There were tress behind her and within the dark shadow was the vague structure of a man.
Before she could even make out anything he was, immediately the dream started crashing before her eyes. She felt a terrible headache jam into her head and she fell to the floor, but instead of falling on the soft cold sand of the beach, it was like as if she fell right through it, into a dark abyss.
She screamed in her dream through the weightless fall.
Long penetrating screams from the depth of her throat.
Then she jerked up, awake.
Her eyes shot open, blinking to adjust to the darkness while her chest rose and fell, as her gown clung to her body, wet with sweat.
She could almost feel the lingering pain in her head.
Almost.
"Just a dream." She mumbled breathlessly to herself. "It's not real. Just a dream."
She said over and over again before she laid back in bed but she couldn't fall back asleep immediately.
She kept on thinking about what had happened in the dream.
