A/N: Here is the short, but important chapter, as promised. HAPPY EASTER!
Chapter 9: Say Uncle
Lana rubbed her arm as she and her entourage entered the inn. The muscles in her left arm was starting to bother her. She felt like she was young all over again, working on muscle endurance. After ever practice, her body felt like nothing more than dead weight.
Lana guessed that Damien and Vincent joined the brawl during some point because Leon was giving complements or commenting or maybe just trying to start a conversation. She wasn't listening. As they sat down at a table Lana continued to walk on.
The conversation stopped.
"Lana, where are you going?" Damien asked.
"Sleep," She answered. As soon as the word left her mouth, she winced. They wouldn't believe she was going to sleep, she never went to sleep this early. Lana turned around and smiled at them. "I'm going to bed."
There was nothing wrong with her going to sleep for all that it was unnatural-feeling. Damien only nodded and Vincent lamely said, "Okay."
As she walked down the hallway to her room Lana knew her brothers would think something of her. They would think maybe was going to sleep early to wake up long before them, or maybe she planned on sneaking out another way. But nothing like that was on her mind.
She opened the door and walked into the small simple room. Everything about it was simple from the simple square shape to the earthy colors.
She laid down. Lana laid there for a while, letting her body stop buzzing, letting the excitement go, letting her body begin to shut down.
Sleep came softly, like a wave onto shore. Lana let it come dimly noting that her left arm would be terribly sore the next time she woke up.
"I'm sorry, I truly am." The voice was unfamiliar. Lana found herself sitting up in a bed she vaguely remembered going to sleep in but the setting was different.
"Sorry?" Lana asked.
"Yes." The voice answered. Lana looked to where it came from to find nothing there. Just her bed as an island among nothingness.
A million questions formed in her head each of which Lana didn't remember actually saying but they were somehow aloud. "Where is this? Sorry for what? Who are you? Where are you?"
The voice chuckled. "Not so many questions at once. I will answer them in due time, I will teach you of many things that have been kept secret from you."
A person stepped forward from somewhere outside of her range. Lana lifted herself from the bed, as soon as she did the bed disappeared.
"You are dreaming." The voice now embodied in the person stepping forward spoke.
Lana had remembered dreams before, and she couldn't think of a time when that was actually said. She remembered knowing she was dreaming, but that was different.
The person was shorter than her. A boy. He was a boy, not a man. She could tell by the youth in his voice, which she found she could notice now that he had appeared. His hair was a blond that looked like he had taken a bath in dirty water, but it looked neat an not at all unprofessional. Everything about his face was sharp from his nose to his shoulders and even his eye color.
His eyes struck her vision with terrible clarity. True green eyes a cat would love to have.
Lana studied his appearance and could not believe this was a dream. In dreams, nothing was really clear. Faces, body structure, hair color—none of it mattered in dreams. One simply knew and that was what it was in the dream world. And how it had been since the first time she had remembered a dream at all.
"That is because you do not know me." The boy said. He smiled, a simple curl of lips with the bottom lip more full than the top. "I said I am sorry, do you accept my apology?"
"Sorry for what?" Lana asked.
"I did not know that if I controlled your body for a time it would hurt you." He said.
Lana knew she would be confused and shocked but in a dream, it seemed to make sense. "My left arm is only sore, I am not left handed."
"I see." He said. "And I am not right handed."
"I had noticed." Lana said dryly.
He gave that curling smile and laughed shortly. "I have much to tell you."
"About what?"
He sighed. "At our next meet, I promise, it is not kind to keep people in the dark. But I am still getting used to all this--" Lana had a half-thought to think what exactly 'all this' was but the thought drifted away. "The night runs short, or perhaps you are waking. You do not sleep for very long, I have noticed."
Lana knew, but how did he if she had never met him?
Lana could feel the dream slipping through her hold. The world becoming less real—or maybe more real. But one thing stayed the same, the boy stayed as clear as if nothing were happening.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"You, can call me Uncle." He said, his voice far, away and yet so intimate.
Lana opened her eyes slowly, easing out of her sleep. Her mind went over the dream again and again. The most odd thing about it stuck out like a stick protruding from the mud. In her past experiences with dreams, she always knew the thought process of the others in her dream. But the boy's thoughts were his own, not hers. She couldn't even pick up a feeling from him.
She opened her mouth and the word fell from her mouth like water. "Uncle."
A/N: I don't make any promises as to when the next chapter will be out. I'm sorry, I know my updates are a bit sporadic but . . . uh, at least I'm updating, right? I've got a piece of the next chapter written so unless my inspiration gives out on me again (which it likes to do regularly) I HOPE to have the next chapter done soon.
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