Hey everyone! Chapter three is here and it's a long one! I want to give a giant thanks to FeeTheImpossible. She has been a great beta and has helped me develop my ideas for this story. I'm not sure I would have continued if it wasn't for her. And I would highly recommend reading her work as well, she has an amazing talent!

Next chapter is going to have some Jack perspective, so there is always that to look forward to!

I will be upping the rating coming up soon for language and eventual violence and adult themes. Just a heads up.

Let me know what you guys think! - AmmyPie

As always: Rise of the Guardians does not belong to me!

Home for the Holidays – Chapter 3

As they sat down with hot chocolate and coffee in hand, Mark decided that they were going to watch the new superhero movie that his mom had picked up recently. Half way through, Andy brought out an old beat up board game box. As soon as Mark saw it he almost jumped out of his seat to help her set it up.

"We haven't played Sorry! in so long!" Mark said as he placed his pieces in his home base. Andy smiled and placed her pieces down, watching the twelve-year old's excitement over an old game they used to play when he was younger. They hadn't been playing the game for more than five minutes before Mark's head shot up towards the back door. His face split into a huge grin before he raced to the door. Andy watched him go, a questioning look on her face. However, she heard him shout 'Jack' before slamming the door open. Andy hid her disappointment. She was having fun with Mark and she didn't want to have to try and pretend to include his imaginary friend. A rush of cold air and Mark closed the door, talking animatedly to the space in front of him. He then quickly pulled his friend over to where he had been sitting previously.

"Aunt Andy, Jack's here!" he said excitedly, and Andy smiled.

"So I heard," Andy glanced at the board for a moment. "Is Jack going to want to play?" Mark was silent for a moment before he shook his head,

"No, he says he's just going to watch this round." Andy nodded more to herself before drawing a card and following the instructions. She motioned for Mark to go next, who then proceeded to make a huge show for his friend. A few more rounds were played through, and Andy noticed Mark acting oddly. He seemed to be watching the game board intently. Almost like he was listening to his friend during his turns, nodding slightly every so often. It dawned on Andy exactly what he thought he was doing.

"Hey! Are you trying to cheat?" She asked with a playful glare. Mark's head jerked from side to side, but his guilty look betrayed him. Andy faked a huff and crossed her arms while turning her head away. "Betrayed by my favorite nephew, I see how it is." She peeked at Mark for a moment, and saw him smiling as he chuckled quietly.

"Jack said we were taking too long. He's getting bored."

"Well, if I do recall, he said he wasn't going to play this round." Andy said as she got up off of the floor and stretched out her legs. She picked up her coffee mug and held her hand out for Mark's hot chocolate mug. He gave it to her and turned in his spot on the couch to watch her go to the sink and rinse them out before putting them in the dishwasher.

"He said he didn't think we would be so boring." Andy rolled her eyes as she turned to face her nephew.

"And what does he think would be fun, huh?" Mark stayed silent for a moment, watching the ground.

"Yeah! Skating sounds like so much fun! Can we go Aunt Andy? Jack says he knows a great place to go ice skating at!" When Mark looked to his aunt, he was surprised to see that she was actually already excited about the prospect of going ice skating.

"I haven't been able to go ice skating in years." Andy said as she dried her hands off. "Where did Jack have in mind?"

Mark had told her about the old pond that had been used by locals for skating, and Andy knew it well. She and Simon would go there often as children. After grabbing his pair of skates, and giving Andy a pair of his mom's skates, the two put on their coats and started the trek to the pond. On the way there, Mark began to talk about the pond, about some of the things he was most excited to try.

"And Jack says there are cool places to go sledding there, and that the ice skating is pretty great! Do you know where we're going, Aunt Andy?" He looked at her expectantly. Andy nodded,

"It's been a long time since I've been there though." She said, slightly out of breath from climbing the uphill path in the woods.

"Well, when we get to the part of the path that splits into three, we need to take the one on the right." Mark said as they reached the top of the hill. From this spot, they could easily see the upcoming split in the path. Andy was glad that Mark knew the way, or at least wasn't lost yet. Like she had said, she hadn't been to the pond since she was very young. Mark continued to chat about the pond and about his friends, but Andy became lost in her own thoughts for a moment.

She knew exactly which pond Mark had meant, and she remembered being completely scared of it as a child. It hadn't always been that way – in fact she had loads of great memories at the water spot. The pond had a sort of sordid past; town legend said that the town's founder had a young boy that had drowned there when the area was first settled. However, locals continued to use the watering hole, regardless of what urban legend said. She, too, used the pond. During the summer she would go swimming there and during the winter she would skate. Simon had always been the one that would take her, and for the most part, he was the only one with her. Yet there was one day that she remembered fairly clearly. It had been about twelve years back, during the summer before her ninth birthday. The pond, which wasn't a regulated area, didn't have many people there that day. A young family had been playing in the shallow area of the water. The pond had a pretty substantial drop off about ten to fifteen feet in, depending on where you were. It was no small drop either, the shallows were four feet at their deepest, but the drop went down at least another twelve. It had been a hot, even for Pennsylvania, despite being later in the afternoon and Simon had brought two of his friends with him that day. Andy had never been the strongest swimmer so she had always stuck to the shallows, but her brother and his friends were swimming in the deeper parts of the pond. The water of the pond was murky, and Andy could still remember the feeling of the shallow water lilies brushing her legs as she waded deeper in. Smaller fish would hide in those lilies, and she took a moment to watch as they swam close to the surface but always just out of reach of the young girl. She could hear her brother and his friends yelling and splashing in the deeper end, each trying to see how far they could swim on a single breath or who could dive deeper. Andy had no fear of going out towards the drop off, but she had always been careful about getting too close. She and her brother were well aware of where the drop off was; they had been there plenty of times and had the lines of the ledge almost memorized. As she walked towards the edge she could feel the pond floor becoming more and more blanketed with vegetation. Shouting had caught her attention, and she looked up to see her brother's friends calling to her. Come into the deep end, they told her. She refused and continued to wade around by herself. She preferred it when it was just her and her brother. She ignored them, perfectly content to imagine that she was a mermaid that made friends with the fish as she swam slowly through the shallows. Andy could still hear the boys mocking her in the deep, but she focused on the story she was playing through in her head. She was a mermaid girl with a beautiful orange fin that would go on adventures with her best fish friends to solve the riddle of the king's missing scepter – suddenly she felt arms grab around her waist and hoist her into the air. She yelped in surprise, struggling against the strength of her brother's friend, Roger.

"It's not fun in the shallows," he said with laughter in his voice, Andy could remember his words clearly. In the deep end, she could see her brother laughing but slowly swimming towards them, telling Roger to put her down. It wasn't funny. Roger rolled his eyes and laughed as he came to the edge of the ledge. The journey there had taken only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity to young Andy. She resisted, kicked and screamed, begging him to put her down. Looking back, she couldn't make out what he was saying to her brother, but Simon's other friend had joined in on the game. The other boy stood on the ledge as well and quickly grabbed her feet. In one quick motion Andy felt herself being flung into the air. She didn't weigh much as an eight-year-old, and the older teenage boys were able to toss her far with relative ease.

Andy remembered colliding with the water, back first. The warm, murky water filled her nose and mouth as she scrunched her eyes closed and tried to franticly swim up to the surface. She felt her hand breach the water and a surge of hope fill her as she kicked her feet to get a breath of air. Legs flailing, she was able to sputter up the water she swallowed and gulp one breath in before she sank back under the water. Her legs had begun to feel heavy and she found it harder to keep kicking them. Her finger tips could no longer reach the surface and she instinctively gasped in fear, water filling her mouth and lungs. In her panic, Andy opened her eyes to see the sun's rays barely filtering through the top of the water. Her lungs burned from lack of oxygen and pond water, and she felt much too tired to continue trying to reach the surface. As if against her will, her arms and legs slowed, her thoughts becoming fuzzy. Looking back up to the surface, she could barely see a dark shadow crossing over her. Eyes closing, she felt someone grasp her arm and drag her through the water. It was at this point that Andy's memory stopped. From what she could gather from the stories of her brother and his friends, the young mother that had been playing with her family in the shallows had been a nurse as well as one hell of a swimmer. What felt like an eternity to Andy must have been only moments, as the woman sprang into action to save her. The woman's husband called 911 while she gave Andy CPR. The woman and her family had just happened to be there, they were vacationers from a far off state, just visiting family. According to Andy's parents the family had made a last minute decision to go to the local pond they had been told about after some plans with family had fallen through. It was because of her heroine that Andy had decided to pursue a career in the medical field. She felt a need to pay back the universe for saving her, for putting that woman in her path. Looking back, Andy thought of the story of the boy who drowned and how close she came to the same fate. She never went swimming in that pond again, and she had spent years trying to convince herself to go skating on it.

Andy was brought back to the present, Mark had been lightly slapping her on the arm to get her attention. She looked over to him, the vivid memory no longer clouding her vision,

"Oh, I'm sorry Mark. I just spaced out a little." She said as she ruffled his hair and sighed. "What's up?" Mark scowled and fixed his hair.

"We're here…" he pointed to the pond's clearing. "You okay, Aunt Andy?" he gave her an incredulous look. Andy tried to laugh it off and shrugged,

"I'm fine, Ace. Just got lost in my thoughts. You know, I used to come here all the time to skate." There had been far more snow around the pond then there had been around the house. On the way to the pond, Andy had noticed that the temperature had seemed to drop a bit, and a light snow started falling. However, if Andy was being honest, she'd say that it seemed like the day's heat hadn't touched this place. They walked to the bank of the pond and sat down, Andy handing him the skates she had been holding onto as she glanced around the ice, looking for signs that it was unsafe.

"Are you any good?" Mark laced up his skates and stood up, waiting for his aunt to do the same.

"Eh, I can get around." Andy smiled and stood as well but had kept her boots on. "Hey, the day has been pretty warm, I'm not sure that skating is the best idea." she noted that there were still marks on the ice from where others had been skating, and could see the hole near the bank where someone had tested the thickness of the ice.

"Jack says that he made sure the pond would have thick ice so we could go." Mark said as he went to get onto the ice. Andy stopped him immediately with a hand on his arm.

"No matter what Jack says, let me go on and test to make sure it's safe." Mark looked to his left, Andy assumed it was Jack, before he answered her with a huff and crossed arms,

"Fine, but only because Jack wants you to make sure. But he says it's safe. I don't know why you can't just trust him on it." Andy rolled her eyes and went to go inspect the hole in the ice before she stepped foot onto the pond. Grabbing a long stick that she found near a tree, she placed it into the hole to gauge how deep the ice went. To her surprise, the ice went down a good six inches, safe for someone to skate on. Looking out at the ice itself, she noticed that it was blue, another good indication, and free from cracks. Given how warm the day had been, she was amazed that the ice was in such good shape. From behind her, she heard Mark call out,

"Can we go out now?"

"Not yet," Andy called over her shoulder in a sing-song voice. She took the stick and made her way over to the edge of the pond that Mark was near. "It looks like it might be okay," she said, "But I still want to go out there and check real quick." With that she turned and put a tentative boot onto the ice. When it held her weight, she took the stick and began testing the ice as she slid along. She had gotten a good thirteen feet out onto the ice and looked back at Mark, who was busy talking to his friend. She shook her head while she slowly and methodically made her way back towards shore.

"Hey, I think it looks good. I'd still be careful though, with all this warm weather today." When Mark didn't answer her right away, she looked up to see that he was still focusing on talking with his friend. "Mark!" Andy shouted as she came closer to the shore. Mark looked over at her quickly, turning as he did so. "I said I think it's good, but be careful!" Mark sent a grin over to his friend before quickly stepping out onto the ice. It seemed to hold his weight perfectly fine and Andy felt a little less worried about the situation. Andy could tell that Mark had not been out to skate in a very long time – he was flailing around like a newborn fawn. Andy laughed as she passed him, reaching the shore and sitting down to take off her boots so she could replace them with skates. In no time she was back on the ice and making comfortable and slow circles around her nephew.

"Try not pointing your toes together, just take longer strides." She chided him, skating no farther than the place she had checked earlier.

"That's easy for you to say," Mark muttered before facing his aunt. "Jack says that you're skating well." Andy chuckled, skating another lap around the area quickly.

"It's been a couple years, but this was one of my favorite things to do in the winter." Andy stopped near Mark once more. "Bending your knees wouldn't hurt either, Ace." Mark looked at her, he was finally able to come to a stop and found some balance in it.

"You and Jack make it look easy." He said, arms outstretched for balance. Andy smirked,

"Well, I should hope Jack skates well. Isn't this basically his job?" She began to skate backwards using shorter strides.

"Jack says don't be such a smart ass." Andy's head shot in her nephew's direction, one eyebrow raised.

"I think Jack can shove it where the sun doesn't shine." Mark laughed and promptly fell on his face. He shouted at Jack for shoving him and tried to get back up on his skates before laughing at his failed attempts. Andy laughed along with him, watching as the young boy flopped around. She skated over to him slowly before offering him a hand up. He gratefully took it, pointedly telling Jack that it wasn't that funny. Andy snorted, "Here, Ace. Let's try this out together. Maybe we can even race if you get good enough." She joked with him, lightly elbowing him.

"Yeah, let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Andy and Mark had spent a long time trying to teach Mark how to skate better. Andy wasn't sure how long they had been at it, but Mark had caught on quickly. He had just needed a few beginning pointers before he had really gotten the hang of it. There had been a lot of failed attempts of solo flights at first, and Andy was sure that Mark was going to have a bruised butt by the time they were done. A lot of jokes had been made at Mark's dispense, but apparently Jack had some pointers of his own for Mark to try. On more than one occasion Mark had informed her that Jack thought she was teaching him poorly and that he could do better. It was, after all, 'basically his job'. On more than one occasion Andy told Mark that Jack should basically stop being so butt hurt.

Looking at the sky, Andy could see that the sun had begun to dip down below the tree line. Looking at her phone, she could see that it was already coming up on six o'clock. Had they really been out there for almost an hour? Besides, the snow had started to accumulate on the ice. Mark had been in the middle of making his way around the area that Andy had deemed to be 'safe'. She shoved her phone into her coat pocket and skated towards Mark,

"Ace, I think it's time to get going. It's a little late and I wanted to be home by the time your mom got back from work." Mark looked a little disappointed but began to skate back to shore. Andy frowned, watching him getting ready to get off the ice. She sighed, "No, actually, how about that race? You were doing much better." It didn't take much convincing to get Mark back on the ice. Andy skated over to where he had been waiting, near the bank of the pond.

"How does two laps around sound?" asked Mark. Andy nodded,

"If you think you can beat me." She teased, slapping a hand on his back. Mark rolled his eyes at his aunt and started to count down from three. As soon as he got to one Andy sped off, but Mark wasn't far behind. Andy had made sure that she had gotten a good lead before looking back for her nephew; he as maybe five feet behind and trying his hardest to gain speed while having some balance. Andy slowed down a little, knowing how hard he had been working that day to become better at skating. She stayed ahead of him and not before long she had already made one full lap. Andy had been thinking about ways to console him afterwards when she saw Mark come up out of the corner of her eye and blaze past her. Almost coming to a stop in her daze, she quickly sped up and tried to catch her nephew. He had really gained speed, and all Andy could feel was the wind whipping at her face, slowing her down. She heard Mark laughing on the other side of the course, and Andy pushed harder than she thought she would ever have to in this race. Arms pumping and leaning into her strides, Andy almost caught up with her nephew, but he quickly passed the finish line, leaving her in second place and very confused.

"What happened back there?" Mark called from the edge of the pond as his aunt slowly skated up to him. Andy was obviously confused and still a little dazed from what had happened.

"I'm…not sure, Ace. When did you get so fast?" She asked and ran a hand through her hair, combing her bangs to the front with her fingers. Mark laughed,

"You said it yourself, I was doing better." Andy furrowed her brows.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess so." She said and sat on the ground to take off her skates. Mark did the same, laughing as he did so.

"Jack says maybe you're just getting old." Andy laughed,

"Maybe. But I'm still waiting for him to let me in on the secret to eternal youth. We can't all live forever."

As the two walked down the hill that lead to the pond, Andy considered how fast her nephew was able to skate. He must have really caught on quickly. She looked over at the boy, she realized that he had grown quite a bit from the last time she had visited. He may have been only 12, but he was almost as tall as she was. How time flies, she thought. Mark had revealed not that long after they had started walking that he may have had a little help from 'Jack' in the race, giving him a boost of speed thanks to the wind, while trying to slow her down. She played upset before laughing with him and telling him it was a great race, regardless.

It had been almost seven o'clock by the time that Andy realized she hadn't told her sister-in-law that they were out of the house. Andy reached for her back right pocket, but didn't find her phone in its normal space. She then checked her coat pockets. Coming to a stop, she rechecked her pockets one last time before it dawned on her that her phone had fallen out of her coat pocket during the race. Mark had stopped next to her,

"What's up?" Andy sighed heavily,

"God damn it," She grumbled and stopped herself before turning around to head back up the hill. Thankfully they hadn't gotten too far. "I must have dropped my phone at the pond." She stopped a few steps away and turned around, "You know the way back. Do you just want to go ahead without me?" Mark looked up to his aunt and back down at the path. He shrugged his shoulders before conferring with his friend,

"No, it's okay. I can come with." With that, the two trudged back up the hill in the still accumulating snow. Mark walked slowly and had stayed some ways back from Andy, saying that he wanted to spend more time with Jack before he had to leave. That was fine with her, she just needed to get to the pond quickly before the phone was lost in snow. As they came up to the clearing, she began retracing her footsteps. Mark had stood under the cover of the trees, talking with his imaginary friend while Andy tried to make quick work of her mission. After she determined it wasn't on the shore of the pond where they had removed their boots, she began to look out onto the ice. Dropping her skates on land, she began to slowly slide with her boots on the ice, sweeping in a wide circle, making sure to move the thin layer of snow as she went. It wasn't long before she had found it by following the path it had made in the snow as it must of flown out of her pocket. With a sigh of relief, she walked out past the border of where they had been skating.

"How did you get out here…" She asked quietly. With a shrug, she quickly stooped to her haunches and picked up the phone. It was at that point she heard the distinct sound of ice shifting followed by a loud and ominous cracking noise. In that one moment her smile vanished from her face and she stayed crouched and near the ice. With her gloved hand she slowly swept the snow below her feet away to reveal a large network of large and small cracks that continued to groan under her weight. Panic made her heart begin to race and her fingers become prickly. The ice in this area must not have been very thick at all, she thought as she tried to figure out a plan. As gently as she could she threw her phone as far away from her spot as she could. "Mark!" she called, wincing as the ice continued to moan. Slowly pivoting on her feet, she began to turn to face the shore. She could see Mark walking up to the shore line, hands in pockets, about to step foot onto the ice. Andy put both of her gloved hands in front of her, signaling him to stop. As she tried to ease her way forward she could feel more of the ice crack under her. Grimacing she called out to him. "Don't come out here, it's cracking!" She could see Mark pale at the thought, hands coming out of his pockets.

"What do I do?" he called back to her, panic in his voice. Andy smiled,

"Hey, it's okay. I'm just going to," she tried to steady herself a little as she tried to move forward. The ice sent another threatening crack that made a lump form in her throat. "I'm just going to try and move..." Eyes on the ice and the spider web of cracks, she began to try and stand. "Mark, grab a long stick, anything I might be able to grab on to." She instructed as she moved one foot out from under her. The ice creaked and warned her not to move. She looked up and Mark was at the edge of the pond with the stick she had used earlier to test the safety of the ice. He was talking with his imaginary friend and she could hear Mark asking him what he needed to do. Taking a timid step towards her nephew, "Mark, I'm gonna need you to- ". With that another, much louder noise filled her ears. It was a mix of ice giving way, a scream and a plunge into water so cold she could barely describe it. She was able to keep her head above the water, but her attempts to hold onto the ice and use it as leverage as a way out were useless. The ice continued to break away, and she could feel the cold seeping into every bone. Using her legs, she tried to kick them and use that as a way up onto the ice, but she wasn't having luck. Trying to grip onto the continually breaking ice, she tried to stay afloat. "Mark!" she called as she spat out freezing water. Her mind went instantly back to when she almost drowned in the pond as a child. Panic and fear ran through her mind, legs becoming numb and weak while she struggled to keep her head above water. It was then that the end of a stick came into view and Andy immediately grabbed onto it. Using what little strength was left in her frozen legs, she could feel herself being pulled up and out of the hole while she kicked. Mark had been at the other end of the stick, lying flat on his stomach to disperse his weight. Once Andy's torso was on the ice, she quickly rolled away from the hole and stopped on her back near Mark. She laid there for a moment, out of breath and body wracked with immense shivers. She looked over at Mark, who had been looking just beyond her, as he moved to help her off of the ice.

"Jack says we need to get you home, fast." Andy nodded, purple tinged lips quivering and teeth chattering. Once on shore, she stooped to pick up her skates and cell phone.

"Mark," she whispered between the chattering of her teeth, "You shouldn't have come out onto the ice. It wasn't safe." Mark shook his head,

"I had to help. What was I going to do, let you drown? Besides, Jack told me what to do every step of the way. He also says that he is so sorry. He didn't know-" Andy laughed quietly,

"Then tell Jack thanks too."

The walk home may have only taken a few minutes but for Andy it felt much longer. Her pants had become rigid with ice and her shivering hadn't stopped yet. She didn't think she was nearing any sort of major hypothermia; her shivering hadn't stopped, she could walk relatively well, and as far as the conversation with Mark was going, it seemed she didn't suffer from speech impairment or confusion. She moved slowly, but it wasn't long before they were at the back door of the house.

"Aunt Andy, Jack and I think that you really need to go to the hospital. You could have hypother-" Andy held up a shaking hand.

"I'm fine, Mark. If it gets worse, then I'll go." With that she opened the door and stepped inside, dropping her skates and taking off her coat. "Now, I'm going to go upstairs and crawl under my blankets. If you want to help, grab a couple extra and throw them on my bed. And if you could warm up some towels or something, that will help bring up my temperature." Mark sighed and turned to his imaginary friend,

"Jack, can you please just stay with her?" He stayed silent for a moment, "I know she's not a child, but I'm worried…How about just for a little while? I want to make sure she doesn't get sick." With that he took off his shoes and waited another moment while Andy walked over to the counter to get some warm tea, having trouble pouring the liquid into the cup from her shivers. "See what I mean," Mark hissed at the air beside him. "Thank you, Jack. I really appreciate it." Andy turned and watched Mark as he ran to the closet for extra blankets before taking off for the spare bedroom.

"I'm fine." Andy muttered to herself as she turned to slowly walk up the stairs, trying her best to not spill the warm drink that she held in both her hands.

As Andy rounded the corner of the stairs, Mark passed her by and told her that he was going to hang out in his room if she needed him and gave Jack another thanks for keeping an eye on her. Andy had been too preoccupied in her thoughts about a warm bed to pay her nephew much attention. Walking into the room, she put her tea on the table beside her bed and went back to close the door. Turning, she quickly began to remove her soaking and cold clothes in exchange for dry night clothes. She walked slowly to the bathroom only to be surprised by how pale she looked. Fumbling with the medicine cabinet, she pulled out the thermometer and stuck it under her tongue while she walked back to the bed. Pausing by the bed she pulled out the thermometer as it beeped – 96 degrees Fahrenheit. Just above hypothermic. Good, she thought. The last thing she needed was to make a trip to the ER on her vacation. Crawling into the bed, she took a few sips of her warm tea before snuggling down into the mountain of comforters. Strategically placing the warm washcloths that Mark brought up, she sighed and rubbed her head. She had been feeling a little warmer and her shivers were easing, but she had begun to feel tired from all of the day's events. With the warmth of the towels and blankets, Andy fell asleep quickly and soundly.

She had been dreaming of nothing in particular, of a day with some random no one in a café she had never been to. A forgettable dream. But amidst the chattering and din of the eatery, she began to hear a wonderful and soothing song pick up. It was unlike anything she had heard before and it inspired a feeling of comfort. Getting up from her table, she made her way to the door of the café, intent on finding where this enchanting music had been coming from. Once outside, the scenery changed. Once a street lined with cars, now it was an open field with beautiful wild flowers and the scent of sweet summer. In the field was a small girl who seemed to be swaying and dancing with the music. Smiling to herself, she joined the young girl and began to sway with her, the power of the song taking over her. Filled with content, she noticed another, older, girl join them. It had been obvious that this darker girl had been following the sounds as well. As the new girl turned to her, she felt something strike a discord within her. The music had begun to take a sour note, almost curdling the song. Looking around, she could still see the two girls now joining hands and dancing together, but the world around them was changing. What was once a peaceful meadow was turning grey and foreboding. Opening her mouth to warn the children, her voice caught in her throat. No sound could be heard except for the now sinister song being played.

With a jolt, Andy shot up in bed. Covered in sweat and still under the pile of blankets, she swore she could still hear the song from her dream still drifting through the air. Getting up to rinse her face, she grounded herself in the moment. It was only a nightmare, she convinced herself. Nothing more.

So, what do you think? Let me know! Reviews help me see where you guys are coming from and what you're thinking about.