Exton

Raina goes to where Alise is in her dreams. The basement cell where Jean-Marc had kept her. Dimly lit, brick, cold, Raina wished for the thousandth time that she had just killed the bastard the first time she laid eyes on him. She can hear crying, Alise calling for Stoney. Raina enters the cell and sees Alise laying on a filthy floor. She goes to her and pulls her to her feet. “Come with me, we can leave this place and you dont ever have to come back here.”

“But the wolves Raina, the wolves are out there...”

“No, its all right. The wolves cant hurt you. Take me somewhere else. Show me another place that you dream about.”

Alise grabs Rainas hand and suddenly they are at the cemetery in Paris. Its a bright sunny day, but the light in the cemetery is more diffused, peeking in between the trees, giant stones and vegetation that has overtaken the oldest part of the graveyard.

Alise smiles, “I love this place. I was told to never come here alone, but I did it all the time. Even after papa forbid me to. Stoney was here, so it was the only place I wanted to be. When I got a little older I used to climb out of my window, and spend most of the night here.”

They come to a hill that is terraced and a flight of stone steps leading down to another level. Alise stops and tells Raina that this is the spot where she saw Stoney for the very first time. “I was 4 or 5, and papa had given me a new ball, a pretty red one. My nana, her husband worked here and she brought me almost every day. She told me to never, never go down the steps. She said there were monsters in that part of the cemetery and they ate little girls for supper. But I always went to the steps and looked down, I wanted to see one for myself. On this day, I dropped my ball and it went bouncing down the steps and disappeared behind a gravestone. I called for nana, but she didnt hear me and I didnt want to lose my ball, I had just gotten it. So I crept down the steps hoping no monsters would hear me. When I got to the bottom I could hear something moving in the plants and all of a sudden my ball came racing back at me. I thought I could see eyes looking from behind the stone so I crouched down to get a better look. “*Etes-vous un monstre ? Allez-vous me manger pour le dîner ?” He came out and laughed at me and I thought at first he was a puppy. A puppy with wings....

Raina laughs with her and tells her, “Come here in your dreams, not that evil place.” Raina stops and hugs Alise, “And you have your own little one to worry about now. You need to rest. We can come back again...” Alise asks “Why is there such evil in the world Raina? Such evil men and places...”

Raina sighs, “Well, I believe the gods made all the world a place of opposites. You cant have day without night, light without dark, rain without the sunshine, love without hate, happiness without sadness, And you cant have goodness without evil. We wouldnt know what one was without the other, nor would we appreciate it without knowing the difference. I think most of us chose good over evil and hang on to it for all its worth. Unfortunately some dont think the same way and chose to be evil people.”

Alise nods, and hugging Raina, they are both back in the cottage.

Raina wakes up and sees both Rowan and Stoney staring at her. “I think she'll be awake soon. I'll be upstairs taking a shower if anyone needs me.”