“Hello, Hunter.” Sundae’s voice was soft and inviting in Hunter’s mind. He turned around the room, looking for the source. He wanted to thank her for all her help lately but hadn’t been able to find her.
“You called?” she asked as she appeared in front of him out of thin air.
“I did?” He shook his head. “No, I don’t have your number.”
“But you were thinking of me while dreaming and here I am.” She answered the confusion on his face.
“Aww, so we’re dreaming again. You seem pretty comfortable here.” He chuckled softly.
“Yes, far more comfortable than I do in the real world. In a way, I think this realm is my real world.” She looked around at the landscape. It was dark, cold, and barren. “I think you can create a far better place for us to meet, don’t you?”
Hunter shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. Sundae used to creep him out, now she simply intimidated him. “I don’t know how.”
“Sure you do. Simply think of a place and it’ll build up around us.” She raised her hands and spun around in a circle.
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Because this is your dream, friend.” She tilted her head at him after she finished spinning, and waited patiently for him to do something, anything.
He sighed heavily and closed his eyes.
“Open your eyes,” she spoke softly into his ear. He felt the warmth of her breath on his neck and shivered as he opened his eyes. “Good, now think of some place you’d like me to see.”
His mind traveled back in time. To a time lost from tragedy. He was in his old family home. His mother and father were alive and happy—together. They were all seated at the dining room table—Savvy, Rebecca, mom, dad, and him. They were younger, but most importantly his mother was alive.
He and Sundae watched the family dinner night play out in front of them like flies on the wall. Sundae placed a gentle hand on his arm.
Hunter was only six. He’d played in his first little league baseball game and was excited about the two runs he made. His father was beaming at him with pride, his mother with
love, and his sisters were poking fun, but smiling happily at his accomplishments. It was real. They were real. He was whole again.
“You had a beautiful family,” Sundae spoke softly.
“Key word is ‘had.’ Now my family is torn apart by circumstances beyond my control.” He fought back the tears that threatened to fall.
“I know it’s sad, Hunter. But at least you had happiness at one time. At least you can have happiness again. All is not lost.” She squeezed his arm. “There are others who had far worse childhoods.”
“Like you?” Hunter wanted to change the subject. He needed to find a new focus. He needed to forget about the illusion that was his family once and focus on the present.
“This isn’t about me, it’s your dream.”
“But I want to know about your family.” He realized he really did. Why? He had no clue. But from what he gathered things were bad for her.
“My past is of no consequence.”
“Your past makes you who you are. I want to know, to understand who you are, Sundae.”
Sundae shook her head. “Your past only influences who you are. Your destiny is your own, made up of the choices you make.”
“Please.”
Sundae shook her head again, snapped her fingers and a new scene built up around them. Hunter watched as she was transported into her family home. “You’ll be sorry,” she warned.
Sundae was younger, maybe about six or seven. Her white hair was long and flowing. She didn’t have the black streaks she had now. Her sky blue eyes were hopeful as her white haired mother and dark haired father tucked her into bed.
The younger Sundae was excited. Happy. Hunter had never seen a child so excited about sleep before.
“You have done a wonderful job of manipulating the dream landscape, Sundae. We are very proud of you.” Her father smiled warmly.
“Tonight your father and I want you to do something different when you visit Maxwell in his dreams,” her mother spoke softly.
Sundae grinned. “Okay, what?”
“Kill him.” Her mother smiled coldly.
“Kill him?” The younger Sundae swallowed hard. “No, I can’t kill anyone! You said if someone dies in dream land they die here in reality.”
“You can and you will,” her father spoke firmly.
Sundae shook her head over and over again. “No. No, no, no. I won’t do it.”
“You will or you’ll have an assassin assigned to kill you.”
Sundae stopped her head shaking and stared wide eyed at her parents. “You’d do that to me?”
Her father looked away and her mother nodded her head. “Yes.”
Sundae started crying, but no one held her or comforted her. She was alone. Her father left the room and her mother stared her down with a cold look.
“You know crying will do you no good. You have your orders and your consequences.” With that her mother left the room and little Sundae was surrounded in darkness with nothing but her sobs to comfort her.
Hunter knew Sundae was once a dream assassin, but that scene painted a completely different picture of her. She was as much of a victim of her parents’ expectations as he was of his parents’.
His belief in his father’s expectations forced him to use drugs last month. The same night his sister Savvy was being held captive by the evil vampire Celestia.
Hunter turned to Sundae and wrapped her teenage frame in his arms. “I’m so sorry, Sundae. No one should’ve been forced to do something like that at such a young age.”
Sundae stood ramrod straight, the shock of his hug obviously setting her aback. Eventually she melted into his embrace. Hunter couldn’t help but wonder if it was the first real hug she’d ever gotten.
“Your kindness is nice but unnecessary, Hunter. I was only showing you this because you asked. You know what a loving family looks like and you can bring everyone back into that fold.”
Hunter pulled out of the hug, reluctantly. He enjoyed being close to Sundae more than he expected. “My father killed my mother. It can never be the same.”
“I would think after seeing that scene you’d realize that circumstances push us to do things we don’t want to do. Maybe you should talk to him and find out what really happened…without Celestia around.”
Sundae had a point. But what kind of circumstance would make his father take their mother away from them? It was a question he decided he wanted an answer to. “Maybe you’re right.” He would find a way to talk to his father someday. But now he had more pressing things to do, like find a cure for the virus eating away at his sister’s humanity.
Sundae shrugged. “Maybe.” As an afterthought. “So why did you call me?”
Hunter chuckled. “To thank you. I guess I can thank you twice now.”
“That’s what friends do for each other, I’m told.”
Hunter nodded. “And you are, you know? A friend, that is.”
A genuine smile spread across her face and lit her eyes. “And I consider you one too...a friend, that is.”
Get started on the series with Lone Wolf Rising here. You can also start reading Vampire Princess Rising here.
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