Gia hears the voices as soon as she steps through the door. Children’s voices, whimpering, sobbing … lost sounds that tear at her heart. She recognizes the waiting room of Menelaus Manor but the voices are coming from the second floor. She rushes up the stairs and finds herself in a long hall lined with doors. Eight of them. The voices are louder here, and grow louder still as she moves down the hall. All the doors but one are open and as she passes each she sees a child, a boy or a girl, standing alone in the center of an empty room, sobbing. Some cry out for their mommies. Pressure builds in Gia’s throat as she tries to enter the rooms to comfort them, but she can’t stop. She must keep moving down the hall toward the closed door at its end. She stops before it and reaches for the knob, but before she touches it the door slams open and there’s Tara Portman, the front of her blouse all bloody and her eyes wide with fear, and she’s screaming, “Help! Help! Someone’s hurt! You’ve got to come! Come now! NOW!”
Gia awoke with a start and the word NOW! echoing through her head. She looked around the darkening bedroom. Through the window she saw that the sun was down and twilight fading fast.
A nap. She hadn’t slept well last night. She’d kept waking from dreams, remembering little of them except that they were disturbing. Being pregnant probably added to the fatigue. But as tired as she’d felt all afternoon, she’d fought Jack’s suggestion of a nap until she could barely keep her eyes open. Finally she’d allowed herself a quick lie-down on the bed, just for a few minutes … She’d just had another disturbing dream. What had it been about? She
seemed to remember something about Menelaus—
Gia lunged to her feet as it all rushed back to her: Tara’s terrified face as she screamed about someone being hurt and how Gia had to come now. Now!
“Jack!”
A bolt of alarm shot through her chest as she ran downstairs through the dark house to the kitchen where she had Jack’s cell phone number magneted to the refrigerator door. She found it, dialed, but was told by a mechanical voice that he wasn’t available. She flipped on a light, grabbed her pocketbook, and dumped it onto the counter. She rummaged through the mess until she found the Ifasen brochure she’d picked up at Menelaus Manor. She punched in the number and hung on through the rings until the Kentons’ voice mail picked up. She hung up without leaving a message.
Gia didn’t know if someone was really hurt or if the dream had been nothing more than that, but she had this awful feeling that something must be wrong. Whatever the case, she couldn’t simply sit here. She knew she’d promised to stay away, but if Jack was hurt she wanted to be there; if he wasn’t, she could hang out and visit for a while. Promise or no promise, she was heading for Menelaus Manor. Now.
She picked up the phone again and called for a cab.