The Night Shift

'When the Queen finds her King all shall bend the knee or be forced to. Let the rivers run red at the coming of the King.'

I typically don't have pleasant dreams, all my life I've been scared of the dark. It's an irrational fear I know, but just because it doesn't make sense doesn't make the fear less real. Maybe that is why this particular dream that I have on occasion affects me so much. Science says that you'll never dream of a person you've never seen before but I gurantee I've never seen the woman that keeps appearing in my dreams. It'd be hard to forget that face even if I only saw it in passing. She was an etherial beauty with pearl-white skin and long dark hair. However, it wasn't that that attracted me, it was her eyes, eyes that appeared to have seen everything the world could offer and yet the world forgot to offer it to her. She always appeared in my dreams on the verge of tears and vanished as the first tear fell.

A phone ringing broke me out of my reverie. "Hello?"

"Hey, Mike, can you cover for me tonight? I'm not feeling to well."

"No problem Jim, just let the office know beforehand."

"Thanks man you're a life saver."

The caller was Jim, probably the only person I could call my friend in this world. He had a bright future, unlike me, but for some reason he stuck by me and became a security guard with me. We work at the local shopping mall. Jim is on the night shift while I work the morning shift. I've always thought Jim was a bit wierd, in all the years since we've met he's never been sick. It was usually him who had to cover for me. That being the case, I didn't hesitate to agree even though it meant facing my fears.

It was nearing time for the night shift so I sighed to myself and took a quick shower. After showering I dressed in my guard uniform and checked myself in the mirror to make sure everything was in place. The reflection that stared back at me couldn't be considered handsome, I think average would be putting it nicely. The reflection showed my short brown hair and almost child-like round eyes. Those eyes clashed heavily with my slender face. The only striking feature about me was the fact that I always had this look of loss on my face, as if someone close to me just passed away, it's exceptionally noticeable whenever that woman appeared in my dreams.

I took once last look over my appearance before heading out. On the drive to work evrything passed in a blur nothing ever manged to catch my attention in this mundane city. There was nothing exciting here. There was never anything going on here, no parties, no gathering of the rich, no celebrities, no rumors, and no scandals. I heard all about those kind of things from other cities but this city was as quiet as the grave. It made me wonder why this city even needed security guards?

I arrived to the guard post with barely any time to spare and checked in with the shift lead.

"Ah Mike, I just heard from Jim that you'll be filling in for him tonight. It's a good thing your here. There is a light still on on the second floor, once you sign in head up and check it out."

I signed in on the computer and grabbed a radio and flashlight and headed up to the second floor. It's rather odd that that the evening shift didn't investigate, but I assumed they just didn't want to fill out the paperwork if there was something to report. As I reached the second floor I turned on my flashlight and headed towards the area where the light was still on.

"Mike how does it look up there, anything unusual?" I jumped as the shift lead's voice came through the radio.

"Nothing yet, wait hold on there's a person lying on a bench up here, I'll get back to you in a moment."

I approached the bench and realized it was a woman from her clothes. "Miss, the mall is closed let me lead you out." I called out to her calmly so I wouldn't startle her.

She sat up slowly and gazed at me with unblinking eyes, a slight smile on her face. "You've grown up." That was all she said but I didn't process it at the time because I knew her face. It was the face that visited me in my dreams, that perfect face that I could never forget.

"It's you!"