If She’s My Dream Girl, Then Why Do I See Her When I’m Awake?

Ch 8

I felt groggy. I felt different. My eyes were heavy, as I tried to open them to the light around me. My body felt heavy and ached. I heart a steady beeping noise, then voices. I opened my eyes after much difficulty. There were people around me that I barely recognized. The door opened and I watched as a nurse entered.

She took one look at me smiled, and left again. A few seconds later a doctor entered my room. “Hey, look who’s awake. You had a pretty nasty fall Dominic. You should be careful next time you step down from a ladder carelessly.”

I hadn’t noticed her until she pretty much threw herself at me, but a ridiculously beautiful girl had been sitting by my bedside, holding my hand. I looked down at her, shocked while she held me in her vice like grip around my torso.

“Baby, I told you, you didn’t have to put up the new curtains I bought just yet. I told you we could do it over the weekend.”

Who was this vixen and what was she talking about? I looked at her and she seemed familiar. Her large innocent green eyes; her luscious long and thick brown locks; her peanut butter skin color; her plump pink lips; they we all stored away in my memory somewhere. And even though I felt warm and fuzzy with affection and love for this chick, I didn’t recognize her, or myself.

I figured I was Dominic, but really who was Dominic. I have no memory of myself. Is this amnesia or something crazier? Am I living a secret life? Have I stolen someone else’s life?

“Now Dominic I need to ask you some questions about yourself and the world around you. It’s standard procedure.” I felt like a deer caught in the head lights. Would the answers he asked just come to me? I hoped I wouldn’t get them wrong.

“What is today’s date?” The question rattled my brain. I had no idea what the day was. I was drawing a blank; there was complete and utter silence in my head. Not a noise, of recognition.

“I don’t know.” I couldn’t even remember what the day was the last time I had been away. Nor, could I remember the last time I was awake.

“Okay, well it’s the end of April. You’ve been unconscious for 2 days.”

I nodded my head. He asked me the date and then didn’t even tell me what exactly the date was. The girl that had hugged me before was still holding my hand. She gave me what I’m guessing was a reassuring squeeze of the hand. “It’s Tuesday the 25th,” she said.

I looked at her, then back at the doctor. “Who is the president?”

Again I was drawing a blank, but that must not have been the look on my face for the doctor looked disconcerted, and proposed a new question. “How old are you?”

How was I supposed to know how—, “17”, my mouth blurted. My eyes bulged, how did I know that? I had no idea where the answer came from. But there it was as it rolled off my tongue.

The doctor frowned and so did the girl. I looked around and found that the other two people in the room were rather aged. They looked frightened.

“Dominic,” the doctor drew my attention to him once again. Yes, Dominic must have been my name, if he was using it to address me. “What year is it?”

Complete silence, there wasn’t a thought crossing my mind. “I don’t know. All I know, from what I’ve discerned is that my name is Dominic, and you are a doctor, and it is Tuesday the 25th, and I’m in a hospital. This girl might either be my sister a close friend or my girlfriend. And the older couple must be one of our parents.”

I watched as the three people shed tears at their own accords while the doctor’s face flattened down. He no longer wore a smile. His eyes were tired and aged, and faint frown lines appeared on his face.

“It appears Dominic is suffering from amnesia. Tracy, are you sure that nothing was around him when you found him lying on the floor face down.”

Tracy . . . Tracy. I let the name roll around on my tongue. I felt so natural, and sounded so familiar. But from where—a distant dream; I have no recollection of her. She began weeping. I don’t know why but I didn’t like it and it made me sad and hurt as I watched the tears create a stream down her beautiful face.

“Dominic,” she got out. “You’re 25, not 17. You graduated in the top 5% of your class at UCLA, with your rowing scholarship. I graduated in the top 10% of my class at SCSU.” She sniffled. “We would meet up every weekend. To chat because we were best friends, even after high school, and all the craziness that happened there.” So she was a really good friend. “You’re the one who helped me do so great in all my courses. At the beginning of senior year at UCLA you were drafted onto an official rowing team. And after college you competed in rowing matches all around the world.”

I wiped some of the tears away from her face. She was so genuine. “You never kept out of touch though, and before I knew it I was your date to many special occasions, and we were unofficial, until you announced it after a special win, in Argentina. Then just last year, on your new yacht, you asked me to marry you.” I think she’s my fiancée. She lifted the hand she was holding me with to reveal a silver ring with a diamond and a silver band completely encrusted with rubies.

“You always told me that the diamond was just for show, that the rubies were the true rare gems.” The tears were freefalling down her face. Her sobs weren’t loud, but I think they could have been if she wasn’t holding back as much as her grip on me told me she was.

“So, Tracy, right? What do you do?” I couldn’t think of anything nicer to say to her, which was pretty sad, considering I could have comforted her. A small smile arose amongst all the tears. “You always called me a sexy science nerd.”

“So did I call you sexy just because you’re hot or was there some other reason?” I asked in the kindest way I could.

“It’s because I modeled my way through school. And I still get modeling calls from designers.”

“Were you an angel?”

She let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I started for VS before we got together, and although you enjoyed seeing me in lingerie you hated the fact that everyone else would as well.” She smiled at the end.

“What about the science stuff?”

She opened her mouth but the doctor cut her off. “Alright, alright, we don’t want to overwhelm Dominic’s fragile brain, he needs to rest now. You can all speak with him tomorrow.” He said as he paged a nurse.

Now that he mentioned rest, I was starting to feel a bit tired. I guess, some extra, real sleep wouldn’t hurt.

When I woke up there was another stranger in the room with me. She wasn’t the Tracy girl from before. She had hair that looked like fire against her alabaster skin. She wore ripped jeans and a tank top under a shirt that slid easily off her shoulder. She was looking out of the window. I hadn’t noticed it was there before, nor had I noticed how high up we were. I have never been in a skyscraper hospital. I didn’t even know those existed.

I fixed myself so I was sitting a bit more comfortable. She turned and looked at me with a slightly startled face. Her face was striking. She wiped away a tear. She had a scar across her beautiful face, but it was very faint, as if it weren’t really there.

“I’m so sorry,” she said as she wiped the tear, and sniffled.

“Do I know you too?” If she was crying she must know me.

“No, not really, I’m just a nurse that was attending to you,” she explained.

“Why were you crying?” I wondered.

“It’s such a breath taking view from up here. I just let myself delve into it.”

“Shouldn’t you be in scrubs?”

“No! I—I,” she stuttered, and looked at the door to the room. It was closed. “Today’s my day off and I heard you woke up. I just came to see you but you were sleeping.”

“That was very nice.”

“I hear you have amnesia.”

“Yeah, it’s not very fun. It’s kind of depressing. I have a wife, I think, or a fiancé. But I can’t remember her. I can’t remember the life she spoke to me about either.”

“I heard you fell pretty hard. But don’t worry there was minimal damage done to any part of your body. You’re probably going through shock, is all. Your memory should come back soon.”

“You’re probably right. . . Your hair is so striking. Is it even allowed to be that color?”

“Yeah, it is. This is my natural hair color. Does it bother you?”

“No, as a matter of fact I feel like I could look at it all day, there’s just something about it. It’s like calling out to me.”

“That’s strange, but I should leave before your family comes and wonders who I am and what I’m doing here. I don’t want to get myself in trouble.”

“Before you go, can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“What happened to your face? Your scar I mean?”

She touched her face as if almost horrified that I had noticed. Before I could apologize she began speaking. “People don’t notice it. You must have a good eye. But I got it when I was 17; I was in the middle of a tornado and got sliced in the face by a steel pipe.”

“Was it the wind the made it hit you?”

“No, well maybe, it hit this boy I was with. Then it sliced me after popping off him.”

“What happened to the boy?”

“He died, pretty instantaneously.”

“Wait you were outside when it happened?”

“Yeah, we both had on belts so we tied ourselves to house pipes from a house that got blown away by a different tornado. It was the safest thing we could do, the wind just picked up out of no where, then bam one tornado formed, ripped past and then more began.”

“Wow, I’m so sorry.”

“Me too, he tried to apologize to me for a fight we had been having, and I told him I didn’t forgive him, that he could apologize to me after the tornadoes, and it was horrible.”

“I’m sure he forgave you for that a long time ago. But what did you do after that?”

“I began searching for something that was important to me that I lost that day.”

“What was it?”

“Wow, you ask a lot of questions.”

“You are very interesting, like your hair.”

“Alright,” she caved. Her face became serious again. “I began searching for my love, and I almost gave up, but I didn’t and I’m glad I didn’t, because I found him.”

“But I thought you said he died.”

“I thought he did, like I said I almost gave up hope, but I didn’t and I found him, and now were happy together.”

“Would it be alright if I meet him? I don’t know why but I want to.”

She looked at me incredulously but nevertheless agreed to let me meet him Monday. But that meant I had to wait the whole week, it was still Tuesday. With that she smiled and left.

When she left I could think of nothing but her fiery hair. I thought about it everyday. I looked at Tracy and imagined her red hair. I didn’t even know the red heads’ name, but I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I was just thankful that she wasn’t in my dreams. I don’t know what I would do if when I slept I saw her; I don’t know what I would do if I saw anything when I went to sleep.

Kylee

I came the next day to check on the boy. I didn’t even know what I considered him as. How could I explain things? I couldn’t, that’s how. If I did we would fall again. I have been trying to get back, but every time I feel I am close the boy has to fuck it all up again.

I entered the lobby and was instantly scorned for not having worn my scrubs to work. Looking down at my jeans and shirt, I imagined bright yellow scrubs with monkey faces all over. I looked back at the security guard and told him they were in my bag. He looked at the bag and hadn’t even noticed that it most definitely wasn’t there just a moment ago.

“I didn’t even see your bag on your arm.” I smiled kindly and opened it so he could glimpse the yellow scrubs. I continued on my way. I made it all the way up to the boys floor. I entered the bathroom and changed. Everything was so fabricated, it was amazing that he could do this in such a critical state.

I exited the bathroom and went to the nurse’s station. I felt a pull to the boy but I resisted. I had to wait until Monday rolled around. I didn’t know how long it would take but I had to hurry up and get myself a fiancé and a ring. I knew who I would wanted but it would take me some time to find him, and I couldn’t call; no I couldn’t call. I couldn’t even give up even if I wanted to. I was here until it was over, until HE was safe.

A nurse handed me my badge. I read the name on it. Sookie Northman. Seriously? I looked at the nurse. “How was your day off boss?” she said. I looked at the badge again.

Sookie Northman,
RN
Charge Nurse

I looked up to the ceiling, “Seriously, Altelena? Seriously?! Stop whispering things. First it’s background noise, and music, now it’s TV, Seriously?! Stop putting things into his head through his ears!” The nurse looked at me.

“Chief, are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just saw who I was attending and it made me think of a show I was watching at home. I thought I would try out the words the character used. They jut sounded crazy coming out of my mouth.” I covered as quickly as possible; this girl was going to get me caught. People were already looking at me funny every now and then. They knew something was up. But they didn’t know what it was. And for the trust that had been imposed on me I was glad for their tolerant ignorance.

I took care of my charges and did what I had only ever seen nurses do on TV. Nurse Jackie and Hawthorne were my only clues. When I left my shift for the day I went out in search of a jewelry store and bought myself a normal sized diamond ring. When I left I went back to the apartment that was my safe house. I called out to him, I called out for him. I wasn’t sure if he could hear my mental pleas, but I tried nonetheless.

The next few days were like that as well. I went to work and Everyday people called me Nurse Sookie Northman. I didn’t like this outside-ness that was going on. If he realized who Sookie really was then I might have a real problem on my hands. The last thing I wanted was Sookie Stackhouse and Jason Stackhouse, or Bill Compton, or Eric Northman, or Pam Ravenscroft, or Alcide Herveaux. Oh, god, I couldn’t handle any characters from that show. This place would be hell.

Oh, my god, she’s doing it again. She’s whispering. I had no idea what half the characters last names were, but she was whispering and my mind picked up her whispers. I could have sworn we only asked her for music. Just music! I better not see a vampire or a werewolf or a fairy. Finally, as the weekend rolled around, he answered my call. He found me!

I felt it when I received a knock on my door. People didn’t just knock on my door. No, no they didn’t. They knew something was wrong with me. But they tolerated me, only because of him. I pulled the door open, and there he stood in all his glory. He pulled me into a hug.

“I’ve been searching and searching. I got caught in the mass of dark nothingness.”

“I tried saving the boy from it.”

“If you hadn’t called so much or so hard I would have never found you,” he said, hugging me again.

“I’m glad I was so incessant then.”

I looked at him. He was almost exactly like I remembered. His face was still 17 his body was still in football form. I pulled him inside. “Tristan.”

“I missed you,” he said before walking around. He stopped at my scrubs lying on the floor. “A nurse?”

“Charge nurse,” I corrected.

“Ooo head nurse, grrrr,” he said growling sexily and giving me his famous debonair smirk.

“He thought of it all on his own.”

He picked up the ID card. “You have got to be shitting me.” I wasn’t sure if he found it funny or not when he shook his head.

“She’s been whispering,” I told him. “I can feel it when she does. My thought track picks it up and I only know when all of a sudden I know things that I didn’t just a moment before.”

“Fuck. Let me guess my new name is Eric Northman.”

“It better be if I’m Sookie Northman.” I showed him the wedding ring I bought for myself and the band, and I showed him the band I got for him.

“The boy wants to meet you. I made him wait ‘til Monday but if he wills it the days can go by in minutes.

“Let’s hope that he has patience, then.”

We spent the weekend contemplating everything that was going on, and everything that changed. It was getting tiring. I wanted to take him home, take him back. But I had to work hard, harder than ever for this to work. This needed to be over soon, because the last thing I needed was for him to get old and die. I couldn’t live with myself if he died.

“I’m scared Tristan.”

“Me too, I don’t know why he hasn’t responded to you. The boy responds to you, and I don’t understand that at all.”

“His features have aged. All of their features have aged. I had to age my features when I was checking on the boy. I couldn’t look like the girl that he knew in ‘high school’.”

“I see, you only really changed your eye color, your height, and shed a few of those cute pounds.”

“I wasn’t fat to begin with.”

“I never said that, but now you look so muscular, I liked having a little to pinch.”

“Oh shut it.”

He smirked at me. Soon though, the smirk vanished. “You know, before when we were in the boys’ high school, he recognized you. He even threatened me about it.”

“When was he around you that I wasn’t?”

“Remember that I was here before you were. I tried making friends with him. But
he was just like his father; he hated me from the moment he saw me. So I let him, he had nothing to do with me, only his father.”

“You never told me that.”

“It meant nothing, it was after the first time he saw us together. He was so furious he tried fighting me. It was kind of funny though, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

I grabbed Tristan’s hands and led him to the bathroom. I faced him to the mirror; even with my new found height, he was still taller than me. I stood at his side as he took us both in. His face was youthful and bare, with an ever so slight shadow of facial hair that was starting to grow in.

He looked at my face then, it was thinner, more defined, I definitely looked older, not so baby like anymore. “Tristan, I’m going to miss your baby face,” I said caressing his cheek. “See how my face looks older? Just think of yours looking older, too; it will most likely just be hairier; you already have a defined and toned face and body. All you need is some stubble.”

I watched as he concentrated, while staring at himself in the mirror. I saw the changes happening before my very eyes. Tristan, he was so special to me and I was watching him grow and age right before me. His face was the first to start, I watched as it became more defined than I ever thought it could. I stared in awe as hair sprouted from his pores. It looked a bit painful. But he only gave himself some light stubble. His skin became more radiant; I snorted, he could be so cocky sometimes. He gave himself sideburns. It was becoming comical. I wanted to laugh as I watched, but when I took in the whole picture his changes not only made him look older, but also more handsome.

He looked at me, his hair in disarray, it seemed thicker now that I was looking at it; and his eyes, they appeared a brighter green. “So,” he asked, eyes gleaming, “how do I look?”

“Beautiful,” I said smiling. He looked at me a moment before smiling.

“I have to see the rest of my body.”

I led him to my bed room. He wiggled his eyebrows when I turned to face him. I rolled my eyes at him and closed my door, revealing a full body mirror. He raised one of his thick eyebrows at me. “It was there, and there’s another on the other side of the room, you can use it instead of this one. It’s bigger.”

He nodded and walked to the other side of my room where a giant mirror stood. He stood before it and I jumped on the bed behind him, watching. He began concentrating, hard. What I had thought was toned was apparently only toned enough for the mind of a high school girl. Tristan obviously had a whole different idea of how fit he felt he should be by the age of 25. I had no doubt in my mind that when we were 25 he would be this fit. He had taken his shirt off and his pants leaving him in a pair of boxers. Not only did he become bigger, but more toned. Photoshop couldn’t have done a better job.

“Kylee,” he called to me. I stopped staring at his incredible abs—they were a sight before, but now they were almost too much. I raised my eyes to meet his through the mirror, my cheeks getting hot in the process. He smirked at me, “what happened to your face. I’ve wanted to ask all weekend, but I was just too happy to see you again.”

“I almost died.”

“What?!”

“Remember when I told you that I saved the boy, Dominic, from the absence; the dark nothingness as you like to call it.”

“Yeah?”

“I got him out and all hell broke loose. Salvatore’s mind was having a melt down; it was like def con 5 or something. There was chaos everywhere. I didn’t recognize anything. And the next thing I knew a tornado touched down right as soon as we were clear of the absence. A house flew in the air. The boy and I ran to the pipes that were still cemented to the ground, and tied ourselves to them with our belts. The boy got hit with a pipe and I caught the after math of the blow the pipe gave him.

“After that everything went dark, and the next thing I knew I was falling out of the sky. I landed on a skyscraper, in a city full of them.”

“More than NYC?”

“Way more. Then I felt the pull the boy has on me. I followed it to his room and saw him. I didn’t know how I survived the fall, but I did. The pain was intolerable though; everything felt raw. It hurt so bad when I was near the boy. I started crying while having a hard time changing my features and he woke up. But I haven’t seen Salvatore! I haven’t seen him since before the absence.”

“What happened before you went to retrieve the boy from the absence?”

“I was having lunch with Salvatore. I was making so much progress with him. He invited me to see his office so I could finally ‘see’ what he does and where he keeps himself. But then I felt the strong pull of the boy and Salvatore’s face scrunched and he looked like someone was stabbing him. But the pull of the boy was so strong I couldn’t stay with Salvatore if I wanted to.”

“You do know that if Sal dies here he can never come back; you know, if you die you can never come back; and you know that if I die, neither can I.”

Tristan’s words stung, but I nodded nevertheless. I knew the risks and that was why I had been so on edge. “You almost died trying to save him Kylee, do you get that. He isn’t even a part of the mission yet you tried to save him. Sal is the only one that is important!”

“Yes but Salvatore doesn’t remember us! He doesn’t even know his first name!”

That got Tristan to shut up. “He doesn’t remember us?”

I sighed. “No, he doesn’t remember us. The boy though, he remembers me. He remembers the couple of times I visited him in his dreams when I would came down. He remembers everything that went on in those dreams. He became obsessed with me. I don’t understand the pull he has on me, but maybe it has something to do with Salvatore.”

Tristan sighed before running his hand across his face, “You better be right Kylee, because tomorrow is Monday, and tomorrow I meet him.”