Nightmares

Writers: Yvonne
Date Posted: 29th October 2005

Characters: Thalia
Description: Thalia has a nightmare
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 8, day 3 of Turn 3

Thalia woke up with a start with her heart in her mouth and the bed sheets twisted around her legs. The dark pressed ominously around her as she searched the shadows for the man who lurked there. She could hear him, almost smell his breath on her cheek... nearly sobbing with fright she lunged for the bedside table and the matches. The matchbox fell from nerveless fingers with a clatter as loud as thunder on the carpeted floor, and she dove after them sure that she felt the air behind her eddy as her unseen assailant lunged after her. The sheets held her back and she half-hung off the bed, scrabbling in the dark for the matchbox, which had rolled under the bed and was almost out of reach. She was gasping for air by the time that she was able to pry the matchbox open, find a match, and strike it against the box without breaking it - sure that any moment a knife would appear out of the dark to plunge between her shoulder blades.

The homely little light did little to cut through the darkness as Thalia twisted around to see the face of her attacker. There was no one there. The match went out and she nearly cried out in terror, dropping it on the bed sheets in her hurry to light a second. The flame pushed back the shadows once more and she could see nothing out of the ordinary. The dresser was in its place, her late husband's desk was pushed up against the wall, and her own face was reflected back at her in the mirror, looking pale and frightened and pinched.
She was alone in the room. **I must have been dreaming.**

Her hands shook as she lit the candle by her bed - Aswic's bed - and the room slowly came into focus. It was empty, but full of leaping shadows that caused her heart to skip a beat. **Just a dream,** she told herself sternly, and began to untangle herself from the blankets, **It was just a dream.**

And what a horrible one. In it, Verora and a man whose face she couldn't quite see - Meijah - chased her down twisting stone corridors. Verora had a knife. Meijah didn't need one for what he wanted to do with her. Thalia shivered and found her robe where she'd carelessly dropped it the night before. It's weight was comfortable, and comforting, and she tucked it around her before picking up the candle and creeping around the room, peering into corners and behind furniture for people she knew were not there.
**Aslian...!** Her heart began to beat so wildly that she thought it might fly out from her chest, but Thalia stopped with her hand on the door knob, suddenly deathly afraid to cross the hall. **I wish Penryn was awake,** she thought, irrationally certain that if he was around she'd be safe. The Lady held her breath but couldn't hear anything from the hall, so she took her life into her hands and opened the door. Silence lay thick on the other side. Her hand shook as she held the candle out before her, but the weak light revealed nothing out of the ordinary. She darted across the hall and into her baby's nursery as quickly as a flit and closed - and locked - the door behind her. The wetnurse slept in the corner, and the two cradles lay quiet. Thalia rushed to Aslian's and bent over to see him sleeping peacefully, one little hand curled into a fist to fight off the night. She smiled in relief and ran a gentle finger across his soft cheek. He was fine.
But she still couldn't shake the crawling, itching feeling that something was _wrong_, that someone was watching her from the shadows...

"My Lady?" Thalia jumped and the candle went out. There was a rustling from the far corner and a glow was partially opened - just enough light to see by and not enough to wake the babies. The wetnurse was sitting upright in bed and Thalia had to stifle nervous laughter. She was shaking. "Is everything all right?"

"Just fine. I just- I wanted to see Aslian," Thalia said, feeling foolish.

The wetnurse smiled. "He's fine, Lady Thalia. I fed him not candlemark ago, and he'll sleep for a while longer yet. You should go back to bed."

"I- yes. Yes." The light from the glow was comforting, and speaking with another person helped to dispel some of the nightmare that clung to her like spinners web. Thalia tried to quell her shaking. "I'm sorry to have woken you."

"It's all right. You're doing what mothers do best - worry." The wetnurse smiled again. "I'll turn out the glow once you've gone."

"Thank you. Goodnight." Thalia headed for the door and didn't hear the wetnurse's answer. She stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind herself, leaving her alone in the dark. She'd left the candle in Aslian's nursery. The nightmare crept close again and she ran back into her apartment, leapt onto her bed and pulled the covers up over her head. She lay awake for the rest of the night, certain that she could hear the rustle of Verora's skirts and the slightly hoarse in-out of Meijah's breathing.

Last updated on the October 29th 2005

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Nightmares