Am I being followed? 1.5

I know this section is a bit weird, but please read the whole thing.

**Disclaimer**

Do not distribute or post elsewhere without my approval

This series may contain:

Disassociation, Blood, Gore, Violence, Seeing things, Hearing voices, Dangerous situations, possible crude language and mental breakdowns.

Please read with caution as it is still in progress and as I remember specific parts of this dream it could change what the disclaimer will hold

He gently pulls me away and looks at me straight in the face, wiping my tears away while trying to keep me from seeing that he also wants to cry, “You’ve been through a lot today, lets *Inhales* lets go watch a movie and just relax a bit, yeah?” I nod and he instructs me to go and get one of the hoodies out of his closet before going to the game room to wait for him there. I follow his instructions and just lay on the couch in the game room in a ball, hugging his hoodie, while waiting for what felt like an eternity for Tom to come into the room.

He finally walks into the game room and my first instinct is to want to be held for a while longer. Before I get the chance to ask he stands in front of me, “Alright, standup” He asks out of nowhere, although confused, with tears still in my eyes I slowly stand up with no question, “Now put your arms up.” I’m a little hesitant but I still do it because I don’t think he is going to try anything inappropriate. Without warning he reaches towards the hem of my T-shirt pulling it above my head, I don’t fight it at this point because I’m far too tired from crying and panic attacks. Once he gets my shirt off, I wrap my arms around my bare torso, finally realize it’s a bit chilly. He leans down to grab the hoodie off the couch, and unravels it. “I know it’s cold, but put your arms back up.” He says as he takes my arms and potions them above my head while I’m trying not to shake from the cold. Tom slides the hoodie on me and straightens it out so that it rests comfortably on my shoulders.

After he gets the hoodie to sit straight he gives me a quick hug, “Hold on, don’t sit down yet.” He walks out of the room, and a moment later her brings in my favorite fleece blanket that he usually hides away because it’s “too hot”. My vision get a little blurry, it takes a moment to realize it’s because my eyes are filling with tears again, “Geez! I’m sorry I’m such a cry baby Tom, I…I don’t know why I feel like crying. Haha.” I manage to get out while wiping away my tears. Tom walks over and wraps the blanket over my shoulders before holding me while I bury my face in his chest to hide the small amount of tears. Tom pulls away and walks towards the entertainment stand to grab the TV remote, “Don’t sit down yet, I’m almost done.” He says leaving me there looking like a human burrito. He walks over to the couch and lies down on his back putting some pillows underneath his head and neck. I watch him do this a bit confused, “Alright, I’m ready to hold you now if you want to come lay down.” He says waiting for me to decide what I want to do. I decide to walk over to the couch and position myself so that I am slightly between him and the back cushions on the couch.

As I get comfortable, still in a blanket burrito, with my head on his chest, and his arm wrapped around me, he turns on the TV and finds my favorite game streamer who I watch after I’ve had a long day to help me relax. Tom starts a newer series that the streamer has been adding to the most recently.

While I’m lying on him, I can feel his hand lightly rubbing my back, my eyes start getting heavy and my breathing slow. As I’m starting to fall to sleep, I get a smell of his rustic smelling cologne, it reminded me of a river flowing through a forest. I finally feel like my eyelids weigh too much to open again, so I let my body rest after such a long day.

I wake up and roll over in a different room, and can tell I’m no longer in the world with Tom. I can feel the memory fading and start to wonder where my husband is, oh what was his name? “Andy! That’s right!” I say to myself. I hop out of bed wearing a blank tank top and some baggy pajama shorts with a mess of curls for hair, “Andy where are you? I had this weird dream, and I want to tell you before I forget.” “I’m in the kitchen babe! I thought I’d make breakfast!” he replies. I walk in the kitchen stretching my arms over my head before walking over to the kitchen table and sitting down, “You ready for this one?” “Ready!” “Okay, so this time I was I had moved to a new a place with a bunch of really big buildings and met a man, which looked exactly like you now that I think about it, but anyway…” I told my husband Andy all about the dream I had, even about the incident at what I believe was called a mall, “…I’m honestly surprised it didn’t wake me up earlier with how scared I was.” As I finish recalling the dream I notice that he has a concerned look on his face as he puts a plate with over easy eggs, Waffles with raspberries & blueberries, Bacon and a couple of pieces of buttered toast. He sighs before asking, “What did your therapist say about the dreams you’ve been having?” I take a bite of my waffles as I rack my brain to try and remember, “I’d need to double check my notes from the appointment, but I think he said that I need to start keeping a journal until our next appointment before he can really tell me anything that could help.” I put my cheek in hand and sigh before taking another bite of my food.

Widening my eyes out of realization, “Oh yeah! I need to do some more foraging today! I think I’m out of some herbs for the ointment orders.” I start shoveling the delicious food in my mouth so that I still have time to make the ointments before the days ends. After finishing my food I stand up and give Andy a kiss before walking to the sink and washing my plate.

I hurry to the bedroom to get dressed and then grab my big foraging bag. I head toward the front door but turn around and head back to the kitchen to let Andy know I’m leaving, “Hey babe! I just wanted to let you know before I left, I should be back in a few hours.” I grab a couple pieces of fruit and then give him a hug and a kiss before running out the door and heading for the forest.

After a bit of a hike, I decide to eat one of the apples I had packed. I’ve been looking around for a while, but only found a few things that I needed for the ointment, I hope I can find the rest of them soon so that I can at least get home before too late.

I catch a whiff of some wild mint and excitedly start walking towards where the aroma is coming from. I walk past several trees before finally seeing a good section of the forest floor covered in Mint! I reach my hand out to start cutting some of the mint before I feel something telling me to stop before I even cut the first plant. I’m not sure why until I realize I got too excited and forgot to ask the forest for permission before taking the mint! I clap my hands together before apologizing, “I’m sorry! I just got really excited! Forest spirits, may I take some of your mint to make some ointments?” I feel the spirits guiding me to a specific plant that I’m allowed to take, “Thank you for your generosity kind spirits. If you need my assistance feel free to ask anytime!” I start collecting the mint and start looking for the rest of my ingredients then head home.

I finally get back to the house and feel that something is off, I’m not sure if it’s in the forest or in the house. I start running toward the house to make sure that Andy is okay. I storm through the front door, “Andy! Where are you?!” I hear him reply but it seems a bit quiet, “I’m upstairs.” I run up the stairs, almost tripping near the top, and throw the door open to his hobby room. I see that he is sitting in front of his easel, turned away from his next masterpiece to make sure I’m okay, “Is everything okay Autumn? You sound worried.” I walk up and hold him in my arms for a moment before replying, “Sorry, I got this really bad feeling as I got close to the house, and I wasn’t sure if it was you in trouble or something else.” “I’m perfectly fine, I’m glad you’re worried about me!” He says looking up at me, still wrapped in my arms, before giving me a reassuring kiss. I leave him to his painting, forcing myself not to tell him how amazing it looks because I’ve noticed that when I do he doesn’t finish it, and I would like him to see the full extent of his ability.

I go to the kitchen to preheat the oven the oven and prep the herbs for drying. I notice that I still feel a bit off, but now it feels more like an increasing pressure that something will happen soon. With no other sign to go off of, I decide to make sure I know where the closest knife is in case I need it. As I’m removing the mint leaves and putting them on a tray, I start to get this feeling I need to put up more layers of protection before I go to sleep tonight. Luckily this mint is great for banishing evil spirits, so at least drying this will give me a good layer while I do the ritual that I need to do.

I put the mint in the oven to let them dry for a couple hours. I decide to light a protection candle I had made from before, then gather the rituals ingredients and get it started. I tend to have a hard time believing in myself most of the time, but when it comes to these rituals, I don’t let that side of me take hold, mostly out of fear that if I do, it won’t work.

For the safety of myself and those around me I won’t go into the steps of this ritual, I would never purposely risk the safety of those around me. During the ritual I could feel whatever was trying to get my attention was beginning to feel uneasy, but I didn’t stop.

After finishing the ritual and cleaning up from it, I remember the herbs drying in the oven. I go to rotate which herbs are in the oven and notice a man standing in my kitchen. I jump out of shock, and take a defensive position before taking a neutral stance again with a sigh of relief, “Geez! Don’t scare me like that!” The man watches me for a moment a bit confused with my reaction, “You don’t even know who I am, and yet you let your guard down so easily?” I give what he says some thought before responding, “Well, two reasons. One, you don’t give off a menacing aura, and two, you have a familiar soul within you, so I’m assuming you have been around for quite a while now. Am I right?” He gives a vexatious grin, “You know, when the council requested I find you, they never said anything about you sensing auras.” I groan, annoyed because it sounds like I won’t be able to make my ointment orders on time.

I head towards the stove to at least get the mint out of the oven, “Which council is this for? I thought I made it clear to all of the ones I know that I don’t want anything to do with them.” Raising an eyebrow he asks, “Is that so? Even though I was sent to get you before today, I did hear you say that you would assist the forest if they needed you.” After placing the tray on top of the stove I freeze for a moment, without looking at him, I ask, “So you’re a part of the forest spirits?” I can feel the grin, paint across his face, “Very good! Now get ready so that I can get you back to the council.” I turn around and roll my eyes and cross my arms, “Fine. But I’m not moving from this spot until you tell me your name.” He looks at me, a bit surprised it took me this long to ask, “Alexander, but you can call me Alex.”

To be continued...