"They died," Patricia moaned, entering the house with two pots of dead flowers. "Why did they die?"

"Because we obviously didn't take care of them," Eddie responded, leaning against the wall.

"I don't even get it. How were we to know when they were dying?"

"I'm not the flower expert here. But if they died, I'm almost certain we're not ready for kids."

Patricia glared at him. "At least with kids we'll be able to tell when they're dying." She groaned. "I'm going to throw these out."

"Be gentle."

As Patricia went out the back of the house, Eddie went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. He was now married to Patricia and had been for little over a year now. They resided in England in a small one-story house. They attempted to care for those plants to see if they'd be able to care for children. Now you know how that turned out.

As he let the eggs sit in the pan, Eddie noticed his phone screen light up on the counter. He picked it up and realized that within the middle of the night as well as that morning, texts from Nina exploded on his phone.

"'Text me back.' 'Call me.' 'Eddie this is an emergency.'" Eddie read off just a few of the texts.

He turned the stove off and unlocked his phone to dial Nina's number. She picked up in the middle of the first ring.

"Eddie, are you ok?" she questioned frantically.

"Yeah, yeah, why?"

Patricia finally returned inside the house after a "brief" struggle with tossing out the plants. She slowed her pace and quieted down after realizing Eddie was on the phone.

"You haven't been having nightmares?" Nina continued.

"No. You have?"

"Darkness, panicking, creepy noises-sounds like a nightmare to me," Nina breathed.m"lately, we've been in the dreams, and I fear something badly happen."

"I'll let you know if something happens, but nothing's happened yet."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, but I should get going now. Bye."

"Bye." Eddie hung up.

"What's going on? Who was that?" Patricia asked.

"Eddie turned around to face her. "Nina's warning me of some...nightmares."

"Like, chosen one and Osirion-related nightmares?"

"Probably."

~~~~~
Early in the morning, Joy walked around her apartment with a hot mug of coffee in her hands. She was in a pink robe, and her hair was clipped up messily. She'd have to go in for work later that day even though it was a Saturday. She worked at a detective office as a forensic scientist and didn't dread a minute of it. There was a knock at her door.

She placed her mug down on the console table and opened it up. It was the person who lived across from her: Erik.

Erik recently moved from Norway, and ever since he'd been living in his apartment, him and Joy have been good friends.

He held up a slice of poundcake wrapped in plastic.

"I assisted in a bake sale yesterday and saved you a slice of red velvet poundcake," he smiled. "It's not the biggest piece, but..."

"Thank you, Erik." Joy accepted it.

"Are you going to work today?"

"Yeah. I just have to report in for like two hours. Make up some time from days I called in sick. Is there a reason you ask?"

Erik hesitated a bit. Then he just came out with it. "Ok, I was just wondering if you'd like to have like some coffee together? Or ice cream? Or we could go out to dinner?"

Joy swallowed. This was most likely Erik's way of finally asking her on a date. With them being so close, why not. "Of course. I'll change when I get back from work and let you know when I'm ready to go. Sound good?"

Erik nodded. "Yeah. Thank you." He stood there for a moment and then turned to go to his room. He turned back and said, "Thank you," again.

Joy smiled and closed the door. She picked up her coffee mug and finished the rest of it. She decided to go ahead and take her shower to start getting ready since she didn't have anything else to do.

Once she was ready to head to work, Joy put on her black coat and exited her apartment, locking the door. She went downstairs from the second floor to the garage where she got into her car and drove to the workplace.

She didn't have much time to do anything after clocking in since her boss told her to go out with the team that was being sent out to a crime scene. She hurried to one of the black vans under order, and it drove off. As soon as it stopped at the site of the issue, she rushed out the car with her camera and notepad. They arrived just before the ambulance, giving Joy some time to take pictures and jot down observations. She neared the body to do so and nearly dropped her equipment when she recognized the face.

"Jerome," she breathed.

~~~~~
This is an opening chapter, and I hope I've met your expectations. I know some of you've been waiting for this, and it's here finally! As some of you know, I do discussion questions, so here we go.

What do you think could be haunting Nina's dreams?

And you probably realized Joy did not end up with Jerome, so how do you feel about that? Should they be together?

Are you enjoying this so far?