Shadows of the Past: A Supernatural Suspense Mystery (Shadow Slayers Stories Book 1) by Nellie Steele (read aloud .txt) 📗

“Yes, I do, but unlike you, I never get used to the lack of sleep. Did you say you had another one of those nightmares last night when you finally fell asleep?”

“Ugh, yes. Same nightmare, which meant that I couldn’t sleep again after that. I’m annoyed with this dream to be honest.”

“How many times is that this month?”

“That I’ve had that dream? Probably six, seven times?”

“It’s only mid-month, so that’s like every other night. What’s got you so stressed out, Jos?”

“No idea! I can’t come up with anything. Work’s fine, I’m fine, there’s no major project deadlines looming, nothing stressful in my personal life, no major decisions hanging over my head.”

“Possibly the break-up with Michael?”

“Please.” Josie rolled her eyes. “That was months ago, and I was having the dream before we broke up.”

“But not as much. Plus, it was only like two months ago.”

“I don’t think that’s it, D, the nightmare would have started after we broke up.”

“You didn’t seem to have a good reason. ‘Not feeling it’ doesn’t seem like a good reason, anyway. Maybe it started before because you were planning on breaking up with him?” He phrased his suspicion like a question.

Josie rolled her eyes. “Will you let that go? First, that’s a perfectly good reason. Something was just… off. Besides, that’s not the problem. How is a dream about running through a cave holding a book related to breaking up with someone?”

“I have no idea? Trapped feelings? A chapter in your life? How would I know? I’m just saying.”

“Is that your professional opinion, doctor? Okay, so then answer this: why is the nightmare worse now that we broke up?”

“Because you didn’t have a reason? And he wants to get back together with you, that could be stressing you out? Perhaps you want to get back together with him? You may have some unresolved feelings?”

Rolling her eyes again she asked, “Can we drop this? As much as I’d like to figure out why I’m waking up in a cold sweat from the same recurring dream, I don’t want to dwell on breaking up with Michael again and to be honest, I’m tired of talking about this dream, too. Let’s just talk about something else.” She waved her hands as though to dismiss the topic by shooing it away.

Damien shrugged his shoulders again. “Yeah, ok, fine, so what do you want to talk about?” he said, giving in to her like he usually did. They spent the rest of their meal talking about movies, work, friends, family, and whatever else that allowed them to avoid the subject.

When they arrived home, Josie found a small box on the porch. “Were you expecting a delivery?” she asked, retrieving the box.

“Nope, I’m not the Internet shopping queen, so my best guess is that’s yours. Look, that’s your name on the box!”

“I didn’t order anything.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t ever expect to hear those words come out of your mouth.”

“Very funny, D, very funny.”

“Well, let’s go inside, open it and find out what it is.”

“I’m not sure I want to find out.”

“Oh, come on.” He pushed the door open and motioned for her to enter before him. “You probably ordered a dress, or a scarf, or a shirt or some article of clothing that you forgot about.”

“I remember that stuff.”

“You don’t! You have so many clothes you don’t even realize what you’ve got or what you’ve bought. Here give the box to me. I’ll open it.”

Josie handed him the package, and he sliced open the tape across the top of the box. Josie peered in as though she expected a rodent to come leaping out. “What’s inside, can you see?”

“Some packing paper, so far,” he said, carefully pulling the wrapping apart. “I see a shiny, metal-looking thing.” He kept moving the paper around until the object revealed itself.

Josie peered in at the object. “What in the heck is that? I didn’t order that.”

Damien reached into the box and pulled the item out. “Looks like some kind of box? Jewelry box?” They both looked at the small gold box he held in his hands. Red, green and blue jewels embellished the top. “Man, this is heavy. This must have cost a fortune, Jos.”

“I didn’t buy it!” she insisted.

“Yeah right. You probably bought this thing on the home shopping network during one of your sleepless nights.”

“I did not buy it, not then, not ever! Besides, it looks way too old to be something that they sell on HSN.”

“Yeah, this looks kind of old, definitely looks used.”

“Is there a note or packing slip in the box?” Josie peered in but found nothing. She searched around, pulling all the paper out, but finding nothing else in the box.

“Maybe the note’s inside,” Damien said, opening the box. As he opened the lid, a music mechanism was triggered and a tinkling little tune began to play. Neither of them recognized the song although something seemed familiar about the music to Josie.

“Wow!” Josie said as he opened the top, her eyes wide. Inside the box appeared to be a large ruby necklace. “Surely that’s a fake.”

Damien lifted the necklace out of the box. “Whoa, it’s heavy, so it’s a good fake, if it is a fake.”

“Oh, there’s a note underneath. Hopefully this will explain something. It’s probably not even for me, there’s probably a mistake or something.” Josie lifted out the note and stared at it.

“What does the note say?” Damien said, still studying the necklace and the box.

Josie didn’t answer.

“Jos? What does it say?” he persisted.

“Ah…” She paused, trying to make sense of what she read. “It says ‘My dearest Celine, or as you are now known, Josephine, A piece of your past to help bring you back to us in your future.’”

Damien furrowed his brow in confusion. “Huh? What does that even mean?”

“No idea. Who is Celine? Is that me? And why are they calling me Celine like my name changed?”

“Let me see the note?” he said