To Luna and Back

Two

"CRESS! Wake up, Cress."

My eyes flutter open. I gasp for another lungful of air.

"Come on, Cress." It's Thorne, and he's shaking me.

"Thorne?"

He takes his hands off of me.

"Stars," he says, "you were screaming. Are you okay? Do I need to call Cinder?"

"I, uh, no. I'm fine. I guess I just had a nightmare. I'm sorry."

Thorne sighs, and seems to relax.

We sit in silence for a while before he speaks up again.

"Uh, do you want to talk about it?" Thorne pauses. "I mean, you don't have to. I thought, I don't know, maybe you would- maybe you'd like to just say what the nightmare was about." He's tripping over his words, one barely finished as he spits out another. "Uh, okay, well, I'll just go."

He stands up quickly, fumbling for his cane, and nearly falls. When he finally grabs hold of his balance, he starts toward the door.

"Carswell," I say, his feet freeze. "We were in the satellite. Sybil used her glamour to look like you, but instead of blue eyes, like yours, they were black. I knew then that it wasn't you. She was going to take me back to Luna."

He turns his head towards me, his eyes are still distant, but his mouth is pulled into a tight line of concern.

"I guess no glamour could pull off my dreamy eyes, huh?"

In an instant, his look of concern is blown off his face. Thorne is all charisma again.

"Goodnight, Cress." He walks out of my small room, leaving me breathless.