4 am - Judy Albietz

They were both riding down a long steep escalator with no handrails. He couldn’t see where the escalator ended because it was so dark. Lindsey was in front of him and she was losing her footing and falling downwards. He was running down the steps after her. It was hard to keep his balance. She turned to reach up to him and he tried to grab her hand but it slipped away. He continued to run after her but she kept getting further away from him as she tumbled faster down the steps. He shouted to her. She screamed and disappeared into the darkness as he woke up.

David sat up in bed and tried to shake the dream out of his head. He looked over at the clock by his bed. It was 4 a.m. Looking down at his hands, David remembered the dream and how he failed to save Lindsey. His throat felt raw like he had been shouting out loud. Since David knew it would take a while to get back to sleep he got out of bed. He turned lights on as he walked into the kitchen to stare into the refrigerator. Now he was hungry. He pulled out the milk carton, grabbed cereal, a bowl and spoon and sat down at the kitchen table.

Pushing away the empty bowl, David involuntarily shivered as he recalled his nightmare. He rubbed his face and scratched his thick brown hair as he thought about the obvious source of the dream: seeing Lindsey yesterday after all this time. He had believed he was over her, that he had moved on. Seeing her now made him question that. When they had dated, Lindsey and David had been able to talk to each other about anything. Friends said they had a psychic connection, which neither one of them believed in. But, it was true that they had always understood each other, that is, until the end. Lindsey had been so abrupt in breaking up that he had hardly caught his breath before she was gone.

Now, six years later, Lindsey still could make his pulse beat faster than any other woman in the world. Thinner and more muscular, Lindsey still wore her red curls pulled back into a ponytail. She had some new worry lines on her lightly-tanned and freckled face and her vibrant smile had a new hesitation, like she wasn’t so sure of herself anymore. David had never thought of Lindsey being vulnerable. But he now sensed something was threatening her.