“Do you remember how long you walked for?”
“No? It didn’t feel like long at all, and since I heard the noise it had to have been close by, right?”
Corbin made a noncommittal noise. He probably wasn’t even sure where the shop was, so he wouldn’t know that.
“The door was unlocked. I remember that much. And then…”
I opened my eyes, looked at him, and shrugged my shoulders.
“Nothing?” Corbin asked. “Do you remember either of the men, or standing by either of them?”
“Nope. I just remember sitting on the couch and Toby talking to me. That’s weird, right? How did I lose that time? I know that sometimes the brain protects itself from trauma by forgetting things, but I wasn’t injured, and I’ve seen a lot worse in my time as an EMT and nurse. It was horrible and tragic that someone died and someone was injured, but it wasn’t traumatic for me. I don’t mean to make light of what happened, but that definitely isn’t the worst I’ve seen.”
Corbin squeezed my ankle. “I know, Sebbie. I understand what you’re saying.”
I let my eyes fall shut again. I was just so damn tired.
“It’s okay, Sebbie. Rest now. I’ll watch over you.”
I knew I should tell him he didn’t have to stay and I would be fine, but I could feel myself slipping into darkness. His hands on my legs felt so warm and comforting, and I didn’t even try to tell him to go.
Just for a minute. I’d just close my eyes for a minute.
I was dreaming of the river again.
I was on my boat, but it was already at the dock, and I didn’t see a throng of people waiting for a ride. The skies were overcast and dark, and there was a light mist of rain in the air.
“Sebbie?” a voice quietly asked.
I turned, and there was Corbin standing on the dock. Ohhh, this was fun! I smiled broadly, saying, “Corbin! Welcome to my boat!”
He was dressed just like he had been in real life. I silently cursed my imagination for not making him shirtless or something. But, as usual, my lucid dreaming didn’t really extend to controlling people (or apparently what they were wearing). I had a random thought then, because the only people I tended to dream about were dead people.
“Oh my gosh, you aren’t dead, are you?” I asked, feeling panicky. I hopped off the boat (quite gracefully, thank you) and walked over, touching Corbin’s chest. He felt real, but then dead people always did in my dream. And my gosh, his chest was firm. Those muscles.
“No, I’m not dead. You just brought me here, I think,” Corbin answered.
He didn’t seem to mind the fact that I was sort of groping his chest at that point, and in fact, his eyes looked a little bit like they had some fire in them. That was hot. In fact, I could feel the heatemanating off of him. I hadn’t realized I was even chilly until I felt how incredibly warm he was.
Without thinking too much, I snuggled into that warm chest, cuddling my face in and pressing my body up against his.
“You’re sowarm,” I muttered into his shirt. Ugh, how I wished I could lucid dream my way into snuggling against his bare chest.
“Sebbie, where are we?” Corbin asked.
He didn’t sound upset, exactly, and he put his arms around me, so I knew he didn’t mind the cuddling.
“I should have asked first about the cuddling. I’m sorry about that. Even though this is a dream, I feel very strongly that my subconscious creations have autonomy. I give lots of hugs, but that’s because a lot of people know me and want a hug,” I explained. “I’m sorry I didn’t get consent before snuggling in.”
“I like holding you,” he said, and his arms tightened for a second. “But I’d still like to know where we are, if that’s okay.”
“Oh, sure,” I said, backing up. His arms held on for a moment before dropping down, so I took his hand and used my other to wave out across the dock, my boat, and the river. “This is the river. I dream about it all the time. And that’s my boat. I give people a ride to the other side.” I turned and smiled up at him.
“What’s on the other side?” he asked, looking down at me. There were still flames dancing in his eyes, but they weren’t scary. He looked affectionate, and it made me blush a bit.
“Oh, umm… I’m not sure? A nice place. Usually there’s a bunch of people here waiting, and I cross them over, and their loved ones and stuff are on the other side.” I shrugged my shoulders. “And that’s it.”
I heard a caw, and I looked around to see the crow come flying in. She landed on Corbin’s shoulder, and he looked surprised as hell to see her.
