Dreamers Dream Until They Don't

13

It had started to rain that night. Bosco knew staying the night with Daya was probably a bad idea if she wanted to avoid having to take the walk back home in the morning, but she couldn't help it. She laid beside the vampire in her bed, watching her hold the doll she had found tightly.

"What was her name?" She asked as she snuggled a little closer, one of her legs hanging over Daya's waist. Maybe it seemed clingy, but she couldn't bring herself to care. With this sort of thing being so new, she never wanted to lose it.

Daya gently untangled the doll's hair as she leaned against the smaller girl. "I can't remember..." She whispered. "So many memories are all a blur."

Bosco frowned, cuddling into her even more. She knew it must be horrible to forget so much of your past. Especially when it seemed as if all the portraits and pictures of the other vampires had been destroyed. She still didn't know if that had been Daya's doing or not.

"...Can I ask you something?" She said, a finger tracing the stitched design on Daya's corset as the vampire nodded. "What happened to all of your family pictures? The faces are all...destroyed."

Daya stroked her fingers through the doll's hair, her expression giving nothing away, but Bosco could feel the pain that hid behind her eyes. "I disgraced my family name." She answered. "So my father figured why should I have the luxury of remembering who everyone was?"

Bosco shifted a little, her arms squeezing around her. "Your own father wanted you to forget everyone you knew...?"

Daya sighed, nodding her head a little and sitting the doll on the nightstand beside the bed. "Yeah, I guess so. All the faces were slashed on every picture. Except the one with my sisters. Maddy saved that one before he could ruin their faces. But they've been...fading as time goes on."

Her voice got quieter the more she spoke. Bosco laid her head against her shoulder. "I'm sorry..."

Daya looked over to towards the window where the two crows nested with the black widow spider in her web in the corner. "They don't know it, but I can't remember what they used to look like before all of this..." She continued. "And Maddy was my best friend. I can't even remember her face."

Bosco followed her gaze. "They were vampires too?"

Daya nodded a little. "A very long time ago. They had to suffer too when they stood up for me and my choice. Camden was the daughter of my mother's friend who lived in your town at the time. Angie was the daughter of my father's advisor, and Maddy was the daughter of one of the seamstresses who made mine and my sister's outfits. I remember that much. But all the faces are just blurs now. I wonder if they've forgotten their own..."

Bosco couldn't help but look at the moon that was shining brightly out the window, the clouds parting just enough for it. "If your curse is broken, will that help them too?"

"I'd hope so." Daya said, one of her hands resting on the smaller girl's waist. "I'm not asking you to-"

"I know. I know you aren't asking me to break it." Bosco said, the gentle touch of her hand keeping her present and in the moment. "But what if I want to?"

Daya was quiet for a moment. "Then I'd spend eternity repaying you." She answered in a whisper, leaning closer to press a soft kiss to Bosco's neck.

Bosco let one of her hands wander up into Daya's hair, combing through the silky locks. She knew that when she went through with it, it was going to hurt. She'd be leaving the person she was now behind to become what Daya was. But she had never been able to find satisfaction in her life before now. That only ever came from her daydreams.

And this wasn't a daydream. This was very real and Bosco couldn't lose it. Or watch this girl she had come to love wither away in this place all alone. There hadn't been anyone in her life who made her feel the way Daya does. The vampire was her dream come true.