4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
Where Dreams Bleed
The lagoon finds him even in sleep, giving him something Clivilius has stolen — until the line between dream and reality blurs in ways he can't control. He wakes to a growl that has nothing to do with what he's been imagining. What follows is darkness, teeth, and a desperate crawl toward a light that keeps flickering out.
The dream gives him Brianne. Red hair rising from the lagoon, her body a promise, her voice telling him to let go. He wakes gasping in the dust, the evidence of his surrender cooling against his skin — and Lois is growling like she's never growled before.
The darkness comes alive with shapes that shouldn't exist. Chittering sounds close in from every direction. Dust blinds everyone just when they need to see most. Then the night explodes, and Kain runs.
He doesn't get far.
Something massive hits his legs and drags him through the dust by his calf, teeth serrated and designed to grip. The pain is beyond anything he's known. He fights back with a fist-sized rock and enough spite to swing it. The creature releases him. Lois finds him. Glenda and Paul drag him toward the portal's distant light.
A warrior woman emerges from the darkness speaking English that sounds like it ran through a medieval blender. She leads them back to camp with blood still dripping from her arrow.
On the medical tent mattress, Glenda's words cut deep: he might lose his leg. The morphine pulls him under, and Brianne finds him there — vivid, warm, impossible. She touches the swell where their daughter grows.
Then fight, she says. Promise me.
He promises.
