Because I wanted to get as far away from Aiden, my hero from my nightmare, as quickly as possible, Sara and I started walking. 

“If I was to do as you said, what would I even say? ‘Hey, I had a dream about you last night, and you saved me from an evil shadow man named Lucien.’ Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

Sara giggled. “You’re right, but I think it would still be worth the shot. But that is a very creative pick-up line.”

I rolled my eyes at my friend. “To be honest, at first I thought you might’ve seen Easton.”

“See, I think we should go ask him about this stuff. There definitely has to be something going on.”

There was something completely wrong with this entire situation. I looked into the faces of the passersby and realized I still could not hear what they were thinking. He had to be following us. But I didn’t feel like we were in danger. “Well, we won’t have to go back to the diner to ask.”

Sara looked at me questioningly.

“He’s been following us since we left the diner.”

Sara spun around on her heel to see. “How do you know? I can’t see anyone.”

“Because I still don’t have my telepathy.”

“What do we do?” She asked nervously. Obviously losing all her nerve from earlier.

“We go to the park and wait for him to show,” I stated with dread. “He obviously wants to talk or have some type of interaction… He’ll eventually come up to me.

As we made our way to the park, we remained silent. It was now six p.m. and the bitter cold winter air nipped at our skin as we sat on a bench, trying to ignore the shivers from our cold bodies. Our breaths were visible in the freezing weather. The snow became heavier, blanketing the already snow-covered ground.

Still seated, we remained silent, anxiously awaiting Aiden’s appearance. People who noticed us, stared as if we were lunatics for sitting out in the freezing weather. But after waiting less than 30 minutes, we were unable to ignore the cold anymore.

“Ember, I don’t know how much longer I can wait. I can not feel my nose, fingers, or my toes!” Sara stated through chattering teeth.

“Ok,” I stated while staying on the bench. “Why don’t you go get us some coffee or hot chocolate across the street and warm up?”

“What about you?” she asked.

“I won’t be too far behind you,” I replied. I had a sneaking suspicion that Aiden wouldn’t approach me with Sara near me.

I could see that Sara was torn between waiting for me and leaving. 

“Sara, go! It’s fine.” I giggled.

She didn’t wait for any other explanation as to why I wasn’t going with her as she scurried across the street. 

I sat waiting for my hero to show his face. Ten minutes passed by and the snow grew denser when I finally decided he wasn’t going to approach me, or rather, I wasn’t going to wait in the weather any longer.

“You’re going to catch pneumonia sitting out in this weather, my love.”

My stomach felt like it dropped, causing me to feel nauseated for a split second as my eyes widened in surprise. I snapped my head toward the sound of his voice. I began studying Aiden. His shaggy black hair was mostly covered by a beanie. His yellow pupil-rimmed eyes were just the same as in my dream. He was smiling at me, exposing his white teeth that looked too perfect to be real. 

“You’re the one who took your time to come talk to me,” I finally stated once I caught my breath. Aiden smirked at my quip.

“How–”

“Am I here?” He finished my question. “I’ve always existed, Ember. The only reason you hadn’t seen me before last night was that I finally found you.”

“How did you find me? What do you want? Why doesn’t my telepathy work when you’re around? Why are you here? Is that shadow man real?” All of these burning questions flooded out of my mouth.

“Whoa, calm down, love,” Aiden responded, drawing closer to me. “We have plenty of time to talk about everything.” He placed his hand on my cheek, stroking it with his thumb. This action, mixed with his love-filled eyes, and smile made me feel comforted.

Normally, I hate it when people touch me, but something in the pit of my stomach told me that I could trust him. My heart started to race from his touch, and my stomach started doing flip-flops as Aiden stared deeply into my eyes. I could see a longing in them; a desire that I didn’t quite understand in that moment. I know I felt this feeling before, earlier today; this felt similar to the way Sara and Easton were.

We didn’t say another word to each other; just standing there staring into each other’s eyes. Everything around us seemed to have vanished. Time seemed to have stood still at that very moment. We must have looked like two statues covered in snow by the time we came back to reality.

His eyes suddenly darted toward the coffee shop where Sara was and whispered in my ear, “I’ll meet you at your place tonight. Just yourself, alright?”

“How do you know where I live?” I asked, but he only smiled in return. 

Before leaving, he planted a kiss on my cheek. My face was burning as I watched him walk away, back into the darkness of the night. 

Sara walked up to me without me noticing, making me jump as she said, “Did he ever show up?” 

“Yeah…”

“What did he say?” She questioned excitedly.

“Nothing really…”

Her face contorted in disappointment. “Seriously?” 

I paused for a minute, replaying what just happened in my mind. “I think I’m going to head home.”

“Alright…” Sara replied with concern. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, I think I need to catch up on some sleep,” I replied. “Today has been too long. I don’t think I can even think properly anymore.”

“Ok.” She replied, giving me a quick hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow after work then.”

I know I could have told Sara the real reason I wanted to be alone, and that she would have understood. Maybe. But to be honest, I didn’t want to try and explain everything to her just yet.