An Undercover Spy

A Nightmare

    “Try and catch me!”

    Young Avery squealed at her father, holding her tongue out. She sprinted away from him and jogged towards the other side of the local garden where parents kept their children away from. It was facing the side road and it would be dangerous for kids to run beside the cars. 

    “Slow down Ave, you can barely run, you always fall! Come back here!”he screamed after her as he jumped up from his seat. He scowled feeling annoyed at his daughter as he followed her. 

    Avery stopped running as she stomped her foot on the ground. “I can run faster than a rabbit. Watch me!”she grinned childishly as she started jump running, mimicking a rabbit. 

    She had stepped over the fence and now was away from the grass. She watched with a dropped jaw as she kept on squealing excitedly. “Dad! Look, mom left to buy me sour candy. My favorite!”she chuckled as she stopped running and was watching her mom cross the road towards her. 

    Avery wasn’t like every average child. She hated sweets. Anything related to sugar and chocolate wasn’t her friend. Instead, she loved sour and spicy things. It was unlike her best friends Cole, Nate and Jessica. They all loved chocolate. 

    The four best friends would sit near the river with sweets to their likings and sing their favorite songs together. Avery would cringe as they whine, wanting more chocolate. She never understood why they liked the taste of sugar. She had inherited that habit from her mother. 

    Her mother Ashley always leaned towards the sour food but still had a part in her heart that craved sugar, especially when she was pregnant with Avery. She would sit on the floor, hugging a box of sugar cubes and eat probably half of it. They all had expected a boy, especially Richard but it turned out to be a girl just like what Ashley wanted. She was twice the size a pregnant woman should be which made her husband call her ‘fluffy bear’. 

    Ashley was walking to her daughter as she smiled at her, waving the bag of Avery’s desires in her hand. 

    The little girl gave her mom a toothy smile, nodding at her as her mom ushered her to stay on the side road and not step closer. She glanced towards her husband and smiled at him too. Ashley laughed at how her daughter was waiting with the same sparkle in her eyes that she always gets when she gets excited. 

    “Ashley!!”

         Richard screamed as he jogged outside the children’s play garden, breaking the short small fences, reaching his knee caps. 

    Everyone stopped their daily games and work to stare at the scene unfolding right under their sight. 

    As a little girl fell on the floor, being bumped by her father. As a man in his thirties rushed to save his wife but was too late already. 

    The pretty redhead was now laying on the floor, resting in a huge red pool. The beg fell on the floor with the candy descending down the car one by one. It was like a scene from the movies when the knight in shining armor saves his love but this was reality. The sour reality. 

    The driver halted to a stop and watched with a slight smirk on his face. Avery peeked from under her arms as her eyes met the young boy in the car. It was like time had stopped as the little boy was staring helplessly at her while sobbing. He was just a kid to see something like this. 

    It didn’t take long before the car had been driven backwards and away from people’s eyes. 

    The young girl’s eyes turned around like a wheel towards her parents. She grew silent as she felt a woman pick her up and hold her in her arms. 

    The foreign woman tried calming the little girl down as she turned around, preventing her from staring at the scene. 

    “Everything will be okay, you will be fine”the woman smiled. Her smile was extremely heartwarming for Avery. Her eyes were hypnotizing the young, innocent girl. Her warm, soft hand was caressing Avery’s long hair soothingly. “Everything will be fine.”

    She whispered again, this time closer, in Avery’s ear. The woman’s grey and black hair gave the young girl in her arms a grandmotherly love. Her small round brown orbs were staring deep into Avery’s soul, reassuring her that someday, it will be better. 

    Avery never had a grandma, maybe that’s why she was feeling like this to a random old woman. There was no other explanation. Maybe it was because she was in a vulnerable state?

    The young girl was confused. What was happening around her? Her parents disappeared, the siren sound and the pity look in the woman’s eyes were all making her feel overwhelmed. 

    “Let her go.”

    Those were the last words she heard from that woman before surrendering to the quite darkness and laying her head on the woman’s shoulder. 

****

    Avery jumped up from her bed, staring around in horror. She realized she was dreaming. She calmed down her heavy breathing as she took the cup of water from the person beside her. 

    Wait. The person beside her?

    She screamed as she stared up at the intense gaze that was looking back at her. She glared at the figure as she tried finding her words. 

    “Oh my god, you scared the hell out of me”she said, breathing heavily again. “What are you doing here?”

    She inquired after drinking half of the cup. She placed it on her bedside table and stood up turning the lights on.  

    “I wanted to ask you an important question. I didn’t think you would be sleeping. Though, I’m glad I came, you were having a nightmare”Ezra answered as he sat on the desk’s chair, waiting for a reply. 

    “Umm yeah I have those quite often”Avery said, rubbing her cold arms as she felt the goosebumps. She sat back on her bed, pulling her blankets over her and facing the man. Winter was her favorite season, she liked the cold and rain. As a kid, she would spend her time watching the rain from her window with her mother. 

    “The reason?”he raised his eyebrows in clear curiosity. Avery frowned and chuckled nervously. Why was he asking so many questions?

    “There’s no reason. Why would you think there is?”

    She spoke as she took her phone out of the drawer and stared at the clock. Five in the morning. She yawned, realizing it was still too early and then focused her attention on Ezra as she heard his deep voice. 

    “There’s always a reason. If you share yours, I’ll share mine.” Avery gasped silently in surprise. Was he trying to open up a conversation with her? Weren’t they clearly fighting the day before?

    “Umm I- yeah. I have nightmares because of my mother”she rubbed the back of her neck nervously as she answered. 

    “Did she"He started hesitating whether to continue his sentence or stop but Avery’s stern gaze made him decide on being blunt. “Use to a***e you when you were younger?”

    Her hands clenched into a fist upon hearing. Unconsciously and without thinking twice, she refused loudly. “No! There’s no way my mother would do that. I just have nightmares of how she died”she scowled, getting flashbacks of the same scene. She hated talking about it. It was almost as she was confessing about a crime she made. 

    She shuddered in her bed as she crossed her arms together and took a deep breath. 

    Ezra stared back, shocked. “Oh!”he proclaimed. “Oh sorry, I didn’t know that she died. May I perhaps know how she died?”

    Avery’s look turned to a rather cold one as she glared at him. She held back the urge to clench her teeth and roll her eyes. 

    “That’s not our deal Mr. Lueders. You’re asking a lot of questions that aren’t related to you.”

    A short silence followed after her words. The two were staring at each other. The tension was starting to turn  completely awkward and can be cut in a knife. Avery forgot the cold weather and waited for him to speak. 

    She laid on the bed’s headboard and rested her head on top. She was staring to get frustrated with his silence when he finally opened his mouth to talk. 

    “I have two reasons. I’ll just say one about one nightmare” he sighed. “I get them because of my dad. I don’t think you really have to ask more, you should already know the reason”he shrugged his shoulders. 

    Avery nodded with a chuckle. She absolutely knew the reason. His father was a nightmare himself, he would absolutely have bad dreams about him. 

    “So, what was your question?”she raised a questioning eyebrow. 

    “Oh about that, yeah I wanted to ask you about what happened yesterday. It was quite amusing but I think it was from where they bought the salt. They probably didn’t notice it was dirty. What do you think about the situation?”

    Avery grew amused upon hearing his question. Had he really wanted to come to her room at that hour to ask her about her opinion?! Was he that reckless or was he trying to get closer and open conversations with her?

    “Oh wow, I didn’t expect this question. What makes you think I have a different opinion and why do you really care about it?”she asked followed by a chuckle. 

    “No reason. I just wanted to know your point of view since you’re so different from...us.”

    Avery’s mouth hanged open in surprise. She was mad at him, his words were a bit rude. “Am I different because I’m from San Diego or do you see me as an alien. Oh wait, I’m your father’s personal assistant, more lower than you!”she glared at him as she stood up and crossed her arms again. Little did he know who she really was. 

    “Of course I didn’t mean that. I just wanted to know your opinion since none of us thought that something is wrong with the salt. I apologize sincerely for my words but I swear I meant a different meaning”he smiled gently as he stood up. “I have to excuse myself now”he nodded before they bid goodbyes and he left. 

    Avery was left alone to think about what just happened. Did she and James Lueders’ son just had a talk in her room? The room that is of course in his house?!

    “What just happened”she chuckled. Avery walked to her bedroom’s window and opened the curtains widely. It was still early and the sun hadn’t been completely out. 

    Sleep was now deprived from Avery’s body and she just wanted to have a warm shower before having breakfast with her boss and his family. 

    She was not a little bit excited about it. They all seemed cold and distant, well except the grandma. Avery cringed as she remembered Time. So far, he was her least favorite from that family.