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SEVENDREAMING
If there's anything Josette misses about being human, it's dreaming. She doesn't sleep anymore, which means no dreams. That's the only thing she really misses. Well, and Alice, but she has Alice now. In a way. When Jo became a vampire, the first thing she fell in love with was freedom. She had spent the last half-decade of her human life pent up in an asylum, so being able to roam the world at will was exhilarating. Even now, she loved to explore. She got home from school, leaving Margot to do her school work where her other sisters were roaming around the house, but she took the opportunity to head out into their backyard -- which was pretty much just the entire forest. Her aged converse got even dirtier as she trudged through autumn leaves covering muddy earth beneath. The air was cold, but it wasn't like she felt it. Goosebumps no longer rose on her skin nor did her nose redden and run. She was as frozen as the earth around her. She drew in a deep, useless breath, feeling nothing in and nothing out. Frozen in time or just a corpse, Jo didn't have an answer. A hand braced on icy bark as she walked down a hill and into the trees. There was no destination in mind, she just liked the idea of being completely cut off from the world around her. As the trees closed behind her, she felt safe.
Sometimes, when she wanted to feel human again, she would lay down and close her eyes as if she were going to sleep. Her powers would warm her as if she were trying to set her own insides alight. That was when she would dream. Her mind would sort through the memories of the last eighty or so years, picking out things she loved, bringing a warmth to her heart she didn't have to manufacture with flame.
Time didn't feel like it was passing at all, just as still as her, but eventually, the trees opened up in a small clearing. It was a meadow, seemingly untouched by the cold. Breeze sifted through the overgrown grass and flowers as the flora brushed her jean-clad calves. Josette settled, standing in the middle as her eyes surveyed the area around her. Through the trees, she sees a doe walking alongside her fawn, unbothered by Jo's presence. Either that or they simply haven't noticed her. She stays still as they pass, content to let them go about their day. After all, she is invading their home, who is she to interrupt them?
Once they pass, she moves to lay down in the tall grass, letting it tickle her ears and exposed forearms, a soft smile on her face as her back meets the earth. Looking up at the sun against a white sky, she closes her eyes. Sunlight seeps through her eyelids as Josette let her own hand cup her cheek, warmth seeping from her fingertips.
"Do you think we'll ever get out of her?" Mary asks one day. "I don't think they're ever going to let me go. They'd let you go, though."
"Why do you say that?" Josette's tone is curious as she absentmindedly picks at the torn skin from where she bites her fingertips.
