WHO Marcie WHEN sometime at the end of July WHERE Burlington WHAT Bad dreams and waking WARNINGS Sadness
She was in a nightclub, that one with the LED lights behind the bar that Tragos had saved her from that time. There was a press of people, and she knew she was searching for someone, although she couldn’t quite remember who. The music pounded and Marcie looked up at the ceiling, up at that VIP floor where Ares and his guys had sat, and the lights flowed in different colours, dazzling her eyes.
Someone was just ahead of her, she could see the back of his head. A familiar hoodie that she knew, and could almost smell, and she was just about to reach out and touch his back when someone caught her wrist and jerked her back, and the wall of people closed between them. When she turned, it was so see those too-blue eyes, too-white teeth, perfect blonde hair and golden skin-
“This is what happens when you go to war with the gods,” Apollo said, dragging her inexorably closer, even as she struggled against his grip and dug her heels into the floor. She screamed for help but the music swallowed her voice. “I won’t forget, and I won’t forgive. It’ll happen to you, too-” He was so close, and he opened his mouth in an inhuman snarl and then he wasn’t Apollo, he was Melpomene, eyes ablaze, her hair wild, and she threw Marcie down onto the floor and pointed, and the crowd parted and there was Tragos against the bookcase, blood blood blood, his eyes dull and empty-
Marcie woke up with a gasping cry, sitting up in a cold sweat, her hand going to her mouth. She could still see him and she shook her head, trying to knock loose the image and throw it as far away from her memory as she could. No- she couldn’t do this, she couldn’t relive this, it was too painful to see it over again. So much more infrequent these days, but not any less cutting when it did happen, in her dreams like this. She swallowed hard, and clasped her shaking hands together.
The room was lit with the pale early light of day, and she rubbed her eyes and got up. She needed to move, and remind herself that she lived in the now, and in the now there were no gods, and nobody had to die at their hands, not here. She was alive, and that was what mattered.
Dressing in loose, comfortable clothes, and went down to the kitchen to make herself a quiet cup of tea. She hadn’t been much of a tea drinker before she met Much, but now, there was something comforting in standing at the window with her hands wrapped around a warm much, watching the sun rise. She took a photo and sent it to him, with a quick “thinking of you x”. Not that Much would be up right now.
“Hey,” came a voice, and Marcie turned slightly to see her mother in a cotton robe, blinking sleepily. “You okay, honey?”
Marcie gave Celeste a small smile and a nod, and her mother walked over to stand with her, putting an arm around her. Marcie leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder, and if a few quiet tears soaked into the cotton, neither of them said a word about it.