GNELFS
Page 28
"Will they hurt us?" Gab shouted.
"We don't belong here. For a while they'll ignore us." He draped an arm around Gab's shoulder and led her down to the shore.
The boatman waited in front of the gondola. His ragged hand stretched slowly forward for Gabrielle's arm, and he helped her aboard.
The trip back across the gulf seemed to take an eternity, but gradually the agonizing cries from the shore faded. Gabrielle concentrated on comforting her daughter.
Heaven was crying, but she appeared relieved, and with each sob, more tension seemed to flow from her body. When they reached the far shore, Danube helped Gab from the boat, then hoisted Heaven into his arms.
"Was that real?" Gab asked. "Or some nightmare from that bastard's conjuring. Did we imagine it?"
"Is anything real?" Danube responded.
"Is the path to reality still open?" Gabrielle was still tense.
Danube nodded, then eased Heaven into Gab's arms where she seemed to want to be.
They walked a short distance, moving to the edge of the infinite darkness. Gab looked past the entrance they were about to take. Another path diverged, curling upward toward a blanket of light.
"You could go there now?"
Danube paused, his shoulders sagging with weariness. He turned his face toward the golden glow, and a gentle breeze seemed to emanate from it, sweeping back his hair and ruffling his beard.
"I could," he agreed. For a moment, he continued to look toward the bright blaze, but then he took Gabrielle's arm and guided her into the void.
Chapter 25
Gab's head felt heavy as it lay on her pillow, her eyes peering through the darkness at the small digital clock on her night stand. It had been a gift from Dave one Christmas, its face always too bright, glowing like a college-football scoreboard.
At one time, she had kept it turned face down so that the numerals didn't blaze into her consciousness if she inadvertently shifted her face in their direction in her sleep.
Now she watched them, watched the colon between hour and minutes blink with each passing second, watched the minutes click past.
12:45
12:46
12:47
. . .
1:25
. . .
2:31
. . .
2:45
She always knew what was coming, and did not really reed the clock. Watching it only occupied her thoughts as she waited. She never knew the exact moment, only that it was on its way. As that moment drew nearer, her heartbeat quickened. It was harder to draw breath, and nothing could quell her anticipation.
3:00
3:01
3:02
3:03
And Heaven screamed, the sound piercing the night. Gab always rushed up when she heard the sound, flipping back the covers and hurrying down the hall to her daughter's side.
Sitting on the bed’s edge, she held Heaven's hand and stroked her hair. She touched her shoulder, noticed the slope of her cheeks and the way the braces on her teeth made her lips protrude.
No matter how much she urged her daughter to relax, and no matter how much counseling they sought, the dreams always returned. And with them the fear.
Heaven could not stop dreaming about the Gnelfs. In sleep she was vulnerable to whatever her subconscious trotted out, and they both lived in fear that at some point the dreams would be enough to bring them back.