The woman was smiling. Malia didn't know what she was so happy about but she looked almost blissful as she turned her head just for a moment to smile at the man sitting in the passenger seat. He smiled back at her and Malia glanced down, noticing for the first time that their hands were entwined on the console between them. The man gave the woman's hand a squeeze as if to let her know that everything was okay. It gave Malia a light happy feeling in her heart. Then the woman looked up and her gaze met Malia's in the rearview mirror. There was so much love and affection in that gaze, like a mother looking at her daughter and seeing the whole world laid out before her. And then the woman tensed and their hands broke apart as she grasped the wheel. There was a shriek and a scream. Malia thought it could have been her. The man was bracing himself, his hand reaching back for Malia as if to hold her and protect her from whatever came next. She saw the terror reflected in his sky blue eyes....and then darkness. She sprang up in bed with a huge gasp for air, her body drenched in cold sweat as she pulled the covers closer around her. Her pillow was in her mouth as if to keep her from screaming out loud but she'd already ripped a hole in it, just like the ten before it. She'd been replacing them as she could so Frost wouldn't notice. She didn't want to trouble him with the nightmares. They were getting more and move vivid every night, it seemed. Every time she slipped into that dream, a new detail would make itself known. The man's eyes, the woman's smile, their hands clasped between them. Even the woman's scream was getting more familiar, like she would recognize that voice if she ever heard it again. Not to say that she expected to. Malia figured the man and woman from that dream were dead. It had to have been a car accident...but how did she survive? Was it because she was a were? Did she just heal from her wounds? Every clue seems to point to the man and the woman being her parents but if so, shouldn't they have been weres too? Why didn't they heal? Each time she woke from the dream, she was rattled with more and more questions and seemingly no answers. The frustration was killing her. She leapt out of bed with a growl and grabbed some clothes, throwing them on as she took off down the stairs and out the house. It was still dark outside but she could feel the cool chill of morning coming. She found herself walking into the richer part of town. Not that Frost was poor by any means, but he certainly didn't have the indoor swimming pools and acreage of some of the places out this way. She didn't have a destination in mind so she just kept walking, not caring who saw her. She had no control over the dreams or the fact that she couldn't remember who she was, not really. She didn't know her real name, the name given to her by her parents. She didn't know their names. She wanted to know more about herself but she didn't know where to begin. Soon enough she found herself at a playground. Of course there was no one else around but the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. Sighing, she walked onto the sand and plopped down on the swingset, her legs rocking slowly back and forth as she got lost in her thoughts again. Maybe she'd go hunt something. That always made her feel better, at least for a little while. |