwed.”