You Burn Me

It was dark, and she felt the wind whip around her. The ground under her feet was sandy, dark, but glittery and she was clothed in her normal dress. She saw the water beyond, its glint from the moonlight giving it a glasslike shimmer. She walked forward, drawn to the smooth finish. Ahead, a man, turned so she saw his back. She advanced. The sand got deeper. Like walking through pudding, it didn’t want to give up her feet as she tried to step. He stood there, not moving, facing the horizon. It was work, but she made it to him, six steps taking longer then she would have liked. She reached for him, her hand going to his shoulder. She made contact and the sky bloomed red, like flame, then the sun breached the horizon, and her fingertips lit onto a leather jacket, the feeling warm, too warm, the pins and needles running from his shoulder to her fingers. She held on, pulled on his shoulder and he started to turn…
Xxieda woke up and growled in frustration. “Every fucking time! Why can’t I see who he is!?” she asked the empty room and then groaned. “Three fucking months! Three months of this shit and still no closer to knowing what the fucking dream means.”
She tried to calm herself and recount what she learned from this most recent play back. A beach. It’s cold. Lights in the not to far distance, the water on the beach lapping lazily. The trees in the distance deciduous, elms and oaks and birch. The guy: tall, short hair, perfect build, leather jacket, sparks when she touched him. She pressed her fingertips again, feeling the lingering warmth, the little shocks of electricity. It was the same dream for a while now, the man, the beach, the sunrise. Whatever her goddess was telling her she still had no clue, and it was starting to wear on her devotion. She sat up, grabbed her cell phone and called the only person that could have more insight on this then her: her sister Peyton.
“Its almost three am X, you better have a damn-”
“It’s the goddamn dream again.” She said by way of greeting.
Peyton sighed. “Anything new?”
Xxieda settled back on her pillows and thought. “Well, aside from the fiery sunrise, and the fact that I can still feel where I touched him in my fingertips? Well the lights are new, but…”
“Lights? Like what?”
“Lights, in the distance, sort of behind me, but more to the side of where I’m standing. Like it’s a city.”
Peyton laughed. “Well hell that helps a lot! So lets see what we know of the dream. It’s a beach, and there’s normal trees around it, so it can’t be a ocean, so obviously it’s a lake right? I did a little digging. Lakes are ever frequent in the northern section of the country, but with the new info…” Xxieda heard pages ruffling through the phone. “Ah ha! Only four of them are anywhere near a major town.”
“Well it narrows it down…” Xxieda said and sighed. “So what I’m supposed to go to all these places?”
“I don’t think so no, I think this is a finding dream.”
“Ok look Pey, I don’t know what the fuck your talking about.”
“Yes you do, Mom had one too, back before she and dad got together. It’s like a present from the goddess. She’s leading you towards the man… and that’s THE man X, we figure this out and you can say goodbye to your virginity and hello to the man of your dreams. So what else? We are so close.”
Xxieda frowned to herself. She was twenty-six, and far past the appropriate time to be considered a virgin. All because her goddess, The Morrigan, decreed that she would find her favorite acolyte the perfect man for her before she was born. Xxieda was a good priestess, loved her goddess and was loved in return. If it was time for her to find the man she was destined for, then things were looking up. She wasn’t overly happy about her virginal status, and was beginning to think that she wouldn’t ever be gifted the man promised to her. It seemed now that the goddess had found him, and was leading her to him. Four locations though, that was tough. She didn’t want to search in vein. She closed her eyes trying to remember every little nuance of the dream.
“X? What else is there? A town, a perfectly built man, trees, water that barely moves… shit. What color is the sand?”
Xxieda’s memory came back full force and she saw the dark glittery ground in her minds eye. “Dark, not black I don’t think, maybe. It was glittery in the moonlight.”
Peyton whooped her happiness. “Dark you say? Really? Shit little sister, that narrows it down. Only one lake near a town that has dark glittery sand. Shadow Lake, the only body of water near the mildly bustling metropolis of Shadow Heights New York. I believe you know where that is?”
Xxieda stopped moving. Shadow Heights was where they were going to start the 13 Shades of Red tour; it had been set for at least two months. She didn’t know the place, but apparently the town was close enough to Albany that it was accessible, and it had a bigger concert hall then Albany boasted. Shades was on the precipice of greatness, the music channels and media were all over them, and they would take the company into the big time. It made sense; She was going to be in Shadow Heights for at least a month. She should have seen.
“Oh yeah. Didn’t know there was a lake near the place though.”
Peyton laughed. “The most obvious answer is the one we rarely see. I mean your going there for a reason, it would stand to reason that The Morrigan wouldn’t send you somewhere where you only had one reason to be there, and as you rarely leave NYC…”
Peyton’s rationale made sense. “All true.” Xxieda said and snuggled down in her blankets.
“So when are you leaving for this hick mountain town?”
Xxieda laughed. “Its not a hick town. It’s like pretty damn big, and close enough to everything that it’s overlooked. The only reason why we chose it was for the concert hall, cuz Roseland was booked here. I went with my second choice for capacity.”
“Fair enough. When are you leaving?”
“Oddly, two days. Guess we figured it out just in time eh?” she shook her head. It was just like the goddess to give her all the pieces only days before. She couldn’t prepare for it, and it would be more authentic, and real.
“Yeah I would say so. So? An Upstate, NY yokel for my city savvy sister. This is going to be interesting.”
“Hey! Lets not speculate on my soon to be bed partner ok? Things have a way of working themselves out.”
“Truer words haven’t ever been spoken. Well have fun, and I want updates X… and pictures when you find him.”
Xxieda laughed. “Night.”
Peyton hung up and Xxieda set her phone down, and grabbed the pad and pencil next to her bed and started to jot down all the things she needed to see to before she left for the upstate town. Before, she had a list a mile long of everything for the show, now she had more to add, things that would help her in her quest for the man she was destined for. Two days was not enough time.