Phantom Pain (trilogy)

The Dream

Chapter 24: The Dream

The first thing I saw was Gavyn's face, leaning close to mine.

The second thing was my hand position, wrapped around the sword that I now knew—without a doubt—was not mine. It was so much more powerful, and intriguingly foreign.

“Thank God!” He sat back up on the table. “You stopped responding, and you were sweating.”

At his words I moved my hand to my forehead, it came away damp. Did I sweat normally? I was getting a very strong feeling of no, but then again, I had been soaring down towards hellfire.

Soaring.

The absence hit me harder than it had in a long time, and I drew my legs up to my chest. My wings had been golden, glorious. I remembered the way the feathers felt against my skin, and my scars tingled, as if they were reminding me of their presence.

“Are you okay?” Gavyn moved to the couch, sitting beside me. “What did you remember?”

I let my eyes slide closed, and I leaned back into the couch.

“Hell.”

“Was it that bad?” Gavyn asked.

“No, it was literal.” My eyes fluttered open again, just in time to watch the realization cross his face.

“Like the place?” He sounded both incredulous and terrified.

“More or less, yes.”

“What happened?” He leaned forward, like was a child listening to a story. “Why were you there?”

I gave him the gist of it. “I had to,” I explained, “disobey, I mean. We'd been noticing demon activity for months, bad stuff, treaty breaching stuff. But Gabriel wouldn't send down clearance for us to go to hell. Raphael was back and forth to heaven constantly.”

I remembered so much, it was actually sort of liberating.

“What happened there?” he asked.

“I didn't get to that part yet, you pulled me out of it.”

“I'm sorry, I really am...” Gavyn rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “But when I was taught, she said that if I were to lose contact, I had to pull the subject out immediately. What if you'd encountered something, and forgot it was just a memory... What if you'd...” he trailed off.

What if I'd died again? He had a valid point. I had forgotten about the fact I was asleep, Gavyn's words ineffective in keeping me tethered to this world.

“You think you saw something down there?” he asked. “Something important?”