In My Dreams

Love story's funeral

"How did you both...meet?" Rok asked softly.

Clara hiked up her legs on the futon and wrapped her arms around them. She leant her head on her knees, staring into the flames dancing in the fireplace. It gave her comfort that something as mundane as fire gave her more familiarity than this whole world. Ironic, considering her new powers would have earned her just that in the real world in a different time. She shook her head. She was distracting herself. 

She looked up at Rok for the first time. He sat with his hands folded, leaning his elbows on his knees in the large cushiony armchair. She couldn't read his expression with those shining white tusks, thick eyebrows, and unmarred green skin. His warm yellow eyes glowed as bright as the fire, like the petals of a sunflower. She no longer felt the fear she had when they had first met in the woods. She wasn't afraid those fangs were sharpened to grind her bones or his large hands would wring her neck. Instead, she imagined his coarse hands tending to his vegetable garden, brewing tea over the fire, or carving her beautiful wand. She swallowed a lump in her throat. 

"Andy...my husband's name is Andy," she tried to pull herself together. She looked away from his deep gaze and returned to the fireplace. "We met when we were very young. He was an exchange student from some boarding school in England. He wasn't British, but his parents thought it would keep him out of trouble and prepare him for law school. They let him spend one summer in America after he begged to be with normal kids. I had been working a summer job at a coffee shop. Took me forever to realize he wasn't coming every day for the frozen lattes. We got really close then started dating. Then, he got his parents to enter him in my high school if he worked part-time at his dad's firm. And...that was it. We got married as soon as we graduated."

"Sounds like a charming love story," Rok said. "I am sure he still loves you. You are his wife."

"That love feels dead," she shot back. She turned away from the fire, biting her lip. "We went to different universities. I became a psychologist. He became a lawyer. We both had to work long hours, even on the weekends. We didn't have the time to be as carefree as who we used to be, when we were young. Then, things started to...shift. He wasn't texting me about his day anymore. He started to hide things, keeping information about his life to himself. He wasn't answering my calls anymore unless it was for something he wanted. He could be cheating on me, and I'd never know. He's hardly ever around. It's like we...drifted apart. Like we don't know who we are together anymore."

"Love is...like a garden. It must be fed sunshine and watered every day in order to grow and thrive," Rok said softly. 

"What do you know about love?" Clara wrinkled her nose, distastefully. She shot up from the futon, her hands balled in fists. "I should have never said anything. I don't know what's wrong with me. This whole place—it's driving me crazy." She stormed away from the futon. "I don't belong here! I just want to go home!" she groaned, exasperated. 

"My curse."

Clara stopped and turned, confused. "What?" she snapped. 

"My curse. Its cure requires love."

"What, like true love's kiss? Like the fairy tales?" she barked out an angry laugh. She crossed her arms. "Why are you telling me this? You think this will suddenly make us even after I spilled my guts to you?"

"Because I want you to know that you're not the only one struggling with love. And I don't expect any of it from you. For as long as you are my...friend, you will know that I will never request something of you. I need nothing from you. In that, I hope you find comfort." Rok started to growl. He was beyond embarrassed and he hated that feeling. He didn't know how to comfort her. He couldn't solve her problems. He had no way of making her feel any less hostile. But he hoped that at least he could make her feel like she was safe. All of this felt unnatural to him, like wearing the wrong skin...like when he had first turned. Vulnerable. 

Clara didn't know how to respond to that. Her head was filled with so many emotions that she couldn't process it all. Fearful of this new world, angry at her situation, guilty that she partly didn't want to go home to her old life, sad because she didn't know who she was outside of her career, but above all, heartsick for Andy. There was also something more, something twisting inside of her, deep in her heart. Something fresh and new, like a bud. She didn't know what it was, but it scared her.

An earth-shaking roar shattered her thoughts. Her body shook as it neared with a long sorrowful howl. "R—R—Rok!" she wailed, covering her ears. He suddenly appeared beside her and wrapped her up like a shield before the stone brick wall by the office desk blasted open. Glass bottles exploded and flew everywhere before a large pure white furry claw reached in and smashed the desk into smithereens. Clara screamed. 

She closed her eyes against the flying shards. Then, she felt a pull. Her eyes shot open. Rok scrambled for her as she was pulled away by some invisible force. She reached out desperately. Their fingers touched as Rok held strong to the part of the busted wall and reached out for her. He roared with anguish as she fell two stories.