3 Three

A month has passed since the dreams grew more and more inexplicable, Amber never making out more than a word or two at a time throughout. It was becoming so maddening that it even started spilling into her waking hours; seeing flashes of the meadow and flowers in the bathroom, hearing the stream and breeze while in a conference meeting, seeing glances of Hope more and more out and about throughout the days. It was time for some much-deserved R&R, so she decided to organise a catch up and lunch on Saturday with a balanced down to earth and sincerely caring friend.

As she rounds the corner, Amber sees her sat outside their favourite little café playing on her phone, her face beams with such a genuine smile and wave as she sees her approach. They get to ordering their usual of skinny mocha with a brie and grape half baguette and a double shot espresso with a BLT toastie, and then sat at their usual table by the window and near the bar where Anya can gaze at the guy she's had a crush on for the past two years, but always too shy to do anything about it. Anya Silverton is a very close friend of Amberly's, has been since secondary school and they even went to university together, now she manages an animal shelter, which has always been her dream, and also has a younger sister which gives them a deeper understanding of each other. She's also a tall curvy down to earth and caring babe, just refuses to see what everyone else sees, Amber mulls over with herself, with long straight raven dark hair and striking emerald green eyes. Amber opens up to Anya and divulges some of the ongoing escapades at present and she listens kindly and offers advice, "Perhaps you're still in the grieving stages sweetie, or maybe you're just working too hard and overly stressed. Don't worry too much about it, take some time for yourself, relax and let it melt away."

After a therapeutically cathartic afternoon with Anya they part ways with farewells and promises of catching up with each other again soon and make their ways home. The air begins to feel damp, a murky heavier atmosphere unfurling in the sky, a fresh earthy aroma tickling her nose just before she feels a cold wet droplet land on her cheek. The skies open to the heavens and drown the streets in heavy rainfall, people running for cover in shop doorways, others huddling together under umbrellas and cars driving past with windscreen wipers sending further sprays from the downpour onto walking passers-by. Amberly pulls her coat up over her head to shelter the worst of the rain off her head and face and races towards to bus shelter. Over the road she catches a glimpse of pale light, something moving but dry and faded, very peculiar in this current condition of weather. She sees long wavy brown hair with warm caramel flashes throughout; a long plain pastel pink dress stands out against the gloomy grey background of angry clouds, black tarmac and soaked through concrete. The figure turns to the side and looks towards her, but as quickly as this obscure mirage appeared before her, it was gone, vanished into the bustling public and heavy rainfall. She decided to put the event down to her imagination mixed in with some type of rainfall apparition and tried to shake it off, but deep down she knew there was more to it, new it was real and must mean something.

Once Amber got home she dove into research mode and tried to uncover everything she could around incident of today and even her dreams. By the time she got so tired she could barely keep her eyelids open, she had unearthed more questions than explanations and was even confusing herself further. She found references to auras and ghosts, energy and planes and other new age garble but nothing concrete or clear. That night she had another disturbing one, peculiar flashes, mixes of what she'd seen the past few months with what she'd researched that night. But this time Hope was in the background of the dreams and flashes, stood gracefully spectating, urging Amberly to take this seriously and not to ignore it anymore, "You need to truly open your eyes, you must see what is in front of you, you must help those that need it and not shy away from your gifts," she desperately urged.

The following day was just like any other, Amberly had a refreshing shower to awaken her from the groggy feeling overcoming her from the disturbed night's sleep she had. She dressed in her uniform, adorned her ID badge around her neck and packed her bag. She decided she needed a more substantial breakfast this morning to avoid any funny low sugar spells and migraines like she'd had recently at work, so opted for thick warm porridge with fresh blueberries and a large steaming mug of her favourite tea. Once full and content that she had everything she needed she headed out to work and locked the door behind her.