I tried to find her, but someone else caught my attention.
She sat on the edge of a blue pond, surrounded by white Celestrus, her long black hair flowing down her favorite sweaterdress.
“Mom?”
She twitched, as if hearing my voice, but continued to swish her legs in the water and stare ahead.
“Behind you!”
Still, she didn’t turn. It was almost as if she drifted farther away, yet neither of us moved. Panicked, I ran toward her. But no matter how fast I moved, she always slipped farther out of reach.
“Each ripple alters the course for what’s to come. Remember that, Lucille,” the female said.
“Who are you?” I shouted. But my words were lost as my dream shifted into a nightmare.
My back pressed into a cold metal table, filling me with dread as I stared at the rusted butcher chains dangling from the ceiling.
I knew where I was. I knew whose footsteps sounded behind me.
I swallowed hard and squeezed my eyes shut.
“It’s just a nightmare,” I whispered to myself.
But everything felt too real, and shutting my eyes only made me more aware of the heavy metal pinning me down.
A blade screeched across the table, and I tensed.
“Open your eyes,” the female said.
“No.” I squeezed my lids tighter.
“You need to open your eyes. Remember!”
“Like I could ever forget!”
The terrible squeal of the blade drowned my words. Then it stopped. I knew what came next, and I didn’t want to watch as Michael drove the blade into my flesh.
In my nightmares, he didn’t talk. He didn’t demand answers. He only stabbed me—over and over and over again.
“It’s just a nightmare,” I begged myself to believe. “Wake up!”
“You are not helpless! Listen to me!” she demanded. “Look and remember my words!”
I couldn’t look. I could only shriek, enduring his abuse forever.
“Lucy,” someone said.
“Please!”
It needed to end.
“Lucy!”
Something zapped me, and the torture dissolved.
Alexei crouched in front of me, mini lightning bolts zinging between his fingers. “There’s Sleeping Beauty. Having a nightmare?”
I jerked up and swallowed, my pounding heart throbbing in my ears. “Alexei?”
