The police came to speak to her that morning. They had nothing new for her, but just wanted to give her an update.

She thanked them for their time, showed them to the door, and then returned to sitting in the living room.

She sat there, as she had all morning so far, as she would do most of the day.

She had allowed herself to forget her daughter.

She had allowed herself to have fun, while her daughter was missing.

She considered turning on the TV, or opening a book, or turning on her computer, but shame kept her rooted to the spot. She didn’t want to allow herself to forget. She didn’t want to reward herself for her failures.

She just wanted to sit there and remember her failures.

And at some point, she fell asleep.

---

She woke up in the field of grass. The sun burned overhead, pushing an oppressive heat upon the landscape.

She just lay there, staring into the sky, feeling the light burn into her skin.

Then she heard his breathing. It was slow and rhythmic, the sounds of a person deep in sleep.

She’d heard sounds like that, once upon a time, every night. It had been months now since she had, but spent many more years before that hearing that sound. It brought fresh tears to her eyes. She sat up, hands pressing pass the grass to the thick soil below.

Dolant was there, a few scant feet away. He’d stretched his cloak out, one half held down atop a rock by another smaller rock, and the other end tied to the hit of his sword, which had been thrust into the ground. His red hair was untied, spread out and framing his face, while he held the ribbon that usually bound it in his hand.

She watched the rise and fall of his chest for several minutes. With his hand behind his head, and his one leg hitched up like that, for a moment she was transported in time. She could remember so many nights watching a figure like that. Just sitting there, watching and marveling and being so very happy.

It was hard to remember it hadn’t been that long ago.

It was too hard to watch him.

It was too hard to be here.

He had promised he’d help her find her daughter, but for the moment she couldn’t stand being here with him. Couldn’t stand his promises, his secrets.

Couldn’t stand that he would choose to be near her.

So she set off. She had only the vaguest idea of where town was, but for the moment she was much more interested in simply being away from where she was.

As she strode through the low hills and meadows, the heat gradually scaled back as clouds began to slip across the sky. They were ugly things, like a bruise festering in the sky, and she was unsurprised when the rain began a few minutes after that.

She was surprised by how dark it got. Once the rain began it grew dark surprisingly quickly, the formerly nice day turning forbidding. She was forced to stop and try to get her bearings, the occasional lightning strike the only way she was able to see at all.

She kept her eyes forward, waiting, and sure enough another bolt came crashing down overhead. She looked around wildly, trying to see where she’d come from, or identify a marker leading back to town, or anything at all.

It was on the third lightning strike that she saw the movement.

It was distant still, and she couldn’t make out the details properly, but she was sure she’d seen movement in the distance to her left.

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And it was approaching her.

It was pitch black, and she had no source of light, but she tried to backtrace then. She hadn’t made it ten yards before she slipped on a wet incline and found herself sinking into the muddy ground.

Then the whispers began.

She couldn’t understand them. She could barely him there, truthfully, but against all reason she could hear them. Over the pounding of the rain, and the crack of the thunder, and her own frantic breathing, she could still somehow hear the whispers. The sound was slick and oily, an invasive sound that sought to worm its way into her head. She could hear the whispers because they wanted to be heard, and nothing so mundane as an abundance of sound would stop them.

She threw herself up and began to run then, mud and stricken turf being thrown up by her movement. She was moving wildly, not sure where she was going, not even being sure why she was running. She couldn’t understand why she was panicking, but it was impossible to resist the pounding of her blood and the pounding of her heart.

Something was wrong, and it was getting closer.

Then the lightning flashed again, and she realized it was there.

It was ten feet tall, and itself pitch black. It’s skin seemed smooth as velvet, and its four eyes were a vivid purple, bound in tight slights across its face. Its four arms ended in vicious claws, and it was standing five feet from her.

Barely a moment had passed before another streak of lightning arrived, illuminating the landscape, and try as she might, she couldn’t see it anywhere.

“Kendra,” came the sigh, cutting through the wind and the rain and her heart.

It didn’t feel like it was her body that turned around. She was no more in control in that moment than you were in a nightmare. Her body simply rotated in place, as if pulled by strings attached to hooks slipped into her ribs and her lungs and her heart.

The lights were flashing through the windows, red and blue, casting the room in their garish light. Except it wasn’t her bedroom, because the front door was there, and it was opening.

“You lost her, Kendra,” came the voice from just beyond the widening entrance.

She was trying to breathe, but she was having trouble. Her throat had closed up, and it seemed like her tongue was trying to lodge itself deep in her throat.

“How could you lose our daughter, Kendra?” asked Mark, stepping through the opened portal.

He was dressed just like she remembered from the funeral. The black tux, that light green shirt she thought looked stupid on him but he loved so much. The slightly tacky purple tie their daughter had bought for him two Christmases ago.

What wasn’t the same as the funeral was that this apparition had never been cleaned up after the accident. His left shoulder was nearly down to his naval, and his neck was no longer capable of supporting his head.

“You were supposed to protect her,” he weeped, walking towards her.

He was going to kill her, she knew that. As much as she knew the sun would rise in the morning, she knew he was here to kill her.

And all she could feel was relieved.

Then Dolant arrived.

“That’s enough of that!” he screamed, and all at once the scene broke.

She wasn’t in her house, and that wasn’t Mark. The four armed creature was back, except it was now only inches from her. She felt three of its claws on her - one on each shoulder, and one around her waist pulling her close. The mouth was open, and it was just about to close on her throat.

Or would have, if Dolant’s sword hadn’t chosen that moment to slice cleanly through the creature’s neck. It screamed, a hideous shriek that went on and on.

She collapsed to the ground, screaming herself, pushing the creature’s hands away. She screamed again when they touched her anew, only to realize it was Dolant.

As her tears slowed, and her shaking stopped, the storm began to slow, and then fade. As quickly as it had begun, it was gone, and it was once more a beautiful Summer day.

She realized her head was in Dolant’s lap, and he had his arms around her, but she didn’t care. Didn’t care who he was, or what he knew, or anything else. All she cared was that someone was there to hold her.

She listened to the rustling of the wind, and the depths of his breaths.

“They’re called Nightmares,” he said, his voice resolutely calm. “And there’s hundreds of them guarding the passage leading to the Princess. They’re tear us to shreds if we tried to make the journey now. The moment we’re able to get by them, we’ll head out, but I can’t get you there yet. And as you just saw, they’re already looking for you.”

It took several tries before she managed to find her voice, but she managed to croak it out at last. “Why?”

“Because they want the Princess,” he answered calmly, “and they can’t reach her. Not yet, anyway. But they can reach you.”

She wasn’t sure what she was going to answer. Wasn’t sure what to say.

Warning! Autonomous logout will be triggered in 10 seconds due to outside stimulus.

She nearly jumped when the message popped into her vision.

“I’ve got to go,” she stammered, pulling up the menu.

“I’ll keep you safe until you get back,” Dolant replied, arms still resolutely around her.

She didn’t nod, didn’t reply at all. And a moment later, she had logged out.