"Hello, Cassandra," a voice whispered.
Cassandra sat up in her bed. "What the-"
"Shh-" the voice said and covered her mouth with a gentle hand. When her eyes focused, she realized that she was looking at Nick. "You're in my world now." He removed his hand from her mouth, threw back the covers of her bed and lifted her out. She stood up and realized that she wasn't in her room anymore but her bed was still behind her. She took his hands and heard music begin to play. "You look beautiful in that dress," he said. She looked down and saw herself wearing a long, dark green sequenced dress with a scarf placed gently around her neck. "I knew that you would." He walked around behind her and took a slight hold on her shoulders.
"I don't understand," she said.
He leaned over and whispered into her ear. "It's your dream," he explained, "but it's my fantasy."
"Where am I?" she whispered looking around. The place, that looked to be a room, was dark with a thin mist of smoke surrounding it. The atmosphere began to change, and soon, hints of color flooded the room. The background changed from blue to pale green.
He laughed softly. "You're dreaming. I'm visiting."
She turned her head slightly. "You're...in my dream?"
"Yes."
"You're alive."
"In dreams I am. I can do anything." He walked around to the front of her and slowly crept his arms around her waist and began to dance with her. "I can dance in your dreams." Suddenly, the room turned a deep shade of red and a crash of thunder sounded. "I can alter your dreams." Cassandra pulled away and tried to run, but he grabbed her waist from behind and violently pulled her back to him. He covered her eyes for moment. When he took his hand away, she saw a knife dangling in front of her face with no one controlling it. She stared at it as the tip of it shimmered and seemed to seek out the right place to strike her. "I can even kill you in your dreams."
She felt and uncontrollable fear rise within her, but suddenly she heard a piercing scream and a voice.
"Nick! No!"
Nick let go of Cassandra and she turned around to see Isabella.
"Nick, let it go!" Isabella yelled.
"No, never," he said.
"Okay," Cassandra interrupted. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"
"Cassandra," Isabella said, "get out of here now!"
"Isabella, stay out of this!" Nick yelled. "This doesn't concern you! This is between me and my wife!"
"No it's not, and you know it! Leave her out of this!" Isabella stepped closer to Nick but in one quick movement, Nick grabbed the knife and turned to Cassandra. "Nick," Isabella pleaded, "don't do it. How can you kill your own wife?"
Nick raised the knife over his head and took a step closer to Cassandra. Cassandra backed up but felt her back hit against a wall that wasn't there before. "Yes Cassandra," Nick said. "That wall wasn't there before."
"Nick-" Isabella began.
"Shut up, Isabella!" Cassandra screamed. She turned back to Nick and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Shall I say adieu?" Nick asked her with a grin.
"No," Cassandra said. "Let me." Nick's grip tightened around the base of the knife when Cassandra reached up and put her hand on his face. "Nick, Baby," she said. "Kill me."
The corners of Nick's lips turned up into a devilish grin.
"I want to die," she whispered. "I want to truly die as I was supposed to die, before they did this to me." Nick closed his other hand around the dagger. Cassandra closed her eyes and waited.
The next morning when Cassandra woke up, she slowly dragged herself out of her bed and pressed her palms to her head. "What a freaky dream," she said. "Ow-" She lifted up her shirt and saw bruises on her stomach in the shape of fingers and a hand. "Whoa. No, Nick wouldn't have really done that. It had to have been only a dream. He wouldn't have done that." Just then, she heard a knock at the door. "Come in."
Kevin walked in. "Hey girl!" he said. "Breakfast is ready."
"Thanks. Hey, can I tell you about this really weird dream that I had last night? I even have bruises from it!"
"Sure, go ahead!" he said sitting down on her bed. As Cassandra began to describe her dream to Kevin, they were unaware of the other conversation taking place on the other side of the room.
Isabella pushed Nick down onto the bed and continued to lecture him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she yelled.
"I-" Nick started, "I don't-"
"No. Don't give me that crap, mister. You are a very smart boy and I know damn well that you knew what you were doing in there! Did I not warn you well enough to be careful of what you do inside her dreams because you may hurt her physically?"
He only stared down at his feet.
"Wait a minute," Isabella said. "You wanted to hurt her! Didn't you? You wanted her to die..."
"She said that she wanted to die."
She gasped. "Nick!"
"All right!" he finally said. "I just wanted her again! I wanted her to be with me!"
Isabella was disgusted and she slapped him across his face. "Nick, I thought you were a different man, but you're just a little boy. I thought you loved her so much-"
"I do! Don't you ever doubt my love for her for a damn second! And besides, you don't control me. She's my wife and I can do whatever the fuck I want! This doesn't concern you at all!"
"Don't fucking swear at me! Oh, listen to yourself! This concerns me all the way because it concerns my sister. And I'm sorry that I've known her a little longer than you have. And I'm sorry that I'm related to her."
"I just want her back. I don't believe any of this. Why do I have to be dead? Why do I always get pulled away from her? God damn it!"
"Why is this about you? Huh? Always about you! Why don't you go be with her? I thought you said that you would never dare do anything to hurt Cassandra. Did that only count while you were alive?"
"Now wait-"
"No, you wait. That is exactly what you have to do. Wait for her. So I suggest that you get off of your ass and find something to do. Why don't you go find a nice house to haunt...rattle some chains or something. But stay away from my sister."
"You can't-"
"Oh the hell I can't. I will. And I will get A.J. to help me if necessary."
"I'm not afraid of A.J.," Nick said, crossing his arms.
"Then you should be afraid of me."
"Whatever-"
"Save it, Nick. For a while, I'm going to make sure that you don't see Cassandra. At all. I'm feeling generous so enjoy the next five minutes." With that, Isabella turned away from him and walked out of the room with Kevin, leaving Nick staring at Cassandra.
Cassandra stood up and stood at her mirror and started brushing her hair. Regardless of the fact that he knew that she didn't know that he was there, he walked up behind her, and avoiding eye contact with the mirror, he closed his eyes. He slipped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair. He tightened his grip on her and felt her body tense up. She gasped quietly and turned her head to the right, then to the left. He knew that she felt that he was there, but did she believe it this time? She backed away from the mirror and sat down on her bed. He sat down next to her but she didn't know it.
She held up her hand. "Wherever you are, can you feel me?" Her eyes searched the air, but she didn't know that he had entwined his hand within hers. She drew her hand back. "Fool," she called herself and stood up. Nick fell over on the bed and buried his head beneath the many of Cassandra's white pillows but Isabella walked in.
"Let's go Nick," Isabella said.
"No! I'm not leaving! You can't make me!"
Isabella grabbed his arm. "It's for your own good and you know it."
A.J. walked in and grabbed Nick's other arm. "Come on, buddy, let's go." Nick gave up struggling and took one last look at Cassandra before Isabella and A.J. dragged him out of Cassandra's room.
Just then, Brian knocked on Cassandra's door. "Can I come in?" Brian asked.
"Sure," Cassandra said and Brian walked in. "Yeah, I know, breakfast is ready."
"It's not about that."
Cassandra gave him a look. "Have a seat."
He smiled politely and sat down on the bed next to her. "We have to talk."
"You're absolutely right. Brian," Cassandra said, "this can't go on. The feelings that I may have had for you at one time, are completely gone. I know that I love Nick and...and this just isn't right."
"But-"
"Brian! Don't protest! Listen. Both of us have been going through so much lately. Especially me and I don't know how to handle...I can't deal right now. So I think this is a completely blind thing. All in all, this has got to stop. I think that you should leave."
Brian didn't respond, but suddenly leaned over and pressed his lips to Cassandra's.
Cassandra pushed him off. "Brian, stop it! We can't do this to Mercedes!"
Mercedes burst through the door. "You're damn right!"
"Everett, what are you doing here?" Emalia said opening the door.
"I had to see you," he replied.
"You can't be here. Why are you here?"
"I told you, I had to see you."
They walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.
She turned to him. "Everett, I have to know. Do you love me?"
He paused. "Yes, I do."
"But you can't!"
"Then why did you ask?"
"I don't know!" Suddenly, Everett leaned over and gave her a long, passionate kiss. But before they pulled apart, Kevin walked in.
"Emalia, what are you doing?"
Emalia and Everett jumped to opposite sides of the couch and she looked up to make sure that Kevin hadn't seen anything. It appeared that he hadn't. "Well," Everett started. "We were-"
"Nothing!" Emalia interrupted. "We were doing nothing! We were, uh, just about to watch a movie."
"Oh really? What movie?" Kevin asked.
"Um, 'Die Hard'?"
"Great! Start it and I'll make some popcorn," Kevin said and walked into the kitchen.
"You haven't told him yet?" Everett asked her.
"No." Whoa, that was way too close, she thought.
"Mercedes!" Brian said.
"Oh, you do remember my name!" Mercedes yelled.
"Mercedes, please! Let me explain-"
"No!" Mercedes yelled and started crying. "Brian, how could you? Cassie-"
Cassandra swallowed and waited to be yelled at.
"How could you let him do this?" Mercedes asked her.
"But I-" Brian started.
"Shut up, Brian! Let's go Cassie."
"But we-"
Mercedes grabbed Cassandra's hand and as she was dragging her out from the room, Cassandra glanced back at Brian and shrugged. Mercedes dragged Cassandra down the stairs and into the kitchen where Kevin was making popcorn.
Kevin looked up with a happy face but when he saw Mercedes' tear stained face, he was worried. "Mercedes? What's wrong?"
Just then, Emalia walked into the kitchen. "Mercedes? What's wrong?"
"Well I just found out that my husband has been trying to cheat on me with Cassie!"
Cassandra looked over at Emalia. "Speaking of cheating-"
Oh God. She's going to expose everything, Emalia thought.
"Cassie, I'm not mad at you," Mercedes said.
"But...but why not?" Cassandra asked confused. "We were cheating-"
"No. He was cheating. You've been through so much lately, you know with the death of Nick and all, and Brian was trying to take advantage of you. I can't believe him!"
"But it was both of us! I did it to! We fell for each other!" Cassandra tried to explain.
"That's okay Cassie, I understand. I understand that Brian is an idiot and I'm learning to accept that. You don't have to cover up for him."
"But-"
"Honey, let's go watch the movie," Emalia said to Kevin.
"Okay, Honey," Kevin agreed and grabbed the popcorn and followed Emalia into the living room.
"Cassandra," Mercedes said, "you'll have to excuse me. I have to go talk to Brian."
"Um, okay," Cassandra said and watched Mercedes walk up the stairs.
Mercedes walked into Cassandra's room where she left Brian. "What is going on?" she said to him. "We used to agree on everything. What ever happened to the poem that you wrote me saying that you'd never hurt me or break my heart? Was it all a lie? In the movie theater the first night I met you, I told you that I thought that you liked Cass. Was I right?"
"It's not like that," Brian tried to explain. "I did not mean to hurt you. I did not mean to fall for Cassie-"
"You fell for her?"
"It just happened. This was not how it was supposed to be..."
"Oh, and you think that I planned it this way? You wonder why I did not want to marry you originally. I thought you were a dream come true and then when I had that nightmare, you told me that dreams were stupid. You were right. I knew I was too young and you were too good to be true. How many times did you screw her, by the way?"
"No! We never had sex!"
"Then how many times did you fool around with her?"
"No, none of it's true. I love you! I really do I just think we need some time apart to work things out."
"I'll give you time. I want a divorce!" Just then, Cassandra knocked on the door and walked into her room. "Perfect timing," Mercedes said to Cassandra. "If you wanted him so bad, you can have him." With that, Mercedes ran down the stairs, grabbed her keys, ran out the door to her car and drove away.
Mercedes had been driving around all day long, and had completely lost track of time. Later that night, Mercedes sat in the movie theater by herself in the same spot where she and Brian first met. Of course it was a different movie and she wasn't sure what the movie was because she was crying so much, and it was only the previews. Why the hell did this happen? she thought to herself, her hair wet from crying.
"Are you okay, Miss?" a guy said walking up to Mercedes and sitting down next to her.
Quickly wiping her eyes, she said, "Um, yeah, thanks. Do you know what time it is?"
"Um, eleven thirty."
"Oh, shoot. I have to go."
"It's late," he said. "Let me walk you to your car."
"Um...I think I can make it."
"No really, I insist."
"Okay," Mercedes finally agreed.
"Jake Summers at your service."
"Mercedes Rosenburg."
"Nice to meet you. If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing all by yourself? Crying nevertheless."
"It's a long story."
"I've got time if you want a frapiccino."
"I guess that would be fine."
"Good," he said and smiled. "I know a place."
"Where is it?" Mercedes said getting up.
"Just around the corner."
"Okay."
After fifteen minutes of walking in silence, Jake said, "Are you going to start your story or what?"
"I don't want to bore you," Mercedes said as they entered the café.
"I don't mind at all. I need a good story."
"Well I'm not sure how good it is but here it goes. It started with my husband and my cousin-"
"You're married?"
"Yup."
"I guess I won't try my 'I'm so sorry' pick up line then."
"Save it. You haven't heard the rest of the story yet." Mercedes took a deep breath and began to tell the rest of the story.
"Cassandra, we still need to talk about this!"
"What is there to talk about?" Cassandra said turning around. "What we did was wrong. It is still wrong!"
"I know and I love Mercedes-"
"And I love Nick-"
"But it's still happening and Nick is gone! Cassie, listen to me, Nick is gone and he's never coming back."
"So? What's your point? You don't think I don't know that?"
"I'm sorry, it's just...I'm torn. Ever since I heard you tell Nicole about Chase, it makes me think. Mercedes never told me about him and damn it, he's my step-son. You've never lied to me. I hope. Have you?"
"You know I wouldn't."
"And I've never lied to you, especially when I told you that I loved you."
"We are both married!"
"With the exception that your spouse is dead. That doesn't count."
"And Mercedes doesn't count either?" They paused and Brian stepped closer to her. "Just leave," she said. "Before you get caught again."
"You know what's funny?"
"Nothing?"
"No, the fact that Mercedes thinks that we actually did something." He grinned and quickly kissed her.
"Brian, stop it. I don't know what's wrong with you."
Brian wrapped his arms around her. "Come on. She thinks we did it anyway."
"It wouldn't mean anything."
"Wanna bet? Let me prove that it'll mean something."
Cassandra paused and then smiled. He wrapped his arms tighter around her and pushed her down on the bed.