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It's not like his usual dreams: shit from the past, randomly replayed. No, this is different.
He dreams of Hotaru, of a frail little girl with huge eyes and huge sadness to match, and he dreams that she needs his help. He runs toward her only to be repelled back, back, back, by something grabbing him around his throat: fingers of darkness slicing at him, squeezing, choking. He tries to call out for her: he promised he would help her and instead... instead...
Hotaru.
And in his dream-not-a-dream he watches, paralyzed, as she turns a cold eye to him and sneers and then, in a blaze of purple, simply... disappears.
No! Hotaru!
She disappears, and he knows nothing else of that room. The dream shifts and he's floating, out among the stars. He hears another voice:
His star is about to fall. Do not fear death. Death is always at your side. When you show fear, it will spring at you faster than light. If you do not show fear, it will only gently look over you... From his spot in the stars he looks down at the speaker and he knows him: it's Laughing Bull. And Jet is there, and they speak in low insistent voices, in a rushing swirl of sand through open hands.
And he hears the words and he knows they discuss him and in his dream he thinks fuck that, I've been there already, I've done that already. I don't fear death but I don't invite it. I don't want it. Not this time. Not this time. Not this time.
He sits up with a gasp, letting out a strangled and short breath, eyes frantic.
And meets the gaze of a ministering angel: Spike buries his head against Beth's shoulder and holds her tight.
"She's gone."
He dreams of Hotaru, of a frail little girl with huge eyes and huge sadness to match, and he dreams that she needs his help. He runs toward her only to be repelled back, back, back, by something grabbing him around his throat: fingers of darkness slicing at him, squeezing, choking. He tries to call out for her: he promised he would help her and instead... instead...
Hotaru.
And in his dream-not-a-dream he watches, paralyzed, as she turns a cold eye to him and sneers and then, in a blaze of purple, simply... disappears.
No! Hotaru!
She disappears, and he knows nothing else of that room. The dream shifts and he's floating, out among the stars. He hears another voice:
His star is about to fall. Do not fear death. Death is always at your side. When you show fear, it will spring at you faster than light. If you do not show fear, it will only gently look over you... From his spot in the stars he looks down at the speaker and he knows him: it's Laughing Bull. And Jet is there, and they speak in low insistent voices, in a rushing swirl of sand through open hands.
And he hears the words and he knows they discuss him and in his dream he thinks fuck that, I've been there already, I've done that already. I don't fear death but I don't invite it. I don't want it. Not this time. Not this time. Not this time.
He sits up with a gasp, letting out a strangled and short breath, eyes frantic.
And meets the gaze of a ministering angel: Spike buries his head against Beth's shoulder and holds her tight.
"She's gone."
