I am standing on a hill. The sun is setting, rays of liquid light touching the grass and turning the green blades to gold. A tree sits on the top of the hill, a cherry tree bursting with blossoms. I reach up and pluck one, letting it sit in my hands.
I am wearing a beautiful dress. It is a deep, azure blue, like the sky. The bodice is tight, a close-fitting top littered with tiny diamonds, like a deep blue sky covered in stars. From where it tightens around my waist, it fans out in a soft, puffy curtain of deep blue fabric that comes to the ground, but just barely. I have a pendant on a silver chain, an opalescent pearl that glows from within with a soft, milky light, like a full moon. It's backed on silver that's carved with intricate designs, like a labyrinth.
The full moon rises, and my pendant glows even more underneath the moonlight. Breezes rustle and I shiver, because in addition to being sleeveless I am also barefoot.
"Hannah," someone whispers. I turn, but there is no one.
"Who's there?" I call, because the voice sounds familiar, and yet foreign.
"Hannah," the voice calls again, softly. I begin to think that I am hearing things, that I am simply paranoid. And then I see him.
"Hannah," Justin says, stepping out of the shadows of the tree. "Have you really forgotten me so fast?"
He is wearing deep black dress pants and a black suit jacket, and his shirt is the same deep blue as my dress. His tie is a soft white, like my pearl, and covered with little silver flecks that seem to shift and swirl, forming constellations, galaxies, the cosmos. He has something in his hands, but I cannot see what it is.
"I .... No. Of course not. H-how could I ever possibly forget you?" I whisper, stretching a hand out. Justin reaches his hand out as well and takes mine. Then he offers me what he had been holding in his other hand, hidden.
It is a rose, but not just any rose. It is a thornless rose, a beautiful rose. A blue rose. The petals are tipped with a soft, edgy pinkish-orange color, like a sunset, that fades gradually in to the deepest of blues in the center of the rose.
"I call it a sunset rose," he says, tucking the flower into my hair behind my ear. "A hybrid flower I created especially for you. Each flower, like each sunset, is unique. And they are your flower."
Another breeze blows by and I shiver. Justin's face melts into concern. "Here," he says, and he shrugs off his jacket, handing it to me. Instead of helping me put it on, he drapes it around my shoulders. "Warmer now?"
"Much," I smile. He brushes a stray curl out of my face, and then it fully hits me.
Justin is here. He's not a Miniature, he's not under the control of some evil witch, he's here and he's like me and he's mine.
"You're .... bigger," is all I can muster as it registers in my brain.
"Of course," he replies. "This is your place, remember? Anything you desire can be so."
I grin and wrap my arms around his neck. "Then ... Does that mean ... "
Justin brushes the joyful tears away from my face with the pads of his thumbs. "Don't cry, Princess. I promise, I"m never gonna give you up, I'm never gonna let you go. Mine, forever and ever, my Princess Hannah."
He leans in and brushes his lips against mine. Electricity sparks through the air and he pulls away quickly. I lean back in and press my mouth to his again. The kiss is sweet, chaste, everything you would expect in a first kiss. Justin pulls away again, grinning and slightly breatheless. "That was some kiss, Princess."
"I hope so, it was my first," I answer truthfully. Justin grins.
"It was an excellent kiss, first one or no. Now, I have a question for you. Would you like to dance?"
"Of course," I breathe, hooking my hands together with my arms still draped around his neck. He gently places his hands on my waist and he gently leans in for another kiss on my forehead.
"There's no music, though," I protest. "How can we dance?'
"Listen," he says. I listen, hearing crickets chirping, breezes blowing, leaves rustling. I can hear a bird singing, settling in for the night. The softer, gentler hoos of an owl float mournfully through the still air.
"Nautre will provide the music," Justin says, "if you provide the ears and heart to hear it with. Come on, Princess, dance with me."
We sway slowly back and forth before he takes a step forward, forcing me to take one backwards. Then he steps to the left, causing me to step to the right. Then he backs up, and I advance. Spinning slowly, we waltz our way around the hill, laughing like little kids underneath the light of the full moon. Finally, we collapse on the hill top, lying on our backs, hands linked.
Stars scatter across the sky, and I raise my pointer finger on my right hand (my left is entwined with Justin's) and trace the outline of the Big Dipper. Justin points out Orion and Pegasus. I find the W of stars that makes up Cassiopeia, the queen turned to stone.
A shooting star blazes across the sky, leaving a glowing streak. "Make a wish," Justin says, turning to look at me. Starlight is reflected in his eyes.
"I wish that we could stay here, like this, forever," I whisper.
"Awww, how sweet," someone says sarcastically. "Didn't anyone ever tell you, Hannah? If you tell your wish, it won't come true."
I turn, and freeze. Dr. Knight is standing there, wearing a black one-piece leather jumpsuit with a revolver in her hands. I spring to my feet instantly, Justin clambering up as well. Dr. Knight just laughs and pops open the magazine of the gun. One bullet sits in its case. One little lead arrow of death, waiting.
"I have one bullet in my gun," she says, popping the magazine back into place and releasing the safety catch. "That means that only one will die tonight." She aims the pistol, leveling it with my heart. "Goodbye, foolish girl, always medddling with my plans."
She squeezes the trigger. I can hear the bang as the gun goes off, but I feel no pain. I look down and gasp.
Justin is slumped on the ground at my feet with a gaping hole in his head. He took the bullet for me. And now he's dead.
I drop to the ground next to him, choking up, my eyes filling with tears. I brush my lips lightly against his still-warm ones, begging him to come back and kiss me back. But he stays still, unmoving. "I love you," I whisper.
Suddenly, the whole scene changes. The tree withers and dies. The whole scene turns gray, except for me, Justin, and Dr. Knight. My dress deteriorates into tattered shreds. The rose Justin put in my hair crumbles to dust. And Justin's body dissolves into silver light and evaporates. Dr. Knight's figure turns blood red. Her teeth as she laughs become razor-sharp, and her laugh high-pitched and cold. Her eyes turn to pupil-less pools of pitch black, and her hair becomes a nest of writhing snakes. Demon wings sprout from her shoulders. Her fingernails become claws. And from the pocket of her jumpsuit, she produces a single gold bullet.
She loads the gun again, pressing it to my forehead, still laughing. I take a deep breath as I hear the click of the safety lock being released.
"Goodbye, Hannah," Dr. Knight laughs in that cold, cruel voice. She squeezes the trigger.
I wake up, breathing heavily. And when I realize that it was all just a dream, at first I'm relieved, because it means Justin is stil alive. But then I realize that everything before that was a dream as well - our kiss, our dance, his love for me - and I break down into tears once again.
[A/N: Five comments from five different people for update! OH, and check out Into the Depths and Losing Hope, if you want. peace out. ~ Mollie xxxxxxx]
