Stand in the Rain

Doors, doors and more doors. That's all Della was seeing. For weeks now she had been having the same recurring dream. At first it was a welcome change, no had died in her dreams since she woke up with the tape in her hand. Still the dream was foreboding.

It always started the same way. Running through the halls of Dreamwood, very low to the ground. But every time she tried to open one they were locked. At first this didn’t seem to bother Della. But as she passed more and more doors she started to feel trapped. And she wasn’t the only one in the hall. Ghostly figures with darkened shapes hung in the doorways of the rooms she couldn’t reach.

Della didn’t remember falling asleep but she knew she was dreaming. Only instead of running through the halls she felt more as if she was floating. Was she slowly become one of the spectors, so lost unable to find their way home? Was she being sucked down in their turmoil? She tried to look down at her figure, to see if she was still there, but her gaze was fixed on the never ending hallway in front of her. She floated on, noting that the blue and gray optics had taken on a new white tint.

As she went down the hallway she noticed a particularly white door. Not expecting anything, she twisted the handle. To her amazement the door opened into a bright white room. People were bustling about over something in the middle of the room. Or was it someone. Della tried to inch forward but was pushed out of view by the attendees. Determined, she crawled under their legs and looked up to find herself. Her hair was matted and was that blood...?

She was thrown back into reality. She started to remember everything. How she had planned to view the tape that evening. How she had ordered take out from the Chinese place, steamed dumplings, her favorite. How she had broken into the fortune cookie to find “April showers bring May flowers. Metaphorically.” That it was this phrase she was pondering when she was out early in the morning looking for Boo, as she had done every day since his disappearance. How she had been so lost in thought that she stepped out in front of a moving vehicle... The last thing she was was glass raining from the sky.

Sad Lisa

A week had passed since the blue. The nightmares of Sarah continued with more frequency. Della was having trouble focusing in school. Lately even Boo couldn’t console her. She was thinking about giving up her job with Magdalene Kitch but after the video footage posted online, she knew the only reason Magdalene hadn’t given her to the masses was because of her work. She didn’t know exactly what was on all of the tapes but she knew it was something serious. And she wanted Sarah to die with innocence.

 
She remembered a time when her parents would take her and Sarah up to the Dreamwood Terrace and pretend they were on vacation. Money was scarce but it didn’t matter- Della couldn’t imagine a better vacation. The room Della and Sarah had now was the same room they had rented for so many summers. As regular customers they had furnished the place themselves. When they died it was perfectly preserved with no stain of life lost. At least not at first. It had seemed the logical choice to move in permanently.

 
Della wanted to get a hold of those tapes. She didn’t know how long Mrs. Kitch had been filming but it it was as long as she suspected there might be a lead as to the murder of her parents. And if she was right- with that evidence she might be able to protect her sister from harm.

This thought consumed her day and night. She wasn’t in good enough standing with Mrs. Kitch to ask to see them and she wasn’t going to demand them outright. Even though everyone knew what she was doing, most people were too afraid of eviction to make a stink.

Della Breed was going to steal the tapes. But how? Other people might not suspect a ten year old but Magdalene Kitch would. She supposed she could get lessons from Senka- wasn’t that who had broken into the penthouse- but Della was too afraid to ask. Who knows maybe she just needed to confront that guy Troy. He kept talking about “killing her” but wouldn’t her parents be a “them”?

 
She explained it all to Boo in the park that day. She hoped she would find the answer, or at least solace, in his eyes but he didn’t seem helpful at all. In fact he was quite restless. Never sitting still. Suddenly he shook loose of her and headed straight for Dreamwood Terrace.

 
The last thing she remembered before blacking out was a scream.

She had the weirdest dream. The kind you only have when you faint. It was in blue and gray and the edges were blurry as if some kind of filter had been put over her lens of her eye. She was running through the halls of Dreamwood Terrace but it didn't seem right. She was too low to the ground, as if crawling on her hands and knees. Not only that but the doors were all out of place.

Somehow she knew she wasn't running away, for once she was running to something, or someone...

 
When she awoke she was lying on the floor of her room, a tape in her hand.