"Daddy! Where are you?" the little girl said as she was running through the fields that appeared unending.
"Right here, sweetie!" Her father said as he picked her up off the ground and started swinging her in his arms. The small child giggled as he started turning around in circles. They both got so dizzy they had to sit down, and he started tickling her until she was completely pink in the face. After they finally calmed down, he scooped the little girl in his arms and lay down, watching the stars with his beloved daughter.
"Daddy?" The little girl said, turning her face towards his. "I love you Daddy." The child put her small hand on his nose and kissed his cheek.
They stayed there in their blissful state for what seemed like hours. Then something happened, breaking the bubble of joy the child had produced.
In an instant, the little girl's world was broken. Her vision went black. All she could hear was yelling. She could hear her father's voice, only it wasn't happy anymore, but full of anguish. She screamed in the Darkness for her father, but only heard the same pain-filled cries.
"Daddy!" she screamed louder, even though she knew it was completely useless. She began to cry, knowing there was nothing she could do the way she was. Blind, and nothing but a little three-year-old girl, she was completely useless. The only thing she could do was scream.
"Susie! Susie where are you? They're coming for you! Run Susie, run before they find you too!" The voice was not her fathers. Susie recognized the voice, and, instead of listening to it and running away, she followed it eagerly, wanting what she had lost back desperately.
Suddenly, she could see. As soon as she could, however, she wished she had stayed blind.
She was no longer a little girl anymore, but a grown woman again. Before her were the two men she loved the most, Cesar and her father. Only there was another man with them. A man she had grown to hate named, Dante Dominio. Only Dante was different than she remembered. His eyes had changed. A look of pure evil was on his face as he held knives to both men's throats.
"Hello, Susie, aren't you happy to see me? I've brought both your men to you. Don't you want to see them?" As Susie began to run towards them, he began to laugh. "Do you really think I'm going to give you both of them? Life isn't that easy, Susie, especially for a dirty thing like you. Go on, Susie. Pick the man you don't want to see die right before your eyes."
Susie couldn't believe what she was seeing. Tears filled her eyes as she thought about the most difficult decision she could ever make. She knew who she would choose now, if she never did before. Her voice quivered as she whispered the name "Cesar." She couldn't bear looking into her hurt father's eyes.
Dante laughed again, and she realized he had no intention of letting either of them go. He laughed. "Well, maybe I'll kill him first then." He looked at her evily as he slowly slid the knife across Cesar's neck.
She looked at him in shock. She watched as the love of her life died right before her eyes. She wanted to run to Cesar, but for some reason she couldn't even crawl to him.
She collapsed on the floor screaming as she saw Dante slit her father's throat as well.
Susie woke up drenched in sweat. She had had the nightmare about her father before, but Dante and Cesar were a new edition to the already awful dream. It was bad enough with her father being in it. She hoped it wasn't going to be a recurring nightmare, she didn't know if she could bear seeing that happen to Cesar more than once.
She was taken out of her thoughts by a knock on the door. She stared at it, hoping it wasn't Mr. Ford at this hour. She got off the bed and began to slowly make her way to the door.
She opened the door to find Cactus-man standing in front of her.
"I'm sorry to bother you miss," John began, slightly awkward, probably because Susie was staring at him like he had Five heads. "but I'm staying here for a little bit to help my friend out, and, you see, your room is right across from mine, and I heard screaming and came to see if you were alright. So, um, are you alright?" He fumbled with his cowboy hat in his hands.
Susie tried to smile. "Thank you, Mister Wayne, but I assure you I'm fine. No problems here." She looked him over. Despite the cowboy look, he was actually pretty attractive. Hey had light brown, slightly wavy hair, with a rugged yet charming look to him.
Not bad for someone that looks like they just rounded up cattle, she thought to herself.
.
There was a slightly awkward pause. "Well, if you're okay then I'll just go to my room. It was nice talking to you miss." He gave her one last smile and went to his own room.
Susie closed the door. That man was certainly different from any other one she had met before. She laughed to herself at his awkward attempt to help her.
She was walking back to her bed to try to get more sleep when there was yet another soft knock on the door. She opened it to see the same cowboy with the same awkward smile on his face.
"Sorry for disturbing you again, Miss Shirley, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind going along with me sometime to a place that's kind of special to me." He seemed to be fidgeting with his hat more than he did before.
Susie was a little taken aback by how soon he acted. He had just met her that day. However, she considered him harmless, and she needed to get away from her father's family and Lola for a little while.
"I would love to, Mr. Wayne." She said, forcing a smile on her face. He didn't repulse her in any way, but without Cesar with her she found it quite difficult to smile at anything these days.
"Thank you very much, ma'am. I'll take you there tomorrow night, if that's alright with you." Susie nodded once. "Well, I'll let you go back to sleep now, Miss Shirley, so sorry for bothering you again."
"Its fine." As he started to walk away again she spoke "Mister Wayne, I think it's important for you to know something first."
"And what is that ma'am?"
"My name isn't Shirley. It's actually Susie, you're friend had my name mistaken."
John smiled. "Then I'll see you tomorrow, Miss Susie. Goodnight."