C2 The Dream

“Have a nice rest of your day Ralf." I say to him as he closes the door after I collect his rent. Giving a sigh of a slow morning, I just want to sleep and never wake up.

“Well, time to send the rent to Stanley." I say to myself as I walk down the hall and, on my way, to send in the morning delivery of rent.

Sitting in Stanley’s office as he counts the money and makes sure that the tenants did not use me. I am not naive.

“Yes you are as if you don’t count each time you collect rent, I only asked you to work the morning instead of the evening shifts because the other employee had vanished--” Stanley tried to say, but then his voice stopped in mid air. Something is wrong here.

“I won’t ask Stanley questions, so don’t worry.” I said to Stanley. Stanley smiled and his appearance became like an angel, but without the wings, the fancy clothing and halo. But that is just me. As time went on from the moment, I first set my eyes on Stanley, and up until now his body changed. He no longer looked like that overweight demon that he had looked like at first. Stanley then groaned and looked at me with a serious expression.

“Go back to your room, I’ll do the evening shift myself.” Said Stanley then stood up and grabbed something from the mini fridge and took out some Italian fool.

“You do enough work and I should just be here for you instead of making you collect rent for me.” Stanley then handed the food over.

“Take the rest of the day off, if I need to talk to you, I’ll send one of the tenants over to let you know.” Stanley stated

*****

A full day’s work and now time for my very gorgeous spaghetti and meatballs. Yum, yum, yum! Walking to my small desk, I sat down and looked at the plate with saliva dripping down from my bottom lip. Now let’s get started…

*********

Ugh, karma is one badass. Walking out of the bathroom, I jump into my bed and start wondering to myself.

“Hmm, I wonder why Stanley always wants to let me know in person when to pick up rent?” I asked myself as I stared up at the ceiling. Closing my eyes, I slowly fell asleep.

“Melody.” A voice called out. I opened my eyes and I saw her; That same elderly woman in all of my dreams.

“Melody.” The elderly woman repeated. “Who are you?” I asked. All she did was smile. Taking my hand and holding it tight within hers. Her smile became still with sorrow painted over it.

“You may not remember me, but I’ll always be here for you and by your side.”

Opening my eyes, I feel tears rolling down from my silver eyes. The elderly woman, it’s painful to see her go and what I don’t understand is how I’m this close to her. Then I hear a knock at the door.

“Nancy, we have a guest that wants to see you. Get over to Mr. Parker’s office right away." Said one of the tenants then left.

Walking into Stanley’s office, I see a man that I hadn’t seen before. “Nancy, a friend of mine, had an interest in meeting you.” Looking at the stranger, he was bald, his eyes were dark green, his skin was unnaturally pale and his clothing was the only decent thing about him. “Who are you?” I asked. He smiled at me.

“My name is Thomas Greene Robinson, but you can call me Tom.” He answered. Tom, why does that name sound so familiar? Stanley then coughed into his hand and looked at the both of us.

“Nancy, I’m going to need you to leave and you can take today off from collecting rent." Said Stanley. I nodded and left.

Going into my room, I walked over to my bed and laid down. Looking up at the ceiling, I began to hear that same voice again. That woman.

“Melody.” called out the elderly woman. Looking around my room, I see nothing.

“Where are you? And who are you?” I asked. Then she appeared. She had glowing lavender purple hair, silver eyes just like me and her clothing that had lace over her baby blue dress. All she did was smile. Walking over, she sat beside me and placed her hand onto my forehead.

“I still see that same little girl that I still love so much.”

Opening my eyes, I look around.

“It was just a dream...just a dream.” I said to myself then closing my eyes and falling back asleep.

*******

It’s been awhile since I had met that guy Tom, why was Stanley so different when I had seen him? Whatever's going on, I just hope everything will be ok. As I stared up at the ceiling in my bed, blood had then started dripping down and falling onto my face. Getting up and running out the room, I wiped the blood off of my face and kept on running on my way to see Stanley but I ended up bumping into that guy, Tom. He stood there and smiled. “Hey kid.” was all Tom could say. This guy…

“Tom, as much as I’d like to see and talk to you, I need to speak with Stanley.” I said then walked around him and got back on my way to see Stanley.

I walked up to the office door and I knocked.

“Stanley, I need to talk to you, can I come in?” I asked. Silence was all I could hear. Then it happened. A fist punched right through the door and a splatter of blood hit me right in the face. I fell onto my back and I felt my heart racing. “Stanley!” I shouted. Knowing that my one and only friend might be in danger. The hand pulled back and the door cracked open a bit. I went inside with caution and saw no one, but the one thing that I had seen that made things horrifying; The room was dredged in blood. The desk was smashed in half and everything was mangled.

“I see you missed finding Stanley.” Said a strange voice. Turning around, I see an average man in a well designed suit, his hair was golden blonde and combed back and his eyes were a stone gray. The one thing that I had found that was interesting was his ring, it was silver with a piece of smokey quartz in the middle of it.

“I see you don’t remember me, it’ll come soon depending on if you find the Queen’s heart.” Said the stranger then disappeared. Looking around, I just don’t know what to do. Now that Stanley is gone, what’s going to happen now?