Fern decided to ignore it all and get to her daily routine.
When she went out of her apartment to get to her job, she found the exact same little girl she had seen in her dream. Her jaw dropped as she just stared at the girl. She looked exactly the same, except she looked happy, unlike in her dream. Fern felt uneasy as a thought came into her mind. What if that dream showed her future? Fern quickly shook her head and went past the little girl who was still playing with her doll.
Fern kept thinking about it the whole day. She couldn't focus on her work at all. Usually, she would have called it a coincidence and ignored it, but the girl and the man had been coming for 36 nights in her dreams already, and then suddenly the girl appeared in front of her apartment. It was too much for it to be brushed off as a coincidence.
On her way back home, she bought a few sweets to give to the little girl, in the hope that she might talk to her and figure out what was going on. A road was closed off because of a recent car accident. She had to take a longer route. She drove fast and quickly got to her building. But when she finally got to her floor, she found that the little girl's apartment door was wide open.
Fern felt something was wrong and quickly went in. Two women were sitting on the couch. Their eyes were red, probably from crying. The little girl was sleeping beside them. One of the women spoke as she saw Fern, "Are you a neighbour?"
Fern frowned, "Yes. Is everything alright here?"
"No. It's not. Did you hear about the car accident on the highway? Little girl's parent..." The woman didn't complete her sentence. She just left it like that, but it conveyed the message to Fern. The closed road she was annoyed at was actually someone's miserable reality. The little girl! What was going to happen to her? She was too young! Barely nine!
"Who's going to take care of her?" Fern asked right away.
"Iva? I will be taking care of her. I am her aunt from the mother side," The woman answered.
Fern offered an apologetic smile, "Let me know if you all need any help..and I am really sorry for your loss. I hope-"
She was cut off as Iva woke up. Poor girl looked around and started to cry as the reality of her parents being gone hit her again. Fern didn't know what to do, so she apologized and left.
Several days went by. Fern's dreams never relented, and she almost always finds Iva sitting outside the apartment, holding her dolls and looking silently into the distance. Fern talked to her, bought her sweets, and gave her toys. The good thing about children was that they could easily forget about traumas, but momentarily. She would talk to Fern a lot about her toys, and Fern's dreams haunted her enough to listen to everything the little girl had to say.
One particular cold night, Fern sat down beside Iva, "It's getting very cold. Shouldn't you go inside? You will catch a cold like this."
The girl looked away and stayed silent. She moved forward to grab her ball. Fern saw a fresh, burnt mark on her hand. Fern knew kids get hurt all the time, so she casually asked to make conversation, "How did Iva get that? Were you playing too recklessly?" She teased.
But Iva started to cry. Fern was in shock, but Iva spoke freely. Iva trusted Fern and didn't hold back any information. The woman lied about taking care of Iva. She legally took Iva only to take all the money of her parents. Now that she had gotten it, she didn't even come to check on her and recently even locked the door so she couldn't go into the apartment. Iva also told how she can not go down to play with other kids because they bully her to the point of physically hurting her, so the place Fern always found her sitting was the only place left for her.
Fern felt terrible and took her inside her apartment and called the police right away, too. Police came in and found Iva drinking hot chocolate on Fern's couch.
"We are sorry, but you can not keep her here. We will have to take her with us." The police officer said to Fern. "We know of this orphanage. It's partially a school, too, and is considered the best among elites. Her parents were rich, and the aunt will probably have to give all the money back now so we can put her in that orphanage."
"Wait...Aren't orphanages for kids who have no one? What money has to do with it?" Fern asked.
"Oh, this orphanage is quite different from a normal one. It's made especially for rich orphans. Sounds weird, but elites built it so even if parents die, the kids never become lost causes. Elites sometimes send their kids there to study, even though they aren't orphans. That's why we know it's one of the best." The officer explained.
Fern found it all weird, but she thought rich people do make out of ordinary things, so it was possible, and she trusted the police. Thus, she let Iva go with them. She sighed in relief, thinking that the girl would be alright now. She happily lay down to sleep. She was sure that she would not have the nightmare anymore.
As she finally fell asleep, it didn't go as planned, as she saw the same nightmare again, but it ended differently this time.
Iva was crying while sitting beside the tormented man, "She let me go to the Orphanage! I showed this place to her over and over again! I made sure that she sees this orphanage over and over again in the dream!"
The man sighed, "It's okay. She will know now."
Both of them suddenly looked up towards Fern. She was there now in that office. She gasped and felt cold, very cold. She could feel the sadness and agony in the room. It made her want to scream and cry. Usually, she saw this dream as a third person, but for the first time, she was part of it.
"You think that this torment is only of ours? Save her before it's too late, or you will regret it forever." The man spoke, and Fern could feel sharp pain in her ears as if his words were piercing into her ears. This whole setup was taking a toll on her. She felt as if she would stay here even for a moment; she would throw up.
She turned and ran towards the door, but there she was. The principal of the orphanage. She gave Fern a creepy smile and jumped on her. Fern felt nails digging into her shoulders and a heavy weight on her.
She jolted up, covered in sweat. She had woken up from the horrible nightmare. She was breathing heavily and kept looking around to be sure that she was indeed in her room now. She got up and went in front of the mirror to check her shoulder. She found nail marks there, light bruises and something written there with a marker. The writing was of a child. The words written were:
"Save me"
To be continued........