In the Woods, by the River Page 3

  This, of course, threw the Lord’s plan off balance. Now he had no woman to birth his planned children, so his village was a failure. All he had was Esther, his beautiful daughter. He would use her to do his dirty work. The Lord originally had planned to come into this world in order to rise to power in society and make people worship him, but he would need many children to help him; now, he couldn’t obtain the many children, so he would have to accomplish his goal with a different approach.

  Esther, in her few days of being alive, knew not what to do, so she just wandered. Jane would always have to go looking for her, and always would find her. Without Jane, the Lord had to go find his daughter.

  One day, the lord found her miles away from the village, swimming in a pond. She swam gracefully and blindly, yet perfectly. The Lord knew she would have a grip on men, with her looks and all. The Lord took her back to the village and gave her a vision. Previously a child, Esther was now a woman.

  “Leave, darling, and send 9 others to me. You will make your father very happy in doing so,” the Lord instructed her.

  “Of course,” Esther replied as she left.

  2

  The town was small, yet full of people.

  Nicholas went to the local pub, and there he met his friend, Harry. They drank a lot, Harry a little more, and they joked around. Many beautiful women walked in the bar, and both made objectifying comments to the women only to receive rolled eyes.

  “Holy God,” Harry said, tapping Nicholas. “Look who just walked in.”

  A tall, slender woman entered the pub. Gorgeous, wavy blonde hair, tan skin, and emerald-green eyes. Harry and the woman made eye contact, and she walked over and sat next to him.

  “I think I’ll have a tall glass of you,” the woman flirted.

  “Who’s paying?” Harry sloppily said to her.

  The woman shrugged a shoulder so that her shirt revealed much of her collarbone. She looked Harry up and down as he did so to her.

  “What do you say we get outta here?” the woman said to Harry, ever so slightly biting her lip.

  Harry’s drunk self nodded instantly, and she took his hand and led him out the door. Nicholas was shocked at how easy that happened. Harry typically talks for a little while before leaving with a girl…

  Something was off about that woman, Nicholas thought.

  The next day, Nicholas woke with a hangover. He hadn’t heard from Harry at all, and deep down he was worried. Nicholas miserably got dressed for work. He was a psychotherapist and had an appointment with a client at 11:00 and it was already 10:30.

  Once he got to work and was in his office, Harry texted him saying that he was coming to talk to him. Before he could ask questions, his client arrived.

  “Mrs. Wilson! Great to see you again! How are you?” Nicholas greeted enthusiastically.

  “Not so good,” Mrs. Wilson responded seriously. Her eyes were serious as she rushed to take a seat across from Nicholas.

  His office was square. Two couches rested adjacently against two walls. In front of both of the couches was a coffee table with a small bonsai tree. At the opposite corner of the room was Nicholas’s desk, which had a machine that played sounds of nature. Typically, Mrs. Wilson liked the thunderstorm to be playing, but today she didn’t want anything to be played. Nicholas became unsettled.

  “What seems to be bothering you?” he asked.

  “I’ve been having dreams lately. I continue to have those dreams of a river, like I told you before, but last night was something different.” She stared intently into Nicholas’s eyes.

  “What was it about?”

  “There was this woman, maybe in her twenties or so. She was blonde, skinny, tan, and had green eyes.”

  Nicholas thought how uncannily similar the description is to the girl he and Harry at the pub.

  “She was walking from my house to this place in the woods, next to the same river I had been dreaming about. There were houses there, empty I think. There was this man there, too. He talked with the girl, and then I appeared from behind the girl, as if I was following her. The man spoke with me. He told me to watch him, and so I did. Another man walked up to the place we were at.”

  “Hold on.” Nicholas interrupted. He fumbled through his phone and found a picture of him and Harry. “Did it happen to be this man, next to me?”

  Mrs. Wilson stared at the photo. Her eyes grew large. “Yes. How did you know?”

  Nicholas leaned back and let out a breath. “Uh, it’s just my friend went out with this girl last night, and the girl matches the description of the girl you saw in your dream. I couldn’t help but ask. Please, continue.”

  Mrs. Wilson seemed shaken by that. “Well, that man went up to your friend-”

  “Harry,” Nicholas intervened.

  “Yes, he went up to Harry and grabbed his head. He stared at him in the eyes and spoke words I couldn’t comprehend. Harry then just stood there, as if paralyzed. The woman walked towards the direction she came from, and then that man came up to me. He told me not to speak of this to anybody, and then I woke up.”

  There was silence for a few seconds.

  “I knew it could be bad if I told you of my dream because of what that man told me, but I felt I had to tell somebody.”

  “Do you feel safe?” Nicholas asked.

  Mrs. Wilson looked left and right, and hunched over. “Not really. I feel like somebody is watching me; I feel like that man is watching me.” She started crying. “I’m scared,” she said, sobbing.

  Nicholas didn’t know what to tell her. He too was frightened by what she had told him. In the past, she had told him dreams she had that ended up being true. Granted, they were minor things, but still they were true. He worried if this dream could become true.

  Eventually, Mrs. Wilson left. Right after she left, Harry walked in.

  “I hope you don’t have an appointment because I need to talk with you,” Harry said. He shut the door.

  “About what?” Nicholas asked. He hoped it wasn’t related to what Mrs. Wilson had just told him, for that would be too scary.

  “You remember that girl I went out with last night?” Nicholas nodded. “Well I have no idea what happened with her. I don’t even know where we went last night, nor do I know what we did. I just woke up and was walking out a door with a vision in my head.”

  Nicholas breathed a sharp breath in. “What was your vision about?” he quickly asked, fearful for the answer.

  Harry noticed how worried Nicholas was, but didn’t say anything about it. “I keep seeing that girl I was with walking to this place in the woods, by a river. The river looks weird, like it’s covered in a layer of oil or something, and there appears to be a bunch of houses in the woods. I just see that over and over again. I have no idea what it means, but I’m freaked out.”

  Hayden and Nathan waited for school to be over. The dying minutes of the final hour seemed to live forever. When it finally died and it was time to leave, they didn’t get on the bus. They walked from their school to this gas station next to their school. They walked in and each got a drink, and then left. From there, a friend came and picked them up. Their friend, Dakota, took them to a park. They all got out and sat at a bench. They were supposed to be meeting this dude that was supplying them with money. They all sat at the bench, all looking around for the dude.

  A beautiful, blonde woman sat down at the bench next to them. They all noticed her tan skin and green eyes, and how she seemed to stare at them. Nathan got up and sat down next to her.

  “Hey there, pretty lady,” he said with a snicker.

  “How old are you?” she asked in a serious attitude.

  “18, and you?”

  Instantly she became flirty. “19.” She put her hand on his and slid it up his arm. “Oh wow, you’re strong.” She winked at him.

  “But I’m stronger,” Hayden yelled, pulling up his sleeve to show his flexed biceps.

  She laughed. “What about you? Are you strong too?” she asked
, directed at Dakota.

  He glanced at her and then lifted up his shirt, revealing his abs. “Oh yeah,” he said with a smirk.

  The woman played with her hair and motioned for Dakota and Hayden to come over with her free hand. They did so.

  “So, are you three busy or something?” she asked, rubbing her hands over all of their arms, biting her lip.

  “Eh, we were waiting-”

  “No, we aren’t busy,” Hayden interrupted Nathan. “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know… I was thinking maybe that we all get out of here,” she said with a wink.

  Just then, Gill, the man the three of them were supposed to meet, showed up. The woman turned and motioned for him to come over and sit. He willingly did so.

  “So, whaduyah got?” the woman asked, changing her tone again.

  He looked cautiously at Nathan, who nodded. “I got plants,” he said with a dirty smile.

  “C’mon, let’s get out of here,” she said to all of them. “I know a place.”

  The four boys followed her blindly as she led them to a place they wouldn’t remember.

  When they were done, they all left through the door and had no recollection of what just happened. All they remembered was that they met a pretty girl, that’s all. Also, they all had visions of the same pretty girl walking to a place in the woods, by a river.

  Quail Place was a nice neighborhood. Good, middle-class people lived in there and all the kids were friends with each other. Paul, Will, and Cody were good buddies. All of them were attending the local technical institute on weeknights.

  Today, before they were to go to the school, they were all hanging out. Will and Cody walked to Paul’s house, to just play pool or swim or anything; just hanging out.

  They ended up going swimming and drank a few drinks while doing so. The front yard was relatively small, and the driveway led to a fence. If somebody stood at the fence, they would be able to see the whole backyard. The three boys were swimming as a beautiful, tan blonde-haired woman watched. Paul saw her first, and he told his buddies. It soon became a staring contest before she broke the silence.

  “It sure is hot out here.” She fanned herself. “Do you mind if I come in for a dip?”

  Paul hesitated, but ended up saying sure. Typically he would have been cautious, but a beautiful woman asking to swim doesn’t happen every day.

  As she neared the pool, she took off her shorts and shirt, revealing a pink bikini. The boys exchanged glances and smiled.

  “It sure does feel nice in here,” she said as she waded in the shallow end. She walked over next to Paul, who also was in the shallow end. Will and Cody swam from the deep end to her so they could get a little action.

  The woman was feeling Paul’s arms, talking about how strong he was. Will flexed and told her to touch, as did Cody. She was feeling both of them. “Wow, I just don’t know who is strongest.”

  “Most definitely me,” Cody said as he flexed. He pushed both Will and Paul towards the deep end to flaunt his strength. They both tried to retaliate, but he was indeed stronger than them.

  She glanced at the house. “How about we go inside real quick,” she said with a wink. She walked up the steps from the pool and towards the door. The boys quickly followed.

  Later, they walked out the door and couldn’t remember what had just happened. All they remembered was a pretty woman asking to swim. Now, they all had visions of the pretty woman walking to a place in the woods, by a river.

  Nighttime came. Harry left his house; Dakota, Nathan, Hayden, and Gill left their houses; Mrs. Wilson left her house; Paul, Will, and Cody all left their house.

  Their minds were not with them. All they knew was the vision of a woman walking to a place in the woods, by a river, and they all knew that is where they needed to go.

  One by one, they all came upon this property that was covered in woods. The pretty woman was there. They all followed her down to the place in the woods, by the river.

  The Lord was waiting for them. He was glad, for it was them who would be his influence and it was them who would aid in him rising to power in society. He showed them all a vision of what was to be done, and with that, they all left the place in the woods, by the river.