He struggled desperately and called her name
as Smith and Rawlings pinned him to the floor. BUT THEY'RE MY FRIENDS!
He cried out to her with heart-crushing passion, as the sound of it
filled his ears, and woke him.
*
He lay on his back, wet with sweat, unable to remember. He threw off
the sleeping bag which now seemed to him a coffin, or a mummy's wrap.
He tried to shake off the dream, but the images of Kamela's rape had
never left him, and those of Sylviana as the victim transferred
themselves with terrifying ease. His own reality, as it returned to
him, seemed far less real. And it came as no surprise as he recognized
the human face of Shar-hai. It was William, his teeth like knives.
The sun was climbing: she would be awake. But this was only an
afterthought, as he ran toward the compound. He threw open the first
door, then the second, and burst into the room he had never seen. She
was there, half dressed, seeming but a continuation of the dream from
which he felt he had not woken. For there was no waking from the truth.
'Sylviana,' he pleaded, closing the door while she glared at him.
'You must not see William today. I have seen a terrible vision. And
I know, as I have always known..... He will rape you, and try to hurt
you! Perhaps he will even (the thought was unendurable), KILL you.
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