Her Stolen Memories

6- The Ghost with a Walking Stick

The dream had rattled Aana's conscious. After waking up, she could not go back to sleep no matter how hard she tried and turned and twisted in the bed. Her gaze fell upon the electronic clock that showed the time three fifteen in the morning.

Sighing aloud, Aana slipped out of the bed and walked out of the room. The hallway was dark except for the dim yellow lights guiding the pathway. Her house was lavish, to say the least. Made from the cement produced by her own company, it had been built brick by brick to the extravagant levels.

The ground floor was reserved for kitchen, dining hall, dinner table and private room for grandpa, since due to the pain in his knees he was barely able to climb up the stairs and walk for long. While when climbed up the grand, white staircase with no railing for support, the rooms were made for Aana, a personal room and an office that she had not used till now, and her parents' room on the distance of just a few feet. Except those there were about five extra rooms for guests.

The glass chandelier hung in the middle of the hall, taking up at least one fourth space of the ceiling. The walls were adorned with pictures, most of hers were with her grandpa, in his arms, playing with him, her graduation, and her first day at the office years ago.

Crossing the hallway and walking down the stairs, Aana slipped in the kitchen to grab a sandwich. In the fridge she fortunately found a cold turkey sandwich. Removing the foil she stuffed it in her mouth and just as she turned around, she almost had a heart attack.

"Grandpa!" she snapped as her hand flew up to her chest to calm the racing heart while the piece of sandwich fell out of her mouth.

"The hell?" Reynard muttered and limped towards the dining table to grab the glass of water and the jug.

His one hand placed the walking stick by the dining table while his other one brought the glass to his mouth, watching a still freaked out Aana from over the rim of the glass. In the darkness of the kitchen, Reynard's face looked like a scary ghost standing beside the table drinking water while he planned the most violent way to kill Aana. The white, almost transparent hair on his head did not help the matters as well.

"Stop scaring me like this!" Aana gritted through clenched teeth while putting the sandwich down on a plate.

"You scary!" Reynard snapped, "I still look like the prince of America."

"The old one with a lot of wrinkles and on the verge of dying, right?" Aana chuckled as she rounded the island of the kitchen to come sit in the chair of the dining table.

"You will die before me. I am going to outlive you, little piece of human being." Reynard grinned while pulling out the chair and taking a place near Aana.

"You are already seventy five years old." Aana rolled her eyes and nibbled on the rest of the sandwich, "I still got more than seventy five years to live!"

"I will turn into a grim reaper and take you the same night as me so that technically, I will outlive you by living more years than you."

"You will scare the grim reapers away just like you did me right now."

"You say that again and I will sacrifice your soul to the grim reapers tonight."

Aana burst out in laughter.

Putting the half eaten sandwich back in the plate she leaned her head against Reynard's shoulder and closed her eyes.

"What are you doing here up so late, Annie?" Reynard murmured while his hands lovingly caressed the top of her head, "Got hungry?"

"Kind of." Aana whispered, the soothing massage of Reynard's finger had started to made her eyes droopy.

"Go back to your room." Reynard kissed Aana's forehead, "My child needs rest after so much work at office."

Reynard straightened Aana's head and stood up from the chair to walk away while grabbing his walking stick. But Aana's hand grabbed his other hand to stop him,

"What?" Reynard asked turning around as a grin spread out on his wrinkled face, "Can't get enough of grandpa's company?"

Aana jokingly made an icky face. Laughing lightly he came back to stand beside her, "What is the matter?"

Aana hesitated as the smile fell from her face. But then gathering all the courage inside her chest she looked up, "I am having dreams." she whispered, "Scary, too real dreams."

Reynard's body went stiff for a couple of seconds. But then he forced a smile on his face, "They are just dreams, Anniee. Nothing for you to be afraid of."

Aana fell silent. She could not understand how to make Reynard understand. If they were just dreams then why only one girl kept appearing in them? Why couldn't Aana see her face?"

"If they are just dreams," she said as her hold tightened on Reynard's hand, "Then why am I seeing them even when I am awake?"