Supernatural Sugardaddies

First Day

I dreamt of it again.

My breathing is coming fast. Too fast to fill my lungs completely with each breath. The woods seem never ending and the pine trees get taller with each stride I run. I can't tell if I've been running for minutes or for days, all I know is how malnourished I feel. I could just about keel over from the pain in my side and the trees, keep going, the roots, steeper at every foot.

It felt longer than previous dreams for me to realize the running was pointless. My limbs were achy and weary for no end. When I finally came to I was in a clearing half as big as a football field. The sun was shining through the trees brightly and footsteps landed softly to my right.

I whip my head around and there he is. Emotionless as ever: The cloaked man. I see more of his face now, in the sunlight. Just his sharp jaw and his full lips. And ... a scar that runs down his neck, the white line of it mars the smooth skin next to his adam's apple.

I walk toward him in three steps. With my chin pointed up to look him in the eyes, or in that expressionless void beneath his cloak, I ask. "Why?"

I almost expect to be sucked back into the reality of my alarm clock going off or sweat covered sheets. But I don't. It gives me a newfound confidence, so I ask again. "Why? Why this? Almost every night!

I try to search within that void but my eyes go straight to that one white streak of hair near the front of his hairline. "Why do I dream of you?"

Something within the man startles. His lips purse tightly and dip downward. His whole body tenses suddenly, wound like thin wire. Like it could break with any amount of force.

This is something I have never seen from him before.

I swear I hear him take in a shaky breath before he says, "You're close. So close now"

He's says it so earnestly, I want so badly to understand what he means.

"Be careful" He says, looking worried.

"Wha-" My heart rate is speeding up, my chest is working harder to take in oxygen. "What do you mean?"

"Alora, be careful!" He's yelling now and his hand reaches out to me, he grabs my arm, hard. I want to ask him why, but he's shaking me-

I jolt awake in my bed. There is a thin layer of sweat all over my body. It takes multiple minutes for my racing pulse to go back to normal. It's not the first time I've dealt with nightmares and it won't be the last. It just felt so real. I slide my hands up and down my legs, reminding myself I'm in my home. But my arm, it feels sore. I look down and gasp at the red handprint stamped onto my arm. The same arm that- that the man in my dream had grabbed.

The dream stayed with me for hours after I got up. Trust me, I tried to forget it. But my head was in a fog the whole time I was getting ready. I should be excited or nervous or unsure for my first day at my new job but something about my dream ... rattled me. More so than any other time I've dreamt it. And I've had to have been dreaming this same scene for years now, ever since I was about 18. They have ... gotten stronger since I've moved to seattle though. At least one every few weeks. The man in the cloak, he feels so familiar, but I can't make him out. And in my last dream he was so unstable, worried. The way he grabbed me-

I shake my head at the thought of it. I need to be at work in a half hour and I'm not even dressed yet. After applying some light makeup, I pull on black, sheer tights and a burgundy dress that hugs me in all the right places and then flares out at the bottom. After putting some short heels on and putting my hair back in a ponytail, I'm ready to go. I get on the bus going straight into the heart of the city, not thinking about any mysterious strangers in my dreams.