In The Darkest Night (Liah)

[Corey Bennett]

Reid ran along the dark corridor. So part of his memory said he should recognize it, yet he didn't at the time. He burst through a pair of double doors at the end into a courtyard, slamming the doors shut behind him.

The courtyard was full of mist. He could barely see a few feet in front of him as he backed away from the door. He could just see them as something burst through. He continued to back away, but his back hit something. He was cornered, and he felt around him for something, anything that could help him.

His hand hit something sharp. He felt his way up it and found the hilt., but even as he did a pair of hands reached out to him and he felt them close around his neck.

As his life faded the rising sun revealed the courtyard. The sword was there, just out of his reach. The sun glinted off the metal that wasn't buried into the stone Reid had backed into. So close. He'd been so close....

Reid bolted upright in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat. That dream, he'd had it before. Several nights now he'd seen the courtyard, the sword in the stone, the being chasing him that he never managed to get a good look..... He always woke up at the same point, the hands closing off his airway as he suffocated. Only he'd always find himself safe in his room.

He sat there for several minutes, then he kicked his legs out from the sheets. As silently as he could he found his slippers and a robe that he threw on over the boxer-shorts he was sleeping in. Silently he padded down the hall to a doorway that led onto a balcony near his family's rooms. There he slumped down against the wall as he breathed in the cool night air. At least I didn't wake screaming tonight, he thought. With all luck, mom won't even know I had the dream again.

[Aayliah Andrews]

Liah had been sleeping even lighter than usual the last two weeks. Raine was away once again, it would only be for a month and she knew that it was necessary but still she missed him. She and her family were some of the few who had been taken out of the time reset caused by the Cleaners so that they all could exist in this time as they were before with full knowledge of what had occurred and it was all thanks to her father. However this was both blessing and curse. Raine, Reid, Caliste and her dad were the only family she had now. The others, Ethan and Preston, were gone for they hadn't existed in this time. Their father, Liah's brother whom she had never gotten to meet, wouldn't have even been born yet. Half of the Mathias line was gone. It was literally as if they had never existed because of what the Cleaners had had to do and yet, Liah knew that the pain she felt for the loss was only a weak, watered - down version of what her father must be feeling.

Her light sleep was also because more than once in the last week and a half she had been awoken to the sounds of her son screaming in his room. The first few times she had nearly had heart attacks when she jumped up from her slumber, fearing the worst as she rushed to his to room. The thought alone of anything happening to either of her children could make her heart skip a beat and her breath catch in her throat. Each time when she burst into his room she had found him tossing and turning in bed. It had taken her at least five minutes to wake him from the incredibly vivid nightmare causing him to suddenly sit up, gasping with eyes wide in fear. He had insisted that he was fine and that they were just stupid dreams but Liah still worried, she couldn't help it.

That night, Liah had been lying awake in bed, sleep eluding her despite her tiredness. Tonight she didn't hear screams from the room down the hall but something still felt wrong. After five minutes of wrestling with herself, Liah finally gave into what probably was paranoia and got out of bed. She checked on her sleeping baby daughter in the small connecting bedroom, kissing her lightly on the forehead before leaving. After donning a robe she left the Royal Bed Chamber and made her way down the long, shall. It wasn't a far walk to her son's room, it took less than two minutes, so soon she was outside her son's door. She knocked gently on the slightly ajar door - not wanting to wake him in case he was sleeping - before she entered. The room was pitch black, the heavy curtains preventing the moonlight from entering, so it was a few moments before she realised that the sheets were partially on the floor and that the rumpled bed was empty.

"Reid?" she called in case he was in the rooms, adjoining bathroom but a quick look in that direction revealed that the light in there wasn't even on.

Trying to keep a level head as much as possible Liah left the door and began to check the other rooms, calling out his name as she went. It was only when she neared the end of the hall, her tenuous grasp on the realm of 'not panicking' was slipping, that she spotted the light around the corner that was gently illuminating the wall that faced her. Breathing a huge sigh of relief she headed for the balcony. Through the glass doors she saw her son sitting on the floor, his head resting backwards against the wall and his eyes closed. She could tell from his expression alone that he was upset. Liah smiled slightly and walked forward, she reached out for the door handle and gently slid the door open. Pulling her coat tighter around her as the cold wind hit her she went fully out onto the balcony and sat on the floor next to Reid. She remained silent for a few minutes, just staring up at the star strewn night sky, before she spoke.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked him.

[Corey Bennett]

Reid sat alone for several minutes before he heard the door slide open. Even before she spoke to him, when she was only sitting there next to him, he didn't have to look to know it was Liah. It had to have been one of those maternal instinct things, her knowing that he'd had the dream again. It was getting to the point that he couldn't just ignore it anymore. He couldn't just pretend it was nothing. Even though he wanted to be grown up, wanted to be treated like he wasn't a kid, a part of him felt five years old again and scared out of his mind. Her arms wouldn't quite encompass him like they'd used to, but right now he wondered if he could get her to hug him anyways. Maybe the feeling of safety would still be there.

He turned to her, opening his eyes and not hiding the fear. "It's the same dream, every night. You'd think after so long it wouldn't be frightening anymore, but it's so real. And the thing is, I think it means something...." He scooted over and leaned into her, letting out a shuddering sigh.

"I don't know what it means, Mom. And.... I just want it to stop, but I don't think it will until I figure it out." His voice cracked as he said that. He was scared. He was scared of what the dream meant, what he had to do to make it stop. Please tell me I don't have to die. It has to be something else. It has to."

"I'm scared, Mom. I didn't want to tell you before, but I can't hide it anymore." Not that he'd hidden it before, not from her. She had to have known, and she was just waiting for him to finally not lie about it. A child just can't hide that sort of thing from their mother. She had probably just been waiting until his pride would let her do her job, no matter how much the wait hurt her. She's letting me grow up. It kills her, but she's doing it anyways because it means I'll come to her when I can't handle things anymore.

[Aayliah Andrews]

Liah had torn her eyes away from the bright stars and looked at him, trying her best to hide her concern as the seconds passed by and she waited for him to respond. Liah's heart could have broken with sadness when Reid also lowered his eyes from the heaven and looked at her. She knew her son and she knew it would take a whole lot to put that kind of complete fear and insecurity in his eyes. She herself had begun to feel helpless as she watched the dreams torment not only her son's sleeping hours but his waking ones as well.

Liah was extremely protective of her two children so it had taken a great deal of self - control for her to wait for him to come to her when this all began but she had known that she had had to do. No matter how much she may still see Reid as her baby the fact was that he was growing up and would soon be and adult and she had to let him find his own way. She was to guide him when needed but not lead him and she knew that she had to find the balance between the two.

"Shhh...." she crooned softly just like she would have done when he was a child as he leaned into her; her arm instinctively drawing him closer as she held him tight to her. "Its going to be okay. I promise you its going to be okay, Reid. Its okay to be scared, you don't have to hide it, I would be scared too if it was me. We're going to figure this out. Just remember that you're not alone, you know that I'm there for you and that I won't ever let anything happen to you. Never."

Liah meant what she said, she would die before she let any harm come to Reid or Caliste. She knew deep down that she couldn't protect them from everything or forever but that didn't mean that she wouldn't try. She sat there with him and let her fingers pull through his hair soothingly as she waited for him to calm down enough so that he could speak again.

[Corey Bennett]

Reid felt safe with her there, but the dream still played itself in the back of his mind. He wasn't at all sure where to start figuring it out, only that he had to. It wouldn't stop until he'd found out what it meant and had done something about it. That much, somehow, was clear to him.

"I know, Mom," He said softly in response to her words. She would always be there for him until her dying breath. And even then he had the feeling she would come as a spirit if he called her in a time when he needed her guiding presence. He was her little boy, and no matter how much he grew up physically he knew he'd always be that way in her heart.

"Thanks," he said after a moment of silence. "If you hadn't found me now I think I might not have opened up about this come morning. I'm still not ready to tell you what's in the nightmare yet. It's not that I don't trust you, I just don't know what parts are important. Some parts of it... well, let's just say if they mean nothing it's better you not know about them." He really didn't want Liah to know about the part where he died at the end. If that wasn't important to the message, it was best she not know he'd been waking up screaming because he'd been having visions of his own death.