preferences. It was surprisingly short and in no time Judy hung up.
As she turned to head for the kitchen, the doorbell rang. A strange feeling came over her as she walked to the door. Every time she went in search of her mother something stopped her. Opening the door she found a neatly dressed old man with a Bible in his hands.
“Hi, I’m Vernon and I’m here to talk to you about God.”
Inwardly Judy groaned.
“Judgment day is coming and all the sinners will be banished to the bowels of hell while all believers in God will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven.”
“Look, I respect your beliefs, but I personally don’t believe in such things.”
“Well you should,” he said strongly.
Judy shrugged. “I guess.”
“You guess?” The man’s voice raised an octave. “You should be preparing yourself for the end.”
“That sounds pretty doom and gloomish,” Judy commented.
A wild look came over his eyes similar to the one she saw in Mr. Croaker’s a few minutes ago.
He waved a finger at her. “Bad things are going to happen if you don’t believe.”
Judy told the man to have a nice day before shutting the door. She tried to shake off the feeling that he was trying to warn her of impending doom as she searched for her mother. His words echoed throughout her brain and seemed to come to life when she entered the kitchen and saw the disarray. Chairs were strewn, smashed dishes lay on the counter and something red was smeared over the floor. Her heart constricted as she followed the red path that lead to her mother lying in a pool of blood barely alive.
“Mom!” Judy screamed.
The sound of a shot blasted through the room striking her mother dead. Judy stared in horror as more blood oozed from her mother’s lifeless body. Anger welled up inside as she turned around and saw a woman holding a gun. All she could see was the greenish tint of her eyes and nothing else. Without thinking, she lunged forwards, knocking the gun out of her hand. They rolled around in a scuffle. The woman was strong, too strong for her. Suddenly she was standing directly above Judy, with the gun pointed at her.
Judy noticed the crazed look in the woman’s eyes. She knew it was going to be difficult to make an easy get away so she had to act fast. Swiftly she rolled to one side, scrambled to her feet and headed towards the door. The woman caught up and grabbed her from behind. Judy twisted and fought against her, but couldn’t escape.
Fear ripped through her when the gun was rammed against her chest. Judy fought with all her might to try and knock it away, but was unable to stop the assault. She began to pray when she felt the bullet enter. Blood began oozing out of her chest.
“No! Oh God no!” Judy screamed.
“Judy?”
“No!!!!!!!!!!”
“Judy!”
Judy looked down at her chest and then around the room. There was no blood or crazed woman only her husband looking at her with concern.
“I’m alive! I’m alive!” Judy whispered.
“That must have been some nightmare,” Ren commented.
“It was horrible.”
“You’ve been having a lot of those lately,” he said with concern.
Judy nodded in agreement. She looked down at her chest again and started to rub it. It was strange, but she could still feel a dull ache there.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she lied.
She wasn’t though, as it felt like she was caught somewhere between reality and the dream. Judy shook her head hoping to clear this void she felt trapped in. Ren noticed his wife’s dazed look and quickly pulled her to him. After a few seconds of being in his arms, she began feeling more like herself.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked cautiously.
“Not now. I’m too tired.”
Ren tilted her chin and forced her to look at him.
“I’m worried about you Jude.”
“I’m all right,” she smiled weakly.
Ren gave her a doubtful look.
“Really,” she insisted. “I’m just going to get a drink of water and then I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t take too long,” he ordered.
“I won’t,” she promised.
Judy got up and headed for the bathroom. She closed the door and began taking deep breaths hoping to regain a sense of calmness. With every breath she felt her body begin to relax, until her mind started to replay the nightmare all over again.
As the images flashed before her, Judy had a sense of déjà vu. Her old dreams had been resurfacing for a while now, but tonight’s was different. This time it showed a woman with only green eyes, void of any other facial features. A feeling of dread washed over her.
Heading towards the sink she turned the tap on and splashed water over her face. Reaching for a glass, she filled it with water and took a sip. As she replaced it back in the holder, she caught her reflection in the mirror and scanned over her image, stopping at her eyes. They looked tired, not surprisingly since she wasn’t getting any sleep lately.
As she headed back to bed, she hoped to get some badly needed rest. A feeling of exhaustion washed over her when her head hit the pillow. Judy prayed for the nightmares to stop. God, please let me have nice dreams for a change, maybe even some erotic ones. As she finally dozed off, her last thoughts were that she was probably going to burn in hell for that request.
“Wake up! Wake up! It’s ti..i...i...i.me to Wake up!!!!”, chimed from the clock radio.
“Blasted thing!” Judy cursed it as she reached over to shut it off. She turned to see if Ren was awake and noticed he was still sleeping.
“Why do you have that thing so loud?” she asked while shaking him. When there was no movement she yelled, “Ren are you awake?”
Still nothing.
“Get up will you,” Judy ordered. “Your alarm went off.”
“Uh-huh,” Ren muttered.
Judy was utterly exhausted and was in no mood for this. She shook him harder again and thought if this doesn’t work she’d pour cold water over him, ice cold water. She was imagining the expression on his face as it hit him when he finally opened his eyes.
“All right, I’m awake already,” he said as he stretched and got out of bed.
“I can never figure out why you don’t hear the radio.
