CHAPTER 3

Jane looked at Lily, as if she had suddenly grown ten heads. What could have gone wrong? Her bestie looked ghostly white. So, she did the only thing right at the moment; hugged Lily, soothing her back.

   " It's okay girl, "she whispered, soothing her hair. Jane was baffled at her friend's words, "the smiling man from my dreams". She and Lily had several things to talk about.  The said man was no longer seen. So she held Lily as they got  into her car. Her friend looked better. She felt the troubled girl wasn't in the right mood to drive and so Jane drove them to Lily's house. During the drive, Lily clenched her fingers and kept muttering:

   "So my dreams had been true, who could have believed it?"

Jane patted her thighs not knowing what to say. When they got home, she hoped Lily would open up totally to her. Jane, who had never believed in visions, was surprised at this . How could a dream come true? Lily saw the man in her dreams and eventually saw him in reality? Could things got more strange? If this was true like Lily had said, then something mind blowing was coming up. She knew this was true because her friend had never been this shaken.

   "Its okay Lily." She said, soothing her hair as she drove.

At last, they got home. The girls didn't immediately move from the car. Lily was trying to be in control of herself.

   "Please give me five minutes." She asked Jane.

   "Sure love," Jane stroked her hair. "Your phone just lit up." Jane said, when she glanced at Lily's phone

   "Oh" Lily weakly said as she sought out her phone to check. It was missed calls from her mum. Her mum must have been worried. But they hadn't spent much time in shopping. Why had she called?

   "Who called you?" Jane asked, rousing her from deep thoughts.

   "Its mum." Lily's voice was small.

   "Lets go in dear." Jane and Lily got out of the car. Lily managed to walk on shaky feet, if not for the support of her friend, she would have fallen to the ground. She was glad to have a sweet friend as Jane. So, they walked to the front door and rang the doorbell. Her mother opened up in seconds. Eucharia looked worried and also scared. Well… maybe it's because she saw my state, Lily thought.

   "Oh what happened baby?" Eucharia asked so worried as she took Lily inside the house, to her room, Jane followed suit. Where she made her daughter lie down. She wiped  Lilly's face with a wet towel while, Jane gave her a cup of water. Lilly's colour came back and she looked much more relaxed.

   "What happened dear?" Eucharia asked Jane. Lily was already dozing at this point.

   "Mum, we were shopping when I noticed …" Eucharia's phone rang, interrupting Jane.

   "I do not think it's important, carry on."

   "Okay mum, like I said, we were …"

The phone rang again. Eucharia hastily took out her phone, only to discover it was her assistant nurse Maggie.

   "Sorry dear, I need to get this." She whispered to Jane, who nodded, already soothing Lily's hair.

Jane didn't really follow the conversation. But from what she heard from Eucharia, a patient involved in a fatal accident was rushed to the hospital, so she had to go and try save the patient, being the head nurse.

   "On my way Maggie." Jane heard Eucharia say. She turned to Lily's mum when the call ended.

   "I will be going to the hospital for an emergency. You girls take care. I will be back. You can tell me what happened when I get back, okay?"

   "Sure mum." Jane said.

   "Take care Jane."

   "You too mum."

And off Eucharia went. Jane's face fell immediately. She was scared for her bestie. What happened to you Lily? She thought

 ***********

   When Lily woke up, she felt a slight headache and found it a little difficult to open her eyes. The said eyes felt very warm. But, she opened them eventually, to see Jane by her side asleep. The baby sitter had turned out to be one nurtured. Lily smiled as she got out of bed quietly to avoid rousing Jane from her sleep. Her head felt heavy, it was killing her. Therefore , she took painkillers to relieve the ache. She thought about the incident at the shopping mall. It was very obvious the man was after her and not her Friend.

    But how had Jane noticed him and she hadn't? Lily really needed to be more careful in her surroundings. What baffled her most, was that she had started seeing visions. Fine … what would you possibly call a situation where you first see the person in a dream and later, in reality? Someone you have never met before. That's definitely a vision, Lily thought. Who would have believed that she will one day, be a seer. Things happen randomly, she thought again.

   For want of something to do, she opened up her mother's cupboards. There were some old books in there. Hence, she picked one with the "PrE" sign. The book very large. Determined to find out what would make such an old book voluminous, she opened it and symbols were the first thing she saw. Lily couldn't decipher these symbols. They don't really mean anything, she thought. Lily opened up some of the pages, nothing important came up. Just as she was about dropping the book to pick another, a picture gave her pause. The picture was of a young lady, about twenty years of age. She was in chains and about to be condemned. Lily looked and saw that the year 1899 was in scripted on it.

Well …  what actually made her pause in the picture was because, the young lady who was to be condemned, was the exact replica of Lily!

 ************

 Lily just looked at the picture, not knowing what to do or say. Who was this woman? She asked herself. The said woman stared at however took the picture or drew her. She looked cold and deadly. Wow!

   "Lily? Where are you?"

Jane called out, she had woken from sleep. Immediately, Lily not wanting her friend to know more about the strange things going on, hastily kept the book back into the cupboard. She went over to meet Jane.

   "Over here."  She called out.

Jane saw her and ran over. They engulfed each other in a hug. Jane checked her thoroughly to make sure she was completely okay. Lily felt like laughing, over the dramatic display. But this was her friend, who had seen her turn white. So the drama was very understandable. Having confirmed that Lily was okay, Jane bought her back to the room, they had slept; Lily's room.

   "I'm glad you're okay girl." Lily smiled nodding her thanks. What would she had done within Jane?

   "Well … I don't know if you're completely okay. Are you strong enough to hear this?"

   "What Jane?"

   "I hope you will be strong enough to hear this. Because, this is the only right time I can tell you."

   "Right time?"

   "Yes girl, the thing is, do not feel betrayed okay. Just take it like everything that had happened is for a just cause. Okay? Yeah … here we go . I told you I have seen those drawing of yours somewhere, right?"

   "Sure Jane, you said in a scroll."

   "Yes, but I was mistaken, it's actually in a book."

   "Okay?" The wait was killing Lily. Jane should get on with it. She was impatient to even blink!

   "Go on Jane … I'm listening please."

   "Okay, I hope you will understand the reason for it."

  "You're scaring me now Jane." Lily's voice had gotten small.

 "Okay … I saw your drawing in a large book. The book belongs to your mother. I saw her reading from the book, so she knows everything."