Vivienne

Brian heard the guttural scream from his lover, making him jump and start looking for the source.  His heart pounded in his chest flooding him with adrenaline, and his fists closed for a brief moment before his peripheral vision allowed him to see the hunched and shaking outline of his girlfriend. “Shh, it was just a dream, Casey.”  He wrapped his giant arms around the woman and pulled her to his chest. “Just a really bad dream.”

Casey latched her arms around Brian’s thick waist and kept crying, the vision of the little vampire girl now at the forefront of her memory. “It..it was…her, Brian.  Brown ringlets in her hair, so small.”

“Wh.what?  Ringlets?  Casey, I don’t understand.”  Brian offered, gently kissing the top of Casey’s head.

Tears still streaming down her cheeks and the visions of the hungry dead baby-like eyes dancing in her head, Casey tried to confess to her boyfriend. “She was so young, Brian.  Who would tu..”  Vivienne’s once subtle suggestion about the veil stamped firm, stopping her from speaking.

“Casey?”  Brian inquired as Casey stopped, seeming to stiffen up and stop crying. “Who was so young, what are you talking about?”

Wiping her tears away, Casey took a steady breath. “Brian, I can’t tell you exactly what I am talking about.  There are things I can’t talk about, even if I truly wanted to.”

The big man let out an annoyed grunt, “How am I supposed to help you then?  We are still talking about the nightmare, aren’t we?”

“Yes and no.”  Casey finished hugging her boyfriend and turned to sit in the man’s lap, pulling his arms around her waist. “We can try to talk about the nightmare, I think?”  Casey posed it as a question because she didn’t know if she truly could.

“Last night I didn’t ask any questions because you were unhinged and ready to break down.”  He leaned forward and kissed Casey on the shoulder. “I don’t even think you remember everything that happened.”  He paused for a breath, “I carried you into the shower and you stood there.  It was like you were asleep standing up.  I stood there looking at you for about five minutes before I washed you myself.”

“Thanks.”  Casey whispered and closed her eyes when Brian kissed her shoulder. “It was a haze, I admit.”  Looking down at his big hands she pondered the prior evening's events and looked at her clothes basket, wrinkling her nose. “I really did smell that bad, didn’t I?”

“Yes and no.”  Brian playfully quipped. “I didn’t really care last night, but this morning?  I would rather burn those clothes.”

A sudden realization hit Casey and she looked at the clock on her nightstand. “Fuck!  I am late for class!”  She pulled herself free of Brian’s tightening grip with ease. “Let go, I can’t..”

“...Casey, stop!”  Brian remarked as he felt the strength in his arms fail. “It is winter break, Casey.  No classes.”  Flexing his hands, the confused man looked at his girlfriend getting dressed faster than he’d ever seen. “Are you even listening?”

“I am now.”  Answered as she realized she dressed in a blur. “I completely forgot.”

Brian rubbed his arms and raised his eyebrow, “Casey, um.. Something is very wrong here.”  He blinked as the last few minutes dawned on him completely. “You have gone from screaming, to crying, to not speaking and now you are freaking out about classes.  Not to mention somehow you hurt me just now, and you are no longer hurt.”  He pointed at Casey’s uninjured knee and ankle. “You get like this when you have told me some kind of lie or are hiding something.”  He held up two of his fingers, “Two years, Casey.  I have put up with this shit for two years.”

Still exhausted from the events of the prior day and evening, Casey kicked off her shoes and sat down in her cozy chair. “Sorry.”  Casey started her small confessional, “Unreal, I didn’t think you would notice all that as fast as you did.”

“Just like with your affairs, you didn’t do much to hide anything.”  Brian slipped out of bed and walked to the window gazing up at the puffy white clouds. “Here I thought we’d crossed into something new for us, when you said you loved me.”

“I meant it, I do love you.”  She got up from her chair and walked to where Brian was standing and kissed him from behind as she hugged him. “We have crossed into something new.”  

Still gazing at the clouds, Brian saw the white fluffs start taking on strange shapes.  “It is time for the truth then, Casey.”  He softly spoke and tilted his head and saw the shapes forming into runes.  Thinking that the shapes were just an illusion, he closed his eyes and the runes suddenly made sense. -Clear. Water.  Awaken.- “Wash away and wake up to the truth?”  Brian muttered cryptically, then turned to face his girlfriend.

“What?”  Casey looked at Brian confused.

“I said that it’s time for the truth, Casey.”  He leaned down and returned the kiss she’d given him a moment before.

“No, you also mumbled something about washing and the truth.” She responded, twisting the words she’d actually heard clearly.

“I did?”  He shrugged and pushed the hair from Casey’s warm brown eyes, “Lost in thought I guess.  The clouds looked majestic.”

“Majestic?”  Casey giggled a moment, “Since when do you say that?”  

“I can’t use the word majestic?  Do you just expect me to grunt and be upset with you?”  He playfully chuckled as well, before scooping his girlfriend into his arms. “Anyway.  Start talking Rivers.”

Happy to be in her lover's arms once more, Casey wiggled her bare feet as the couple went back to the bed. “I think that is the first time you have called me Rivers.”  She noted and scratched Brian’s goatee. “What do you want me to start with?”

He set Casey down on her side of the bed and walked around, and slid in beside her. “The nightmare?  Tell me about the girl.”

The feeling of dread seeped its way back into Casey’s mind when Brian mentioned the nightmare and the echoes of them all mindlessly saying ‘Hunger’. “I…I first saw eyes all around me, something in them that told me I needed to be afraid.”  She paused to gather the confidence to keep going, “Then I saw her…it.  C..covered in blood...so young…” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “...then the room echoed her one word…hunger.”  She snapped her fingers, “Then I woke up screaming.”

“Lucky for you that I am a psych major.”  Brian calmly smiled and took a breath, “Is the nightmare the only part you remember?”

“I remember the girl the mo…wait.  I think I was falling before the part with the girl.”  Closing her eyes, she recalled the red stars. “Yes, I was falling and red stars that turned out to be eyes.”

“Dreams are strange.  Falling usually means you are losing or have lost control of something in your life.” Brian points to her healed knee, “Saturday you did what you wanted, and supposedly got hurt.  Now you are working for a French doctor that you cannot really talk about.”

“I did get hurt, she operated on my knee.”  She paused and looked down at her unscarred knee. “It hurt like crazy.  I was popping ibuprofen most of the time I was at her house.”

Brian shook his head in disbelief, “Yet here you are in perfect health.  Not a scratch on you.”

Casey sighed and folded her arms, annoyed. “This is starting to sound much like you on the phone, Brian.  I even said then if you were going to keep it up you can…” She paused, not wanting to repeat the drama caused over the phone a day ago. “...I don’t want to repeat the fight yesterday.”

“Yes, you told me I can pack my shit..”  Brian retorted, crossing his arms as well.

The pang in Casey’s chest told her that she didn’t want him to leave. “...I was wrong, I told you.”  Taking a deep and steady breath, she fought to not treat Brian mean or crude like she did in the past.  Knowing that pride versus love was the central thought, Casey offered a weak smile and changed the tone of the conversation.  “Okay.”  She started, “I went out last night with the express intention of meeting the band members that I used to listen to.”  She felt the weight of her deception start to lift, “That turned into me..well…kissing the drummer.”  She watched as Brian’s face turned red in a wave of quiet anger. “I was also drunk.”  Casey absentmindedly rubbed her knee, “I barely remember what happened next.  I know I walked away and I think I said something to the guy.”

“I said before that I understood that you were wild.” Brian unfolded his arms and placed his warm and powerful hand on Casey’s cheek. “I accepted that part of you, it still doesn’t mean that I want to hear all the details.”

Casey pulled Brian’s hand to her lips, kissing it gently.  She once more admired his robust form and lost herself in his soft green eyes for a few moments, until he softly cleared his throat. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”  She felt his hand start going through her tangled mane. “The rest you pretty much know.  I texted everyone, with a massive hangover.”  She taps her knee, “I promise you, when you called I was hurt.  Vivienne found my keys and took me to her house.”  Her mind started to feel a little pressure and started to close.  Casey focused on her boyfriend’s well defined chest and continued, “Vivienne and I discussed my … employment and she kissed me, after I agreed.”