She slept in the hills that night, satisfied that she was much closer to the house. A greeting pine provided her good shade from the pearly moonlight.
As she slept, she had a nightmare.
She had used to have nightmares almost every night at the house, waking up in a cold sweat and unable to breathe. But this was her first nightmare since escaping.
She dreamt she was sitting out by the lotus pond in the paradise gardens. The lotuses drifted gently across the water, gleaming white and pink. A soft mist seeped over everything.
"Stop moving, Abrial."
Someone was touching her shoulder. She looked up; it was Finley! Finley's hazel eyes glimmered in the ambiguous light like jewels. Her honey-colored braids tickled Abrial's face. They smelled like honey and crushed leaves as she leaned down, her face coming closer and closer to Abrial's.
"What — are you doing?" Abrial stammered, wide-eyed.
Finley frowned in confusion.
"I am tending your wound. You fell out of the window last night in a panic."
A door burst open somewhere. Suddenly, someone grabbed Abrial roughly beneath the arms and dragged her away from Finley.
"Hey! What the fuck? Let go of me! Let fucking go! Finley!"
Finley smiled sadly at her.
"Goodbye, Abrial."
Then Finley's figure was surrounded by dark shadows. They converged on her, and she cried out in pain.
"Stop it!" Abrial screamed until her throat was raw. "Stop it! She didn't do anything! It was me who wanted to escape!"
Suddenly, the gardens melted away into the front doors of the house. The doors flew open; something was kicked outside.
It was Finley's body. She rolled on the cobblestones, coming to a limp stop like a sack of stones.
"This is what happens to filthy traitors like you! There is no home for you here any longer!"
It was Abrial's mother, towering in sea-gray robes on the steps of the house like a goddess of stone.
Abrial screamed in rage. Her chest seemed to be on fire. Then she leaned over and vomited. Her vomit was bright red, burning her throat like flames, and where it landed, it rose up into a scarlet fire, consuming her.
______
"Gah!"
Abrial gasped awake, shooting to a sitting position. Her chest was heaving, as though she'd sprinted a mile. Cool beads of sweat streaked down from her hair to her chin. In the moonlight, she was pale as a ghost.
When she could finally breathe properly again, she flopped back down into the grass, staring up at the moon. It was in almost the same place as it had been when she'd gone to sleep.
"Weird," she murmured, settling back into the grass. "I feel panicked, but…I can't even remember the nightmare. Hm…I guess that's a good thing, heh."
After tossing and turning for some time, she drifted back into a deep sleep.