The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky Page B

the night,” he explained in afake soothing voice. “All natural. A vitamin shot.” He was inching toward the bed with the syringe poised in his right hand.
    “Don’t touch me!” Louise shouted again. But the doctor ignored her cries.
    She scurried to the other side of the bed, trying to escape, but the doctor’s reflexes were too sharp. He grabbed her by the
     ankle, and without a moment’s hesitation, jabbed the needle into the top of her exposed left foot.
    Louise let out a high-pitched scream of pain and shock. She turned to look into the doctor’s remorseless black eyes, and within
     a few moments, everything else in the room turned into that same bottomless black.

That night Louise had the most extraordinary dreams.
    She dreamed she was covered in a thick blanket of darkness. She was in a cave that was so deep and so black that she didn’t
     know how she would ever return to the world above the earth. Her legs felt like lead weights, anchoring her to this lower
     and darker world.
    “Open your eyes, open your eyes,” a woman’s voice hissed. The raspy voice sounded miles away.
    “Open your eyes,” the distant voice said more urgently. Louise’s eyelids were so heavy, how could she possibly open them?
     What if she obeyed the voice and was to awaken into another layer of dream? What if she could open her eyes and still be dreaming?
    “Open your eyes.” The voice was getting closer and stronger. Louise had to obey; she didn’t have a choice anymore.
    She was immediately blinded by a burst of color, like a fiery red cloud.
    “Louise,” the voice whispered, “the time is near. You must save yourself. History cannot be rewritten, but the dress will
     prevail.” Louise saw a flash of gold and an image of a black poodle dangling in the red cloud. She could no longer fight the
     utter heaviness of her eyelids, and her weighted feet plummeted her back down into the darkness below.
    The cave was filling up quickly with rushing water. The cold water rapidly rose up past her ankles and her knees. The water
     was tickling her thighs. She tried screaming but, like in all of her most terrifying nightmares, no sound came out of her
     mouth. The only sound was the roar of the water pouring into the black cave. The icy wetness had reached her belly button,
     and Louise felt a stabbing pain in her stomach. The water level was quickly moving up to her chest. She heard two distinct
     female voices yelling, but she was too far away to make out the words.
    She bolted upright in bed. An evening dress was clinging to her like another layer of skin. She anxiously glanced around the
     room to get her bearings. Now she could never be sure where she would wake up. The room was dimly lit, but Louise recognized
     it immediately as Miss Baxter’s stateroom.
    How she wished that she would wake up in her familiarbedroom under her grandmother’s handsewn patchwork quilt. She hoped this was all a long, awful nightmare.
    “Miss Baxter? Are you all right?” Anna asked eagerly as she came over to the bed.
    “No, I’m not,” Louise croaked, her throat parched. “I just had the most horrible nightmare. And then I woke up, and I’m in
     the middle of an even worse nightmare….” She paused. “Anna, are you okay?” A terrified look was spreading across her friend’s
     face. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
    Even in the dimly lit room, Louise could see Anna’s pallid complexion and trembling bottom lip.
    “I’m not sure,” Anna said hesitantly. “I think I may have.”

“Go on,” Louise urged, propping herself up on her elbows as Anna sat down at the foot of the bed.
    “I don’t know, maybe I didn’t see anything,” Anna stuttered. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. Please, forget I said anything.”
     Her gaze was darting around the room, as though she expected something or someone to jump out of the shadows.
    “No,” Louise blurted. “You have to tell me. I’ll believe