Chapter 28: Following Your Dreams

Flint Morgan

His dreams were filled with electric blue eyes. Flint turned over trying to forget them, but he couldn't. They were all he saw. They were the only piece of his old life that he remembered. Turning over his pillow once more, he fell once more into his dreams.

Still thirty minutes afterwards, he couldn't get out the vision of those crystal eyes shooting right through his mind.

Finally, his mind spun elsewhere momentarily.

His mind spat out a solitary number to him; 33.

It looked to be an apartment number. Flint took note of the number and he hoped that his mind wouldn't spin back to those haunting crystal eyes. Luckily, his mind spilled back to a green sign that said Sherwood Avenue.  Looking up in his dream, he saw a dreary apartment sparkling in the distance.

Sweat panted out of Flint as a feeling washed over him seeing that apartment.

Flint's breath raced to catch up with him. He felt as if this whole place was haunting him.

Finally, Flint woke up to the sun berating through the blinds. Rubbing his eyes, Flint sat up. He couldn't believe he crashed at Carter's place. Last night was just so tiring. Flint had picked up Jared and left him at the hospital just like Carter said, now they were just waiting for Wynn to wake up.Whatever Carter gave her knocked her out cold. Flint just hoped whatever it was wasn't permanent.

Looking down at Wynn, he wished he remembered her at all.

All he really had was his dreams, but even those dreams were filled with blanks.

Like who was the person who belonged to those devastating blue eyes, and why did he keep seeing that one apartment in particular.

Flint wanted to believe Carter was telling the truth, but he couldn't. Not unless he investigated that apartment from his dreams.

Flint gulped loudly. Suddenly, Wynn's eyes opened wildly.

“Welcome back to earth,” Flint said.

Wynn's hands were bound and she struggled to get out. Flint just laughed. “Carter. She's awake!”

Carter stepped through the door. Seeing Wynn awake, Carter looked at Flint. “I'll take it from here. You can take the day off to relax while I get Kate's location out of her.”

“But—”Flint exclaimed.

Carter just nodded no. “You don't want to be here when you see how we get the information out of her. Trust me. It'll, be fine. We'll find Kate before she hurts someone else. Okay?”

Flint took a deep exhale as he headed to the door. “Fine,” he yelled out as he slammed the door.

This was what he wanted anyways. He needed to find Sherwood Avenue, Apartment 33.

He needed to piece together his life.

Flint headed to the subway station with an eerie familiarity washing over him with every step.

******

Finally, Flint made it to the apartment on Sherwood. It looked exactly the same as his dream. His mind sped up as he stood outside. Flint's heart shook in his chest as he felt deep down inside that whoever was in apartment 33, he probably cared about them a lot.

This scared him, but also excited him. Flint propelled his feet forward in pure anticipation. Slowly, his feet traced the ground until he made his way to the stairs. His shoes softly pattered up to the right floor and then his eyes scanned for the apartment. Finally, his eyes settled on the door of the right apartment. Flint gulped hard. His heart pulsed in his chest as his fist raised ready to knock.

Flint’s breath paced in his chest as he finally let his fist fall on the door.

At first, there was no response. There was just stillness as Flint put his ear up to the door.

Then, a soft voice asked, “who is it?”

“Ummmmm…” Flint stuttered out.

The soft voice repeated the question. “Who is it?”

“I—my name is Flint. Flint Morgan. I—”

The door slammed open and the soft voice was matched with an even more beautiful face. Flint was speechless. His lips quivered as he scanned her up and down. He tried to jot down all her features in his head. Something this beautiful he should be able to remember, right?

The woman's eyes went wide as she saw Flint in the half-light of the dim hallway.

Her lips upturned in a wide smile as tears crawled from her eyes.

She stepped forward and now Flint was face-to-face with her. Looking into her eyes, he found it. Her eyes were the ones which he saw this morning and every time he started daydreaming in his head. But who was she? Was she his girlfriend? Were they married?

Flint felt this stir in his chest as they locked eyes.

No words were spoken. Both of them bled bated breaths as they looked at each other like it was the first time and the last time.

The woman's hand stretched over his. She interlaced her fingers through his as she stepped closer.

Her tropical scent filtered through his nose as she became closer.

Finally, the woman leaned her head onto Flint's shoulder. Flint took a deep breath. Being with her, he felt home. Flint's arms instinctively wrapped around her as she cried on his shoulder. She began gripping his shoulder like Flint was going to leave at any moment.

Suddenly, the woman took her chin off Flint's shoulder and she whispered into his ear softly.It was a barely a whisper but it was strong and heartfelt. It made Flint want to hold her even closer to himself.

She said, “I don't care if you're not real. I love you. I always have. I always will. I keep thinking about you. Every day I see you in my head its like a ghost ship circulating. My thoughts always trace back to you. No matter what I do. No matter where I am. I'm still missing you…and its driving me crazy.”

Tears fell on his pale blue T-shirt. Flint dragged her away from his arm so he could look her in the eyes. Once they were finally square to each other, the woman's porcelain face and disheveled charcoal hair, shone back at him. For life of him, he wish he remembered her.

Wiping off her tears he began to drawl out, “I am real.”

The woman sniffled. “No. You disappeared before I had the chance to tell you. This is just my mind haunting me. Really, I'm probably in the back of a police car by now. This is all a dream. A dream I don't want to wake up from, but nonetheless, a dream.”

Flint pulled her closer to him. “I am real. I am here."

“No you left. You left me with your mess. You left me to face this all alone. I needed you and you were gone.”

“But I—” Flint stuttered out.

“You can't just choose to be a coward when people need you most. You have to face your problems…but you don't have to face them alone. I would have helped you, but no, you just left. I know it wasn't your fault…but it hurt so much…too much...” tears bled through her once again.

Flint just held her closer waiting for the storm of tears to stop. “How can I make this better, ummm…what's your name again?”

The woman's eyes got lost and wild as she turned away from Flint.

Flint put his hands in his pockets in shame. “I'm sorry, I was shot and I've only just recently got out of a coma. You'll have to forgive me.”

Flint watched as her charcoal hair swayed away with her.

“So it's true,” She mumbled to herself.

Flint stepped into her apartment following her as she paced away. Flint's eyes flew to every inch of the apartment. It was small and dreary but looked comfortable. Flint kept feeling like he'd seen it before, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out where or why he'd seen it before.

As the women kept pacing, Flint's eyes raked over the couch. A man laid there motionless. Flint's mouth stood agape as he looked at the man, who was shirtless and on this woman's couch. Flint gulped. Who was this man and why was he on her couch? Should Flint be jealous?

Finally, the woman spun around to face him again.

“You don't remember me?” she asked softly as if trying to confirm it to herself again.

Flint softly shook his head no.

The woman scratched her chin in thinking as her crystal eyes dragged to the floor too.

Flint had to interrupt her. Not knowing who the man was on her couch was killing him. All of this was so confusing. He felt something so strong with this woman with charcoal hair and ocean blue eyes, yet, he also felt like she had somehow broken his heart before.

“Who is he?” Flint pointed to the couch.

The woman’s eyes fluttered over to the man and her eyes sunk in shame. “I didn't mean for any of this to happen.”

Flint's eyes electrified in shock. “Is…he…dead.”

The woman looked at him sideways. “Well…” she started.

Flint asked her again more sternly. “Is that man dead…and were you cheating on me with him?”

Flustered, she answered, “well you see…that's a very good question. Best question I've had all week in fact. No wait, I think my neighbor asked me ‘why is the sky blue'. Now that was a good question. I think the answer has something to do with science, but just think about it. What if the grass was blue and the sky was green? You and my neighbor ought to have a conversation. You guys are great at questions…”

Flint came closer and said, “stop stalling. Answer the damn question, whoever you are!”

The woman crossed her arms. “Now that's really rude. Have we ever discussed your rudeness. You'll need to work on that if we ever do get together again. Maybe they have a workshop for anger management that I can enroll you in…”

“Answer the damn question!”

The woman took a deep breath in. “Fine, so I cheated on you. You kissed Nikki...I mean Annie.” She paused thinking and then began again. “Well, technically, you thought Annie was me…so…It was really compliment. But the fact that you were on a date with her in the first place…”

Flint's eyes teared up. “I don't know what we were together. Husband and wife? Boyfriend and girlfriend? It doesn't matter. I want to know if he's dead or not and why he's on your couch!”

“Well…its definitely a funny story…” she laughed nervously. “You should really hear it…”

Flint leveled her with a stern glare.

“Okay…he may be a little dead, but I swear the cops are coming soon.”

She glanced down at her wristwatch. “Yup. Any minute. You can wait with me if you want to.”

Flint ruffled his hands through his hair as he mumbled out, “what did I get myself into?”

She nervously chuckled.

“Well you have a knack for loving crazy people. First Wynn and now me. I wasn't going to say anything…but you're on a roll.”

“What?”

“Yeah, let's be honest. Wynn was a little crazy. She tried to kill me once…it was a misunderstanding…don't worry. It all worked out…”

“Did you just say ‘Wynn'; I was married to her?”

The woman nodded, confused at Flint. “Yeah…and then plot twist, she cheats with your brother. I mean, I honestly saw it coming…your brother is a tall stack of ‘wow'…”

Flint lit daggered eyes at her. He had to know. “What's your name!”

“My name?”

Flint nodded sturdily. “Yes! Who the hell are you?”

“Ummm…that's a loaded question…”

“Stop evading!”

“Okay…my name is… Elizabeth Bennett.”

Flint scoffed. “I may not remember much, but come on; my english teach made us watch Pride and Prejudice! You have to come up with something better than that!”

“Hazel Grace?”

“Really? ‘The Fault in Our Stars', I thought you were more clever than this. Also…on a completely different note, that movie was such a tear jerker. Come up with a name at least somewhat creative!”

Glancing outside for a second she said,“ummmm…Tree Leafbottom?”

Flint rolled his eyes at her. “Leafbottom? That's all you got?”

The woman opened her mouth to speak again, and then the door slammed open.

“Kate!” a voice yelled. “I couldn't find body bags at the store…so I bought a Santa bag…it was on sale. Don't judge me…and I bought a cake. But that's just cause we'll burn a lot of calories burying that poor sucker…”

Flint's eyes went wide. “You! You're… you're Kate!”

Kate shrugged her shoulders and sarcastically responded, “What do you think idiot?”

Flint slammed his fist on the counter as he exited. “I think you're the lying b#tch who shot me!”

His heart dripped out of chest as he walked breathlessly out of her apartment. Flint had hoped when they found Kate no one else would be hurt, but who was he kidding. Kate was a killer. But the worst part...was feeling this way about her. Why the hell did Kate, the woman who shot him, also want to be with him?

Tears embroidered his eyes as Flint scaled down the stairs. He heard empty shouts of his name begging him to come back.

He would never come back.

Never.

Maybe love just wasn't meant for him. Maybe all he was meant for was war...and maybe that was okay.

Thank you for reading! So...Flint's really mad...and he thinks Kate is a killer. How will Flint ever learn the truth? Also...what is Carter doing to Wynn? And...what is up with these clones ending up dead random places? What is Carter's plan? Find out in chapter 29 of Blank Slate. Thank you all for sticking with me for so long! I love you guys so much ❤❤❤❤