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It took her a long time to fall asleep, too much information was running around in her head to let her rest. When she finally did sleep, her dreams were plagued with shadowy figures, vampires, and screams.
As she tossed and turned, her dreams grew even darker.
She didn’t know where she was. When she looked around all she could see was darkness and no matter which way she went, there was no end to it. She was spinning in circles, squinting into the black void to try to see anything at all. When she reached out, her fingers touched only air.
She tried walking in different directions, holding her arms out to keep from bumping into anything, but no matter how far she walked there was nothing there. It was an endless oblivion.
Then finally, in the distance there was a bright light, she started to run to it. Faster and faster, but it barely seemed to get closer. She could feel her breath wheezing in and out of her lungs, her cheeks were frozen from the cold air. Distantly she knew this had to be a dream, but it felt so real, so empty.
Suddenly, the light shot toward her and before she could do anything to avoid it, she was standing in another room. It was a room she recognized but had hoped never to go to again. It was the room below the barn, with the iron cells.
She watched herself as if she were watching a movie. She heard Dimitri admit to killing her mom, as he laughed about it. Every detail was etched into her mind, and this was a perfect replay, like she was watching a recording.
She saw herself start to change, then in horrifying detail as she ripped the man to shreds. It was a mutilation. There was blood and bone and tissue everywhere. Even on Marshall and Aiden as they tried unsuccessfully to pull her away from the man.
Marshall said Dimitri was to be executed for his crimes, but she was positive this is not what he’d had in mind.
Looking at the carnage she’d created, it made her sick. He had been a monster, a murderer, but this made her almost as bad as him. She had been telling herself that she’d done what she needed to do, that she’d gotten rid of a terrible person.
But her mom always said, two wrongs don’t make a right.
She tried to turn away from the horror of the cells, to force her mind away from it. She knew she was a monster now too and would have to live with it for the rest of her life.
She didn’t want to look at the evidence of what she’d done, but the dream held her there. It made her look, made her see what she was truly capable of.
Finally, she was able to turn, and the dream changed. Suddenly she was in a forest she didn’t recognize. There was howling in the distance and screaming. Screams of pain. As she started to take a step toward the screams something flashed by her right side.
She spun in a circle, trying to see what had moved. There was a sliver of a crescent moon with just enough light to see into the shadows, but she still didn’t see anything.
Then something grabbed her from behind and swung her around. She found herself staring at Nikolai, the vampire councilman. But he didn’t look the way she was used to, always pristine in his three-piece suit, even when it was a hundred degrees outside.
No, this was not the Nikolai she had gotten used to seeing. This was a vampire from nightmares. He looked unkempt, crazed, and hungry.
His irises were bright red, and the whites of his eyes were blood shot. His fangs were on full display as he hissed at her with blood dripping from his lips. His nails were lengthened into talons and his hands were dirty as if he had been digging in the ground. As he grasped her shoulders, she could feel his nails digging in, holding tight, drawing blood.
He sniffed the air, “You smell delicious little mutt. I think I’ll have a taste.”
As he lunged at her, she tried to wrench herself away, but his claws held her tearing flesh. He wrenched her toward him and slammed his fangs into her throat, in the same spot Aiden had marked her.
Somehow that made it worse, it was a violation. The pain was excruciating, and she screamed, drowning out the screams of the others. She wondered if this was happening to them too and if they would survive.
As she felt her strength giving out, she tried one more time to get away. She kneed him between his legs as she ripped herself away from his hands, screaming again from the pain as her skin tore.
Distracted by his pain, she was able to release herself, but not for long. She tried to run but he was faster, catching her before she took more than a few steps. With his bare hands, he snapped her neck, and as she dropped to the ground the world went black.
Moments later, or maybe longer, she woke up again next to Silver Lake.
Once again, she was aware that this was a dream, or a nightmare.
She took a second to feel her throat, searching for any wounds. When her hands came away clean and unbloodied, she was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
Finally, she glanced around and realized it looked just the way it had that day with Aiden. It was beautiful and bright, the sunshine sparkling off the surface of the lake like diamonds.
She looked at the spot Aiden had been sitting that day, only to see it wasn’t empty.
Rhiannon sat on the rocks, on top of a picnic blanket, with Marshall beside her. He was looking around too, like he hadn’t expected to be here either.
When she walked over, Marshall held out a hand to help her onto the rock. Once she was settled, she turned to them, “Are you sleeping too Marshall?”
