When the ground gave way beneath her, Last Night did not cry out. She did hear the echo of her surprise uttered from Roses though. She landed and stumbled, her ankle giving way with a twist and an unmistakable crunch. She was not particularly sad or panicked, laying sprawled on the cold, damp ground. She thought of Roses who must be above with her doe and it was appropriate that Roses got her closure because Last Night did not need it, not here in a dream.She knew that she would have either woken up, hollow filled in this strange dream, or she would have to die to wake again. So she lay there, letting the pain consume her vision. Just as she was about to disappear completely, a buck appeared, staring down at her with a grin.
Then she woke, the pain in her ankle dragging her awake. She lay very still for a long moment, remember how it felt to be whole. Then she pulled herself up, stretching out her ankle and testing her weight on it. It was only a dream, but still very few dreams stayed with her the way this one did. She wondered idly what that buck would have done with her corpse had that not been a dream, but then brushed it away as pointless speculation.
She blinked, shifting her gaze all around, feeling nothing, free. Even though she was now awake, she felt strangely compelled to move, to seek out gravity to weigh her down, to pull her farther away from the other side of the line. So she walked then, disappearing into the trees, distinctly aware of what it would mean to be a shell of herself.
