Nebulous

Sam was looking into the eyes of a woman he didn’t expect to know.

But he was… He knew this woman, somehow. And everything he had planned on saying was gone the moment she turned around and saw her eyes. He had seen them before.

He didn’t realize it, but Lila was going through the same thing.

Though at a loss for words, her thoughts were whizzing around her head and she was unable to grasp a single one.

Her first thought though, came a moment later: There seemed to be more reality in her dreams than she had originally thought.

And though they both tried to come up with some more sensible explanation for recognizing each other, the only one they could find was in their dreams.

“Sam.” The name rolled past her lips effortlessly, without thought, before she could stop it. She wasn’t quite sure how she knew his name. A moment ago she could have told anyone that she didn’t know a Sam, but now she knew that wasn’t true.

She knew him. He was her stranger. He was Sam.

“Lila,” he said in response, already pulling her into a comforting hug, not even wondering how she knew his name.

She fit against him snugly, the feeling more familiar than made sense.

She knew, in his arms she was here, she was safe. Lila suddenly broke down into tears, face pressed against his chest as she let out all she had been holding in outside of Evan’s apartment complex for everyone to see.

Sam buried his face in her hair, whispering words of comfort that he knew he had whispered to her before.

Neither was certain whether they would be able to let go of the other—but it was Naomi who was able to make that decision, Naomi who would bring them back to present reality.

“Sam?” Naomi’s voice sounded timid, uncertain.

It took Sam a moment to remember where he was. He pulled slowly away from Lila and turned to face a concerned Naomi.

“Is everything okay?” she questioned, gaze flickering over to Lila who was wiping at her eyes. She couldn’t help but note that Lila was one of those girls who still looked beautiful even after a bout of heavy crying.

“It’s…fine,” Sam finally said, the word “fine” lingering in the air over their heads as it was so clearly untrue. But there really was no one word that could properly fit this moment.

But to Lila, this moment felt like waking up from a very deep sleep. She felt lighter and everything didn’t look quite as dark. She reached out a hand, her fingers grasping Sam’s in a familiar gesture that neither could explain, but brought immediate comfort.

Lila finally looked away from Sam and looked to the other girl who was watching the two of them with a look of worry.

“Naomi, this is Lila,” Sam said. “Lila, Naomi.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Lila said, smiling at Naomi who after a moment smiled back. Her smile dipped a little when her eyes fell to Sam and Lila’s interlocked hands.

“I think we should go grab something to eat,” Naomi said. “I think we all have a lot of catching up to do.”

---

Silence followed. It was masked by clinking silverware and plastic cups on formica table tops along with all the other usual sounds of the local Moonlight Diner, but it was there.

Lila was pushing around too-runny eggs around on her plate, Sam was taking occasional bites of the stack of pancakes in front of him, and Naomi was just watching. She didn’t know what to make of all this, couldn’t formulate any clear explanations in her head that would make the most sense.

“So neither of you know exactly how you seem to know each other?” Naomi finally broke the silence. She seemed the only one concerned about this development.

Lila glanced at Sam before answering.

“I think… I think we were together while we were missing,” she said. “I’ve been having these strange dreams and Sam was there… but now I’m thinking those must have been memories.”

“I’ve been having dreams too,” Sam added, setting his fork down on his plate and pushing the barely touched pancakes away from him.

It was unsettling to find that the dreams that had filled them with such terror were the memories they thought they had lost. Lila felt a foot bump against hers under the table and realizing she had been staring at the table she looked up into Sam’s concerned eyes, a silent communication that was all too familiar. She nodded her head slightly to let him know she would be all right.

There was some comfort in knowing that she wasn’t alone in this. That she hadn’t been losing her mind by putting so much stock in those dreams. Lila couldn’t help it when she smiled at Sam, her protector.

They were getting closer to the answers they sought.