BLOODY HOLLY by William Pauley III (Free Preview)
"Something about it felt different than other dreams. It felt like a step beyond, like moving into some spiritual realm, like a premonition."
BLOODY HOLLY
by William Pauley III
Holly Enliss was thrown from her dream so violently that her heart literally skipped a beat. She sat up in bed, in a cold sweat, and hyperventilated for a full minute before she was able to process the experience. She’d always been a vivid dreamer, but never before had she envisioned something so urgent, so dangerous… so pressing.
She had to act quick. Something about it felt different than other dreams. It felt like a step beyond, like moving into some spiritual realm, like a premonition. As she looked down at her sleeping husband—who was resting peacefully at her side, wholly unaware of her panicked, emotional state—Holly recognized at once she was now living at the inception of the dream.
It’s real.
It’s happening.
Now…
She threw her hands out and clawed desperately at her husband’s white t-shirt, not so silently whispering his name. “David! David! Wake up!” The instant her hands made contact, his entire body convulsed, jolting him awake, as if she’d thrusted a pair of charged defibrillators down against his chest.
“My god, Holly! What’s wrong?” he said, pulling himself into a sitting position, scanning her body for any sign of injury.
She held out an open palm. “Give me your cell phone,” she commanded.
He wiped the sleep from his eye, then asked again what it was she needed. He was certain he heard her wrong.
“Your phone. Give it to me,” she repeated. After a few seconds of empty silence, she angrily added, “Now! Hurry! We don’t have much time!”
“Okay, okay. Sheesh,” he said, then groggily leaned over and picked up his cell phone from the bedside table. If this was some kind of test, some way of proving that he’d been faithful to Holly, he had no doubt he’d pass without a hitch. He loved her and had no desire to ever be with another woman. She was it for him. In the three years they’d been married, she never once revealed herself to be the jealous type, but clearly something was on her mind that night. If allowing her to search through his phone would help in settling the matter, he was all for it. He had nothing to hide. But why now? At this hour?
He handed her the phone, watching in silence as she tapped away at the screen like a woman possessed.
“What’s this all about, huh? Did I cheat on you in a dream or something?” He laughed, but she responded in no way whatsoever. He wasn’t sure she’d even heard him at all. He went over her words once again inside his head, trying to make sense of her behavior, but it only served to confuse him more. “Did you say ‘we don’t have much time’?”
Once again, his words evaporated into thin air.
She tossed the phone back to him, then once again grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him close. “Listen to me carefully,” she said, never more serious in all her life. “Please. I only have time to say this once.”
“Holly, you’re scaring me,” David said, attempting to pry her fingers from his shirt. “Did I do something wrong?”
“David, stop!” she shouted, then slapped him across the face with everything in her. It hurt, but he had a feeling it would pale in comparison to the emotional damage left by whatever the hell was happening between them at that moment. They were treading through new territory now. He’d never seen her like this before. “Just shut up and listen… I just had a dream, and right now—right fucking now—we’re living inside it. This is how it begins. David, it’s imperative that you listen to my every word, because this dream… it ends in a total bloodbath. It’s as bad as it gets. But we can change that part…”
“Bloodbath?” David asked, hoping she’d elaborate, too afraid to ask outright just whose blood would be spilled. His palms sweated against the sheets.
Holly continued as if he said nothing at all. “In a couple minutes from now, your phone will ring. When it does, listen to the voice on the other line. Once it’s your turn to speak, respond with the words, ‘Bring it on.’”
“Bring it on?”
“‘Bring it on,’” she confirmed. “No matter what the voice on the line tells you, those are your words. Even if it doesn’t make any sense to you at that moment, you say those three words. Got it?”
David nodded, but he wasn’t any less confused.
“After you say the words, hang up and throw your phone over there.” David followed her finger as she pointed over to the farthest corner of the room, some twenty feet from the edge of the bed. “Don’t set it down. Don’t throw it anywhere except in that corner, right there.”
“Sure, okay,” David said, fumbling nervously with his phone. “Whatever you say.”
“This next part gets a bit complicated,” she continued, finally breaking eye contact with him. Her attitude changed all in a second. She seemed sullen now, picking at her fingernails, seemingly just as nervous as he was. “Do you love me?” she whimpered.
He laughed. “Of course, I love you. Is that what this is all about?”
“Do you trust me?” she said, looking up at him. Even in the dark, her cold blue eyes bore holes through him. His heart fluttered.
“Yes,” David said, grabbing her by the hand. “With all my heart.”
She nodded. “Then please don’t ask for an explanation. Just go with it. Carry out my instructions to a T, no matter how insane it may sound.”
He exhaled deeply, then nodded, silently agreeing to take part in her madness.
“After you throw the phone, I need you to walk over to me. I’ll be standing there, by the door,” she pointed to the backside of their bedroom door. “Stand directly behind me, then wrap your arm around my neck. Put me in a headlock. Make sure it’s tight—”
“Holly! A headlock?” David shouted.
“Make sure it’s tight, damn it! Are you listening?” she shouted back at him.
“This is insanity! I won’t have it!”
As soon as he said it, tears welled inside her eyes. “If you don’t do this, it’ll be the death of me. It’s that serious.”
David took a moment to collect his thoughts. “This is a test, isn’t it? Some sick test to prove my love for you… Holly. This is unfair. It’s too much.”
“It’s not some fucking test, David! It’s my life!” she shouted. “Do you remember our vacation in Japan?”
“We’ve never been to Japan,” David said, eyeing her suspiciously.
“Right,” she said. “Do you remember why?”
He thought for a second. “When we were doing the planning, there was a tsunami.”
“Well, there was no way we could have planned around it, right? A tsunami isn’t something that comes after months of warning signs. It’s fairly immediate, and it happened during the weeks we would’ve been there on vacation. But we weren’t there, were we? Why not?”
David nodded. “Because of your dream.”
“That’s right. I dreamed about it and it came true. And remember that other time when I took you out for your birthday dinner and we parked on the street, just outside the restaurant? I told you I had a dream then too, didn’t I?”
“You did. You were hysterical. You told me we couldn’t park there, but at the time, you didn’t say why. I moved the car down a block, just to humor you.”
“And as we were inside the restaurant, enjoying our meal, do you remember what happened?”
He laughed. “A drunk driver fell asleep at the wheel and plowed through the exact spot our car would’ve been parked. That was pretty wild.”
“This dream, David… it’s real. It’s happening right now. Please believe me. We don’t have much time.”
Suddenly David was all ears again. He nodded for her to continue.
“Now, once you’ve got a good grip on me, I need you to push the end of the gun against my head. Right here,” she tapped on her skull, directly beside her right eye. By that point, David had grown tired of arguing with her.
“Holly, baby… we don’t even own a gun,” he said, then leaned back, thinking for a moment he was off the hook and no longer had to play along with her morbid little game.
Once more, she didn’t respond. Instead, she just arched backward and reached into the drawer of her bedside table. Sure enough, a handgun was inside. She handed it to her husband and he took it, reluctantly.
“How long have you had this?” he asked, but by the end of the sentence, her hand was cupped forcibly over his mouth.
“Shut. Up,” she said, so sternly it scared him. “Shut. The fuck. Up.”
His fingers trembled over the cold steel handle of the gun. He was finally starting to feel the urgency of the situation.
“You’re to push the gun to my head, and when that door finally opens, and you’re able to see the whites of the man’s eyes standing there on the other side… pull the trigger. Don’t hesitate.”
“Holly, please…”
“Don’t. Hesitate,” she continued. “If you hesitate in pulling that trigger, it’ll be the end of me.”
“Holly, if I pull the trigger it’ll be the end of you!” David shouted. “Can’t you hear what you’re saying? There’s no logic in it! It’s like you’re still asleep. Like you’re stuck inside a dream cycle. Is that what’s happening here? Are you sleeptalking?”
“I’ve never been more awake in my life,” she said, then placed her hands over his and gave them a taut squeeze. “I promise, if you do exactly as I say, I won’t be harmed. But remember, you have to wait until you see the whites of his eyes. No sooner. No later.”
He sighed.
“So, we’re on the same page?” she asked. “Do I need to go over it again?”
“No, no. I’ve got it. Really. Answer the phone. Bring it on. Throw the phone. Headlock. Gun. Whites of the eyes. Pull the trigger.”
“Right,” she confirmed, then began unbuttoning her nightshirt.
“The things we do for lov—” David started, but cut himself short after seeing his wife’s exposed breasts suddenly appear before him. “Holly, honey… what are you doing now?”
She stood up from the bed and pulled the rest of her clothes from her body until she was fully nude. She leaned forward on the bed, towards her husband, and said, “I’m sorry, my love, but you just have to trust me on this.” She pressed her lips to his. It was a deep, passionate kiss—like a kiss goodbye. She pulled away seconds before suffocation.
“What if it really is just a dream?” David said, catching his breath.
Holly stared into his eyes with the greatest intensity, then said, “Answer your phone.”
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