The dream started as it always did. She could feel the cool breath of the fog against her skin as she made her way onto the open field. The memories of those who had passed before lay thick on the ground, and she could still taste the acrid scent of spent gunpowder.
She knew, as she had known since moving here, that the battle on this field had been fierce. Many men had taken up arms in the pursuit of freedom, but few had lived to experience it.
In front of her, she could see the shadow of a man forming in the mist. He was the only one left here on the battlefield. Always alone, always searching.
The first night he had come to her, he had seemed surprised to find her. Yet he had been the one to search her out. It had always been that way with her gift. She was the candle in the darkness whom the lost souls flocked to.
As he stepped closer to her, she could begin to make out his now all too familiar features. His dark hair hung in tendrils down to his shoulders, shielding one of his eyes. The color of those eyes she knew to be a deep brown, almost black. Eyes that had seen too many sorrows, that had witnessed the fall of friends and enemies alike.
"I wasn't sure you'd come. It seems like it’s been forever." She shook her head and reached out for his remaining hand. "It’s only been a day." In this undying dream world there was no day, just endless nights of wanting...waiting.
"It feels like an eternity in this place." He lowered his head in defeat. "I will never find her. Sarah is lost to me is she not?" Desperation weighed heavy in his voice.
She felt the pain of a thousand deaths rip through her heart as he whispered those words. She had heard them nightly over the last month. Still they stung like the first. Though Jack had softened towards her, he still had that hard edge that frightened her and made her remember their first meeting.
That stormy night in October, the first night he came to her, he was angry. She felt her heart hammer in her chest, Chills up her spine as he stalked her. Emily ran but no matter how far, no matter how fast, even in his battered state there was no escaping the demand that she do his bidding and find his Sarah.
There truly was little she could do for this man whose soul could not cross to the light without finding his true love. But could she give up? That was not an option. With this gift came a curse. If she did not help him cross he would haunt her dreams evermore.
Hours and hours of research revealed very little in the day light, there was no evidence of a woman ever falling dead on this battlefield.
