Leaving in a Hurry

Julie and Pierre spent the rest of the day watching TV shows, eating good food and kisses, lots of kisses but at the end of the day Pierre went back to his apartment. He wished he could stay but didn't want to pressure Julie. Besides, after all of those kisses his heart was at peace. He was more confident now that Julie wants to be with him and that he just has to be patient and watch their relationship unfold naturally.

Pierre was dreamily thinking about Julie. He loved the way she kissed him while playing with his hair and how shy she looked every time they broke the kiss. This day, he went to bed way happier than the last one and he slept like a baby.

Julie on the other hand still couldn't sleep. Since Pierre wasn't there anymore to distract her, she was reminded of this horrifying dream again and her mind was especially cruel and played it over and over in her head.

She was restless and the only thing she could come up with was looking for meanings of dreams on the internet. But nothing she read applied to her situation.

One article said: 'Death of a person can mean that you are afraid to lose somebody.' But Julie didn't know this man from her dream, so that wasn't helpful. Yet she felt already connected to him in some way and that seeing him dead upset her was an understatement.

'Dreaming of someone's death is a sign you should get rid of this person,' was something else the internet told her. Julie looked annoyed on the screen of her laptop. That was exactly the opposite of the other dream interpretation.

She continued to type in: 'visions while sleeping'. And she found some articles: 'Visions of the future, when dreams warn you of something terrible about to happen' or 'Signs you are dreaming of a past life'.

Julie became interested in the last article. It said that some people dream of their past life because there was something they couldn't make peace with.

Julie's mouth hung open after reading that. Is that the reason why the dreams felt so real and she felt this intense connection to the man who always stood in front of the oak tree? It would explain a lot. That he called her Jane for example. Her name might have been Jane in her past life.

That also explains the way she was dressed in those dreams. She remembered the old-fashioned green dress with long gloves, she was always wearing walking through the forest and she remembered him standing at the oak tree while waiting for her wearing an old British uniform and a shot gun.

In horror she thought back to the wedding dress, she was wearing during her last vision. Was it him she was supposed to marry or someone else?

Julie didn't know. But there was one thing she knew for sure. That Jane loved this man. At first, she couldn't make sense of the intense emotions she felt after just meeting eyes with him. After all he was a complete stranger.

And she remembered the kiss, he gave her. Julie was never kissed like this in her life, not even by Pierre. No wonder Jane loved this man and if Jane loved him that means Julie loved him as well.

That's why she felt this longing when she was in his arms and the kiss evoke a feeling inside of her, she missed for a long time and she was always searching for but no one was ever able to give her what he did.

Julie felt some tears coming in and she quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand. Crying won't help now instead she was determined to find out why she has those visions.

Julie didn't know for sure if the past life theory was true but it was the only thing that makes sense. What is she supposed to do now? Should she try to find out more about her past life? The only thing she knows is that her name was Jane and judging by the clothes they were wearing, Jane lived during the Victorian era in England.

That is not a lot. She needs a city or a specific year or even better the last name of Jane. Then she could search for her and find out who she was. Judging by her clothes her family must have had some money and that increases the chance that her life was documented.

But with everything she knew now, it didn't make sense to start searching for Jane. There were probably a million woman with this name during the Victorian era. That means the only thing she could do was going back to sleep and hope she would get a vision that would give her more clarity.

Julie felt her heart beat picking up at this thought. She couldn't. She was too afraid to have a nightmare again. She has never felt such an immense sadness and panic in her life as last night and she never wanted to feel like this again. If that really happened to her in her past life, Jane was deeply traumatized and could never move on until the day she died herself and that's why Julie has to deal with this now.

Julie was thinking that this makes sense. If it was really something from her past life it must be some sort of unfinished business thing.

She wanted to find out more and she finally got an idea on how to get her answers. She remembered faintly an acquaintance of her mother who is able to put people into trance and do past life regressions.

Maybe she could find such a person in France as well but her french was still not that good and many people here don't speak english. Besides, it would give her a good excuse to finally visit her family in England again.

Before she had time to change her mind, Julie booked a flight ticket for tomorrow morning. She couldn't wait any longer. Her mental health was spiraling down and she didn't know how long she could bear with the sleep deprivation. She will just have to take one week off of work in hopes this whole mess will be resolved by then.

After buying the ticket, Julie pushed her laptop to the side and leaned her head back on the sofa. Her flight goes at 8 in the morning, until then she has to keep herself busy so she doesn't fall asleep.

Since she didn't know how to pass time in another way, she started to pack her suitcase. Julie kind of became excited. She hasn't been home for awhile and other than video calls she hasn't seen her parents since Christmas. She wondered how they will react to the surprise.

…

At 6 in the morning, she left her apartment. While packing her stuff she remembered that she has to tell Pierre that she will leave for a week. Just writing him a message and not saying goodbye felt wrong but at the same time, she was kind of afraid of his reaction.

Admittedly, it didn't make the best impression to leave after their little fight yesterday, that's why she doesn't know how to convince Pierre that it has nothing to do with him.

Especially because she also didn't want to tell him the reason why she has to leave. She wasn't comfortable to share with him the visions she has. How can she tell him that she dreams of kissing another man and seeing his dead body the other night.

And if she told him that she suffers from insomnia he would just make a fuss and would try to fix it himself.

Pierre was irritated when he had to get up because someone was at the door. Who dares to wake him up on a Sunday morning? But his anger dissipated quickly when he saw Julie's face. Did she come over because she missed him?

But the joy of seeing his girlfriend turned into confusion when he saw her suitcase. "Julie, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry. I have to leave. There's an emergency in my family." She didn't plan to lie but in this moment it was easier and she hoped like this Pierre wouldn't think that she leaves because of him.

"What! What kind of emergency. Is that why you couldn't sleep yesterday. Are you keeping secrets from me. Julie, you can tell me everything. I want to be there for you." He gently held her shoulders and continued. "Especially when life gets hard. Don't hide your problems from me. I want to share your burden."

Pierre seemed upset but not a bit angry and he immediately noticed how exhausted Julie looked. She tried to cover it up with make-up but it was still visible and he couldn't ignore her sad eyes. He was concerned for her and couldn't understand why she still didn't let him in.

Julie was touched when she saw how much he worried for her and felt horrible for lying to him. "Thank you Pierre. I don't deserve you as my boyfriend."

"Don't say that." Hearing that hurt him. Why is she trying to put distance between them?

"There is just something, I have to take care of by myself. I promise I will be back soon."

Pierre understood that Julie still doesn't want to tell him why she is leaving, so he didn't dare to ask. He didn't want her to leave but what could he do? Forcing her to stay? "When will you come back. Please don't stay away for too long."

Julie felt a pain in her heart looking at Pierre. "I will be back by next week-end, I promise. Hey, don't worry too much. I'm a grown-up girl." Julie hugged him looking up into his eyes.

Pierre couldn't help but be charmed by the woman in his arms despite still being upset about her leaving and not knowing the reason. To him it felt like she excluded him from her life and that shouldn't be the case in a functioning relationship between two lovers.

"Can you kiss me goodbye." Julie asked innocently.

Pierre didn't waste anytime and gave Julie a mind numbing kiss, he hoped she would remember while she was gone.

Julie was overwhelmed by the emotions she felt coming in through the kiss. She never felt loved like this before. At least in this life.

Not willing to let her go yet, Pierre started to kiss the side of her face down to her neck while holding her tightly in his arms. He greedily inhaled her scent.

"Julie," he sighed. "Don't let me wait for too long."

Hearing him whispering her name with all of this longing made her knees go weak and when he let go of her, she only managed to nod.

The taxi was already waiting outside, so she left with one final goodbye while Pierre looked after her with more pain and desperation in his heart than ever before.