"Gemma," a voice whispered through the darkness.
"Gemma," a voice so familiar called but it was one that hadn't been heard in so long, too long.
"Gemma," and through the shadows he came, as handsome as he had been the first, and last, time they had entered the Realms together. His dark curls danced over his tanned brow and his eyes were full of pain. Oh God, she wondered, how could he be here? This was the first time she had even thought God's name in years; she had stopped believing the day he had been taken away from her.
"Gemma," again his voice was wrought with pain and it brought tears to her eyes, "save me."
But she couldn't save him, he was a part of the Winterlands now and had been for so long, but it still broke her heart.
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She woke with hot tears streaming down her face, but it wasn't the tears that had awoken her. It was a little body that had climbed into bed next to her.
"Mommy, why are you so sad?" The sweet boy child asked, and she smiled. His eyes were big and green and his hair was ash brown, so beautiful he was in her eyes and he was one of the few things she still smiled about.
"Yes, Emma, darling, why are you so upset?" A man asked from the doorway, her husband.
Quickly she wiped away her tears and gave a weak smile, "Nothing dears, I just had a very upsetting dream is all."
"Of course, well, get some rest," her husband nodded and left to his study. She didn't know why she had ever married that man, but she had been so lonely when she had come to the university and he had been there for her. So, after her graduation they had married and he had been a fine husband, nothing like her true love would have been she was sure, until her son was born. He never came to bed and even now, six years later, he was still hiding from her. She sighed and looked at her son.
"Honey, would you like to hear a story before you to bed?" She asked already knowing the answer.
The little boy popped up right on the bed and smiled eagerly, his curls, so like his name sakes, plopped into his smiling eyes. "Oh yes, please Mommy! Is it going to be about Ann or Felicity?"
She smiled again; she must have been setting a record that night, as she thought of how he never knew that those girls were real and those stories were also. How she missed those two. She looked down at him and shook her head slowly, "No, not tonight."
The boy pouted, "Then what story will you tell me?"
"Tonight I'm going to tell you a story about a girl named Gemma," her son cut her off.
"Do you mean the one that took Ann and Felicity into the Realms?" The boy asked bobbing up and down excitedly.
"Yes the very same one, now can I tell my story Kartick?" She asked, saying her son's name which was a rare event because it brought back so many memories.
"Of course Mommy, I'll be quite," little Kartick told her covering his mouth with his small hands.
"Gemma's story starts on a hot day in Bombay, you see it was her sixteenth birthday and she and her mother were walking to an old friend's house," and so she began to tell her son her life story.
AN: How did you like it? Please review and tell me. Remember, flames are always welcomed.