Nada's Escape

42- First.

At first I'm just scared. I'm staring down, avoiding everyone, trying to pull my thoughts together. It doesn't matter... I look up from concrete floor slowly. Underneath my lashes I'm startled to find him so close and flinch compulsively. Then my scared eyes meet his flecked hazel ones and I'm not so afraid anymore.

Somewhere inside I know this is a dream, but that sensation of knowledge is fleeting. Instead I am sucked into my younger body, feeling every bit of that cloying terror from my first days in Seven. The dream turns kind though and I welcome the change, the remembrance somehow untainted by the years of strife separating us.

Although we are in the middle of the big hall, with most of Seven's residents staring at us unabashed I can't look away. I'm caught in a bubble with him; so close that our noses are almost touching. His eyes are a multiplex of colour; green, blue, green, brown, yellow each in tiny flecks. They are kind and sparkle with youth.

I feel a conduit blossom between us, a silvery connection opening to let a flood of light into my darkest corners. Tastes and smells and sounds roll over me in a wave. Emotions, I realise, a conversation beyond words. I feel myself babble that awful collection of fears and anxiety into the world between us. They muddy the silvery connection a moment, so great is my malaise.

But he listens. And understands every though that passes me by. The darkness fades to leave only the feeling of a warm embrace. Comforting, even without a touch from him. I'm still lost, drinking in his face like an elixir of life.

We've all heard talk about kindred spirits but untiI this tiny, beautiful moment I'd never understood. We are entirely in sync, every breath seen and heard and felt. My soul is weeping, and somehow he knows how to share his with mine so I can heal.

We stay there like that for a while, I don't know how long. There in the middle of the hall. But I don't notice the noise or the heavy stares. It's just me and him in our bubble. Untouchable.

He smiles a bit seeming to say there, that's better. All I manage is a funny twitch of my lips; but at least that's something. And I feel, at long last, something reawaken from under the cold.

After a beautiful eternity, he speaks, whisper-soft, "I'm Finley." I barely hear the sound of the words but they inexplicably warm me to the core.

"Nada," I mouth back, my eyes still locked unerringly to his. He smiles a little brighter.

A dirty hand followed by a screen of dull brown hair breaks that wondrous connection with a hurtful snap. It's like stretching a rubber band and feeling all of that potential energy when one end slips and hits your hand with a harsh slap. And it stings so that a little gasp escapes my lips.

"And the freaky trance is broken!" Says the owner of the hand like the ringmaster of her circus. Her large, almost black eyes are right before my own, invading that special bubble of warmth.

She continues in a tone that suggests she thinks herself a grand hero, "He was brain washing you, you know. But don't worry," She gives me a double pat on the check and turns to face her rather large audience. "Jayne is here to save you from them."

With a flick of her head she makes it quite clear that Finley and the other newcomers are the ghastly them. Movement fills the room as the fighters start an all-out brawl to get at Finley. A chant starts up, "Save you, save you, save you!" I am more terrified than before.

"We'll talk later," he says at my ear and but I'm too afraid of the ruckus in front of me to risk taking my eyes from it.

The dream unravels around me then, past and present mixing like dye dropped in water. I'm speaking to myself, proclaiming my truth to the world like a preacher.

When Finley came back into Seven I hadn't been so happy to see him anymore. Jayne had been harsh but she taught me a few things. Like the fact that Finley was part of the group that took me and was imprisoning me. That everything I'd felt with Finley had been enthralment.