“Mei mei, what have you done?”

The dream was different now. River could still see the faces and the bodies of her family, surrounding her in puddles of their own blood. She could still make out Simon’s disgusted and horrified face. But she no longer felt any remorse for her actions.

She dropped the blood red blades to the ground, and instead of watching Simon walk away, she turned and left him, heading for a door on the far side of the room, bathed in light. A door through which stood two men, with blue-gloved hands, smiling benevolently and applauding her actions. She smiled back at them, a cold, calculating smile and listened with disinterest as Simon’s anguished cry reached her.

“River!”

Abruptly, River stopped mid-stride, immediately aware that something was wrong. She didn’t want to go to the blue-gloved men. They were mean and frightening and she remembered them vividly from her time at the Academy. But she couldn’t stop herself. They continued to draw closer and River frantically searched for an exit, any way out of this increasingly eerie dream. But there was nothing. Just four solid gray walls with no way out and the two men.

Turning fear-filled eyes on them, she watched in horror as they got close enough to touch her and laid their hands on her forearms. “Time to come with us,” one of them said, pulling her towards the door they had entered from.

She struggled with every fiber of her being, with every ounce of strength she could muster, but it wasn’t enough; it was never enough. She tried planting her feet, but they continued to drag her away, her feet inexorably sliding towards the open door and her inevitable fate.

“No, no, no, no …”

“River, sweetie, wake up.”

River came out of the dreamscape, but kept her eyes closed. The presence she felt in the room now was not the one she had expected and it took her a moment to bring it into focus. When realization dawned, and she had managed to slow her heart beat again, she said, “Where’s Simon?”

Kaylee