CHAPTER 29

The sun was much lower in the sky when the men returned in triumph with more than enough fish to have a feast tonight and then dry and store some for the coming winter. Vivienne met Daryl at the dock and walked back to their cabin with him, listening to him describe the group's adventures out on the lake. Glancing at him, Vivienne was relieved to see him in a much better mood than when he'd left that morning. Whatever it had been troubling him had been forgotten hopefully.

As she waited on Daryl to clean up and change clothes so they could go help out with the fish fry on the little beach she started to page through a book they had found one day scavenging in the little town not far from the resort. They had raided the little library there, since any real reading material was scarce in the cabins. They had brought back a wide assortment of books and kept them in Rick's cabin because it actually had shelves built into the walls for books and knick knacks.

Vivienne had picked up some books about the history of the area for Daryl to read but had found herself fascinated with the information she'd discovered in them. The book she was reading now had information regarding the area's history during the Civil War period. She had never been a fan of history, or of any subject really in school. And due to growing up in the South and the particular town she'd lived in she'd been subjected to hours and hours of class talks about the Civil War and it's repercussions after the South's defeat.

In school, any discussion about the war had bored her to tears. But for some reason, now that she didn't have to write papers or take tests she enjoyed reading the very books she'd detested. She found herself reading the books in literature classes she'd paid others to write papers for her and found them surprisingly interesting.

She skimmed through the pages to the section of pictures of local soldiers who'd gone off to fight. As she flipped idly through the pictures, she faltered and stopped on one page in particular. The man in the picture looked very young, early twenties if that. He was dressed in the homespun uniform of the hill regiments. His cap was held to his side in one hand revealing hair that looked to be a light color and unkempt. His eyes seemed to be staring right back at her. He looked painfully thin but like he could hold his own in a fight. And although in the majority of the pictures from that era nobody smiled, this young man seemed to have the slightest of smirks playing about his lips. All in all he had a rather reckless look about him, as if he had no anxiety or worry about marching off to war.

Vivienne felt mesmerized by the picture of the boy, and something tugged at her memory like a word that is right on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite spit it out. Daryl came out and smirked at her and Vivienne again felt that sense of déjà vu and felt light headed and slightly breathless.

Daryl frowned as he saw the blood drain from Vivienne's face when she looked up at him, her eyes faintly glassy. He strode over to the bed and sank down beside her. "Vivienne, are you alright?" he asked anxiously, his hands clasping both hers. They were icy to his touch.

Vivienne looked up at him, a bewildered look on her face. She blinked and shook her head slightly. "Yes, I….um, yes," she answered faintly.

Daryl rubbed her small hands briskly over his to warm them and glanced about for a blanket. It wasn't really cold in the room, but he wanted to wrap her up in something because she felt cold to the touch. His eyes fell on the book she'd been flipping through and he felt his breath go out of him as his gaze fell on the picture she'd been looking at.

"What is that?" and he nodded toward the book.

Vivienne sighed restively and pulled her hands from his to show him the book. "It's a book about the history around here during the Civil War," and her words faltered at seeing the look on Daryl's face. She felt goosebumps break out on her flesh and saw that he had experienced the same shiver she had.

Daryl looked at the picture of the young man, running his finger over it slowly. "This picture….this man….seems familiar somehow," he mumbled.

Vivienne nodded. "Yes, it did to me too," she whispered.

"What's his name?" Daryl continued to stare at the picture.

"I don't know," she answered, "some of the pictures have the soldier's names, some don't. See if it says anything there in the paragraph." She watched as Daryl looked down the page to the paragraph. His eyes widened and he gripped the book.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Vivienne whispered anxiously.

"His name. It's the name I hear in my dream," he whispered hoarsely. Vivienne frowned.

"Your dream? The one that keeps waking you up?" She watched as he put the book down beside her and looked at it as if it were a snake.

"Yeah. Now that I see his name, I remember part of the dream," Daryl explained, still keeping a wary eye on the book. "In the dream some woman who looks a little like you is walking toward me and telling me we don't have much time together before I leave. Something about a war and she calls me Rafe." He shook his head and drew an unsteady breath. "And every time I have that dream I wake up feeling so …..I feel like my heart is breaking. Just an overwhelming sadness-I've never felt that awful in my whole life. Not even when my ma died." Daryl shook his head as if to clear it.

Vivienne peered at him intently. "Well, today when you were leaving in the boat to go fishing I had the weirdest feeling that I'd watched you leave before-which of course I have-but it was different. I felt like I wasn't sure if you'd be back. And I felt like I couldn't breathe and I felt like I was about to just bawl my eyes out I felt so…I felt so full of despair." Vivienne stared quietly at Daryl and he returned a gaze equally intense.

"Daryl, tonight when you have that dream I'm going to try something. I'm going to try to get you to tell me what's going on in the dream. Maybe you'll be able to tell me something that can help us," Vivienne whispered.

Daryl nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. We can try that. If that doesn't work we aren't staying here. I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that," he said as if trying to convince himself, "but I'm not about to keep losing sleep over something I can't fix." Vivienne nodded in agreement.

"C'mon and let's go help with the fish fry or we'll have ta listen to them teasing us again bout our honeymoon cottage," he grumbled and set about getting dressed. Vivienne marked the page in the book and carried it out to the front porch and laid it on the bench out there. When she came back in the room Daryl looked at her curiously.

"What did ya do?" he mumbled.

Vivienne shrugged and blushed. "Well, I just don't want that book in here. I don't know what's going on but I don't want it anywhere near me."

Daryl for once didn't laugh or tease her. He was secretly grateful she'd taken the book outside because he too did not want that book around him. He shivered slightly, feeling like someone had walked across his grave and for once he wished Merle was there to tell him how silly he was being.