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A tidal wave of bright crimson blood rushes out of the open doorways, surging down the hall toward us.
A scream escapes me, and I shut my eyes just as the warm liquid rushes over us.
It’s just a dream.
Just a dream.
Just a dream.
Please get me out of here.
Please.
Please.
I chant the words in my head, as my lungs burst—desperate for air. I’m clinging to Rainer’s hand for dear life, desperate to get us both out of here.
I picture the golden river Rainer and I played in before. I imagine the sun on our skin and laughter in our lungs. I focus so hard I feel like I’m going to drive myself insane.
After a moment, a tingling sensation surrounds my body. And all of a sudden, we burst through to the surface, gasping for breaths.
The soft ripple of water traverses through the river. The air even smells fresher—no longer thick with warm cinnamon spice.
Rainer releases my hand.
I open my eyes and see that we are truly at the river. We’re no longer in the house where something terrible is happening. Instead, we stand in front of the golden dream-river once again. The entire tone has altered. The air is lighter, clearer. My body grows lighter again.
Rainer stares at me with awe, a longing he doesn’t attempt to hide.
“It’s real,” he mutters, more to himself than me. “You—”
I sit silently, waiting for him to go on.
“That nightmare. Even I can’t—” His tone sounds almost accusing, and he eyes me warily as if he doesn’t trust me. “But you’re a bloody human.”
“What was happening back there?” I ask, looking away and sitting at the edge of the water.
“I don’t—I can’t talk about it.” His voice cracks with emotion on the last part.
Witnessing such a vulnerable moment of his makes me feel like an intruder.
With a heavy sigh, he plops down next to me, keeping a few paces between us. Hurt and brokenness mar his expression.
Despite being irked, I can’t help but ache for him. Rainer is so different in the dreamscape. I’ve seen him laugh and play, and now, I’ve seen him trembling with fear. He’s so alive in his dreams. So filled with emotion and vulnerability, and it’s so unlike the Rainer I’ve met in person. He appears almost human himself, nothing more than a broken man.
That, combined with the realization that I’m the one invading his dreams—not the other way around—tugs at my heartstrings.
I make a deal with myself. For tonight, in this dream, I will forget about Rainer’s transgressions. Here, he cannot harm me. I’ve proved to be in control. I have nothing to fear.
Slowly scooting over, I wrap my arms around him as we continue to face the river. I’m shocked when he responds by pulling me into his chest.
Rainer suffered something unfathomable.
The clues are all there in front of me. It shouldn’t be my concern at all, except that I’ve been dragged, quite literally, into his nightmares. I can’t shake the ominous feeling that I’m here for a reason, as crazy as it seems. This strong, arrogant prince hides a broken little boy deep inside. His trauma shaped him. And I’ll be damned if I don’t understand that in my soul.
I toss and turn for the rest of the night after I wake from Rainer’s nightmare. I can’t stop thinking about what he said before about his mother: she was murdered.
If his dream is anything to go off, he was only a child. Was his father the one who murdered his mother? How did Rainer survive? Where was his brother?
