Pulled to the Dark (The Siriena Series) (10 page)

Erika laughed. "Everyone is welcome who promises to have a good time and not get all stuffy because we sometimes pick silly movies."

"Last week wasn't silly," Karen said. "I loved that movie!"

Erika tossed a few more jibes at Petra and Andrea then signed off.

They helped me clean up. Andrea said. "I really had fun tonight and would love to come again, but I don't want to interfere with your tradition with Erika."

"Erika and I have talked about this in the past," I said. "Anyone is welcome who doesn't
try to change what we're doing. I had a boyfriend who got angry with us because we were heckling a movie he really wanted to watch. He wasn't invited back."

The three of them left together a few minutes later. I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn't made a fool of myself.

* * *

Dream Petra
was humming and stroking me. I opened my eyes and immediately focused on her. She smiled and kissed me. It was sweet. I reached up with my hand and held her by the back of her neck, encouraging the kiss to last.

She pulled away, looked into my eyes,
then
kissed me again, her tongue invading my mouth.
I moaned into the kiss.

She pulled away, smiled, and her hands reached up and played with my hair for a moment, rearranging it about my head. She looked at me
,
and her smile turned into a playful grin. I knew that look.

"Oh no!" I said. "Don't you dare.
"

She pulled away from my grasping arms. Then her fingers dashed to my ribs and started a very one-sided tickle fight. I began giggling immediately while trying to escape her playful, clever fingers. Over the weeks she'd learned all my tickle spots, and she was exploiting them exceedingly well.

I tried scrambling away from her, but my limbs were still only working so well, and she had no trouble at all following me around, tickling me. I couldn't stop giggling
, but I had
not
asked
her to stop.

I managed one especially poorly performed flop after a particularly cruel tickle, banging my head rudely against the floor. She stopped tickling
,
and her expression turned to one of concern. She was immediately at my head, examining me.

"I'm fine," I said, once I caught my breath. She smiled and caressed my face.

Through all of this, the humming and strange words continued. I almost felt like I could understand the words.

She lied down on her side next to me, her head propped on one hand, the other continuing to caress me.

"I can't believe you picked on the crippled girl," I told her.

"Incentive," she said, before kissing me for the last time that night.

Monday night
,
Dream Petra
introduced a new game. She was stroking me and humming when I opened my eyes. I looked at her. She was kneeling over me, smiling. She leaned down to kiss me, but stopped with our lips a few inches apart, staring into my eyes.

"Kiss me," I told her.

She continued to smile but didn't come any closer. I tried reaching for her with my arms, but she evaded me and waved a finger in front of my nose, then pushed my arms back to my sides. She leaned over me again, stopping with our lips inches apart. Again I tried to reach for her, and again she waved a finger in front of me before pushing my hands away.

As always, she was humming and speaking her words.

I looked at her. "More of your incentive?" I asked.

Her smile grew wider and she nodded, just once.
She lowered her lips over mine again. All I had to do was lift my head a few inches, hardly at all, and I could kiss her.

She waited for me, her lips hovering over mine.

I struggled with it. I felt my head move a little, but I couldn't raise it from the floor.
I tried scrambling with my arms, but as soon as I did, she pulled away and shook her finger at me again.

"I can't," I told her.

She frowned and caressed my cheek. Then she lowered her lips towards mine again.

I didn't get my kiss.

* * *

I didn't get one Tuesday, either.

* * *

"I don't like this game," I told her Wednesday.

She straightened up and looked away. Then she disappeared.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Where did you go?"

After about two minutes, she reappeared, standing over me. She was holding a glass of water. There was a hand towel thrown over her shoulder. She knelt down at my head. I reached for her but she pulled away. I heard her set the glass of water down. She frowned at me, then her hands started to glow. She touched my shoulders and my arms went limp.

"Hey," I said quietly. "What did you do?"

Her hands were still glowing. She leaned over me and pressed
her hands to
my hips. My legs went immediately limp as well.
I couldn't so much as twitch a finger.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

She didn't answer. Instead she reached above my head and picked up the glass of water. She
reached in and withdrew an eye
dropper.
She filled the eye
dropper with water from the glass,
then
held it about two feet directly above my face.

"You wouldn't," I said.

She squeezed the bulb and a
drop of water fell from the eye
dropper and splashed onto my face.

"Hey!" I said.

She moved the eyedropper slightly and squeezed again. The drop fell directly into my right eye.

"Stop it!"

She adjusted her aim and the water fell into my left eye.

The next time she squeezed the water out, I shut my eyes tightly. The water splashed against my closed lid. She splashed me a few more times,
then
I heard her set the glass down and she was drying my face with the towel.

I opened my eyes and looked at her. "I know you want me to turn my face," I told her. "But I can't."

She disappeared.

Like last time, she was gone about two minutes before she returned. She had her hands behind her back so I couldn't see what she was holding.

"Can we go back to the other game?"

She shook her head.

She knelt down next to me. She set something down with a glass clunk on the floor then showed me what else she was holding. She had a roll of tape.

"What is that for?"

She peeled off a piece of tape then reached over and used her left hand to pry my right eyelid open.

"No! No! No!" I said, trying to squeeze my eyes shut. She taped my eye open anyway. She did the same with the other eye.

"I want to wake up now!"

She shook her head.

Then she showed me what else she had. It was a bottle of lemon juice.

"Petra, please don't."

She looked at me sadly,
then
poured a capful of lemon juice into the water. She stirred it with her finger then tasted it. She added another cap of water, stirred, and tasted.

She filled the eye
dropper with the water lemon juice mix. The first splash was against my lips. I could taste the lemon.

"I want to wake up!"

The next splash just missed my left eye, but some of the water seeped onto my eye. It stung!

"Petra!" I yelled.

The next splash landed directly in my right eye. It really stung. She got my left eye with the following splash. Now both e
yes stung, and I couldn't blink.

"Oh god!" I yelled. "Stop it!"

She waved a glowing hand over my face, and the stinging immediately stopped. She caressed my cheek once. Then, offering a sad look, she picked up the glass and eyedropper again.

"No!" I yelled.

The splash landed on my cheek. I had turned my head away.

She immediately set the glass down and clapped with joy. She reached over, caressed my face,
then
turned my head so I was staring straight up again. She picked up the eyedropper. With her free hand, she tapped my left eyebrow
then
very carefully and deliberately took aim. She squeezed, and I turned my face to the right. The drop landed harmlessly on my cheek.

She clapped again.

"Please stop," I said quietly.

She straightened my head again,
then
very gently removed the tape holding my eyes open.
I blinked my eyes,
then
squeezed them shut. I lied like that for a moment until she tapped my nose. She was holding a small bottle of eye drops. She let me read the label. I nodded.

She clapped her hands. I had nodded.

Very gently she held my left eye open and gave me three drops of the eye drops. I blinked several times. Then she did the same with the right eye.

She set everything aside before leaning over to kiss me. I turned my head away. "I'm mad at you right now."

She caressed my cheek and whispered, "I love you," into my ear.

I woke up.

* * *

"That bitch," I said, getting up and talking to the cats. I stormed around the apartment for a few minutes,
then
found my phone.
I texted Petra.

"Running late, taking train."

I went back to bed and curled up for a while.

Eventually I got out of bed, showered, and dressed. I took the train and barely arrived at work by my official start time of nine. Andrea saw me, gave me a few minutes to settle in and called me into her office. "Close the door."

"Am I in trouble?" I asked when I sat down.

"No," she said. "Is something wrong?"

I looked away. "Bad morning," I said. "Do you ever have those dreams that feel totally real, and you're dreaming about someone real. That person does something that makes you really angry, and when you wake up, you're mad at the real person?"

She nodded.
"Are you still angry?"

"Yes," I said. "Isn't that silly? It was just a dream, but it felt so real." I paused. "I'm sorry, I won't let it affect my work."

"Quite all right, Felicia. We all have bad days." She paused. "Unless it's me you're mad at."

I actually laughed. "No, it wasn't you."

"Good," she said. "I have something new for you today."

* * *

Over lunch at the dojo I avoided Petra.

But when it was time to go home, I took the train. I was still mad at her.

* * *

That night, when I woke in my dreams, I took one look at
Dream Petra
kneeling over me, squeezed my eyes shut, and willed myself to wake up.

I
took the train again on Tuesday, arriving at eight.

And Wednesday.

Thursday night I didn't dream of her.

* * *

I woke up Friday morning crying. I took the train, arriving early, and went straight to the dojo. I did a fierce workout. No one bothered me. I was at my desk with a professional appearance by seven-thirty and buried myself in my work.

At ten, a messenger arrived carrying a box from a local florist. I signed for them and opened the box. There was a vase with a beautiful flower arrangement. Andrea was in a meeting but had left me at my desk, working on an assignment for her. I went into the office and set the flowers on her desk for her.

When she returned from her meeting, I was nearly done with the assignment she had given me on Monday. "Flowers came for you," I told her.

"Who are they from?" she asked.

"I didn't read the card. I'm sorry. Should I have?"

"No, probably not," she said, laughing. "I haven't done anything to anyone lately that would warrant flowers."

She went into her office and I bent back to my task. She came out just a minute later, carrying the flowers. "Felicia, they're not for me, they're for you."
She set the flowers on my desk. I stared at them. They were beautiful.

"I haven't done anything to anyone lately, either," I told her.

"There's a card," she said. She plucked it from where it nestled amongst the flowers and handed it to me. The envelope had my name on the outside. I opened it and read it.

The card read, "Are we all right? Petra."

"Are you going to tell me who they're from?" Andrea asked.

I looked over at her. "The person I had that dream about," I said.

"Oh," she replied. She sat down in my guest chair. "Are you still angry at him?"

I thought about it. "Yes. Isn't that stupid?"

She cocked her head. "Sometimes dreams can seem very real. In your dream, was he trying to hurt you?"