As It Happens (Accidentally In Luck #2)

Prologue - Bad, Bad Sandman

The dark.

The burning.

The relief.

The gunshot.

The pain.

She saw it all even as she woke up, the images still playing through her head as she sat bolt upright in bed. Just as she had every night for the last several weeks.

The images still played in her mind as though it had just happened. The beating, then the water; being saved, and then the blood. So much blood.

The dreams may have embellished the memories, but awake she could remember the events as they'd happened perfectly.

She breathed heavily, working on calming herself down as her boyfriend, who had woken up too, rubbed her back murmuring soft words to her.

Why, she wondered, after all these months did the dreams start now? 

Everything in the dream had happened last September and the dreams had only started three weeks ago, mid May. She had this slight nagging feeling that there was something she'd forgotten about that night. Something that mattered, but she couldn't put her still groggy mind on it.

She shook off her boyfriend gently and slid from the bed, heading for the couch in the living room.

Pacing the floor around the furniture, she cleared her head of sleep and once more replayed the entire night in her head. Starting from the Dome to the car ride back home, she relived every single moment.

And then it hit her.

She knew what she had forgotten.

She slouched onto the couch and held her head in her hands. She suddenly wished she could have stayed in ignorance of her own memory.

After a while, she returned to bed and cuddled into her boyfriend, hugging and curling into him and reveling in the warmth and safety she found there. She knew that tomorrow, she'd have to make that overdue call, but tonight, she was just going to enjoy everything about where she was.

The only certainty she could count on was how much she loved the man beside her and that was perfectly alright with her.