CHAPTER 6: Who Is That Girl I Saw In My Dream?

Vida

New York City, Planet Earth

Vida could not believe she forgot to bring her umbrella.

She just finished her shift at Burn's and was currently waiting for the bus ride home. Unfortunately, Tessa was on her day off, so she had to go solo for tonight's shift. She didn't really mind since she was used to being alone. She also felt guilty that sometimes she just tunes out Tessa's ramblings like white noise.

What she's saying is that, she will be alright since she had her book with her.

Normally, it does not rain this hard in the city. They mostly experience scatters of rain showers or drizzle. So, to experience this much rain is a wonder to her.

Vida fished her phone out of her pocket to check the time. It was 10:50 PM.

She sighed. 10 minutes more of waiting. It was kind of funny how she clocks out the same time the bus arrives at this stop. She even tried to catch the 10:40 PM ride one time, but the bus had already left. It was super inconvenient for her and Tessa. They even asked Peter if he could let them leave at an earlier time as long as there were no more customers at the bar.

To no avail, Peter just responded, "I just can't do that. You're two of my best girls!"

They both knew that Peter was just flattering them into staying and doing overtimes, but they were too kind to say no and, of course, they needed the extra cash.

A gust of wind came by, causing the rain to spatter into her. She sighed. Guess she'll have to continue reading once she's at home. She marked the page with a book marker and carefully stowed the book back in her bag, making sure that the front and back covers were not folded.

Vida checked the time again and it read 10:52 PM. She tried not to roll her eyes at how slow the time was. To amuse herself, she decided to play a crossword puzzle game on her phone. After a few rounds, she checked the time again and her waiting time was reduced to 6 minutes.

Before she left Burn's, she had texted Tessa that she's done with her shift and was headed to the bus stop. She updated her friend that the bus was about to arrive and she'll call once she's at home.

Tessa's like this big momma bear that enjoys mothering her around. She must have gotten it from her Texan mother who Vida met once during Thanksgiving. The similarity was kind of scary, to be honest. But in a good way.

The rain had not stopped yet. Vida risked getting wet from the downpour to see the sky and it didn't look like it was stopping soon.

In Vida's peripheral vision, she saw someone approaching the bus stop. The figure was that of a man carrying an umbrella. Once he reached the stop's canopy, he folded the umbrella and shook the excess water.

He gave Vida a smile and a nod. Vida returned the nod and checked her phone again. 10:56 PM. The bus could arrive any moment now.

"Pretty heavy rainstorm we got tonight, yeah?" the man said.

Vida looked at the man beside her. He was about 6 feet tall and had a black jacket with collars standing up to cover his ears. He had a five-o'clock shadow and a dimple on his right cheek. He also had smile lines near his mouth and forehead.

Would it be weird if she pretended to be mute and be safe from a conversation? Conversing with people is not exactly her forte. That's why Tessa and Vida's friendship worked because they balance each other out.

She realized it would be rude. The man was just trying to strike up a conversation, possibly idling away the time too. "Yeah, shame I forgot to bring an umbrella."

"That's too bad." the man said.

10:57 PM.

"What's your name?"

Vida kept her eyes on the road in front of her. She was starting to feel uncomfortable. This man is weird.

She ignored him and pretended to not hear him in the rain.

"Sugar, I asked you what's your name."

Again, Vida played deaf and checked her phone. Still 10:57 PM.

A hand grabbed her upper arm and yanked her to stand up. "I said, what's your name?"

The man had completely changed from this friendly bystander to a psychopath in a matter of seconds.

"Let go of me!" Vida tried to tug her arm but the man's grip was that of iron.

"If you gave me your name, then we wouldn't be in this situation, sugar." the man hissed in her ear.

"Over my dead body!" Vida yelled. Okay, maybe she did not mean that literally. She just hoped the man would not take that idea into mind. "Someone help me!"

Psycho-Dimples dragged her out of the bus stop to abduct her. In an instant, Vida and the man were soaking wet. Vida struggled against the man's hold on her. She didn't know what else to do. She could not reach for the whistle that was in her bag. She could also not reach her phone to dial 911. So, she kept screaming until her throat felt hoarse and prayed that someone would be able to help her.

TESSA

Tessa's Apartment, New York City

It was past midnight and Vida hadn't texted yet.

Tessa dialed Vida's number for the seventh time. It just kept ringing. Her friend's radio silence was worrying her so much. Add this fucking rain into the equation. Vida was supposed to be home by now. It was approximately a 20 minute ride from the stop to her apartment. Something wrong must have happened since it was so out of character for Vida to forget to check-in.

Before Tessa started working at Burn's and meeting Vida, she had vowed to protect any girl she came across and prevent the incident that cost her younger sister's life from happening ever again. She made sure that Vida got along with her program by getting her a whistle, pepper spray and a switchblade. Vida thought it was ridiculous and initially only took the pepper spray, but Tessa insisted that she take it all, free of charge. In the end, Vida agreed and took everything.

Tessa decided to call Vida's landlord, Benjie, the pudgy man who seemed to hit on her everytime she was over, to check if Vida had come in. 

"Hello, Tessie." Benjie greeted.

"Hey, Benjie. I just wanted to check in on Vida. Has she come in yet?" Tessa said hurriedly.

"Oh, uhm, hold on a second," Benjie was caught off-guard by Tessa's tone. "I'm sorry, Tessie. Her mailbox still has her mail for today."

Tessa's heart sank. "Alright, thanks Benjie."

"No problem, Tessie." Benjie replied. "Do you perhaps--"

Tessa ended the call and headed for the door. She'll apologize to Benjie for hanging up when she finds Vida. She just can't sit and wait for best friend to reply. Especially not with this kind of weather. Tessa made sure to lock her door and bring her umbrella with her. She plans to retrace Vida's steps: starting with Burn's.

Colter

Colter's private quarters, Kingdom of Howard

Yesterday's events left Colter exhausted, both physically and mentally.

After running into his brother on the way to the King and Queen's quarter, they told their father their strange encounters that night. More strange was how Gian looked more shaken than he was and that they corroborated each other's encounter. The King just listened as the Queen comforted both her sons by holding their hands. It was decided that they would convene in the morning to further discuss the odd behaviors of the vultures.

With a dismissive wave, the King and Queen retired to their private chambers. Gian immediately left for his room without a word to Colter.

And Colter was left standing alone in the hallway. If they could sleep after those baffling occurrences, then their mental fortitude must be made of hard steel.

When he retreated to his room, it took a lot of tossing and turning before he finally calmed his mind and drifted off to sleep. Colter's final thought before his mind descended to unconsciousness was how he could help solve the mystery of the birds without antagonizing his father during the process.

Myriads of images swirled through his subconscious, varying from a pair of red eyes staring at him through the rain and him spontaneously combusting at a dinner party.

It all focused on one particular scene. He was in a dark outdoor corridor of some kind. It was raining hard too. He could barely make out anything in front of him, but the screams he heard were enough to make him move further into the shadows.

"Please! Let me go! I'll give you all my money, just let me go!"

Colter pressed on and finally came to the end of the path. The light from the distant lamp was enough to illuminate the obscenity in front of him.

A woman was grappling with a man. The man clearly had the upperhand since he was a more than a foot taller than her. They were both soaked in the rain and it was clear that they were both going at it for quite sometime now.

"What makes you think I want your money?"

The woman struggled and tried escaping by biting the man's hand. The man howled in discomfort but it wasn't enough to stop his advances. He grabbed her threw a sickening punch to her abdomen.

Colter could not just stand there and watch anymore of this. He rushed to the man to grab him, ready to throw him off of the woman. But before he could touch the man's shoulder, he felt his dream-self sinking onto the stone pavement below him.

He woke up, sweating profusely and panting hard. That dream felt real. Colter could not shake off the feeling that that woman was in danger and she needed help. If that man could lay a finger on a woman like that, then the man was more than capable of doing more harmful things to her.

Colter racked his brain to remember if that dark path was anywhere near the kingdom or if he had been to that specific location. Frustratingly, nothing close came to mind. He berated himself for not paying closer attention to the surroundings.

Somewhere out there, a woman was in danger.

Great. Now he had another thing to worry about.

TESSA

Downtown, New York City

"Excuse me, Sir. I want to file a search for a missing person." Tessa said.

The man in uniform at the front desk was well into his Soduko puzzle when Tessa walked in. The lobby of the police precinct was slow at this hour and the civilians in the room were Tessa and an old man who was probably brought in for being drunk and disorderly.

"How long is person missing?" the officer did not even bother looking up from his puzzle.

"Uhm, about two hours now?" Tessa replied. Once she arrived at Burn's, it was already closed for the day. The bus stop was empty except for an umbrella that was left behind by a passenger. Unusual for someone to leave their umbrella in this weather.

Since the rain had not stopped and she'd reached a dead end, she decided to go to the nearest police station to file for a report.

The officer sighed and took out a clipboard from under his desk. He looked bored and slightly irritated because of the interruption. "Alright, so what's the person's name?"

Tessa was trying to control her emotions. She wanted to ask a different officer to help her, but apparently, Mr. Soduko here is all she got. "Vida Vance. 28 years old. About 5'4 tall. She wears glasses; has long, wavy, brown hair, amber eyes, and fair skin. She's also wearing her Burn's bar uniform."

Mr. Soduko painstakingly took note of Tessa's description of Vida. Tessa was ready to climb over the desk and shake the police officer to get him to write faster.

"Who was her last contact?" the police asked.

"Me. Tessa Rodriguez. 29 years old. I'm her friend."

"Does she have any family members that we can contact? She probably just went to one of them for the night."

"No. Vida has no family here. I am her only close contact." Tessa leaned on the counter. "Sir, with all due respect, you have to understand the urgency here. My friend has been missing for two hours now in this fucking rain storm and she has not replied to any of my text messages or calls. This is unsual for her since she always do and do not give me the reason that her phone ran out of juice because I can hear a tone when I dial her."

The officer sighed. "Ma'am, I need you to calm down in order for me to able to file this report properly so I can get this into the system. We have officers on patrol who will be on the lookout for her. I just need the paperwork to be done first, alright?"

"I know it's beyond protocol, but can we please skip the paperwork and put out whatever code it is so they can be aware?"

"Excuse me, what is going on here?"

Tessa looked behind her and another police officer approached the front desk.

"I'm just trying to find my friend." Tessa teared up. She felt helpless in a building where no one seemed to be paying attention to her emergency. "My friend is alone and I don't know where she is. She might be in danger. The city is big and she might be anywhere."

The police officer took one look at Tessa's breakdown and immediately turned to his colleague and took the clipboard on the desk. "I'll take it from here. Just make sure to get her statement once she's calmed down."

Mr. Soduko gave a shrug as if to say, "Your funeral, pal."

"Ma'am. My name's Detective Shawn Matthews. We'll find your friend, alright? We just need you to calm down so you can help us give out any other important information as to her last whereabouts." Detective Shawn reached for the radio on his belt and addressed to it. "9544 Detective Matthews on dispatch. 10-65. BOLO for a brown haired woman wearing a Burn's Bar waitress uniform, 5'4, and wears glasses. Last known location was at Burn's Bar."

A static voice replied on the walkie-talkie. "10-4."

While Detective Shawn Matthews was giving out orders, Tessa had an intrusive thought: a vision of the dark alley that was a couple of meters away from the bus stop.

She wiped her tears away and composed herself. "Excuse me, Detective Matthews? I think I know where she is."

Detective Matthews stared at her for a full minute, not exactly sure how she would know since she was the one asking for help earlier. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Tessa said firmly, her eyes tearing up again for her best friend. "Please, Detective. You need to come with me. We might not have a lot of time."