Dream [h.s.]

six

Katerina closed her eyes as her feet swung forward and back again, pushing her higher and keeping her momentum at the steady pace she liked it at. The metal chain's that held the swing up were cold, but she liked the feeling of the cold as it seeped into her fingers and stung her cheeks the longer she held on and continued to swing.

Everything was peaceful here, it always was, even when she was a child. Perhaps that was why her dreams led her here; her life was no longer as peacful as it was before and her mind was in shambles trying to figure out just what it was with this mystery man and why he was affecting so much of her life without even trying.

Almost as if in answer to her thoughts, she felt his presence enter her dream and sighed lightly.

"Hello, Harry."

Her voice carried in the wind and sounded sweet and gentle in both her own ears and in his.

His name was foreign to her tongue but rolled off effortlessly and in an almost familiar manner.

Harry kept his distance and remained out of her sight. Katerina didn't bother to turn her head and look for him because it was pointless considering his almost standoffish behavior.

It surprised her when he took a seat on the swing next to her and spoke her name softly, "Katerina."

Silence was all that passed between them for minutes upon minutes, but it wasn't a heavy and smothering silence, it was more like a light and comfortable one even though the two knew each other well enough to still be considered strangers.

A breeze swept through and sent the dead and rich coloured leaves in a frenzy and Katerina finally decided to ask the question she's been wanting to ask him since she learned his name in a dream a week ago, "Who's Charlotte?"

He didn't answer at first, his thoughts busy and the beautiful scenery captivating his senses, but when he did it certainly wasn't what she had expected.

Harry let out a low and quiet breath and let his fingers tighten around the cold metal as his eyes closed and his memories played behind his eyelids.

He hadn't talked about Charlotte with anyone since it happened, and he didn't know why he was going to tell her, but he did it anyway.

"She was my fiancè. My first love actually."

A sad smile graced his lips and Katerina frowned as he continued, "I...something terrible happened to me and we fought. Charlotte left me, but I wasn't willing to just give up on us and I fought to keep her love."

The smile that he wore now was genuine and Katerina watched him curiously.

A puff of air left his nose in one of those half-hearted laughs, his pink heart-shaped lips pushed out slightly before he continued, "It wasn't a very long or a very hard battle and she took me back in the blink of an eye. But then...then everything was out of control and she was there in my arms, dying, and I couldn't stop it. God, I couldn't stop it.

And then she was gone. She was gone and I couldn't bring her back. I tried for hours but it just didn't work, it didn't matter how much I loved her or how much I needed her, she was gone and this time I couldn't get her back.

I think about it every day. I know she won't ever forgive me again because of what happened, but I can't let it go. I can't just let her go."

Katerina didn't know what to say and he was looking at her with saddened and hopeful eyes, like she held all the answers that he had been longing to find for all this time.

She focused on the breaths that she took, how her lungs expanded and then contracted with each inhale and exhale, and let her thoughts clear.

Harry watched her as intently and as curiously as she had just watched him as he rambled on about something that happened a hundred or so years before. His green eyes searched hers for answers but came up blank.