I didn't sleep very well that morning, plagued by nightmares, or would they be called day-mares? I tossed and turned, sitting straight up in a cold sweat a few times, a scream on the tip of my tongue. Nines would hold me, stroke my hair and sooth me back to sleep. When the sun finally set, I went and pulled back the thick curtains that covered the window and watched the street.
Nines sat up in bed a few moments later, finally awake.
"Babe?" he asked, pushing back the blankets. He stood in nothing but a pair of sleep pants, rubbing his stomach.
"Yeah?" I asked, surprised at how fragile my voice sounded.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I don't know," I replied. "I think the events of the past couple months are catching up to me."
"You wanna talk 'bout it?" he asked, sitting in front of me on the windowsill. I opened my mouth to say 'no', but stopped.
"C'mon, hun," he tried. "I've seen some sick fucking shit, nothing you say is going to scare me." He took my hand and kissed the fingers, his goatee tickling my skin.
I stared at him for a long time, thinking how best to word what I wanted to say. He waited, kissing my hand and pressing his cheek into my palm.
"Did you hear about my trip to The Ocean House Hotel?" I asked him.
"Not in detail," he admitted. "I know you did it as a favor for Teresa Voreman. Place is said to be haunted."
"It is," I said, watching him. "A man butchered his children, then murdered his wife before setting fire to the place. When I went, the man's spirit was there, keeping his wife and children hostage even after taking their lives."
"That's horrible," Nines said.
"I went to get a personal possession to exorcise the spirits," I went on. "The spirit of the wife began helping me once she realized what I was doing. I went to the room that she was murdered in, the room the man killed himself in by starting the fire. I don't know how she did it. The room was nothing but a shell but when I stepped forward, it changed…"
"Changed?" he asked.
"She somehow took me back to the day she died. It was whole, like it had never been burnt. There was no one in it, just me," I went on. "The sun was shining through the windows."
"You saw the sun?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "It didn't burn me. It was so…beautiful…"
I remembered that day, shying away from the windows in panic, then, realizing that I wasn't burning, moving towards them. They opened easily and I leaned out them. The sun was warm and the meadow below smelled of fresh cut grass and flowers. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to savor this moment, this sun that didn't burn, this morning that didn't hurt. I pulled away from the window, sat down on the couch and cried. I felt a gentle brush on my hair and looked up to see the woman smiling at me.
"You can't understand how much it means to me to see the sun," I told her. She smiled again and held out her hand. In her upturned palm was the locket that had sealed her fate.
"I will try and free you," I promised. She smiled again and sat next to me, taking my free hand in hers and caressing the back in a motherly way. Then the illusion had faded and I was once again standing in the burnt out ruins of what had been this poor woman's tomb.
I told Nines all of this, leaning against the sill as he kissed my wrist.
"I think if I were to die," I said. "I should like to do it in the sun."
"Babe…" he began, a worried look on his face.
"It would be nice to pretend to be human in my final moments," I sighed.
"Babe," he breathed. "You're not…"
"No," I said with a sad smile. "Just…I don't know. I'm sorry, ignore me."
"Is this about being a mom?" he asked. "I can…I mean I can't give you kids but…we can figure something out if it means that much to you…"
"I'm just feeling…I don't know," I sighed and moved into his arms. "I'm just maudlin." He kissed me.
"Not planning on leaving already, are you?" he asked, teasingly.
"No," I said. "Think I'll stay."
DHMB: Yeah, totally tricked you into thinking I was done. I'm not. Haha!