Fate

Alone In Paris

He's coming! Move! Get up! Do something besides just lay here. Run! Oh no, he's here. He's right there and he sees you. Do something?! Scream!

Melody sat straight up in bed. She was shaking and sweating uncontrollably. She glanced at the bedside clock and saw that it was 8 at night.
'It was just another dream. It's over,' she told herself as she went into the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. 'Just a dream.'
The bad thing about traveling so much was the permanent jetlag. She had gotten use to it at one point but the dreams had started to come back. Melody sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to think. What was causing her dreams again? She wasn't stressed. She wasn't hungry.
Melody shook her head and decided that her best bet right now was to go walk the city streets. It had been years since she was in Paris last, she needed to go out and explore the changes and visit her old haunts.
Melody grabbed some dark wash skinny jeans and a cream colored turtle neck top and headed back into the bathroom to get changed and ready for the night. She saw dark circles under her eyes and dabbed concealer there to make herself look a little bit more human. Melody grabbed a big clip and used it to hold her long, dark hair up and out of her face.
After about 10 minutes of trying to find her other shoe, she finally slipped on a pair of slightly heeled leather booties and paired them with her favorite fitted leather blazer. Melody stuffed her chunky knit blue scarf in her bag along with her camera, hotel key, and her note pad and set off down the city streets.
People were just starting to file out onto the street. Each one was searching for something to eat and for someone to hold. She caught herself smiling at a pair of young lovers who were so involved in whispering sweet nothings to each other that they didn't seem to notice the world still turning around them. There was an elderly couple sitting on a park bench holding hands and sharing a pastry. A little boy chasing after a slightly younger girl and laughing. Everywhere she looked she saw a bunch of happy little couples.
She began thinking of him. His crystal green eyes, long brunette hair that curled ever so slightly at the ends. She remembered his wide smile and the gentle demeanor he had with Gracie. Melody didn't know why she was thinking of him. Usually when she met new people she would leave them in that moment and that was that. It had been so easy for her to leave people in the past. This time though...
She stopped and swerved out of the way of a motorcycle that decided the sidewalk was better than the street. The cyclist had splashed street water on her in the process and one side of her pant leg was soaked.
'I have to get out of this crowd,' she thought as she turned a sharp corner and walked down a few alleyways to get away from the main street madness.
She listened to the clicking of her heels against the cobblestone street. She heard music in the distance and laughter from the apartments located above all the family owned shops and realized that for the first time in her life, she was alone. Here she was, alone in Paris. The thought bothered her. She didn't feel like this in Italy. She had Gracie...she had him. Avi.
She began thinking of London and Russia. She had been alone there too. She was having those dreams as well. The dreams about a tall dark figure coming for her. Was it her loneliness that was making her feel like this? Making those dreams happen again?
She ducked under a small overhang as the skies opened up and poured down onto the street.
'What am I doing!' She silently scolded herself. 'Why am I back in Paris! I don't belong here. I left because I didn't belong.' She watched the rain as it fell. It was like the sky was telling her to leave and to never come back to this sadness. To this loneliness. For the first time since her parents died she felt tears in her eyes and tried holding them back but was unsuccessful. She heard a tiny voice in her head but it wasn't her own. It was Gracie's. Gracie was telling her to leave. Find her happiness again and cherish it. Hold on to it and never let it go.
Melody walked back to her hotel and was fully soaked to the bone when she got back but she didn't change. The wet clothes clothes were her punishment for coming back. For feeling the way she did. Lost and alone in Paris.
She began doing what she had done so many times before and started shoving what little possessions she had into her 2 bags. 'I have to leave. I have to get out,' she thought. She didn't know where she was going but she knew that if she stayed much longer, she would surely drown.
"Fate," she said to herself aloud as she caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror.
"Show me where I need to be."
She finally changed out of her wet clothes and headed back out into the night and straight to the airport.