the sweet dreams that we knew so well

He was falling in love with Samara, he hadn’t recognized it at first because only one wollf had truly held his heart. But the tiny Klein woman had rebuilt him, nurtured and cared for him when he was too weak to do so himself. Rhyme owed her his life and more but he still felt himself hesitating. He wanted to give himself completely to Rara, but his adoration for Shaye held him back. He could clearly see now that she had been his true love, bloodlines be damned.

He hadn’t dreamed of her in a long time, wakeful or otherwise. He’d had to cut himself off from her lest he have been dragged from this world as well. Rhyme fell asleep on her grave more than once, but not tonight. Rhyme had Samara held tightly to his chest as he fell asleep, night terrors had been a real issue, thankfully they lessened when he held her close. As he drifted off to sleep though Samara disappeared.

Fog inhibited sight as it wrapped and danced over the ground and air. Rhyme blinked open blue and lavender eyes to find himself at the edge of the rapids. It was fall, the scenery was a perfect replica of his favorite place before the eruption, before the fire, before he had to bury his son. The old man would recognize the place anywhere. Despite where he was Rhyme felt alone, for a long moment he was the only wolf that existed.

Then the very earth beneath his feet rumbled and quaked. The rapids were suddenly torn open and with no warning Rhyme was pulled beneath the earth. He heard a scream, but it wasn’t his own. There was a crushing weight, the feeling of being unable to breathe, he was drowning above water. He coughed and struggled for the light that slipped away, becoming a pinhole, and finally disappearing. Rhyme felt nothing but darkness.

Then from nowhere another light began to appear, cool and calming, like the reflection of water on a dark wall. He couldn’t focus anywhere else as the light finally took the shape of his lost love.