Nightmare

"Why did you ask her to stay?" Wendy asked quietly, so not to wake any of the kids. Jim looked warily at her. He was just on the verge of sleep when she asked the question he hoped he would never have to answer, ever. But here he was, having to debate on what to say to her while she waited expectantly. He swallowed, not really even fully sure him self. "She..... Christy.... she has a way about her that is very mixed. She is rebellious against the school. Yet quiet and shy at the same time. She knows her place. Does everything she is told. I can't imagine what they did to her back at the school, but somehow she survived longer than us. She preserved her character in that place and I admire her for it. We stayed less time than her and there, I remember feeling so cold, like the walls and everything around me just sucked the life out of everything. That didn't seem to bother her, at least that I have observed. She is very spirited, I think it would be good for the Winged to have someone like her. Also for her..." he paused. "To have a life outside of there that wasn't torturous. I just want her to turn out different..... like we would if we had lived like her. I want to keep her spirit..." There was total silence, the only sound the kids' quiet breathing and animal sounds outside.

"How touching, I never knew you could feel that passionately for a tiny girl like her. Makes you sound like a big brother...." Wendy teased, bumping him playfully with her shoulder. She was much more gentle than she seemed; really sarcastic and mocking. Jim laughed through his nose, Wendy joined in. They looked up at the moon in silence, each in their own world. Then both snapped their head in the direction of Christy as she whimpered loudly. Then stopped. Then she bolted straight up, breathing hard. She immediately pulled out a journal from her pocket and started to write jibberish words onto it. Her silky black hair hid her terrified face, and strangely, she wasn't looking at the paper, she was looking straight ahead (at the cave wall) as she wrote like lightning. The pages of her journal flipped every thirty seconds as she filled the page with words that Wendy and Jim couldn't make out. She never glanced in their direction, never blinked, never stopped writing. When she did stop, she sat there, blinking. She looked confused and scared, her large ice blue eyes glassy with tears. Jim stood up and came over, she looked up, frantically covering her notebook. Jim sat beside her, tentatively putting a hand on her back. She stiffened, not prepared for how warm he was. She rarely had human contact and when she did, it felt like fire across her skin. "Christy, did you have a nightmare?" Jim asked, stroking her hair.

"N-no. A vision....." she started to tear up and rubbed at her eyes. "You were so..... still..... you saw a girl..... Rachel..... y-you guys couldn't fight her.... I didn't know what to do..... " Jim and Wendy tensed at the mention of Rachel. Still, Jim pulled Christy into his embrace, deciding against asking her about it. She seemed so fragile, even though she was so strong. Her tears were short, and soon she was asleep in Jim's arms. He wrapped his wings around them both, warming everything around them.