Dream Weavers

Chapter Fourteen

When Aline appeared in front of the house, she did not expect it to have a full garden. Or a built in pond. Or anything, actually. She was expecting a house like the ones she'd already visited. Not this one.

The other houses--how many had she visited by now? Ten? Eleven, maybe even twelve?--were all, in truth, boring. She had been looking forward to seeing houses with interesting stories to tell, but it seemed that each of the houses that held dreamcatchers had the same feeling. Bland, lifeless, boring.

This house, though, was interesting. She could feel the stories that could be told inside, the aura it had around it. Almost a magical feeling, something that didn't want to be disturbed.

It looked to have been made completely of wood. When she pressed her palm against the large logs, they were smoothed out to perfection. She shuddered at the daunting task of sanding all of them over and over until they got there.

She tapped on her map, watching it give an aerial view of the house inside. Seeing two blinking dots on opposite sides of a hallway, she grinned. Easy enough.

Her wings fluttered with anticipation, ready to get going into the interesting house that she was floating in front of. After finding her way in through a cracked window, she hovered in the living room, surprised to see that the room was just as green as it had been outside. Plants in every crook of the house, hanging from the ceiling to just sitting on the hardwood floor.

It gave Aline a homey feeling. A comforted, warm, and nature-like feeling all rolled into one. She liked this house and this feeling it gave off. It felt protected.

Until she saw the three animals in the center. She realized one as an owl, digging its talons into the spine of another, brown-furred, dog-like creature. She rubbed at her own spine unconsciously, wincing. Wouldn't that hurt the poor animal? What kind of family was this, owning dangerous animals and letting them sleep in the living room?

The dog creature huffed, twitching an ear as it opened his mouth before snapping it shut. She wondered what it was dreaming about. The lanky, spotted cat beside it rolled over, putting a paw against the snout of the dog creature, going still once more. It was definitely not a house cat.

The animals seemed comfortable around each other, at least. She hovered for a few more moments, watching the animals huff and twitch in their sleep before snapping herself out of it. She had a job to do, dangerous animals around or not.

Aline nodded to herself and shoved the map into the waistband of her shorts. Staring down the dark hallway, she swallowed the strange feeling in her stomach and traveled toward the doors, the only light coming from the map. She came to a dead end, but on her right and left laid the rooms.

She turned to the left one first, seeing cursive writing chiseled into the wood. She traced it with her finger, reading it as each letter came into view. "Violet Harland..." she whispered, glancing at the door. It was completely shut. She'd have to go in underneath the door.

There would be no cat. No cat. The cat was already out there sleeping. She turned to look behind her, seeing nothing creeping up against her in the darkness, and flew underneath the door.

When she came into the room, she was surprised to see that it was not green. Instead, it was violet--funny, she told herself as she recalled the child's name was Violet--and brown carpeting covering her room. She fluttered above the strewn about toys on the floor and stopped in front of the bed.

The child looked so peaceful sleeping, her cheeks rosy with a smile encased across her chubby face. Dark brown hair was strewn across the pillowcase and down her back.