Venna looked at me. The group at the road were still talking among themselves, their voices a low hum drifting across the grass. The graveyard held us in its own heavy, sunlit quiet, the kind that pressed down on your shoulders and made every breath feel deliberate.
"This isn't the first time I've seen you," she said.
I held her gaze and waited, the sun warm on the back of my neck.
"I see you in my dreams. You're always there." Her voice stayed steady, like she'd been carrying this secret for a long time and had finally decided today was the day to set it down. "We have a baby. We're together. You fight for me."
Her eyes stayed locked on mine but drifted slightly as the memories pulled at her, pupils dilating then contracting. "Sometimes you kill me. Sometimes you're the enemy. You're everything in my dreams, Abram. Everything I have… and everything I've never had."
Her eyes came back to me fully.
I was breathing a little more carefully than I had been a moment ago.
