As She Sleeps

She still couldn't shake the previous night's dream, and little did she know that the dream was only a prelude to things to come.

Gracie awoke hours before her alarm clock chimed, jolting her into consciousness. She sat up in bed, trying to adjust her eyes in the darkness of her dark bedroom, and reaching over to feel for the switch on her beside light.

Merely inches from her fingertips, it escaped her grasp and she knocked over a glass figurine of an angel, sending it crashing onto the floor.

"Shoot," she uttered aloud as she heard the sound of breaking glass. "What a way to start the morning!" she says as she adjusted herself closer to the edge of her bed and managed to turn on the light.

Stepping out of bed carefully not to step of the pieces of glass, she heads to the closet for the small broom and dust pan.

Having forgotten for a brief moment of how she was awakened, she heads back down the hallway to her room. She kneels near her bed and begins to pick up the pieces of glass, placing them carefully into the dust pan, when an eerie feeling came over her.

She hears a noise, startled, she stands up and grabs her cell phone to call someone...anyone; she begins dialing her brother's number.

"Hello," Mark says as he answers.

"Um, Mark this is Gracie," she says.

Mark, glancing at the time on his bedroom clock, senses something is wrong. Why was Gracie calling him at 4:00 a.m.?

"Gracie, what's wrong," he demands.

Telling her brother about her dream, she concludes with the broken figurine and the noise.

Mark laughs and says, "You always did have a wild imagination Grace." Embarrassed, she apologizes for the call and waking him up and says "I love you, go back to sleep Mark."

"Get a grip," she tells herself, hanging up the up the phone and staring back down at the glass on the floor before walking into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.

"I need to wake up!" she says. Heading back to her room, she finishes cleaning up the remaining pieces of glass and puts them into the trash can. She heads to the bathroom and fills the bathtub with warm water. The thought of relaxing in the tub with a nice cup of coffee before she has to head to work sounds perfect.

Suddenly there is a knock at the door and Gracie is startled. It's 5:00 a.m., who could that be? Cautiously, she approaches the front door and looks through the peep hole; it's blocked? Oh gosh, what I do, she thinks.

She leans against the door, trying not to make a sound when the second knock sends chills up her spine and she almost lets out a shrill from sheer panic. Frozen she remains against the door, unable to move, afraid to speak and scared to look back out. What has been only a few minutes, feels like hours as her mind in reeling.

She stays pressed against the door waiting, wondering and scared. She begins to have flash backs of her dream, the one that ripped her from the comfort of her bed this morning. She was being chased by someone yet couldn't make out his face. Was it a man? I never really saw his face, she thinks.

The knocking finally stopped and Gracie turns around to look out, she sees the courtyard and no one in sight. This morning sure hadn't started out very well.

Heading to the kitchen she reaches into the cupboard for her favorite mug and pours herself a cup of coffee. She closes her eyes and inhales the aroma for a brief moment before taking the first sip. "Mmm, this is good," she says and she makes her way back to the bathroom, turning on her radio and slips into the bathtub. She hears the morning DJ say it's seven o'clock; time to finish up and get dressed. She has to be ready to leave in 30 minutes.

She hurried to finish up as it is now 7:30 a.m. and time to leave. She turns off her radio, grabs her purse and heads to the kitchen-coffee pot off, lights out! Making her way to the front door she stops to take one final look in the mirror before she walks out; turning sideways to check out the line of her new skirt. Approvingly she nods and turns face forward-when a face in the mirror other than her own stares back at her. She screams whipping around quickly and losing consciousness.

The alarm clock chimed at 6:00 a.m., stirring Gracie from the depths of her dream.