“Ariel, Karen, and Ellen.”
“That’s what I’m figuring,” I agreed. “Anyhow, all three of them are dressed in white lace gowns, and there is this grey mist that keeps spilling off the stage. It creeps across the floor like some kind of fog and just keeps getting deeper. It paralyzes me and holds me in the seat, so I have to sit there and watch as this shadowy figure kills them one by one. Ariel, then Karen, and then Ellen.”
“What does the little girl do?”
“She just sits there and watches. For some reason, the fog never touches her.”
“And she told you it was just a dress rehearsal?”
“Yeah. After the shadowy figure kills all three women, this plume of mist rises up, and then as it dissipates, there is this other woman…” I stopped mid-sentence as the portion of the nightmare I had just described replayed itself in my mind like an endless loop of film. The realization suddenly struck me like a fist between the eyes. “DAMMIT! How could I have missed it!” I exclaimed.
I leapt from the table, sending the heretofore-quiescent cats into a frenzied rush to escape. They bolted in three separate directions and in the same direction all at once, sending saltshakers and other table adornments to the floor. Coffee sloshed from my cup, and my wide-eyed wife shot upward from her seat.
“Rowan! What’s wrong?!”
“Another woman appeared on the stage, and the bastard killed her too,” I spoke quickly, advancing across the room and snatching the telephone from its cradle. “He killed again! The son-of-a-bitch has killed again!”
I punched the lighted buttons, frantically dialing Ben’s home number.
“Aye, are you sure?” Felicity appealed as she tended to the spilled coffee.
“It has to be,” I answered confidently and then began impatiently urging the phone. “Come on, come on, pick up!”
I pressed the handset tightly to my ear, listening to the electronic vibrato of the ring at the other end of the line. If nothing else, this portion of the nightmare was suddenly clear to me. Ariel was telling me that there was either going to be another murder or that another had already occurred. A gnawing hollowness in the pit of my stomach insisted that it was the latter.
“Rowan, don’t you think…” Felicity started.
I brought my hand up sharply and waved to cut her off as on the fifth ring, the receiver at the other end was picked up.
“Hello,” a rough, hazy voice, still thick with sleep issued from the earpiece.
“Ben, it’s Rowan,” I blurted into the handset. “There’s been another murder.”
“Do what?” Ben’s voice came back to me. “What are ya’ talkin’ about?”
“The killer, Ben. He’s still out there, and he’s killed again,” I insisted urgently.
“Slow down, man. Where are ya’?”
“I’m at home.”
“The killer murdered someone at your house?”
“No, no. Nobody at my house. Listen to me, R.J. isn’t the killer. The bastard is still out there, and he’s killed someone else.”
“Who, Rowan? Who’s dead?”
“Another young woman. I don’t know her name.”
“How do you know this?” Ben’s voice sounded much more alert now.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I expressed. “Just trust me on this.”
“Well, where did this murder take place?” I could hear him shuffling paper, preparing to take notes.
My mind had been working so fast I had rushed ahead of not only the rest of the world, but myself as well. I motioned to Felicity to hand me my Book of Shadows and began leafing through the last few pages, scanning them as fast as I could. As I had feared, there was nothing to indicate where the murder might have taken place.
“Rowan? You still there?” Ben’s voice crackled from the earpiece.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.”
“Well? Where’d this happen?”
What I was about to say was sure to portray me as a lunatic. I only wished I had another choice. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Ben’s incredulous voice issued again. “Whaddaya mean, you don’t know?”
“I mean I don’t know where it happened, I just know that it has,” I answered in a pleading tone, knowing full well that my words now sounded hollow and empty.
“Lemme get this straight.” He ran down the high points. “The killer is still out there, and he’s killed another young lady. You don’t know who, and you don’t know where, but you just know it happened. So, you decided to call me at…” He paused, I assume to check the clock. “At quarter of four in the morning ta’ tell me all this?”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
“And how you know this, I wouldn’t believe, even if you told me?”
“Yeah.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“Try me.”
I was dejected. I was frustrated. I was angry that I had no way to make him believe me. I did the only thing I could think of to do. I told him the truth.
“A vision. Okay?” Discontent permeated my voice. “It’s something I saw in a vision when I went to sleep tonight.”
“Jeezus, Fuck, Rowan!” The earpiece buzzed as he shouted. “Are you kiddin’ me?! You called me at almost four in the mornin’ because of a goddamned nightmare?!”
“It’s not just a nightmare, Ben,” I plead. “It’s more than that. You don’t understand…”
“Hell yes I understand!” he cut me off. “You got some kinda bug up your ass about R.J. not bein’ the killer, and ya’ can’t leave it alone. Now you’re havin’ nightmares about it.”
“No, Ben, that’s not it,” I insisted. “I know it sounds that way, but trust me…”
“Look, Rowan,” he spoke slowly. It was obvious he was trying to hold back anger. “You’re just gonna have ta’ accept it. The D.A. is filin’ charges against R.J. tomorrow mornin’, and that’s the end of it. Now drink some warm milk or somethin’, and go back to bed. We’ll talk about this in the mornin’. Goodbye.”
“No, wait, Ben? Ben?”
I was talking to dead air.
I slowly settled the receiver back into its base and stared at it, silently cursing myself for being unable to convince him.
“He hung up,” I finally said.
“Aye… I got that feeling. I’m sorry Ben didn’t believe you,” Felicity told me in a mild voice. “I was trying to stop you before you called him.”
“I should have listened,” I granted. “He’s been pretty understanding about everything so far, but this…I know I must have sounded like I was nuts.”
She slipped her arms around me and nuzzled in close, slowly rubbing my back in a comforting manner. “You sounded concerned, and convinced.”
“I sounded nuts,” I repeated. “You don’t have to sugar-coat it. I’ve just never had involuntary visions this intense before. I’m not quite sure how to handle it.”
“I don’t know if I would either.”
“If I just had something tangible,” I mused. “Some kind of concrete proof.”
“Maybe it hasn’t happened yet,” Felicity returned. “Maybe there is still time to convince him, then.”
“Maybe, but I really doubt it. I’ve got a bad feeling that I’m a day late and a dollar short.”
The relative stillness of the room was broken by the clamor of the phone as it began to ring. Without releasing my grip on my wife, I reached for it just as STORM, BENJAMIN and a number played across the liquid crystal face of the caller ID box.
“Hello,” I answered, fully expecting to be chewed out by my friend or even his wife.
“Good, you’re still up.” The earlier anger in Ben’s voice had been replaced by something resembling horrific awe. “Better get dressed. I’ll be there to pick ya’ up in a half hour.”
“Someone found a body,” I ventured, already knowing it to be true.
“I’m just glad you’re on our side,” he muttered, “’cause you ain’t natural, paleface. You just ain’t
