Dream a Dream

Claire woke up with a jolt, sweating and breathing heavy. Not again, she thought. The dreams haven’t happened in a long time, they were supposed to be done and gone. Claire reached over to her night stand and grabbed her water bottle taking a big gulp. Maybe it wasn’t what she thought; maybe it was just a dream. Claire closed her eyes and went back to bed hoping for a decent nights sleep.

The following morning Claire woke up feeling refreshed and she pushed the dream out of her mind. It was just a dream she kept telling herself. She made breakfast and sat down to eat. Something told her to turn on the television so she did. What she saw made her spit out her coffee. Her dream wasn’t a dream after all; there before her eyes on the tv was the bus crash. Every detail was just how she dreamed it, the number of the bus, the amount of people hurt and sadly the casualties.

“Oh no, oh no. Not again. Why? WHY!” She said forgetting her breakfast and running to the phone. “Wait, what am I doing? Who am I suppose to call? The accident already happened and if I call now they will think I had something to do with it. AHHH!” She screamed.

She could call her friend, he always believed her. They haven’t spoken in a while though, she wondered if his number was the same. After a while she decided against it, the dream was a fluke, a coincidence. One dream didn’t mean her visions were back. No they wouldn’t, couldn’t be back. She would let it go and move on. She had to get ready for work.

The week went on as normal, no other visions penetrated her subconscious. People at work were talking about the bus crash though and she would nod along whispering how sad it was. It was ruled as an accident, faulty brakes, but Claire was still certain something else happened. She was not going to dwell on it though, she was done with that. She wanted to be normal and act normal. She was humiliated enough and thrown into enough mental hospitals to last her a lifetime. The door chimed and Claire looked up from her desk, she stared shocked to see the friend she was going to call this morning. Maybe he wasn’t here to see her she thought and went back to work.

Josh looked around and saw her, Claire. She was still as beautiful as he remembered. He was here to talk to her about the bus crash. He believed her when she said she had visions and thought maybe she had one about the crash that could help in his investigation.

“Hey Claire, can we talk?” Josh asked approaching Claire’s desk.

“Uh, what about?” Claire replied.

“I think you know.” He said pointing to the tv which was playing the bus crash footage again.

“Fine, but not here. I leave for my lunch break in ten minutes. I’ll meet you at the park.” She said forcing a smile. Josh nodded in understanding and walked out the door.

Josh was waiting at a picnic table when he saw Claire walking towards him lunchbox in hand. He got up to greet her with a hug but stopped not sure if it would be okay.

“Shall we sit and talk?” He asked. Claire nodded and sat across from him. She opened her lunchbox and took out two sandwiches and handed him one. He grinned and opened the wrapping.

“So… How have you been?” He asked shyly.

“Good, but let’s cut to it already. You wanna know if I saw anything about the bus crash. Yes, I did but I don’t want to dwell on it. It was considered an accident anyway.”

“But it wasn’t. That’s what we told the news to draw suspicion away. Claire this is the third crash, all with the same MO.”

“But… but… they said the brakes were faulty.”

“No the brakes were tampered with.”

“What do you mean same MO. The first crash, the driver ran into a power pole, drunk. The second crash the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Both of those involved smaller vehicles too, not a giant bus!”

“You are right however the way the vehicles were tampered with was all the same. All had the brakes messed up. As for the drivers of the first two there was no evidence that either were impaired. I need your help on this one. Please.”

“I will help however I can but I don’t know too much. I gotta get back to work. Meet me at my place at six and we can go over… stuff.” Claire said getting up from the table.

Claire walked up her porch steps a little after six and saw Josh waiting for her, dinner in hand. She smiled and unlocked her front door. They were both silent as Josh pulled out two burgers and some fries and Claire got some napkins.

“So did you see all three crashes or just the bus?” He asked.

“I saw the all three but I don’t know what I can tell you. I basically saw what the news reported. I didn’t see anything before the crashes or who could be involved.”     

“So all you saw was the news report than?”

“It’s like I was there but the crash already happened. The police and EMTs were showing up and the some people were climbing out the bus bleeding.”

“And no one stood out to you? No one watching the scene? Some criminals like to stay and watch the chaos they create.”

“Not that I can think of…” She trailed off, “Wait! There was one guy who was at the other two crashes too.”

“Then that is our guy. What did he look like?” Josh asked.

“I don’t know. I only saw a glimpse and it was dark at this morning’s crash. Don’t look at me like that! Listen I know it’s the same guy because he always wears the same outfit and hat!” She said frustrated.   

“Okay, okay. Describe what you can.” He replied and Claire told him all she could remember. “Okay so I’ll go back over the footage and see if I can find anything. Please call me if you see another one no matter what time.” He said and left.

The next day Josh came back to Claire’s house to go over what he found. He brought someone with him.

“Claire this is Jannie, Jannie this is Claire,” Joshed introduced them, “Jannie works for my department and is working this case with me. I told her about you.” He said smiling.

“What? Why would you do that?” Claire asked shocked.

“Oh! I get it, Claire as in clairvoyant, haha that’s clever.” Jannie said laughing.

“What is clever about it? It’s my name, that’s all.” Claire said angrily.

“Oh no mean to offend, just don’t know too many psychic’s.”   

“Okay, how about we get started then?” Josh asked.

Josh showed Claire the video and she was able to point out the man she saw in all three visions. Jannie worked on a sketch then put it on a flyer saying wanted for questioning.

“So when did you get your first ‘vision’.” Jannie asked air quoting the word vision.

“I was in high school, Josh was my only friend. I told him and he was skeptical at first then after it came true he believed me. I tried to warn others but no one believed me. Not even my parents.” Claire said.

“Well yeah I get it, visions, seeing the future. Seems unreal to me, but I have an opened mind and Josh said you saw some stuff that others didn’t.” She smiled.

Later that night Jannie decided to do some research on this so called psychic Claire who believed her dreams were of the future. Jannie found some interesting stuff out about Claire for instance she was in a couple mental institutions. However it took some time to uncover why Claire was admitted. Jannie found out that in high school Claire claimed the science lab was going to catch fire, it didn’t until a week later though. Although there was no proof the principal assumed Claire set it to make herself look good. Later on Claire said her aunt and uncle were going to be poisoned and a few days later they were. Suspicion was on Claire but again there was no proof she did anything. She stopped having visions after that, or at least she didn’t tell anyone again and who knew what she claimed in between the hospital visits. Jannie wondered if Claire made these past accidents happen and wondered if she was doing it again with the crashes. She needed to warn Josh, he might not know the whole story.

Jannie ran to Josh’s office only to find he already left, she knew where he was going and heading towards Claire’s house.

“Josh I need to talk to you NOW!” She said when she saw him on the front steps.

“Uh, sure come inside and we…”

“No, not in front of her.” Jannie said pointing towards the door, “Look I’ve done some research and things aren’t adding up. First there was a fire, then a poisoning, who else knows what. Josh she isn’t a psychic, she is a PSYCHO!”

“No she isn’t. Come inside I will explain. She isn’t home, she went to get lunch.” Josh replied.

Jannie was hesitant as first then followed Josh inside and waiting for him to speak.

“Claire had her visions and some she told publicly because she feared for the lives of those people. What you don’t know is that she had other visions come true too, visions she only told me because I was the only one who believed her. The poisoning I admit was a little hard to pull off though, I had to rely on the fact that they drank wine with dinner.” Josh stopped talking to look over at Jannie who looked confused.

“Oh I’m sorry I cut the main part out. See I believed Claire, I felt a pull towards her and when she made a public announcement about the fire and those people laughed at her I had to act. It was I who set the lab on fire. I made sure Claire was in another class though so she wouldn’t be suspected. Same with her aunt and uncle, she was with her parents then.”

“So she isn’t psychic at all, you did all those things. Wait, does this mean you caused the crashes too?” Jannie asked panicking.

“Yes, although it was harder to determine what she saw because she shut me out. We have a connection though and knew she would see me soon enough.”

“This is insane. You are insane! I’m getting out of here and calling for backup.” Jannie said standing up.

“Oh but you misunderstand. See Claire had another dream last night. This time it involves you Jannie and your death.” Josh said with a smirk as he shoved Jannie down the back steps. Her head cracked against the sidewalk and Josh planted evidence on her that she caused the crashes. He walked back inside and saw Claire walk in.

“Claire, thank goodness. I need to call back up. Jannie showed up and… and…” He sat down and made himself sob.

“She did it didn’t she? She confessed to the crashes and then she tried to run and tripped?” Claire asked walking towards the backdoor.

“Yes, she hit her head. I checked her pulse and nothing. I’m sorry Claire.” He said standing up.

“It’s not your fault. She was the criminal one here. I’m glad we stopped it. Thanks for believing me.” Claire said giving Josh a hug.

“Of course Claire, I will always believe you.” Josh said hugging Claire back and smiling. Everything was going to be just fine.