...

A Dream?

I gasped and sit up on the bed in a jolt. Sweat beads covered my whole body as my breath came out irregular.

'What just happened?'

I counted one to ten to avoid the bubbling panic attack and after a minute I calmed down a little.

Exhaustion and soreness covered every inch of my body and instead of sleeping, I thought I came from running a marathon.

'Was I dreaming?'

'But it felt as real as water.'

Looking down, I noticed, I was still in my nightgown. Frowning, when I looked around, to my relief I was in my bedroom.

I could blame it on my lack of rest and the hectic past events. I thought everything left a toll on me so I was imagining things.

I stretched out my limp body and was about to get up from the bed when I sensed someone's eyes on me.

Gulping, when I looked back a smile made its way on my face upon seeing Sapphy, who was sitting on my window pane and tilted his head to one side to observe me with his curious big doe eyes.

"Sapphy, you're alive? Oh my god!" I exclaimed in excitement and cooed the bird to come near me and it complied by landing on my upper arm happily.

A gasp left my mouth to see the beautiful creature more prominent in the daylight. The scar across his face was enchanting while his hypnotizing yellow eyes are magnificent.

Yellow eyes.

A glimpse of my dream flashed before my eyes making a chill ran down my spine.

'He had those exactly same yellow eyes.'

Sapphy broke me out of my reverie by nudging my arm with a sad look on its face. I noticed that the wound on its wings hadn't completely healed yet as some dried up blood clotted against the whitish surface of his feather. My bloodied handkerchief was still tied there securely.

Pushing past the thought aside— where on earth was it for a whole two weeks and how came it knew my house to surprise me with its presence, I quickly ran to my cupboard to bring out the first aid kit. After applying the ointment on its wound I bandaged it properly.

Sapphy hissed out in pain and fell over my mattress with exhaustion.

I ran my fingertips on its head while whispering, "Don't worry, baby. It'll heal soon and then I'll set you free. Till then, please let me take care of you."

It stared at me unblinkingly, probably making out my unfamiliar language but trusted me completely by surrendering itself to my touches.

Seeing it sounding asleep, I took it my cue to enter the bathroom and took a good 15 minutes shower to calm down my excited nerves. 

Changing into something casual I picked up my bag and headed towards my shop to distract myself from the chaos, not before giving my sleeping Sapphy a goodbye kiss.

"Hey!" Ed waved in my direction as soon as I entered the café.

"Hi, Ed!"

"Sorry for yesterday's behavior Isabella. I really behaved like a complete jer-"

"It's okay, Ed. I already forgave you. Don't stress yourself." I patted his shoulder in a comforting way as a broad grin captured his lips and we engaged ourselves in work.

Wearing the apron we started to take orders as daily customers filled the table.

Though I busied myself with work I couldn't shake off my mind from the strange things happening with me. It all started from that night when someone sent me home back safely, then father got missing, that dream, Sapphy's unusual return. I couldn't come out with any logical explanation for all of those incidents. Was it just a mere coincidence or something else was lying beneath it?

I was so scared and confused as I got none to share my problems with. No one could actually advise me on what was right or what was wrong at that moment in my life.

Just thinking how alone I was, I felt tears gathering in my eyes but I blinked them away.

"Isabella?" Ed's voice brought me back to reality as I turned around and forced a tight-lipped smile.

I watched as Ed came toward me and motioned me to sit near the stool.

He sighed.

"Isabella, what's wrong with you? I'm noticing over the past few weeks you're behaving weirdly. You know right, I'm always here by your side to listen? But you never say a word to me. Why Isabella? Do you not trust me enough to share your problems with me? Am I that untrustworthy?" I shook my head hurriedly. He seemed upset about my behavior.

I wanted to keep him away from my problems but now it seemed like, if I hid anything from him now, it would only get worse between us. I didn't want to lose our friendship.

"It's really nothing, Ed. I ju-" I tell him the night incident from where it all started. How I met with Sapphy, my nightmares, everything. I saw as his knuckles turned white and his jaw clenched hard.

"All those things have happened and you're telling me now Isabella?! How can you be so careless about yourself? They could do anything you? And what if someone really barged into your room?" He scolded me and he was right. I shouldn't be that careless when it came to my life.

"Isabella, listen. From now on you're going to live with me in my house. I'll shift your things there tomorrow. And I don't want any argument about this." he deadpanned with a stern voice leaving no room for argument and I nodded slightly. It would be safe for me to live with him for some days until everything sorted out.

"Ms. Issabella Evans?" A voice called from behind the counter as we both walked towards the source of it.

I saw a tall built man with black goggles and a black shirt standing with a rolled piece of paper in his hands.

"Yes?"

"Sorry to inform you but your house has been sold and now you're requested to leave the house as soon as possible."