Esther's Diary (Page 10)

On September 29th, 2020, I had a dream. I remember standing in the dark, the only source of light falling directly on me like a spotlight. Then suddenly I heard the rustle of wings and saw scarlet-red feathers flying around me. They sparkled beautifully in the light of that 'spotlight' that fell on me. Then a man emerged from the darkness. First, I saw his face—beautiful, perfectly proportioned, looking like carved in ivory. He had shoulder-length blond hair, was at least two heads taller than me, and behind his back I could see two huge wings, of course with feathers in the colour of scarlet. In the end I rose my eyes and met those dark blue eyes without pupils. Guess I paid attention to them last, because from the moment I saw those eyes in Laurens drawing, they scared me a bit. But now, seeing them up close in my dream, I was even more scared. It was as if his eyes were about to turn into black holes and pull me into their depths.

"Don't be afraid, Esther Moore. I'm not visiting your dream to hurt you," a gentle male voice spoke up, although the angel did not seem to move his lips. It was extremely sonorous and only added to the charm of this whole creature. Hearing his voice made my anxiety melt away a lot.

"Why...?" That was all I managed to say, trying not to look straight into his eyes.

"You have to be careful, Esther... You captured Laurens Vermeulen, but it's not over yet. Now all of you have to make sure that he is severely punished," replied the voice. "And above all, do not let him, while pretending to be insane, avoid the strictest punishment. Do not let us completely doubt the human justice. Back then, in the apartment, we could complete our mission, but we decided to give him to you. Don't make us regret this decision."

Now I saw clearly that the angel's mouth was not moving, but I was sure that he spoke to me. How did I know that? I have no idea, just knew it. In any case, after saying these words, the angel began to fade into the darkness, and the 'spotlight' that illuminated me before began to fade out as well. I was scared of the darkness engulfing me and then woke up.

Of course, I didn't have much time to analyse this dream because I saw the time on the phone screen. I had to prepare immediately if didn't want to be late for work. And after the failure of my night standby, I didn't want to upset Leo any more. I knew that if someone in higher ranks will found out about all this, he would get a serious talk first, after all, Leo was older than me not only in age, but also in terms of seniority, so naturally was responsible for me. Not to mention the fact that Leo really cared for me like big brother cares for his little sister.

Unfortunately, when I got to the police station, Leo was already waiting for me. First, we talked about the events of the night before. Then the conversation turned to my focus at work, and I somehow told him about my research on the Scarlet Angels. He, of course, said that I was bothering myself with stupid things, fantasies and non-existent things, instead of focusing on my work as a detective. But what pissed me off the most was that he could reasonably explain my every argument. Now that I think about it, I must have been too aggressive towards him. What could I expect? After all, I knew very well how sceptical Leo was. On top of that, a little later, when Leo told me why they had called us from the pre-trial detention centre, we had another fight. I got carried away again and was mostly interested in the Scarlet Angels that Laurens Vermeulen had mentioned as allegedly attacking him. Then, offended like a little child, I didn't speak to him all day, and at the end of the work, I ran away again, avoiding the opportunity to talk frankly with my best friend. Back then, that whole Scarlet Angels thing seemed so important to me that I forgot about my responsibilities. It was then that this thought seriously crossed my mind for the first time—that I was slowly losing my mind.