A flash of darkness coursed through her fitful mind, caught, as it were in the dire webbing of some nightmarish encounter forged from the distant sparking of some repressed memory.  Shadow shifted in her sleep, her body gripping in the thrall of a spasm as the bed sheets wound about her, her legs twisted through it and her body glistening with sweat… formless murmurs braced on her lips as she tried to pull from this night terror that stalked her…<br/><br/><em>The wall lay tight at her back…her eyes, which had once known only a grip of playful light, now knew nothing other than the touch of fear… their light all but dimmed.  His cruel tone still rang in her head, stinging her thoughts almost as much as the shuddering strike that drove into her flesh, lacing her face with the warming wash of crimson that ran down the contours of her face and gently pattered to the floor in the darkness.  Her eyes were fixed against the advancing menace, his eyes piercing and distinct against the encroaching swell of black.  Her body was bruised, her mind was battered… she tried to pull back from him but the she had nowhere to go…she whimpered softly as his fingers suddenly clawed at her throat… gripping tightly and crushing the air from her whilst knocking the back of her head against the wall…<br/><br/>He bought himself closer… his eyes burning with a mix of hate and twisted pleasure, a look that he always seemed to mask against his sister’s gaze… his sister… Thorn… Oh god, how she wished she could see into her eyes, see the dark torment that stalked them in every waking moment.  Her senses sparked at his darkly whispered threat… he pulled his hand back… Shadow clawed air back into her lungs as she crushed her eyes shut and braced herself for the inevitable…</em><br/><br/>She jolted harshly awake… her lithe body twisted amidst the sweat sodden sheets as the last flickering images of her dream filtered through her waking mind as she lay there… eyes wide and staring hard at the ceiling, her chest heaving with each fitful breath that she drew…It was a few minutes before she could drag her gaze away form the hard focus of the ceiling and a few moments more before her mind finally convinced her that it was merely a slideshow of the past that had inflicted her dreaming thoughts… and that Tim was gone from her life.. …<br/><br/>“Shit…” Shadow hissed softly as her head flicked to the side and caught the gaze of the clock… it was later than she expected, she had no idea where Thorn was... perhaps still in the basement, maybe downstairs or perhaps getting ready… but she was aware that they had things to do and so extracted herself from the bed.  She looked across to the laptop, its latent power having long since left it and the screen now blank, she scooped it up, closed the lid and set it to recharge.  She pulled the oversize tee from her and grabbed a gown from the closet before leaving the bedroom and crossing the grand landing.  She smiled as she neared the bathroom, from within came the gentle hiss of water from the shower and beneath the door, the gentle rise of steam…. There were of course other bathrooms… but…she bought her knuckles up and softly rapped against the wood.<br/>