Dear Friend of a Friend | THE SANDMAN

Child

That morning Saundra woke up from her dreamless, peaceful sleep. The memories of the mystery man and his accusation came back to her. How did he know of her dreamless nights? How did he find her? And what was he?

All those questions could be answered at one place, the only place where a wide range of intelligence is stored, at just the simple reach of her hands.

The library.

Alina got ready for her day and she had a feeling in the back of her head, a voice, telling her to have another hidden weapon on her than just her dagger strapped against her thigh.

It was quite early when Saundra arrived at the Library, so she unlocked the doors and started to open the curtains and some windows.

The light shining through the windows gave her Déjà vu. Probably because she has seen it in every Library that she has worked in but the feeling it gave was something new, yet it felt like a memory.

She walked to a pile of books she started to restack yesterday, to finish with it and start with a new pile but the slamming of the front door stopped her in her movement. She slowly placed the book down and moved silently to the end of the aisle to see who stormed in.

“Saundra!” She heard Gwen call out to her, she knew it was Gwen because she told Gwen her real name after she got suspicions of Saundra after the French men stopped visiting them in the library. She didn’t tell Gwen much, just that she had to hide her true identity and it would cause problems if she stayed too long in a town. But Saundra trusted Gwen with her real name.

Saundra let go of the breath she was holding while she was sneaking forward and walked into Gwen’s view. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” she asked when she saw Gwen’s red face and breathless breathing. Her hair was yet to be neatly braided for the day. Her whole appearance made Saundra’s gut sink low.

“They are coming for you.” Gwen said as she walked towards Saundra and started to push her to the back door.

“What?” Saundra asked Gwen confused but also scared of who Gwen was walking about.

“You have to move and leave town before they corner you somewhere. Please.” Gwen begged as she tried to drag Saundra further towards the back door.

“Gwen! Stop! What’s going on?”

“They think you’re a witch?” Gwen explained and Saundra stopped with shock in her tracks. How? She hasn’t been in the town for two months so they couldn’t think it was about her age.

“Please, just go. You are my friend and I don’t want to see you be burned alive. I don’t care if you are a witch or not. Just please get out of town and somewhere safe.” Gwen began to sob as she tried to push Saundra out of the back door.

“Gwen! Gwen! Stop, please.” Saundra pleaded and she wrapped her arms around Gwen, hugging as she softly sobbed. “Where did you hear these rumours?”

“At the pub late last night, I was there to get some bread when I saw all the people begin to gather. A man was standing on one of the tables and said that one of his men saw you talking to a demon. His skin was unearthly white with black hair and he disappeared into thin air when you finished talking to it.” Gwen explained in beeper, quick breaths as she tried to gather herself in Saundra’s arms.

The Shadow man who visited her last night. She knew he was going to be trouble but just his presence in this town was a threat to her life.

She cursed and then unwrapped her arms from Gwen. She pushed all of the runaway red hair out of Gwen’s face motherly-like. “Did you see them coming this way, to the Library?”

Gwen shook her head, “They said that they would come find you on the hottest hour of the day.”

Saundra nodded, she still had time. The house she lived in wasn’t valuable to her, but the bag hidden in the roof was. She would have to take the risk to go back and grab the bag. But she needed her horse.

“Gwen, listen to me. I’m asking for your help but you don’t have to risk it if you don’t want to, I’ll understand.”

“No, no I want to help you my friend, of course I want to help.” Gwen agreed.

“Okay,” Saundra said breathlessly. “I need you to go to the stables and to saddle my horse for me. Will you do that for me, please?”

Gwen nodded and in a hurry walked away but before she walked out Saundra yelled. “Meet me at the south-west bell tower!”

Saundra grabbed her bag behind the counter and ran out of the library, locking the door behind her. She walked circles in the town streets. Taking extra precaution to make sure no one was following her. When she got into the woods, she ran like her life depended on it, because it did.

She ran into her house and rushed to the loose wooden floor panel. Shifted it away and reached into the roof. Grabbed the bag and haled ass out of the house, not taking a second to look back.

Just as she ran through the door of her house, she ran into something and fell backwards, hard. The breath in her lungs was pushed out by the hit on her back.
“I found her!” An old ruff voice yelled. “I told you we should look at her house, that this witch would be dumb enough to come back.” The voice said.

“As always Tommy, you were right.” Another man said with a more polished voice as he hit the back of the man's shoulder. She couldn’t make out anyone's faces, they were very blurring as she tried to gain her perfect vision and oxygen back.

“Have any of you checked for weapons on her?” the polished voice asked and the other two new voices muffled no before they started to pat her down, checking for weapons.

“There is a dagger strapped to her thigh, Sir.” One called out as he lifted her skirt and pulled out her dagger. She had enough strength to push the man away from her but he already had her dagger in his hands.

“Grab her!” Tommy ordered the other two, they ran towards her to grab her but then she reached to the back of her head, to the thin but strong piece of metal holding her hair up. She pulled it out and her hair fell loose but now she had a weapon in her hand and all four men didn’t know what hit them.

Because they were too slow and to eyeless to realise that she was even worse than a witch, she was a pissed off woman with a weapon.