Meant to Be (The Saving Angels 1)

This time though, my sleep was not dreamless.

The dream started the same as every other dream I had ever had. The Boardwalk in the distance and soft rolling waves washing up on shore. I felt extremely relieved to be here at our spot again. There was a light breeze off the ocean that left a slight chill in the air. My eye was caught by the sudden movement of someone running across the beach toward me. It was Mark. I rushed to meet him and just as he was about to reach out to me, his hands encountered some sort of barrier, stopping him in his tracks. I reached out with my hands, feeling the strange force field that was keeping us apart. It was invisible to the naked eye, but it didn’t make it any less impenetrable.

“Krista, are you okay?” I heard him ask. I was shocked. We had never been able to talk before in the dreams and even though there was an invisible wall separating us, I could hear him clearly.

“I’m scared.”

“I know you are, but don’t worry, I’m going to find a way out.”

“What if you’re too late? I can feel myself getting weaker with each passing minute.”

“I won’t lose you. I am going to get us out of this situation; you just have to be strong.”

I placed my hands on the invisible barrier. Mark placed his palms to mine. I could not feel them, but the memory of his touch made it feel almost real.

The feeling was lost as I felt my body being tugged from the barrier by some unseen force. Mark was being pulled in the opposite direction. I could see him fighting it as he tried to grab onto anything and everything. Finally in desperation, I heard him call out his love for me.

I began to weep as the distance between us grew. I tried to tell him I loved him also, but I was being dragged out of my dream.

I blinked at the sudden light that filled the room. I was disappointed that the dream had not eased the ache in my heart, instead realizing that I was feeling sicker than before. At this point, I guessed we had been separated for more than 24 hours now.

I tried to raise my head but, laid back down acknowledging the fact that my strength was sapping away. Maybe my violent bout of sickness had escalated it, but I was getting worse by the moment.

My musing was interrupted as the door to my room was opened.

“They want to see you back in the laboratory,” Bruno said stepping into the room.

I sighed and tried to sit up, my body fell weakly back down to the cot. Bruno reached down and with one hand and pulled me to my feet. I tried to steady my balance, but my water like legs made the effort useless. They gave out from under me, but before I could hit the floor Bruno scooped me back up in his arms.

I was grateful for his help, but could not express it as I laid my head against his arm and closed my eyes as he carried me out of the room.

I dozed off for a moment during the walk down the hall, but was awakened by the many voices and activity in the room when we entered.

“I don’t think she can handle another round of whatever you did to her last night,” I heard Bruno say. “She was too weak to even hold her head up.”

“Yes, the testing can be quite rigorous, but when the others join us, it will be well worth it. We have to see how far she can be pushed,” Russo said.

“I just feel tha…”

“I’m not paying you to feel, or think for that matter! Just do your job and leave the thinking to me, understand!”

I tried to make sense of anything that I was hearing. Push me for what? I thought. Could he really be responsible for my dreams? What about Sam and Shawn?

“Why are you doing this?” I asked in as strong a voice as I could muster, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of knowing how weak I really was.

“Why? Because, it’s the most logical way to test my theories.”

I looked at him in dismay. He was still talking in riddles.

Noting my confusion, he sighed.

“Well, I did promise you some answers, and it’s obvious you don’t have much longer. Though I am quite disappointed that my experiment failed, I expected the injection to have a stronger effect at this point, but I shouldn’t be surprised. You women have always been weak. It’s a wonder we didn’t die out centuries ago,” he said disdainfully.

“Where to begin,” he started. “I guess the best place is the beginning.”

“In the beginning…”

Was he kidding? It sounds like he was quoting the bible.