Daughter Of the Beast *Wolverine/Avengers*

Chapter 30- In Which Ruari Drowns

 I held onto a tiny bit of hope as the Dreamwalker approached me. Maybe she really was just a little girl. Maybe her name meant she could see people's dreams or something. 

        

        She unhooked my shackle and tugged me up. We walked out of the dome. It sealed behind us with a definitive click. Her white dress swept over the ground as she walked imperiously in front of me.  She seemed to know where she was going, as we wound through the maze of grey compound buildings. Her shiny hair bounced slightly as she walked. She opened the door to a building that looked like all the rest; boring, grey, grey.. grey, and concrete. 

        Once again, the door that had been part of the wall, now opened seamlessly. My mind immediately went to the possibility that this technology could be used to keep prisoners inside buildings and cells. The idea that humans beings could trap others and feel nothing scared me. The Dreamwalker led me inside. Inside, the building was just as bland as the outside. 

        Two chairs sat across from each other, and the floor was littered with old cigarette butts and curled newspaper clippings. The Dreamwalker peeled the black gag off my face. "You don't need that. Besides, how would I hear you scream?" 

        Nope, she was definitely creepy. 

        I felt the sudden urge to close my eyes. As soon as I did, I saw something. A huge room filled with filing cabinets that stretched into oblivion surrounded me. "Hello Ruari." A little voice behind me purred. I spun around to see the Dreamwalker. "Ruari. This is your mind. That's right. I can get into your head." She walked over to a drawer. "Let's see.... Ooo, this drawer looks interesting... 'Fears' it's labeled. I wonder what we'll find in here. "

        Before I could stop her she yanked the drawer open and began flipping through all the files. A solid throb rang through my head. She pulled out a file and flipped it open. " 'Worst Fears...' It says... 'Being rejected by family... Drowning... Choking...' hmmm so many..." She tossed the file behind her. It was whisked away into the dark region behind her.  

        She smiled a little girl smiled, then extended her hands, palm out. Her hair began to blow around in a swirl of angered wind, and her eyes darkened to deep pits. Her teeth became fangs and darkness gathered around her. The pain in my head grew. She faded and the ocean lay in front of me. 

        Foaming white waves crashed upon the shore, darkening the sand they touched. I was inexorably pulled toward them. The cold stung as I kept wading out into the sea. As hard as I tried, I couldn't turn and run. The waves swirled around my neck. They stained my lips with brine and tangled my hair with kelp. 

        My feet left the bottom. I managed to scrape the sand again a few times before I was swept further and further away from land. Terror mounted inside my stomach. As much as I tried to deny it, I was sinking. Sinking very quickly. I spluttered as a wave washed over my head. The water closed over me. I reached toward the dim sun as if to grasp it. 

        The water got darker and darker, thicker and thicker as I sank. The fringe of my hair swirled before my eyes, and my limbs appeared ghostly and white. My lungs burned. An iron band seemed to surround my head and freakishly squeeze.  

        It was her. 

        This was all her. 

        She was trying to kill me.  

        That was my last thought before true darkness closed in and I died. 

        *****

        I coughed up water and speckles of sand. The Dreamwalker laughed. "Again! Let's do it again! I like this game! You drown, I laugh, you drown, I laugh."  She stretched out her hands again. I was back at the ocean, advancing into the water. 

        It was dragging my down, grasping and swirling. Closing over my head. The terror of drowning shuddering through me. I began to cry, my tears mixing with the water. "Not again, please not again. I don't want to die!" No one heard me. An invisible hand pressed down on my lungs. 

        I was back in front of the Dreamwalker. She laughed. "This is fun! Let's make you scream next session yes?" She turned around and walked into the darkness. I breathed the real, thick air, wondering when this would be over. She came back, a full length oval mirror trailing behind her like an obedient dog. 

        With a twitch of her finger, it twirled to face me. I was much skinnier. There were hollows in my cheeks and almost missing pieces between my muscles. My hair was like straw and my eyes had receded into dark, lifeless pits. She sighed. "You see dearest Ruari, when I go into people's minds... I don't use my energy... I use theirs. And of course, I take a little for myself. I must say, you look so much better on this new weight-loss program." 

        The mirror was taken away. The filing cabinet of my mind disappeared. The both of us were sitting in chairs. Facing each other. She was calm. I was shaking. The child hauled me up. "Hmm. Looks like it's almost four o'clock." She tapped a few things on her touchface watch, and almost instantly a black-suited guard took me away. 

        "You will be doing hard labor in Field D for the rest of the day. You will need to fill at least one basket." He pointed to a stack of wicker baskets with rough-cut leather straps attached to them. The baskets were two feet across and just as deep. The two of them mad an 'X' over my chest, each strap diagonal. My bare feet struck up a cloud of dust as the guard led me to Field D. It was a field of tall, winding grape vines. " A'ight. This is your row, pick to the end of it, and dump your baskets into the drums at the end." He pointed to ten large steel drums lined up on the far side of the vineyard. 

        I began numbly picking grapes. They rolled like purple marbles on the round floor of the basket. Other workers moved silently through the other rows, filling their own baskets. No one made a sound. Not a shuffle of feet, not a scrape of cloth against cloth. I watched their feet move under the rows until the day was done.