Spoilers for EP7. This takes place in 1982, to be precise.
I own nothing.
She lays herself down to sleep and dreams of him. Shannon dreams of Battler. She's done that, off and on, for the last two years, since he made his promise to her, of coming back for her and taking her away from all of this, since he left his family, and she hasn't seen him.
But tonight, Shannon doesn't dream of Battler as she remembers him. She doesn't dream of the sweet, boisterous boy who made her such wonderful promises, what seems like an eternity ago. She dreams of him as George and Jessica have described him, a boy who has left the nest, and completely forgotten about his old life.
Shannon sees him on the street, and cries out to him, but he stares right through her, and doesn't hear her at all.
Battler has forgotten her. He has moved on, and she can no longer be a part of his life, because he shed the parts of his life with her in it like a snake shedding skin, a bird shedding old, rotten feathers.
She awakes with tears on her face and her throat sore with weeping. She stumbles to the mirror she hates so much, and stares into it, seeing naught but a reflection of her desolate face as a thousand warring thoughts pass through her head.
This waiting is a trial… A test of your devotion to him.
Was there every anything to start with?
God is testing you.
I talk about this promise that we made, but was there really any promise at all? Did he ever make a promise to me? Or did I just make something out of nothing? A bud of love, blooming on account of a sham?
Shannon hears the words of her faithless heart, her faithless mind, and shoves them back down into the abyss, fearing that this display of faithlessness before God will only make the time of waiting stretch on and outwards. She tells herself that of course Battler will come back for her, that all she has to do is grow her resolve and determination, and eventually he will come back.
But her dream seems so distant now, a small something like a pebble on the beach, drifting out of reach. Maybe it's just because she's just woken up from a terrible dream, but Shannon looks at her pitiful reflection, and the days seem so long ago. Like phantom memories of another life, cast in gold and silver, too sweet and valuable to last.